As a customer, do you dread being placed on hold? Did you have to wait only a few minutes or did you hang up after waiting and waiting and waiting. Another example. I recently needed to update some personal details on a number of organisations' web sites. Some were surprisingly easy to use and some excruciatingly difficult. In both cases my varied experiences as a customer reminded me of how important it is to put your customer hat on when designing a new process or modifying an existing one.
When gathering requirements for a new process, customer experience is often a focus point but this can easily be forgotten during a process improvement. A seemingly simple change can have unexpected effects on your customers' experience but appropriate metrics, such as Critical to Quality (CTQ), where customer requirements are translated into how you can and do achieve them, can help to avoid this. Remember, if you forget about your customers, they will probably forget about you.