From: John Yost
Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 5:35 AM
To: Business Leader
Subject: ProCompass Newsletter - Issue 10

Issue 10 September 16, 2003

The ProCompass Newsletter is a publication of ProCompass Management Services shared with over 200 subscribers on the first and third Tuesday of each month. Please share this information with your friends and associates.

To unsubscribe from this newsletter please follow the link at the bottom.

If you have questions or inputs regarding this newsletter please contact us at mailto:Contact@ProCompass-ms.com

In this Issue:

Thanks to Mark Simmons of Y2 Marketing for the idea behind this article. http://www.y2marketing.com/home.asp

Who Determines Satisfaction.

Satisfaction is a major concern in business. Customer Satisfaction, Employee Satisfaction, Shareholder Satisfaction are all major objectives for many businesses. With all the concern about satisfaction and the amount of attention that businesses address toward satisfaction, you would think that there should be a well-known formula or method of assuring satisfaction for our important target groups.

One common area of disconnect in many companies is that they have visions regarding customers, employee or, shareholder but their strategies are never really aimed at what is MOST important in the eyes of these important target groups. In less delicate terms, they are shooting from the hip. If you don't determine what they want, how could you expect to succeed at giving it to them.

Consider a company that positions its product offerings based solely on their technology or their distribution channel (sound familiar). How about a program to improve employee satisfaction based only on salary surveys and a comprehensive benefits review. Sounds kind of foolish doesn’t it? Yet, many companies do these very things. The reasons for such behavior is varied but can be summarized in a few categories:

Don’t know whom to ask.

This should be really simple. If you want to know what makes John Smith happy, ask John Smith. But many times this simple fact eludes people. They would rather ask a surrogate than the persons themselves. This reminds me of adolescent dating when we tried to get our friends to tell us about that special person of our fancy.

Not sure what to ask

This can be as simple as “How can I serve you better” or it might take some more very detailed questions. The important thing is to start asking, and listening. You might start out with the wrong questions but if you listen carefully you will eventually get around to what is important

Afraid of the Answers

This sounds silly but it is really a big one, and very often results in ignoring the answer. I know of one company that conducted an employee satisfaction survey and when the results came back, they pointed to some very sensitive areas. Management did not like this answer so they had another independent survey conducted. This second survey supported the first. So guess what they did. Of course! They decided that such surveys are unreliable and dropped the whole idea. When you ask questions be prepared for answers.

If you want to understand what makes your customer or employees or shareholders happy, try asking them. But prepared to go further and listen to what they say. Too often we listen with the intent to respond, rather that with the intent to understand. Communicating is not just talking and listening, it is understanding.

Visit the ProCompass Website Here

To Unsubscribe to the CompassPoint newsletter, click the link Here