The CIO must keep the customer happy

With the New Year fast approaching, the first resolution for any CIO should be customer satisfaction. And that's a pretty big order for most CIOs who do not think customer happiness is their number one priority. A recent "State of the CIO" survey for CIO Magazine found that only 10 percent of those surveyed considered external customer focus to be a core competency for CIOs. Add to that the fact that respondents spend less than 10 percent of their time dealing with customers, and you have a very real problem that is not going away. "Many CIOs are a little cavalier about making raising customer satisfaction an explicit goal," says Harley Manning, vice president and director of Forrester Research's customer experience group.

The CIOs who do make customer satisfaction a priority get a rewarding return, saving money and increasing productivity at their organizations. In fact, CIOs can help reshape their role in a company by making customer satisfaction a key goal and integrating their work with the overall business objectives of their company.

Just to give one example of how it can work, listen to the story of Pat Lawicki, the CIO of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a $12.5 billion San Francisco-based utility. With an  energy crisis in California and the Enron debacle threatening to tarnish the utility's reputation, Lawicki began working on a series of customer-focused projects that were highly successful. She made it possible for PG&E to collect utility use data without going door-to-door or setting foot on a customer's property. And future plans will make it possible for customers to gather usage information about their bills online. That will allow consumers to determine the most efficient time to run a dishwasher, air conditioner or do a load of laundry.

"The SmartMeter project is geared toward letting our customers have more control over their energy consumption while helping them save money in the process," Lawicki said. There are plenty of programs that any CIO could find to make customers happier. The trick is to implement one.

For tips on customer satisfaction:
- Check out this CIO Magazine Article