There’s nothing like a recession and economic crisis to get us all thinking about costs, efficiencies and productivity.  While it can be a painful period of time for some, this is also a fantastic period of time to re-focus and energize the business of the business.  On a daily basis, I continue to hear points of optimism - from sales professionals that see this as a time to develop new relationships, to CEOs who have gotten their troops looking for and implementing new ways of thinking.  It can be an invigorating time from which we will all learn lessons, making each of us stronger and smarter and positioned for growth in the future.

There is evidence of another by-product of current times that I’ve recently taken note of - a re-energized focus on the customer.  I see it happening in product-oriented companies, in service organizations, in non-profits and in early stage enterprises.  I’m sure that everyone reading this blog entry, myself included, would like to think that we continually and effectively maintain such a focus.  But there is a reality that when times are good and sales are brisk … discipline can wane and human nature can take over.  We may start to take ourselves and our customers for granted and complacency can settle in.  That may go unnoticed for short periods of time, or even longer when masked by new customer acquisition that offsets losses.

Try it now though, and I believe that you’ll quickly learn some expensive and painful lessons.  It is for this reason that I continue to see daily examples of customer-focused activities from smart entrepreneurs.  Manufacturers are cutting down on the number of available skus and improving the quality of those that remain.  Early stage companies with revenues are focusing on the revenues and customers they have now, and are foregoing large product development budgets.  Everyone across the board is stepping up with increased responsiveness and returning to the old adage that the “customer is always right”.  After all, isn’t this why we’re all in business - to meet a customer need and bring solutions to the market that are a better value than those offered by our competitors?

If you take a long-term perspective, the current environment is not bad for business.  On the back end of these economic times, the weak or slow-to-adapt will be eliminated, and those that understand and embrace that we’re in business because of our customers will be stronger, will find success, and will increase market share.  So I implore you, if you haven’t already or even if you think you have, to re-examine your customer service philosophies and look for opportunities to improve your customer relationships in whatever capacity possible.

One can “meet” the expectations of their customers or clients, but will meeting expectations set one apart from the crowd? We don’t think so. You must go above and beyond your customers’ expectations, and you must do so consistently. At MFA, for example, we make it a priority to live our core values and embrace the service philosophy that reflects those values.  I challenge everyone reading this entry to do the same and share your stories below.  We would love to hear how you and your team have re-focused your energies on your customer base and the results that have followed.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 11:30 am and is filed under CPA practice, General Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.