A customer-intimate organization understands that solving a customer’s problems must be in real time. The answers or solutions must be immediate. In a customer-intimate organization the employee must be able to make decisions on the spot to solve a customer’s special requirements. The required organizational structure is decentralized with a high degree of empowerment. Employees in a customer-intimate organization are rewarded for finding specific solutions to customers’ problems.
Customer-intimate organizations give employees a lot of room to make deals, work with the customer, and demonstrate value in the relationship. In my car dealership story, the salesperson had been told the rules up-front, yet he wasted my time and tried to play games with my mind. Don’t do that to your customers, especially when they are sending signals that such amateurish behavior will not be tolerated. A number of outstanding companies choose to use the customer-intimate model. Nordstrom, Cott Corporation, and Airborne Express. Don’t be caught off base thinking that customer-intimate means assigning a personal shopper to your customer. Customer-intimate means solving the customer’s problems, no matter what type business problem is presented.
Each of these companies believes that time spent up-front with the customer in a one-on-one relationship pays great dividends in the long term. People and businesses pay premium prices to have their needs legitimized, their concerns heard, and their unique business problems solved. In other side, you should understand the concept of being close to the customer and customer intimacy. You are always on the job with no order too small or situation too minor for your attention. And your office should have a twenty-four–hour phone contact number. Then, it can keep staying in touch with his clients.
