The Only Thing That Matters:
Bringing the Power of the Customer
Into the Center of Your Organization
by Karl Albrecht

In this practical, down-to-earth guide for managers at all levels, Karl Albrecht re-defines the quality and service issues by fusing them into one all-powerful concept: Customer Value. He shows you how to implement the key practices of the outstanding customer-focused companies. This is a valuable book for all managers and one that resonates with the current business environment.

His pioneering concept of customer value modeling shows you how to build a strategic focus based on customer value, and how to deploy the concept all through the organization. He guides you through the transformation process, showing you how to avoid the "fizzle factors" and actually deliver a superior customer value package.

Jan Carlzon, CEO of Scandinavian Airlines
and one of the founders of the Scandinavian service management concept, says:

"Makes a convincing case for basing efforts to improve quality on added value to the customer. Thought-provoking."

Contents:

Chapter 1. Customer Centering: The New Quality Imperative

Anne-Marie Goes to the Bank: A Quality Parable
Customer Centering: the New Theology
Total Quality: the New Mandate
The Customer Value Package: the New Competitive Weapon
The Rhetoric and the Reality
The Fizzle Factor: Why Most Quality Initiatives Will Fail
The Becoming: A New Organization, A New Customer-centered Culture

Chapter 2. Mindsets and Malfunctions: Manufacturing Thinking and Dinosaur Logic

Crooked Thinking About Business, Customers, and Quality
Five Thinking Traps on the Road to Quality
Three Ways to Deliver Customer Value
The "Quartermaster": Issuing Merchandise
The "Car-wash": Processing the Customer
The "Paper Factory": Worshipping Transactions
Introverted Organizations: Work Focused, Not Value Focused
Serve as a Total Managed Experience
Is Your Mindset Ready for a Trade-in?

Chapter 3. Paradigm Lost, Paradigm Found: New Thinking About Quality

What is a Paradigm, Anyway?
Paradigm Pain
The Quality Paradigm and How It Grew
Choose Your Guru
The Numbers Approach Doesn't Always Work
The New Emerging Quality Paradigm

Chapter 4. Creating Customer Value: How The Best Do It

Learning From the Best
The Five Key Secrets of the Quality Champions
A New Language for Thinking About Quality
The Philosophy of TQS
TQS in the Real World
The TQS Action Menu
Your Program Implementation Strategy: Fighting the Fizzle Factor

Chapter 5. The Spirit of Service: The Source of "The Force"

What is the Spirit of Service?
When the Flame Goes Out
Culture, Climate, and Employee Empowerment
Executive Empowerment: The Will to Lead
Internal Service: The Key to Hidden Profit
Service Leadership at All Levels

Chapter 6. The Psyche of Your Customer: Finding the "Invisible Truth"

Market Myopia: How Little We Know About Our Customers
How Poorly We Listen to Our Customers
How Not to Do Market Research
The Customer's Perception of Value: Where It All Begins
Moments of Truth and Cycles of Service
Customer Value Research: Asking the Right Questions
The Customer Focus Group: A Gold Mine for Discovery
The Customer Value Model: The Invisible Scorecard

Chapter 7. Quality and Business Strategy: Creating New Rules for the Game

The Customer Value Package: The Heart of Your Strategy
The Service Strategy: Do You Have One?
The Power of a Breakaway Strategy
Breakaway Leadership: Vision, Mission, and Values
Strategic Quality Objectives: Turbo-goals and Best Benchmarks
Defining and Design the Customer Value Package

Chapter 8. Empowering People with Knowledge: Winning Hearts, Minds, and Hands

Everything You Do Communicates
Eliminating Contradictions
Sharing the Vision: Winning the Hearts
Educating Service Leaders: Winning the Minds
Employee Training: Winning the Hands

Chapter 9. Process Improvement: Doing Better With Less

Making Process Improvement Customer Driven
Quality-critical Processes: the "SPACE" Formula
Making the Systems Customer-friendly
Early Wins: Giving People the Taste of Success
Seven Handy Tools for Process Improvement
Understanding the Cost of Quality
Quality Service Action Teams: Grass-roots Involvement
Inviting the Customer to Join Your Improvement Team

Chapter 10. Keeping Score, Scoring Points, & Pointing the Way

How Not to Measure Quality
Information: A Powerful Way to Change Behavior
Measuring Customer Value: From "Therbligs" to "MOTs"
Avoiding "Measurement Paralysis"
Organizational Assessment: Where Are You Starting From?
Using the Customer Scorecard
Appreciation: The Basic Nourishment of Human Motivation
Measuring Managers: Critical Leadership Behaviors

Chapter 11. Your Change Management Strategy: Getting It Right This Time

Fizzle Phenomena: How Not to Shoot Yourself in the Foot
Five Critical Success Issues
Gaining and Sustaining Executive Commitment
Activating Middle Management Leadership
Five Ways to Avoid Employee Cynicism and Build Credibility
Keeping the Train on the Track: The TQS Task Force
Reading the "Vital Signs" of Program Success

HarperBusiness, 1992

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