Many times we hear companies talk about their customer being the most important part of their business, yet we continue to see survey results that indicate most consumers don't agree.

Where is the disconnect in the service we think our organization is providing and what the customer is actually perceiving, and how do we fix it?

At Incept, we have found this to be a really complex question, so we have decided to start simple. Our first step was making sure we all agreed on how we defined a customer.

One of the Incept core values is Everyone's a Customer. As with each of our core values, we use several descriptions to ensure that we all have a clear definition of what that value looks like.

Here is what Everyone's a Customer means to us:

• We will create WOW experiences for teammates and clients
• 
  We will ask customers what is required to make them advocates, LISTEN to their answers and then deliver it
• 
  We will anticipate customer needs and provide suggested improvements to address them
• 
  We will work with teammates and clients to define success, measure it and achieve it

As we created this definition we talked about the fact that although we may have a handful of individuals that directly interface with our customers, they can only service the customer as well as the rest of the organization can service them.

So regardless of how well our Client Results team is responding to client requests, if our Contact Center Results team is not generating enough donor appointments, we are at risk of creating a bad experience. Our Contact Center Results team is dependent on our Technology Results team to provide them with working equipment, and accurate call files, and actionable reports, etc. If any link in this chain were to break, we will likely produce a less-than-acceptable experience for our client.

So we have agreed that Everyone is a Customer. We are each responsible for delivering an exceptional experience to whoever it is that depends on us. We have also agreed that just reacting to problems is not enough. We each need to be proactive in identifying problems and proposing solutions to ensure that our customer is as satisfied as possible.

For us, the consistency of practicing great customer service internally increases the likeliness we will be able to do it externally. While we realize we have a LONG way to do to become the next Ritz Carlton, Disney or Zappos, by clarifying the definition of who a customer is, everyone in the organization gets to practice great service skills and share best practices, increasing the speed at which we improve.

Each value also includes a quote that we agreed best represented the value, and in this case we couldn't agree more with Michael LeBoeuf when he said, "A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all".

How is your organization defining your customer?