Dick Lee
Dick Lee
Author & speaker Dick Lee has been encouraging customer-centric business practices for over 30 years. In his latest book "We Are Buyers. You Are Sellers. You're Busted." he changes focus to encouraging customers to fight back against abusive sellers.
What Needs Process Fixin’ in the Front Office? Six Quick Hits
Bad process costs companies big money. But until recently, business as a whole paid little heed to process improvement outside manufacturing. And the business...
The Time for Customer Alignment Is Here: Is Your Company Ready?
Becoming more customer-centric has moved from the "whether" column to the "when" column. Smart companies don't try to wait out change. Nor do they...
We’re Sorry, All Our Computers Are Helping Other Customers. Please Hang Up and Dial Again
Try this one out for horrendous customer service. The son of good friends was flying home from college in Canada for Thanksgiving. He didn't...
Ten “Must Dos” for Designing Customer-Aligned Process
Many companies make a fundamental error at the start of redesigning business process to support customer-alignment. They call over to manufacturing. Or they may...
You Don’t Find Broken Bones With Surgery–Nor Do You Find Workflow Defects With Six Sigma
Several years ago, I was contacted by division of a Fortune 100 global manufacturer and asked to roll out Visual Workflow to solve some...
Business Process -2.0
Paleontologists studying the process industry are positively giddy. For once, they have live specimens to examine. No dusting off tiny bones with toothbrushes this...
“The CIO as Chief Process Officer”–Huh?
That's right. An e-mail message from "CIO Magazine" snuck past my spam filter and plopped right into my in-box. "The CIO as Chief Process...
Google Gulps Goldfish (and Amazon Apes Google)
Okay, Google doesn't really eat goldfish. But "gulping goldfish" is a quaint term of derision for someone (in this case something) with loose wing...
Ten Truths We Refuse To Believe About Customer Alignment–and CRM
Have you ever sat down and pondered why customer-alignment – including CRM - is so hard for so many companies? Yah sure, we've all...
You’re Measuring What?! Why Marketing and Sales Metrics Aren’t Customer-Aligned
Measurement is just great. A wonderful way for supervisors to hang staff. Or managers to hang supervisors. Or senior managers to hang managers. But...
Macy’s Blows It
Once upon a time, in the frigid upper Midwest of the U.S. lived a dearly beloved department store chain called "Dayton-Hudson." 'Twas a bit...
Faux Six Sigma and Lean in the Front Office
Actually, the following rant applies to using Six Sigma or Lean in any variable (non-production) environment, but "variable environment" is hardly a household term,...
Wells Fargo: 50 Ways to Leave Your Customer
Honestly – we feel jilted. After my wife and I and our respective businesses spent years trying to cultivate a relationship with you, Wells...
Customer-Centricity Versus Customer-Alignment: Puppy Love Versus the Real Thing
What we now call "customer-centricity"- among numerous other names – really does remind me of puppy love. It's like adolescent infatuation – all the...
Decision Logic: One of Those Dirty Little Secrets
CRM attracts big thinkers – people attracted to "big change." So we shouldn't be surprised that drilling down into minutia doesn't rank high on...
Five “Little Things” That Deliver Big Customer Alignment Results
"The devil is in the details" must be among the most overused phrases in the English language. But only because it's so true. And...
When Consumer “Watch Dogs” Bite Consumers
Supposed protectors of consumers share a special responsibility for, well, protecting consumers. And not just pubically, but in their out-of-sight direct dealings with consumers....
The Sadness Surrounding CRM
As I reflect over the past three decades, the time I've tried various means to bring companies and customers closer together, I have more...
Why Do We Give Customer-Centric Planning Such Short Shrift?
A year or so ago, a prospective financial services client from California contacted my company regarding development of what management called "customer-centric process." As...
Don’t Just Change the Company-Centric Tires; Go for the Full, Customer-Centric Alignment
Imagine your company as a car, wanting to drive across a tantalizingly narrow ground fault that separates the great mass of traditional, company-centric organizations...