Customer-Focused Improvement 

Organizational improvement initiatives are frequently focused on improving processes to better serve our customers.

Voice of the Customer

Sometimes we are fortunate to gather the “voice of the customer” in these improvement efforts. This can be through focus groups, survey methods, Gemba walks, or customer-centric process measures.

For example, when undertaking the redesign of a Women’s Health Center, focus groups were held with women in three distinct cohorts. Uncovering their needs and preferences led to the development of new offerings, influenced the staffing model, and guided the design of customer-friendly processes from the front door to back office.

Voice of Frontline Staff

Other times this direct insight from customers is not feasible. The next best thing is the involvement of those who work directly with customers – frontline staff who serve customers.

In a recent example, I was working with an organization and their aim was to understand firsthand from clinicians what constraints were most impacting service capacity. This is in an organization serving a growing population with rising demands for service access, yet with a national shortage of credentialed clinicians.

The clinicians’ insights and perspectives on the current workflows, and what gets in the way, helped to paint a clearer picture of what the data was revealing. As we develop improvement solutions, the clinicians wishing to be early adopters will have an opportunity to share their experiences again as we test out various capacity enhancing solutions.

In high-performing organizations, frontline staff are frequently involved in improvement efforts. They spend time not just working in the business, but also working on the business. They lend their own insights but also represent a customer perspective when direct customer feedback is not practical.

Gathering narrative data from customers and/or customer-serving staff helps to round out an understanding of the current state. Is useful to provide context to data analysis. And quite often informs solution design. All key aspects of effective process improvement.

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Kathy Letendre, President and Founder of Letendre & Associates, advises organizations and leaders to create their excellence advantage.
Contact Kathy by phone or text at 802-779-4315 or via email.