Crib Sheet Is Key to Straight 'A' Performance

Buying the answers may have been grounds for dismissal in school, but it's a sure way to win in business.

by Ann Amati, new HumanPoint associate

I have a friend who teaches sixth grade Language Arts. One of the disciplines she teaches is spelling. Every Monday she writes ten words on the blackboard, turns to her students and says, "These are the answers to Friday's test."

Isn't school great? You're told what's expected of you. It's either handed to you or you're told exactly where to find it. If you make a mistake, there is someone there to correct you immediately-someone who really wants to see you score 100% all the time. The best thing is, you always know where you stand and how you were judged. If you want to improve, all you have to do is apply the lessons that are handed to you.

Why can't business be that clear? It's hard to know where we stand with our customers and why-especially with our external customers. Why do they buy from us? Just how loyal are they? What factors are we being judged by? What changes could we make to strengthen the relationship? How can we review the answers to the test in advance?

How? Ask. Your customers will tell you, but unlike in school where it was the teacher's job to hand you information, now you have to ask for it. In college it was an infraction to buy the answers to the test in advance. In business, it's smart. Whether you buy with the opportunity cost of your internal resources or with dollars paid to an external resource, take the initiative and ask your customers. During the heyday of Total Quality Management, lots of businesses conducted some form of customer satisfaction surveying. As the bloom fell off the TQM rose, most companies' surveying programs ended. But customers grade you whether you studied for the test or not. 

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