Ensuring all employees understand their role in satisfying the
needs of the customer helped Astron grow turnover from £13 million to £100
million over the last five years.
Kathy Woodward, formerly group HR director of print services company Astron,
told delegates that she is no doubt that this huge growth was largely the
result of the company’s effective focus on customer satisfaction.
Woodward, who is now director of consultancy A.hr, said that one of the ways
that Astron made individuals aware of their importance to the customer was by
making the whole sales cycle, from tender, through to implementation and
service, the joint responsibility of all the employees in the company.
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"Everybody, IT, purchasing, packaging, logistics, has an obligation to listen
to customer needs and to innovate," she said.
Woodward said she would expect any member of staff to be able to tell
prospective customers how their job impacted on the end product.
