Originally published 20 December 2005. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
We sometimes forget that consultation is not just the prerogative of the public sector. Indeed, Government departments, local authorities and other public agencies have come somewhat late into the world of responsive customer service. Best-of-Breed Companies were there a long time ago!
When Tom Peters wrote In Search of Excellence in the 1980's, one of the hallmarks of behaviour he commended was a commitment to consulting customers. He may not have used the same terminology - but it meant the same. Companies who listened to their clients or customers did better. Period! Twenty years later, we realise that the world wasn't that simple. Many of Peters' excellent Companies failed in the harsher markets that followed, and listening to customers didn't save them if the products weren't right.
There is a parallel here with public services. No amount of consultation can save a local authority whose services are poor - unless it has an excellent mechanism to use the data and insight provided to leverage improvements.
This is where the competitive advantage emerges. Some Companies - some organisations - have a superior learning culture and are better at using consultation output to improve products and services. In public services, it means higher satisfaction levels; in a commercial world, it means money.
Where both sectors come together is in the growing practice of outsourcing significant business processes to commercial organisations. Ideally, Governments want to do business with listening Companies - or those whose behaviour and actions are infused by an ingrained bias towards consultation.
Such Companies will gain more public sector business. But they will also prosper in the private sector - for in an age of diminishing product differentiation, true competitiveness lies in the skills of listening to the market and fast response to change. That's modern competitive advantage. Period! Trigger points
- Has your organisation considered its listening and learning skills as a tool of competitive advantage?
- Ask you customers if they think you're listening
- Conduct a Customer Consultation Audit
This is the 34th Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement