Archive for the 'brilliant basics' Category

For many companies, customer complaints are an irritation – they would rather not get them and they handle them grudgingly. There is no effort in getting complaints, they seem to arise naturally from everyday operations and find their way to you; and dealing with the ‘noise’ they create is considered a necessary chore, and simply part of doing business.

But, is that enough? The vast majority (90+%) of dissatisfied customers do not complain – they are the silent majority. How do you incorporate their voice into your business strategy? And what is the impact of focusing on complainants and trying to convert them to be loyal customers – whilst ignoring the others who do not engage with the company?

A new article on Budd Life this month explores these issues and offers guidance on how to engage successfully with this disengaged part of your customer base. It concludes as follows:

“ Wholehearted and sincere customer care is an absolute priority for all organisations in today’s hyper-connected, and hyper-competitive, world. You must care, and you must treat dissatisfaction seriously, because it hits both the top and bottom line.  ….

Customer retention may well be critical to survival, and excellence in maintaining loyalty may be a significant competitive differentiator. If so, the quiet voices of the silent majority customers who are dissatisfied with their experience but do not complain are the key to success.”

Let’s hear it for from the silent majority!

Customer satisfaction, Strategy, Voice of the Customer, brilliant basics, complaint, customer experience, dumb things, feedback, success factors | No Comments

One of the core Best Service Is No Service principles is that a company should be proactive in its dealings with customers – taking the initiative as a strategy to prevent problems and unnecessary contacts; thus improving the customer experience.

Well, it happened to me today and I have to say I was very, very impressed – not least because it was totally unexpected.

I am currently spending a lot of time on a client site and using taxis regularly to travel between hotel, airport and two client office locations. A taxi had been booked to take me from the hotel to the office that is my ‘base’ in the morning and another one to return me back to the hotel at the end of the day.

Due to the schedule of meetings, I changed the morning journey to drop me (and two colleagues) at the other office. Whilst we were still en-route, the taxi firm(Edinburgh City Private Hire) called to check whether they should alter the return journey to be a pickup from the second office.

Wow!

Simple, but powerful.

Common sense and obvious you might say, but certainly not a common experience. This kind of joined-up thinking is all too rare – so well done to them.  If you find yourself in Edinburgh, I recommend you call 0131 477 4000 when you need a taxi – and tell them a happy customer sent you.

Now, if they only had online bookings – they could deflect a whole lot of calls to self-service!

brilliant basics, customer experience, customer experience design, fast+simple, good things, taxis, the best service is no service | No Comments

… the “smart thing” won by several days, even though it gave the “dumb thing” several days head start.

I hope that hasn’t spoiled it for you, knowing the result right at the beginning! Truth be told, it was never going to be much of a race – but I didn’t know that at the beginning.

Recently, I was told a story a company, a large and well-known company, with a recently discovered supply chain issue. The issue had been hidden and overlooked as a result of working in silos; and a process that was designed from the inside-out – without understanding the impact on the overall customer experience. They had set a customer expectation of acknowledging correspondence within five days, and were very pleased to be working to an internal service level of two days.

Ignore for a moment the potential cost implication of resourcing to deliver a service level significantly better than the customer expectation or whether a customer would think five days turnaround a great service in these days of ‘instant’ messaging, and consider how pleased with themselves they were at exceeding the expectations on a routine basis.

Sadly, the customers were not so pleased as the correspondence was not being received even in five days, much less two! And what was the root cause? Well, the “dumb thing” was a contract with an outsourced fulfilment company which included a seven day service level for despatch of correspondence – ouch!

Bill Price and David Jaffe in their book The Best Service Is No Service talk about the idea of ‘stapling’ yourself to an issue when looking at customer journeys. Actually following the route through the (extended) organisation to fully understand the end-to-end customer experience. Clearly, this had not been done when this process was designed.

That story started last week and the poor customer is probably still waiting for their acknowledgement!

Contrast that with a phone call today to Axa Sun Life today. I needed a form to report the loss of a policy document. I got through immediately, was transferred promptly after the initial triage of my call and was answered immediately again!

The agent immediately understood what was needed and offered, yes offered, to email the form to me – and it arrived promptly. The whole experience took about five minutes.

Simple, well-designed, smart service – a winner every time!

brilliant basics, customer experience, dumb things, financial services | No Comments

I sit blogging this whilst my daughter is in theatre at Maidstone Hospital – yes that one that made all the press for MRSA deaths. So it wasn’t without trepidation that we approached the place. It’s a toe curling place to be – or rather toe uncurling to be precise – that’s the minor operation she’s in for.

