Thursday 17 October 2019

The right information - right first time


Whether it be electricity billing, payroll services, or fixing potholes, ensuring the work starts correctly with the right information is often the first issue I discover as I undertake my diagnosis.
  • Why aren’t all the electricity bills going out? Because not all the information about the customer has come from sales, and/or not all the meter technical details have been transferred across, and/or other data that was due in still hasn’t arrived….
  • Why is the person that has left still being paid?  Because the process for a manager to contact a remote HR/payroll team is too complicated, something else causes a distraction, and the deadline gets missed…
  • Why are gangs of workers not able to fix the problem on site?  Because they’ve been given inaccurate, incorrect, or out of date information to undertake the work. They arrive on site and then can’t complete the work…

It’s easy to dismiss these things as simple issues that happen sometimes.  But in all of these examples, they were happening every day, day-after-day, and often for years.  
All of them hit the bottom line directly.
  • I’ve seen double digit percentages of unbilled utility accounts, all hitting profit, undoubtedly worth £m’s…  We analysed the system of work, and the majority were resolved over a few months.
  • I’ve seen teams of people dealing with over and under payroll payments - all of them unnecessary if they had the information right-first-time - certainly worth many £000’s per year…  Designed out in hours, and fully implemented in weeks.
  • I’ve seen organisations where at least one of their twenty gangs (man/men in a van) have been stuck in the depot each day.  They don’t earn if they’re in the depot.  Approximately £1000 a day.  £1/4m per year…?  Re-engineered over a few weeks with all the team on board, and the problem resolved.

It has the potential to happen anywhere, sitting there undiagnosed and often unseen, and yet can be the key to customer service, and improved margin.


Want to know more:
 - about Matt Arnold
 - give me a call on 07775 595 595
 - email on matt595@me.com