Customer Differentiation
Customer Differentiation – managing service levels: Not all customers require the same things nor to be treated the same way.
People who attempt to be everything to everybody tend to spread themselves so thin they eventually wear down. The same can be said for organizations or teams. People and organizations must become skilled at separating needs from wants, high priorities from lower ones, in order to direct attention toward the highest-valued and most profitable work.
People, by nature, want to do the right things; the key is for their organization to determine the right-things. To be most productive and creative, people require direction. They inherently want to know that what they contribute is valued by others. They will work harder and be more willing to overcome obstacles when they have a clearer sense of why. They will be more receptive and responsive to the demands of continual change when they see it in response to the evolving needs of the marketplace versus simply the internal demands of their boss or organization.
Many organizations are unable to assess customer (or internal client or coworker) importance and differentiate between their high or low-value needs; therefore, they attempt to respond to them all. Money and time is being wasted, and, ironically, customer satisfaction is not improved. Serving customers is not about responding to everything they want, it is being able to understand what they need and value; knowing when to say yes and when to say no.
