customer satisfaction – Cooper Mann Consulting

March 19, 2014

Keeping Up with Expectations: Buyer Satisfaction and the Customer Experience

There used to be saying in business that the customer is always right and anything or everything should be done to make the customer happy, even if it includes throwing someone under a bus. On the other hand, some professionals in sales and service would contend that keeping the company mission in mind and fairly representing the company side of things is a better way even if the customer goes away mad. Realistically, both mentalities have some merit, and it is the challenge of finding balance between making customers happy and doing what is right for the business that makes things difficult. What many businesses fail to recognize is that they are no longer directly responsible for setting the customer expectation, so they must understand and adapt to the environment and influences impacting the buyer in order offer a customer experience that satisfies.

A customer experience is not simply what happens after someone buys. The customer experience is composed of the entire life cycle of interactions between the company and the buyer, including any “impressions” the buyer may have experienced through social venues, personal interactions and in media. Creating and managing the customer experience doesn’t mean simply tracking interactions like sales calls and emails, as with a customer relationship management or sales force solution. Crafting a customer experience embodies all aspects of the business – from the outside face shown to the public and market to the internal mechanisms that help get work done, the attitudes of the people involved, and the influences of others.

Businesses used to have more sway over how their customer experience flowed, and a great bunch of people providing quality services would generally be a “win” with the buyer. In today’s market, the table has turned and it is the consumer who dictates what, exactly, they want their customer experience to be. If the experience doesn’t meet with expectations, it is likely to be a failure regardless of how well the company executes on it. The exceptional difficulty introduced is that each and every buyer is different – has different motivations and priorities and agendas – and meeting all the expectations of a diverse audience is not easily accomplished.

It’s sort of like with those advertisements you see now, where prospective college students aren’t willing to accept the “old way” of getting an education. They want to have classes that interest them, they expect to get educated when and where it is right for them, and to get that education in a manner that fits better into the way of life they imagine. Everyone wants it “my way”, and they’re getting it because they have come to understand that technology and the Internet have made it possible.

Technology and information systems are the foundations of creating and delivering a customer experience and level of service which will keep customers engaged and coming back for more. Businesses have been trained to look to technology advances and identify opportunities to leverage new developments towards the defined business goal. In the market that has now developed, where social and mobile computing are the norms, it is the consumer rather than the technology which is driving change.

The individual experience – how the buyer perceives the solution to fit within their business and lifestyle, and how the buyer benefits from the interaction – has become the basis for measuring quality of service and delivery. Regardless of how technically perfect and flawless a product or service may be, the overall customer experience is the basis on which a stay or go decision is formed.

This shift in focus has changed how businesses view service delivery and support performance, and has introduced the concept that every department in the business should act a little bit like the marketing department – listening to and learning what the buyer deems important and adjusting the process or message based on the finding. By placing a focus on the buyer priorities and developing an approach that allows a buyer to guide their own experiences with the company, businesses are finding great success in engaging with increasingly demanding buyers and improving overall satisfaction with the experience.

Make sense?

October 22, 2013March 26, 2019

4 Rules of Thumb for Business Success

The business environment is becoming increasingly competitive, with global opinions influencing customers of even the smallest local businesses. The best method of competing in a world where customer perception is reality – at least when it comes to the impact of social and other media – is to create a company that people simply want to do business with.

Here are a few things which every business can do in order to create the best possible environment for engaging new customers and providing quality service. Regardless of industry or business orientation, these 4 simple considerations will go a long way towards creating a sustainable, high quality operation which recognizes the value of a customer relationship – whether it’s an internal or external customer.

Teach everyone in the company that they’re part of sales and customer service.

Each and every member of the organization should be in a position to help customers get what they need, and to help guide the customer towards the various products, services or solutions the company offers. This means that internal training is essential, and all employees should be fully informed in the offerings of the company. Business owners will find that one of the best ways to reach and retain the best workers is to provide ongoing skills development and training programs. The result is a more confident and productive workforce and workers who feel more satisfied with their jobs. It’s also important to recognize that employees are another form of ‘customer’ of the company, and surveying them to understand how satisfied they are with the work is a really good idea. When employees lack satisfaction in their jobs or with the company they work for, it will be revealed in their interactions with customers and other workers, which is not good for business.

Remember that first impressions count – a lot.

