Solving Customer Problems

Every business enterprise takes pride in solving its customers’ problems, but such confidence can easily lead to an “all is well” attitude that distances the organization from its customers, discourages employees from “looking beyond their immediate focus,” and deceives executives into depending on past successes. The world is changing more rapidly now than ever before, making it nearly impossible to rest on current competitive advantages or strategic positions.

FedEx not only thrives on the challenge of solving customer problems but it also believes that profit is a by-product of resolving those issues. To solve its customers’ problems, FedEx has introduced a variety of new services over the years, including special home delivery, ground transportation, high volume business to consumer services, urgent freight services, Kinko’s office and print services, customs brokerage services, trade advisory services, supply chain management, and cloud print services. All of these represent new solutions to new customer needs. It’s the company’s “whatever it takes to get the job done” attitude that makes every employee a customer problem solver. FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith describes the philosophy this way: “The simple truth of today’s consumer is that they expect more, they expect different, and they have more options for getting those expectations met … no matter how good you are you’ve always got to get better … satisfying your customer is a never-ending process … the sooner you accept that premise, the sooner you’ll begin raising the satisfaction quotient for your customer.”

Solve your customers’ problems and the profits will follow. If you are already meeting your customers’ current needs, then focus on solving their future challenges, the ones they don’t even realize are coming. There will always be new issues and new solutions; if you don’t discover them, someone else will, and when they do they’ll take your customers away.

To learn more about how a Culture of Accountability can help your organization solve customer problems better, faster, and cheaper than your competitors, join our Accountability Community at www.partnersinleadership.com, where you can review the accounts of actual companies.

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