I read with interest a post at the Wrapt in Web blog titled “Business Survival needs good IT People”. Certainly a very important point that businesses need to understand. The writer, Alistair Nicholson, makes some outstanding points which taken out of the context of his specific discussion are important for anyone making decisions about Customer Facing Systems (CFSs) in these times of economic downturn.

“One lesson that is common from all our previous experiences is that strategic shortcomings are punished hard in downturns.”

What a terrific insight and one that is all too often forgotten by decisions makers with their eyes on the immediate future. Customer Facing Systems fare badly because they’re seen as overhead with no return in and of themselves. Over and over again, decisions are made about CFS systems with a short-term horizon based solely on the immediate cost savings from cutting back on people engaged in providing direct customer services. In fact, I’m seeing it now in companies I’m speaking to. A moment’s thought about the strategic implications shows this is a bad move. Why? Because it throws sand in the gears that drive revenue.

We’re trained in business school, whether at the bachelor or master’s level, that products or marketing or something similar drive revenue. To some extent that’s true, but realistically, you have to realize that your customer facing system is what makes everything else possible, including revenue.

Cutting back your CFS is a short-sighted move to save money that has the potential to drive customers away and cut revenue even more than it already is.

“What has fundamentally changed is the way customers interact with businesses and each other. There’s good news in this because transforming technology gives us future growth. There’s bad news in this because managing by, and measuring the wrong things will kill a business stone dead.”

Customer Facing systems have taken on a new level of importance in business, but many decisions makers don’t see it yet and don’t understand the importance to their success. In good economic times, it’s easy to ignore the Customer Facing System. You can be successful even with a poor CFS. However, the habits you establish in good economic times will come back to bite you as the economy goes down hill as it’s doing now. A most important part of that is measuring the right things to show just what the connection is between your customer facing system and your success.

In a post several days ago, I talked about the importance of understanding your systems and what variables are important to measure. This is so important that it’s worth repeating. You’ve got to measure the things that are actually linked in some way to your success. When asked what you can do NOW to impact profit 3 months from now, you need to KNOW what variables are important.

“The toxic effects …” of poor measurement are felt during a downturn when you make the wrong decisions. “The toxic effects …” of poor learning cause us to see the wrong relationships and measure the wrong things and hence make the wrong decisions.

Too many businesses run by chance, decisions made by people who don’t understand, but who are lucky to make the right choice. Don’t let this kind of decision making affect your decisions about Customer Facing Systems. Learn how to identify and measure the important variables and make decisions based on facts and NOT on luck.

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