You only have one chance at the first impression, and it takes a lot more work to overcome a bad impression than it does to leave a good one in the first place. This means that the company should promote a quality, clean and professional image. When speaking to customers on the phone, speak clearly, professionally and politely. Make sure that all workers arrive at their jobs in clean uniforms and in clean, branded trucks. Customers should not only know who’s parked outside, but a good-looking branded vehicle is a mobile advertisement for the company and can deliver a lot of good impressions. On the other hand, not maintaining or caring properly for vehicles and equipment can deliver the opposite type of impression you want to leave.

Do company business with the company voice.

Communication is essential in building a successful business, and it is important that the messages be what the company wants the customers and market to hear. When communicating on company business, always use the company email address and contact information rather than personal email addresses or generic domains. Just like with uniforms and trucks, communications from the company should be branded and professional so that the right type of impression is created. The business website (which should support mobile devices!) is available to help communicate your values, brand and services, and should serve to present your business as someone a customer would want to do business with. Posting case studies and testimonials can be very useful in this regard as they help to build credibility in your company and convey the trust others have in your services. Apply social media and listing services, too, so that customers and prospects can find information on your company and read good things others have said. It’s important, however, to remember that social media can go both ways. While being a great way to reach new customers as well as reminding current customers of the other products and services you offer, it could also turn negative. If there is negative feedback, be honest and reasonable, but address it quickly.

Work beyond corporate walls.

The business exists in a community, and workers in the company live in neighborhoods and have lives beyond the business they work for. Community service is a way to develop a more cohesive and productive team while developing closer community relations and enhancing the image of the company and ownership. Volunteering and creating an environment where service to others is promoted helps build a team atmosphere in the company, and expresses the understanding that businesses will thrive when the communities around them thrive.

Make Sense?

August 12, 2013August 14, 2013

The Language of Accounting: Disconnect between Accountants and Bookkeepers

There are a tremendous number of bookkeeper training programs developed over the years which propose to deliver the essential bookkeeping knowledge (e.g., double entry accounting) required in order to properly service business bookkeeping requirements. Particularly as the CPA profession stepped away from traditional bookkeeping in favor of performing “higher level” and more profitable work, there was and continues to be a great need for skilled and experienced bookkeepers. While it seems that accountants and bookkeepers would be a natural fit for partnering to serve small business client needs, there is often a disconnect between the two which causes the working relationship to not always prove as beneficial as it could. What is the cause of this disconnect? In many cases, it is due to the fact that the bookkeeper training educated the operator on the use of a software product, and not on the fundamentals of accounting and bookkeeping.

Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to look through a lot of bookkeeper training programs, and the thing that stands out is that many of these programs aren’t really training bookkeepers on accounting principles. More frequently, the training is focused on teaching users how to use software (usually QuickBooks). With the number of users of the QuickBooks product, it is obvious that there is a need to educate users on the solution because people need to know how to use their software properly. But it happened at some point in time that a majority of the industry came to believe that learning QuickBooks (or Xero or Freshbooks or Kashoo or whatever) was somehow synonymous with learning bookkeeping.

When I first started working with my father in his accounting practice, I had to use a manual general ledger, check register, etc. It was all manual – computers didn’t come along for a while (yes, I am that old). It was time-consuming, but it taught me the fundamentals. I know what a subledger is. In consumer-friendly software like QuickBooks, you don’t work in the AR subledger; you push the button that says “customers” or maybe “invoices”. QuickBooks, in many ways, doesn’t speak accounting. It speaks record keeping. And this is where the disconnect begins.

An old school accountant will recall the green eye shade days and working with book ledgers and 13-column pads, but even “new” school accounting professionals know that the fundamentals of accounting aren’t available for re-invention. A debit is still a debit and a credit is a credit. Yes, there are intimacies involved which speak to specific treatment of items for reporting and tax purposes, etc., but the essentials of double entry and other basic accounting principles are consistent and unchanging.

The “language of accounting” includes certain precise terms with specific meaning, and this precision in the use of terms simply doesn’t exist in many bookkeeper training programs. Rather than focusing on the fundamental accounting training bookkeepers truly need in order to be of maximum value to the business, these programs focus on helping users become experts in using the software product, or even to become experts at teaching others how to use the solution. While this software expertise may be beneficial in terms of helping accountants work with their clients who use the software, it doesn’t add enough value to the relationship to warrant partnering. What accounting professionals need are bookkeepers who understand bookkeeping and who can apply basic accounting principles to the task. Which software they operate is secondary to that purpose.

