Listening to Customers

Most business people understand the importance of listening to the wants and needs of their customers as well as their impressions of the services or products the customers use. Companies know this is important to their success. In the book The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Be Asked About your Organization, non-profit effectiveness expert Peter F. Drucker encouraged service organizations to consider their clients and participants as customers. 

Drucker points out that the customers of a nonprofit are:

“the people who must be satisfied for the organization to achieve results”
 as well as
“the people whose lives are changed because of your work.”

The customers of National Relief Charities are over 1,000 volunteer Program Partners who work on over 75 American Indian reservations and who provide direct services in the communities where they live. Listening and involving these customers in planning our services improves our work and keeps our services responsive and in high demand.