Lean Onboarding Series – Customers

Everyone Around You Is a Customer

Here’s the deal. As you think about the work you are doing out on the project, think also about who your customer is. Is it the person paying for the building? Is it the general contractor you work for, if you are a foreman or a worker? Are there any other customers? This topic continues our onboarding and orientation series.

Who Counts as a Customer

I hope you can envision a much bigger list than most people expect.

• The neighbors of the construction project are your customers.
• The motorists and the pedestrians are your customers, and so is the little old lady on the corner.
• The end users and the facilities managers are your customers.
• The other trade partners and the other crews on the project are your customers.

When we start to consider that literally everyone around us is a customer, and that we are here to deliver customer service, we start to look at things differently.

We Won’t Be Taking From Each Other

If everyone is a customer, we won’t be taking from each other. We will literally leave things better than we found them. We will leave people better than we found them. We will leave experiences better than we could possibly have imagined them to be.

Think about what kind of world that would be. What if the crews treated the equipment management department and the mechanics like they were customers? What if the mechanics and the equipment management department treated the people in the field like customers? How would the equipment be sent out? How would the equipment return? If one crew treated another crew like they were customers, how would the area be left when one crew left a space that someone else was coming into?

How We Treat People

Lean construction really focuses on how we should treat people. One of the things we typically do well, not all the time, is take care of the building owner or the person who is paying us. That same attitude scales to everyone.

Optimizing the Whole

This matters because that kind of behavior takes us from an individual, siloed approach to what is called optimizing the whole. Optimizing the whole means the entire project becomes the focus. The efficiency and effectiveness of the entire project become the focus, instead of the individual resource efficiency or the efficiency of individual workers, foremen, crews, or trade partners.

When that happens, the entire project goes well. As a consequence, everybody individually is able to do well too.

When You Give Respect, You Receive It

When you give respect, you receive it. Treating each other like customers leads to the following.

• Less fighting.
• Less trade damage.
• Less disrespect.
• Fewer materials in other people’s way.
• Less variation for deliveries.
• More coordination for schedules.
• More promised commitments actually executed and made.

The Customer Has a Voice

If we really understand Lean, we understand that at the end of our efforts there is a customer, and that customer has a voice. Everything we do should head in the direction of providing the maximum amount of value for the lowest overall total cost and schedule duration.

It does not matter only what we are supposed to deliver. It matters how we deliver it. We are not manufacturers, we are customer service agents. Construction is a lot like manufacturing, and we do build things, but we do not just produce a common product that does not delight the customer. Everything we do aligns with what is called the voice of the customer, which is the expectations of the customer, what the customer paid for, and how the customer wants it delivered to them.

For people to deliver that, everybody on the project site needs to treat each other like customers. That attitude permeates and ends up in the experience of the person who is actually paying for the building.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

So here is the challenge. Think about who your customers are on your project, and ask the questions from above. How would the equipment be sent out and returned? How would the area be left when one crew leaves a space that someone else is coming into?

Jason Schroeder said it plainly: “We’re not manufacturers, we are customer service agents.” We get to treat everyone like their customers, and that will ultimately produce the best product for our end customer, according to the voice of the customer.

On we go.

FAQ

Who is a customer on a construction project?

The person paying for the building and the general contractor are customers, but so are the neighbors, motorists, pedestrians, end users, facilities managers, and the other trade partners and crews on the project.

What does it mean to optimize the whole?

It means the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire project becomes the focus, instead of the efficiency of individual resources, workers, foremen, crews, or trade partners. When the entire project goes well, everybody individually is able to do well too.

What changes when everyone treats each other like customers?

There is less fighting, less trade damage, less disrespect, fewer materials in other people’s way, and less variation for deliveries. There is more coordination for schedules and more promised commitments actually executed.

What is the voice of the customer?

It is the expectations of the customer, what the customer paid for, and how the customer wants it delivered to them. Everything we do should align with it.