CREATING CUSTOMERS KEY TO COMPANY SURVIVAL

   Companies driven solely by the need to generate profit should be a thing of the past. "The companies who pay attention to customers first are the ones that are going to be here in the next 10 years," says Bill Molloy, a popular keynote speaker and corporate trainer. "Profits will follow if a company focuses on customers first."
   Molloy adheres to the principles of Peter Drucker, the father of American management theory, who said, "The only reason to be in business is to create a customer."
   "If a business is not creating customers it is probably losing them and once lost, a customer is irretrievable." Whether in a training session or at the podium, Molloy often demonstrates this point by slamming a plastic whiffle ball bat against a hard surface. "I cannot restore the shape of this bat. It is just as improbable that you can regain a customer you or your employees have bent out of shape."
   What alienates customers are the little things, he says. Sixty eight percent of customers who change suppliers do so because of the indifference of someone in the supplier's organization. Customers want to see changes made, says Molloy, but they don't always verbalize the changes they want made. "They talk with their feet and take their business elsewhere." It is important for dealers to know that their customers are ready to switch their patronage. "Customers are five times more likely to switch vendors because of perceived service problems than for price concerns," says Molloy, citing a Customer Focus study by the Forum Corporation when he was senior vice president there. According to another study, customer perception of service and service quality can be described in five dimensions:

   Reliability -- The ability to provide what was promised dependably and accurately.
   Assurance -- The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence.
   Tangibles -- The physical facilities and equipment, and the appearance of personnel.
   Empathy -- The degree of caring and individual attention provided to customers.
   Reponsiveness -- The willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.

   Creating customers is as simple as creating situations where positive events occur. The little things in which a business fails to meet customer expectations are imminently controllable and can be remedied. Dealers must take the time to know their customers and to learn what their expectations are.
   "Classroom training is not enough to get employees to embrace the importance of being customer focused. Employees need to experience what it is like to be treated as a customer." says Molloy. "This can be done by having them actually be a customer for their own organization or organizing experiential learning activities in group settings."
   A company's best resource is its employees, but with one provision. Although employees are good estimators of customer perceptions and service quality, they place more importance on responsiveness while customers emphasize reliability. Molloy tells a story of a businessman who arrives in Hong Kong, only to bypass the fancy restaurants for a McDonald's. "The man knew what to expect at McDonald's. Their food and their service are predictable." Molloy urges work teams to close the credibility gap and be predictable. "Exceed customer expectations all the time. You'll be on top and your competitors will take shots at you, trying to figure out how you do it. Don't give them a chance to catch up," he says. "Don't settle for satisfied customers. What you want are delighted customers."

   William F. Molloy, M.Ed., is a popular keynote speaker with extensive training experience in line management, profit center responsibility and organizational consulting. He has developed team training programs in leadership, sales management, customer focus, quality and productivity for such organizations as Charles Schwab, Xerox, Nike, Standard & Poors, Kodak, Coca Cola, IBM and the IRS. He has served as a keynote speaker for Microsoft, VISA, Prudential, DuPont, Panasonic, International Customer Service Association, and the U.S. Council on International Banking. A former senior vice president of the Forum Corporation, Molloy now has a private consulting practice in Phoenix and has been a senior associate of Venture Up since 1990.