Beth’s last lesson on Friday had been doing TLAFSSOS…three letter acronym for social studies or something… talking about hospital infections. Online yesterday I discovered from a contact in S Africa the sad news that someone I met last year died from complications after an operation. One of Beth’s friends was in intensive care for a month 2 years ago after a minor op here.

What sticks in my mind from a few years ago, was the difference between the private hospital in Tunbridge Wells and public hospital there. Yes the other half of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust once run by the infamous Rose Gibb. She that made the news for chasing targets and the resultant dirty hospitals that killed many. She’s still the signature in the “Welcome to our hospital” book today.

But far from being about slagging off the NHS, this is a story of reassurance. Walking into reception at 7.30am this morning, the place was awash ( no pun…) with cleaners. Every corner looks spotless. Every uniform freshly pressed. Every entrance to every ward has disinfecting hand washes and everyone uses them. Whilst sitting in the room waiting, someone has been in and cleaned the toilet. Someone else has waashed down the surfaces, someone else has vacuumed the floors and finally someone else has mopped them. One of the toilets is marked for deep clean 030308 (heh happy 5th birthday to telco 3, launched on 030303 !).

So I can see cleanliness is a top priority. There are no inspectors, just people everywhere paying attention to cleanliness.

There are at least 4 lessons to draw from the tragic history of this place:

- The business of this NHS Trust became focused on its shareholders, the money men, not on its customers, the patients
- The targets set by its shareholders did not reflect the most basic needs of its customers
- Neither the management nor the shareholders would listen to the customers, even when they were dying, because of cost targets that would ultimately cost a lot of money
- The waste of life stands out: the cost now of keeping it clean must be high, but not so high as the price of a death, let alone 100 deaths
 

It’s about the focus and stamina of the leaders really.

I remember hearing Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney talk last year at ECMW. When he ran Universal, he was frustrated that he could never keep the toilets as fastidiously clean as at Disney. So he called the then CEO of Disney and asked what was the secret. He discovered 3 things:

- Whenever I visit a Disney operation of any kind, the first thing I do is go to the toilets. If I have to pick up paper from the floor myself, I do so. But hell breaks loose if I ever have to do it twice
- The secret is cleaning the toilets most when they are most used eg every 15 minutes at lunch time
- It wasn’t difficult. It just had to be a high priority. And stay a high priority.
 

So as I relax and wait for Beth to come into post op, I ask you these questions from the 4 lessons:

1.       Is your business really focused on the basic needs of your customers, not the money? “Show me the money!”, as the film Jerry McGuire illustrated, just isn’t going to cut it in the 21st century.

2.       If you know the most basic needs of your customers, are your metrics about those needs and are they calibrated to match what customers say?

3.       Do you capture what your customers are saying? Yes? And do your management priorities get set by what they are saying?

4.       The cost of waste hopefully isn’t as evident as at this NHS Trust, but do you really know what it is?

Is every customer of your business as relaxed using your business as I can be sat here?

If you’re not sure, type you company name followed by “sucks” into Google and see what comes out.

Get in touch if you’d like to talk

Healthcare, brilliant basics, listening, managing, measurement | No Comments

I have been reading with interest an article given by Sheila Dikshit, Delhi`s chief Minister for nearly 10 years, describing with such passion the considerable improvements that have been made in Delhi and it suddenly struck me how very, very basic getting things right ` truly is.

Sheila said that previously Delhi had lacked effective management which resulted in its people lacking confidence and having to to go elsewhere to work, but not any more, now they have more confidence and believe that Delhi will succeed and the good news they are already starting to receive good salaries.
Leadership must be one of those good old basics that Sheila has, her commitment and drive is clearly obvious, her dream is to make Delhi world class even maybe play host to the Olympics, she has a clear vision that everyone understands and can see, she and they recognise that it will take another 5/6 years to put the city on course, but she is changing peoples attitudes, making them feel proud of their City.
The ability to lead is the key to effective change in any country, business, group or team.

Sheila gave an example of Government schools only achieving 35/37% pass rate whilst receiving 900 rupees per child, when non Government schools received far less but achieved a much higher pass rate, she asked the question `why?` and discovered they were not being motivated.
Things have changed and the Government schools now achieve an 85% pass rate.
So how simple but how effective is good motivation?
Sheila received a `best practice` award for a program called Bhagidari, which focuses on governance through partnership. Citizens groups and the government interact with each other every week/month in little groups. “The coming together has helped a lot,” Sheila said.
How does that relate to business, well again a question “how strong is a team of people that work together?”
I have only mentioned a few good things that have happened, but you must see that getting the basics right is the key to success,what ever you do and where ever you are!

brilliant basics | No Comments

brilliant basics, dumb things | No Comments