Coaching Resources

Oisin is proud to announce the development of an exciting set of resources designed to support and equip leaders with the skills required to effectively coach their staff to achieve extra-ordinary business results.

These resources will be based on our proprietary coaching process that has consistently demonstrated a positive impact on organisational performance. Combining powerful coaching and action learning methodologies, these resources are designed to generate immediate results at individual, team and organisational levels.

We would like to thank our clients who have been instrumental in ensuring that the design of these resources effectively meet and exceed their practical requirements.

The resources will become available from July of this year. For more information please contact one of our consultants on (03) 9818 5667. Written enquires can be directed to resources@oisinsusccess.com.

The Benefits of a Customer Focused Culture

One of the most important roles of a manager is that of building a customer focused team. This requires the ability to clearly define customers’ expectations, implement a strategy to deliver on those expectations and build a culture where people are willing and able to deliver on the organisation’s value proposition.

In this article we focus our attention on the business case for developing a customer focused culture and the key principles underpinning the formulation and implementation of a successful customer focused strategy.

The Business Case for Customer Focus

A multitude of research demonstrates a number of long term benefits for customer focused organisations. It is clear that the effort required to build a customer focused organisation brings with it many competitive advantages. These competitive advantages include:

Financial Benefits

• Organisations can increase their revenues by 85 percent simply by retaining 5 percent more of their best customers.

• On the average, it costs organisations at least fives times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

• Loyal customers purchase products and services more often.

• Loyal customers have higher response rates than non-loyal customers; translating into decreased sales and marketing costs.

• Lower product and service development costs: organisations with loyal customers can more readily ask and receive accurate responses from their customers regarding what they really want and need. This not only reduces development costs, but also improves "time to market" dramatically.

Organisational Longevity

• Delighted customers tell at least four other people about their experiences. Dissatisfied customers tell at least ten. Customers who are merely satisfied most likely tell no one.

• Loyal customers go out of their way to help you build your organisation when they feel you care about them. Word of mouth is the single most powerful marketing force your organisation can have working on its behalf.

• Committed customers tend to come to you instead of your competitors, buy from you more often, tend to buy only from you, try your new products and trust you in difficult economic times.

• It is almost impossible for competitors to break or replicate an emotional trust bond whose formation and meaning are not well understood. This is the strength of a differentiation that is not merely built on a product, service or price level.

Are Satisfied Customers Loyal Customers?

Thomas O Jones and W Earl Sasser, Jr., in "Why Satisfied Customers Defect" (Harvard Business Review) reveal that satisfied customers are not necessarily loyal customers. Jones and Sasser demonstrate that satisfied customers are neutral in their feelings towards an organisation, rather than loyal. The authors go on to show that only delighted customers who are more than satisfied become loyal customers. Loyal customers believe that a bond exists between them and the supplier organisation.

Given the importance of customer loyalty, and recognising that merely satisfied customers are not loyal, it stands to reason that if your organisation's customer base is composed of impassionate, uninspired, merely satisfied customers, your business is at risk of losing customers to little more than a competitor who comes along with a better deal. The corresponding impact in terms of profitability and business longevity is clear.

Understanding Customer Needs and Expectations

The key to developing and implementing a successful customer focused strategy begins with accurately gathering your customers’ perceptions and expectations of your current service. Once this information is known, a strategy to address the service gaps and shortcomings can be developed. It is essential to have accurate answers to the following core questions:

• Who are your customers?

• What do your customers expect from you?

• Which needs and expectations matter most to them?

• How well are you meeting your customers’ most important expectations?

• How well are your competitors meeting your customers’ most important expectations?

• Where are the gaps between your customers’ expectations and their perceptions of your products and services?

If you would like assistance implementing a customer focused strategy within your organisation, please call Oisin and talk with one of our consultants. With a range of specialised services developed over years of experience, Oisin can help you deliver a value proposition that differentiates your business in your customers’ eyes and dramatically improves economic performance.

Public Program: Keys to Transformational Coaching

28 and 29 July, Richmond, Victoria

Oisin is proud to announce our next public program for the 2003 season: Keys to Transformational Coaching. This very popular two day program will be held on 28 & 29 August in Richmond, Victoria. The aim is to introduce participants to the concept of transformational coaching and to help them develop advanced coaching skills. These skills can be used to achieve extraordinary results both within their organisations and in their personal lives.

This Program is Suitable for:

• Senior leaders
• Managers
• Organisational development professionals
• Any person who seeks to drive high performance within their organisation

Program Overview: Putting Transformational Coaching in Context

Coaching is a process that enables individuals, teams and organisations embrace the current dynamic business environment and experience transformational change. It involves interacting with people in a way that shows them how to transform or stretch their vision, values and abilities and produce spectacular results in their lives and in their organisations.

Topics to be Covered in this Two-day Program:

• Current trends
• Coaching in the business context
• Building an in-depth understanding of coaching
• Critical coaching skills
• Facilitating the coaching conversation
• Managing each phase in the coaching process
• Assessment models
• Providing feedback
• Facilitating breakthrough thinking
• Managing the psychological framework
• Developing ourselves as coaches

Dates: 28 and 29 August 2003

Location: Fenix Conference Centre, 680 - 682 Victoria Street, Richmond, Victoria

Cost: $1175.00 (plus G.S.T.) - *groups of 3 people or more attract a discount

Booking Info: 61 3 9818 5667 or booking@oisinsuccess.com

www.apqc.org

The American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) website is an internationally recognized resource for process and performance improvement. The APQC helps organisations adapt to rapidly changing environments, build new and better ways to work, and succeed in a competitive marketplace. The APQC works with its member organisations across a variety of industries to identify best practices, discover effective methods of improvement, broadly disseminate research findings and connect individuals with the knowledge, training and tools they need to succeed.

A key feature of the APQC website is the Knowledge Sharing Network (KSN). APQC members can access the KSN and enjoy a vast array of research, metric information, best practices databases, and publications, all delivered to your desktop via a personalized browser interface. Non-APQC members can use the KSN, as well, but with limited access to free content.

Seven Power Strategies for Building Customer Loyalty

"Seven Power Strategies for Building Customer Loyalty" by Paul R. Timm is built around the fact that it costs a company five times as much to attract a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. Paul Timm believes that the “master key” to customer retention and loyalty is to exceed customer expectation. He calls the process of exceeding anticipated customer experience the “A-plus” strategy.

Heavily grounded in real world examples, Timm illustrates the “A-plus” strategy in four core areas of the customer experience. The four core areas are:

• Product or service value

• Product or service information

• Customer service personality

• Customer convenience

Timm also provides a number of useful templates that help the reader identify areas for improvement within their own business, generate ideas for improvement and determine plans for the implementation of these ideas.

A worthwhile resources for any organisation interested in improving their profitability by improving the retention of their current customer base.