Listen to your customers! It seems every business journal magazine, and best selling business guru are telling management to be customer focused and really listen to customers. So, when a company decides to begin monitoring customers satisfaction through a survey the expectations are high. | c Published for Michigan s Small and Midsize Manufacturers NIST MICHIGAN MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY CENTER Volume 4 Issue 2 Spring 1998 M M Customer Satisfaction Monitoring 10 Steps to Getting the Impact You Want Dear Manufacturers The most valuable customer is one who has already been served. A study commissioned by the US Department of Commerce pointed out that for small and midsize manufacturing firms it costs five times as much to get a customer as it does to keep one. The study also showed that seven out of ten customers never complain when they have a problem. Those two facts alone are reason enough for manufacturers to get out and talk to customers listen to what they say and make some changes to keep them coming back. Customer loyalty works In this issue of Manufact-line we focus on how to listen to customers. You may want to spot little problems before they become big problems or you may see the chance to build more business with current customers. In any case knowing your customers has become a key issue in the late 1990s. If you would like more information on customer satisfaction monitoring or any of MMTC s other outstanding management activities such as ActivityBased Costing or Quality Systems please give us a call. Sincerely Michael Coast MMTC Executive Director ITI Vice President Listen to your customers It seems every business journal magazine and best selling business guru are telling management to be customer focused and really listen to customers. So when a company decides to begin monitoring customers satisfaction through a survey the expectations are high. The company announces the process develops a questionnaire sends it out and then awaits the results. The results trickle in are tabulated and a presentation is made to management. Many times the survey finds no surprises offers few if any insights into customer s attitudes and after a couple of weeks the whole process is forgotten. The experience is disappointing. How can you use customer .
