How do you establish a shared customer model?

Required tools

• Representatives from Sales, Service, and Finance — All three currently use the term “customer” differently.

Agree on the terminology

1. 1.Define what a customer is

   Is it the person who pays, the person who uses it, or the person who makes the decisions? These are often three different people. Write down which definition you use and what you call the others.

2. 2.Determine the level you sell to

   Group, company, or department. This determines the entire hierarchy and is difficult to change later.

3. 3.Separate person from organization

   The contact is the person; the business relationship is the company. Keep the dialogue with the person and the agreements with the company.

Put it in writing and enforce it

1. 4.Create a page with the definitions

   One page, not ten. It should be readable by a new employee in five minutes and used to resolve uncertainty.

2. 5.Set required fields according to the model

   If the organisation number is the key, it must be required for new business relationships. Without it, the model starts to deteriorate in the first week.

3. 6.Review existing data against the model

   How many entries currently violate the definition? That number indicates how much cleanup is required and whether the model is realistic.