Understanding what your customers "value" from your organisation's processes is essential for success. It is called the Voice of the Customer. It is the customer who defines the purpose of the process and we should, therefore, organise the process in a way that delivers the "value" that the customer requires in the most efficient manner.
Identifying the customers of the process we are analysing, and engaging with them in dialogue about what they actually want from the process, is crucially important. It enables us to identify the goals of the process and to understand what the customer values from it.
The following questions can help us understand the Voice of the Customer:
- Who are the main customers of the process?
- From the point of view of those customers, what is the purpose of the process? Different customers may have different views on the purpose of the process
- What outputs/ outcomes do the customers actually want from the process? Why do they want those outcomes?
- What features of the process are most important to your customers and how effectively does the process deliver those features?
- What do customers value about the process as it currently works?
- What do those customers not value about the process as it currently works?