Mind Tools for Managers

Chapter 18Work Effectively with Customers and External Stakeholders

Although the biggest part of a manager's job tends to be internally focused (i.e. enabling others to get things done), it is vital to retain a certain level of external focus and, more specifically, to keep an eye on the ultimate customer or user of your company's products and services. If you are a manager working in sales, marketing, or customer service, you will do this as a matter of course. But keeping the customer in mind is also important for managers working in factories, supply chains, and administrative support functions. For example, many pharmaceutical companies make a point of inviting patients and doctors to speak to people working in back-office roles such as finance or support. This helps to remind those people why the company exists and what needs they are ultimately addressing. Studies have shown how this type of customer interaction helps employees to stay motivated and make better decisions about where to focus their efforts.

This final chapter provides some techniques and frameworks to help you understand and work effectively with customers and build relationships with a wide variety of external stakeholders.

We start with two specific techniques for making sense of customers. One is to understand your customer's worldview (#96) by creating personas that represent particular customer segments. The other is understanding and developing your relationship with your customers (#97) by mapping ...