Professional bookkeepers, accountants, and the business client are all in a position to benefit tremendously when the service providers team up to provide comprehensive service. The key to making these connections lies with the professional bookkeeper who must not only understand basic accounting principles, but must also be able to speak to the accounting professional in their native language.

Make Sense?

Lean and Mean – Improving Sales and Distribution Performance

It is surprising that, even in this world of Internet marketing and online commerce, many businesses are operating at levels far below their potential. Reliant upon people rather than information and process, these businesses are weighted down by their legacy approach to getting things done. They throw money and personnel at the problem, adding more “fat” to the business and making sustainability just that much harder to achieve. The right approach, and the mantra of all manufacturers and distributors, should be to work “lean and mean”, applying technology and business principles which support agility and improved process efficiency.

The center of lean business is in operations, and includes all aspects of the “order” processing and support systems. From the point where an order is sought, to the point of order entry, and through to delivery and service – all aspects of the operation must be addressed for the business to achieve maximum success. Innovating in operational areas, such as in order management and distribution, can help the business rise above others in the market and create a significant competitive advantage.

What becomes challenging for many businesses is the fact that years of working in established “silos” often makes it difficult to introduce the cross-functionality necessary to support lean operations. It is not sufficient to simply suggest that the organization work collaboratively to streamline processes from order through to service and support. Work groups and team members must work together and adapt to delivering process improvements, following through with the actions necessary to turn the philosophy into bottom line results. Good support is required to keep customers, and a good product is necessary to support increased sales. No aspect of the operation stands alone, so each is necessary to participate in making end-to-end improvement. Additionally, back-office processes must be aligned to work collaboratively where required, supporting efficient operations rather than creating unnecessary bottlenecks or delays.

The key to developing a lean and mean, high performance operation is applying the technology and principles which translate into improved profitability and customer retention. In many cases, the same solutions which create customer “self-help” capabilities are also solutions which can address similar needs for internal business users. Ultimately, the goals are elimination of redundant or error-prone processes, establishing the sharing and secure collaboration of information throughout the organization, implementing integrated systems which allow users to efficiently perform their particular tasks, and working cooperatively with others in the supply chain to maximize the real-time capability and efficiency.

Rather than continuing to utilize basic record keeping solutions, or accounting products which aren’t prepared to address the specific operational aspects of the business, owners and managers should be looking to the tools and solutions which will help them develop the framework to support improving operational performance, turning people knowledge into sustainable business profitability.

Make Sense?

Accountants and Small Manufacturers: Getting in Front of the Ball

January 31, 2013July 9, 2013

Virtual CFO Services and Partnering with Bookkeepers

Many accounting professionals seek to become more involved with their business clients, helping to institute the controls and establish the processes which support sustainability and higher levels of business performance and value. Acting as the Virtual CFO to the business, these professionals use historical financial information and detailed operational data to guide their clients towards stated goals.

While this move to engage clients are deeper operational levels is a worthy effort, there is often a disconnection in the supply chain for these services. In too many cases, there is discord or a lack of understanding and trust between the CPA and the bookkeeper supporting the daily processing of the business information.

The business bookkeeper is the person “in the trenches”, getting daily information organized and processed, reconciling accounts, and generally tasked with recording transactions resulting from business activities. Because the bookkeeper operates very closely with the business, they are perhaps in the best position to provide insight into how operational tasks and various business functions are performed and “accounted” for. While the bookkeeper may not have the skill or experience to design change in these systems, they are a particularly powerful source of current process information and, in some cases, represent the barrier to change.

Years ago, as CPAs removed themselves from daily bookkeeping services to focus on “higher level” work, the opportunity was created for outsourced bookkeeping services to fill the gap in providing daily book and record keeping tasks for small businesses. Small business owners in particular need help with the management of their bookkeeping and accounting, and without the availability (or affordability) of getting this service from the accounting professional, businesses turned to the bookkeepers who stepped in to fill the gap. Yet every year, businesses turn over their bookkeeping and documentation to CPAs who simply re-create the bookkeeping in the form of “write-up”, trusting only their own work when it comes to tax and financial statement preparation.

