Whom shall we serve?

First, I am always excited to hear of non manufacturing organization’s taking the leap, so to speak, into the world of continuous improvement.

Now then… whom shall we serve? The customer or the company? The immediate response most probably expect me to say is, “Um, the customer.” I mean the customer pays the bills, right?

And, in the purest sense, I stand by this advice of serving the customer first and foremost.

Of course, this is easy for me to write even though most reading this also have a boss to please, objectives to meet, and a family to feed. Right or wrong this is reality and those lost in text book theory need to crawl out from under their rock.

<rant> Being blunt, I get annoyed with many of my fellow lean thinking pals who are so far removed from the “real world” that they forget life is more than PowerPoint training slides and 3 month consulting deals. </rant>

All this said… my recommendation is to – of course – ensure everything we do improves the customer experience. Doing anything else will do nothing but harm.

But we must also remember most Continuous Improvement practitioners also need to help their company prosper… even survive in some business climates. This means cutting costs, reducing defects, etc. Of course, one can argue this in turn helps the customer, right?

So, in the end, my advice is to never forget about the customer, as they ultimately keep you employed.

But, at the same time we must also ensure our efforts are also contributing to the long term success of the organization.

Erin James
August 18, 2010 - 11:47 am
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I agree the two approaches should complement each other and that one should not outrank the other.
John Berk PhD
August 19, 2010 - 6:46 am
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I also agree. In my experience, the two go hand-in-hand. Both are equally important, as stated in the article, and, as was also stated, there should be no basis of conflict, if the improvements are well conceived and executed.
Randy
August 19, 2010 - 8:43 am
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Looks like Lot has discovered his first project!! How to align the organizations goals / objectives with customers expectations. If this can not be accomplished I woulds question the organizations committment to continuos improvement, i.e. lean six sigma. Committment = Progress
Bob
August 20, 2010 - 4:52 am
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I feel going after pure costs are somewhat shortsighted and will only provide short term cost benefits, therefore should only be pursued in ‘survival’ situations.
Adressing customer needs will lead to long term success and lower costs, so it’s a win-win in my opinion. Overall, I would educate my stakeholders and try to bring them around to this thinking, because in my experience they mandate ‘cut costs’ out of ignorance of some basic tenets of modern QA.
Jari Kaarima
September 7, 2010 - 12:18 am
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I must follow Bob on this one. I’m just doing some Lean transformation work in healthcare, and I’ve seen how very, very easily the perspective shifts towards a costs (only) driven one; which in turn blinds the view to customer value creation in the worst case! Ironic, but it’s true.

On the other hand, I’ve seen how a “make-customer-value-focus-1st-no-matter-what!”-approach has ultimately resulted in significant cost savings due to Muda removal from the system without sacrificing customer value.

So, while I agree both issues (value & costs) are important, going at it from a customer value creation point of view is at the same time the way to improve cost efficiency; which is actually a result, not a “means”.