Z-Axis® Energizes the Herman Miller Customer Experience Herman Miller®, a leading global provider of office furniture, recently looked to its subsidiary, Miller SQA as a model for improving its own customer service process. The focus of Miller SQA (Simple, Quick, Affordable) was to
empower customers with the ability to rapidly purchase refurbished and select new office environments. In an industry where lead times averaged 14 weeks, Miller SQA required only four weeks, achieving nearly 100% on-time deliveries. Herman Miller leaders examined Miller SQA’s business processes and looked to its customers for corporate guidance. Market research revealed the subsidiary’s greatest asset was not so much the highly regarded Herman Miller products, as the service used to deliver them. Looking beyond the Limits Although their customer service capabilities were already superior to industry averages, Herman Miller leaders believed there was room to improve. Operating within the framework of their existing sales and manufacturing workflow, dealers and salespeople were levied with extensive legwork to help customers peruse product catalogues, visit showrooms, create detailed AutoCAD® models, construct accurate price quotes from multiple supply chains, and generate component lists and specifications for the manufacturing process. Herman Miller leaders were determined to make substantial improvements to these laborious service attributes. As the strategy developed, Herman Miller executives began asking other questions: - What if we pushed beyond what our customers were asking for?
- What if we moved beyond the limits of what our customers already knew and were used to?
- What if we found new things to do and new ways of doing them that created unmatched levels of service?
The underlying strategy became: To find new and better ways to meet and then exceed customer expectations. Z-Axis is among the registered trademarks of Herman Miller, Inc. Next page: Z-Axis -- A dramatic new sales tool | 
