Focus primarily on customers, not only problem tasks

Is your customer focus faltering? Has it lost steam lately? Then you had better pay attention fast.

Ever have a day when suddenly the company apple cart tilts and totally collapses? That’s called a “crisis.” And that’s when the workers all run over to the cart, stare at it, then have a meeting about it. 

There’s only one problem. After the meeting, everyone begins concentrating on apple carts, and not apples.

Whenever a new directive is launched by management that demands immediate action on a specific problem, the staff tend to drop whatever else they’re doing to spend countless hours, days, and months working diligently on that one specific dilemma. That task then becomes the sole priority. Everything else is on hold — including the customers.

The moment a crisis occurs in a company or the industry, objectives are changed to just fit that issue. Everyone prioritizes their work activities to that single event.

The issues have placed a great strain on the staff to spend costly time fixing problems. Meanwhile, the time-consuming efforts caused somewhat of a perilous sales slide with a major partner … the customer.

Problem issues become priority tasks that management places on their staff. In our business, we call it, “Putting out fires.”

If the fire is a sanitation program, everyone centers their priority on brooms and mops. If it’s about productivity, the emphasis is on how to use both hands. If it’s about produce department shrink waste, the attention is focused on smaller apple cart displays. 

Often, when specific programs are the main objective, people become so wrapped up in them that they lose sight of sales and especially customers. Eventually, the outcome can be devastating to a company’s bottom line results. 

Sometimes putting emphasis pressure on a specific task program can backfire in other areas. Take for instance a shrink waste program. Let’s say a company president sends out a demanding directive to reduce produce shrink by two percent. Immediately, the staff will draw up a plan that includes a laundry list of a hundred and one ways to lower shrink. Everybody from the warehouse inspector to the front-end bagger is concentrating on nothing but shrink control. They all eat, drink, sleep, walk and talk about controlling shrink.  Shrink now becomes their new customer. And that will shrink the sales rather than waste.

So, what would a shrink program be without controlling inventory? After all, decreasing backroom inventory assets will eliminate some shrink. If you don’t have the product around, it won’t shrink. It’s that simple. But if all you do is urge keeping inventory stock down, what do you think will happen next? You got it — out-of-stocks and out of sales. You simply cannot sell what you don’t have on displays. 

The shrink may have been lowered by one percent, but all the concentration to fit the activity is lost at the other end in sales and profit. Before you know it, the enthusiasm and aggressiveness to build big dramatic displays turns into a conservative one-layer produce department. And anyone can tell you that customers do not get excited by shopping from flat displays. 

Today’s customers are different. The practice of doing business with them has dramatically changed. They want to be recognized and want to purchase plenty of fresh produce without wasting time. Your job is to meet their needs.

To build your company’s growth in this laser paced business world today, you had better work on your key objectives without losing a grip on customers. Understand all you can about the new no nonsense customer. They’re dealing with the cards today and you better work smarter to get the winning hand.