Jacques Dubois, chairman of Swiss Re Life and Health American, Inc. said “Service is the refuge of the inefficient.” That philosophy does not reflect an anti-customer approach but speaks highly of the importance of proper design, delivery and implementation of products and services.

Why do some companies excel at responding to customers’ needs, while many others fail? Do you value openness and flexibility? Organizations whose first priority is solving customer concerns rather than internal policies and procedures typically enjoy superior performance.

General Electric and Citibank exemplify customer focus and promote creativity, adaptability, autonomy, and a willingness to experiment. While understanding that no bureaucracy at all would cause a lack of direction and loss of control, they are opposed to hierarchies which tend to be inward looking and rigid.

Ask how you and your competitors could improve customer satisfaction dramatically? Where do you all fall short? Before entering the U.K. auto market, Daewoo offered year-long free use of a car to the 100 applicants with the worst story of poor automotive service.

An amazing 125,000 people bothered to take the considerable time to apply believing their story might be among the worst 100. This gave Daewoo fantastic customer insight as well as a large database of potential new customers. Customers will tell you about their experiences, if asked!

Focus on what customers dislike and like. Pay attention to your industry category not just your or your competitors’ brands. Customers often have accepted standards they really don’t want. Daewoo found fifty-seven percent felt buying a car was a hassle, 63 percent thought showrooms were intimidating and subjected them to hard-sell tactics and 78 percent said they were treated even worse after buying a car.

Provide simplicity, not sophistication. After years of losses, Shell’s 14,000 European gas stations finally realized that gasoline retailing was a simple business. Shell discovered that customers wanted; shelter from sun, wind, and rain, clean pumps and bathrooms and to be able to pay fast and exit quickly. Shell is now earning double digit returns.

Stay inside the box. During the 1990s, organizations became thrill seekers and had lost sight of the fundamentals of customer service. Taking care of business basics had somehow been forgotten and everyone was encouraged to break the rules and think outside of the box. Instead, redirect your creativity and look at how your customers really make buying decisions and what matters most to them. Customers are easy to please and expect companies to deliver on their promises.

Focus on opportunities, be aware of threats. Complacency is the biggest threat. Demographics will change your customer base over time, technology and innovation will open up new possibilities and customer preferences as well as categories will evolve. Whether changes are caused by new competitors, technology, government intervention, or a changing customer base…think of them as opportunities, not threats.

Go for creative advertising. Your mission is to meet customer needs better than your competition. Even if you do that it won’t do any good unless you capture the attention of the customer and get your message across. The solution is to adopt a distinctive, entertaining and unique approach persuading skeptical customers that you can meet their needs, and have created a business system to fill those needs better than your competitors.

Stay up front, don’t be sheltered. Employees tell the boss what they think he or she wants to hear, so problems get buried rather than solved. You must be able to experience first hand the unpleasant and unreasonable frustrations consumers encounter every day. Focus on observing and talking to customers where and when they buy and, like Daewoo, ask about your brands and your competitors’ as well.

Put your customer on center-stage and reassess how well they are getting what they really want. Every company that is serious about customer service must become the best at the things that matter most to customers. What customers care most about isn’t some flashy new feature…they just want it better than your competition.

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