Designing your business operations with your customers in mind
Hello Reader, Last week, I had the privilege of teaching a class for the Spanish cohort of EforAll. The focus of the class was on selecting customer segments to concentrate on, understanding your customers, making assumptions, and testing them to ensure you understand what your customers value. While this information seems most relevant when designing your product or service, it is also crucial when designing your business operations. It is your north star for decision-making. When describing what our customers want and need, we use words like 'fast' and 'high quality,' but what do these terms really mean? Understanding the nuances of what your customers value and care about and the challenges they face is critical. This knowledge allows you to design your operation properly. Here are some examples to get you thinking: Billing: Does your billing process simplify or complicate your customer's life? Is their funding linked to board approval, growth milestones, or government grants? Are you accounting for such timing? Software development and updates: Is continuous deployment an added value, or would it create havoc for your customers? Would their metrics be affected? Do they need to validate their outputs every time an update is released? Customer support: Consider when customers would request support. Would it be during a critical point of failure? Would personalized support be necessary, or can most questions be answered by the support community or knowledge base? Supplier management: Is timely delivery and flexibility critical for your customer? If so, an agile process with suppliers needs to be implemented to meet both customer requirements. Integrate ethical and sustainable criteria into your supplier management process, promoting suppliers that align with your customers' values. By aligning your business operations with what your customers value, you not only meet their expectations but also enhance your organization's competitiveness and reputation. This customer-centric approach contributes to long-term success and sustainable growth. See you next week!
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