Leading Lean

Chapter 5. Leading Outside In

Do you consider your company to be customer-centric? Do you think about satisfying your customer regularly? Are you providing high-quality customer service after each purchase to drive repeat business, customer loyalty, and increased profits? These are all questions you should be routinely asking yourself as a Lean leader because Lean is all about being keenly focused on creating loyal and satisfied customers every day.

However, the determination of true value doesn’t come from inside your company. Value is determined by your customers. Therefore, taking an outside-in or customer-focused perspective is fundamental to creating an excellent customer experience that results in high customer retention rates.

But what does it mean to be truly customer-centric? It means you care about every interaction you have with your customers, from initial inquiry to a purchasing decision to servicing the product/service afterward. You must always be thinking about how to add value-creating interactions that differentiate you from your competition. Your ultimate goal is to create a customer for life by building intimacy and fostering familiarity. In the end, you achieve long-lasting and valuable relationships on both sides, ensuring your product/service creates high levels of customer satisfaction on a repeated and continuous basis.

This chapter will explore strategies for putting your customers squarely in the center of your business by understanding who they are, ...