It would seem that there would be a naturally occurring desire of CPAs to partner with professional bookkeepers in order to provide a full service capability to business clients and eliminate the need to reinvent and write-up the information, but this is often not the case and may be partly due to the reality that CPAs are trained on accounting principles while many bookkeepers are really only trained on the use of a software product. Too often, bookkeepers gain their education primarily based on using QuickBooks software, and “speak” the language of QuickBooks rather than “accounting” resulting with a minimized view of the bookkeeper value by the CPA.

The CPA is thinking in terms of AR and AP subledgers, while QuickBooks bookkeepers think in terms of customers, invoices, and bills to pay. While the language of QuickBooks has been designed to be meaningful to the non-accountant user, it is this very language and presentation which has made QuickBooks both a popular small business accounting solution as well as a foundational solution for an outsourced bookkeeping offering.

Working more closely with the bookkeepers, CPAs could help their clients not only achieve a more accurate and timely accounting of activities, they could also influence areas where necessary controls should be implemented, or where inefficient processes might be improved. Providing not just information but also direction and actionable ability, these accounting professionals are now positioned more directly to provide the CFO services businesses need.

CPAs must find a way to get past their prejudices in working with business bookkeepers, and recognize that these operators “in the trenches” could be their most useful resource – and their most powerful ally – in the supply of Virtual CFO services to the client.

Make Sense?

Accountants and Small Manufacturers

Getting in Front of the Ball

There’s a lot more to accountability in a manufacturing or inventory-based business than simply keeping track of money in and money out. Particularly in an economy when nobody can afford to build or stock products too far ahead of demand, it is essential that these businesses have a means to not only track and manage purchasing, manufacturing, distribution and stocking activities, but to understand conditions or trends which impact the flow of materials and cash through the business. Further, this understanding must come in a timely manner in order for the business owner to make decisions and take action when it matters most. Unfortunately, many business owners find themselves “behind the ball”, constantly pushing to make forward strides, and often due to not having the information they need to make business decisions that matter now, today.

Why is it so critical for these businesses to have more and better information to help them make strategic decisions and answer daily operational questions? In a word: connectedness. The Internet has truly made the world smaller when it comes to participation with even the smallest of local businesses. Globalization of markets has impacted manufacturers in significant ways, and these businesses (like so many others) must now be prepared to address the realities of global supply chains, outsourcing, and a remote or mobile workforce and market. While many of the software solutions addressing the functional business requirements of manufacturing and inventory or warehouse management are “locally implemented” solutions, extending and integrating these solutions to address the new global and mobile paradigm may represent a significant expenditure in time and resources for the small enterprise.

Application hosting and web-based solutions have emerged to help businesses address the need to “modernize” legacy applications and enable greater levels of system management and access. Introducing the applications into a centralized and remotely accessible environment allows the business to immediately deliver the necessary support for remote work and mobile access, and positions the system to facilitate collaboration within the business and with outside participants, such as outsourced bookkeepers, accounting and finance professionals.

These professionals can be instrumental in assisting their clients manage the change to new collaborative computing paradigms. Where accounting was previously viewed as an after-the-fact process, accountability through detailed activity tracking and reporting is now a focus which begins at the front end of the business, and accounting professionals are finding far greater value in helping structure and manage this daily activity in order to deliver greater operational information and insight. Rather than being the last people to know what is happening in the business, accounting professionals are recognizing that their ability to positively impact business performance requires getting “in front of the ball”, initiating process structure, data control and collection which ultimately results in better and more informed decision-making through better and more timely access to more meaningful information.

Businesses at all levels are realizing that new computing paradigms can ease the burdens of collecting and sharing information, yet most small companies need help in determining exactly how to approach this “enabling” of the business and systems. While accountants are also experiencing dramatic change in how they do business, it makes sense for them to embrace the opportunity and recognize that enabling client systems will ultimately allow the accounting professional to work more closely and to deliver more tangible value to their client on an ongoing basis. Online accounting approaches are no longer a fad but are the new reality supporting how many bookkeepers and accountants work with their business clients. Extending access beyond accounting and bookkeeping systems, and incorporating support for operational and line-of-business solutions, is the next step which will bring the accountant closer to the client business, and position both to benefit from deeper collaboration and useful insight.

Make Sense?