| The One Number You Need to Grow: If It's Worth Measuring, It's Worth Managing |
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Why Value is More Important Than Satisfaction |
 Organizations looking for the latest quick-fix-cure de jour need look no further than the Net Promoter Score (NPS) touted by Frederick F. Reichhold. Making this silver bullet even more palatable is the fact that it is cheap – all you have to do is get your marketing research department or your current consultant to ask your customers one simple question – “How likely would you be to recommend us to a friend?” Getting the answer to this question may prove valuable to many organizations. However, learning how to manage this number would prove even more valuable.
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Central to the stated or postulated discipline of Six Sigma, as opposed to the current practice of the discipline, is the role and importance of the VOC (voice of the customer) in driving the application of Six Sigma principles and methodologies. For many practitioners within the Six Sigma community, that voice is based on the metrics of “customer satisfaction.” But is the conventional wisdom correct or, is it value – customer value -- that is the better voice to listen to? How can we reconcile these two concepts? Which is the proper voice of the customer?
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| The Shift from Satisfaction to Value |
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When Is A Pricing Problem Not A Pricing Problem? |
The next significant shift in Six Sigma will come from the jettisoning of the time-worn satisfaction model for the more realistic and information-laden customer value paradigm. The value model is significantly better suited to the information needs of Six Sigma.
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The answer is simple, when it’s a value problem. When your customers complain about the price what they may be telling you is that the quality of your product or service is not worth what you are charging for it. |
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| Six Sigma and the Voice of the Customer |
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Marketing, Six Sigma and Customer Value |
| Six Sigma experts agree that the voice of the customer should drive Six Sigma initiatives, but all customers are not equal, and some types of listening will lead your initiatives in the wrong direction. This article describes how to identify the right customer for a more strategic focus, and how to avoid the wrong metrics when listening. |
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Marketers, brand managers, product managers and planners would be well advised to break down the organizational barriers that exist between themselves and those curious folks that populate the continuous improvement corners of the organization. The arcane (probably to most marketers) language and thinking of Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma have tremendous application to the jobs and missions of the marketing world. For many years marketers have been schooled in the four Ps, product, promotion, price and place. To this list of Ps they need to add processes. |
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| If Only You'd Ask |
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The End of "Satisfaction" |
| Hey, Mr. Six Sigma Blackbelt. It’s me, your customer. I hear all of you six sigma guys talking about how important it is to understand and listen to the voice of the customer, but if you are listening to us you couldn’t tell it by me. All I see is an overwhelming concern about costs – your costs – not mine. If you’re really concerned about the voce of the customer then open your ears and listen up. I want value. Pure and simple, value. |
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Are you still placing your faith in "customer
satisfaction?" If your answer is yes, you are
trapped in an outdated mindset. The new paradigm is
customer value-and it's quickly being embraced by
forward thinking corporations everywhere.
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