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IT Management Slideshow:
Creating a Customer-Centric Culture in IT

By Dennis McCafferty on 2011-07-06


Ultimately, you and your employees are in the customer-delivery business. Yet, far too many tech departments fall short in delivering on customer expectations. In the book "Unleashing the Power of IT: Bringing People, Business, and Technology Together" (Wiley/available now), author Dan Roberts devotes a section to elevating the customer-centric culture within IT. Within the section, Roberts addresses a number of common concerns, such as quality assurance, expectations management and complaint follow-through. One key takeaway: CIOs and their IT employees must realize now that their customers are savvier than ever about technology, thanks to mass consumption, and that this dynamic will continue to transform future interactions. “It’s important to remember that internal IT is no longer the only game in town,” Roberts writes, “and the days are gone when clients depended solely on IT to provide technology services.” The author is president/CEO of Ouellette and Associates Consulting Inc., an IT leadership/professional development company. Here are 10 highlights from the book:

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Don’t fear the cold, hard truth.
The most revealing, customer-centric question to ask is, “What frustrates you most about IT?”

Make it clear that you understand what your customers do.
This way, you can explain how IT support will help them achieve strategic objectives.

Realize what customer expectations are before you get started.
Expectations on quality or measurable criteria must be mutually established in advance.

View your service experience using “customer eyes.”
If you were them, how would you perceive satisfaction of experience with respect to professionalism, courtesy, etc.?

View your service experience using “customer eyes.”
Try out what you’re providing to customers so you can undergo the user experience as they do.

Make virtual customer service as real as on-site help.
Increase virtual presence with multiple contact touchpoints that result in real responses.

Study how your team reacts to complaints ...
Is the first instinct to right something that is wrong in a prompt, courteous fashion? Or is it to abdicate responsibility?

... Better yet, establish culture in which members don’t wait for the complaint.
If they know a server has gone down, they should make a proactive customer call to apologize and make clear what corrective action is being taken.

Manage unrealistic expectations.
Instead of arguing that requests or changes can’t be delivered, lay out the impact on budgets and schedules and ask of customers, “What is of most importance to you?”

Pursue ongoing discovery.
Challenge yourself to learn something new about your customers -- their goals, background, and concerns -- every time you interact with them.

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