Take your customer's view

I came across this picture a while ago.  It’s a bit of fun, but a good reminder to always take your customers’ perspective - what’s it really like to interact with your own service?

So, the question for the picture above, what number space has the car parked in?

I’ve seen some great examples over the years:

• incorrect telephone (IVR) paths that don’t work, where no-one had tested it…

• continually chasing customers for bill payment, where the bills were continually full of errors…

• customer services teams focusing on customer complaints, rather than what is actually causing the complaints in the first place…

If you really want to find out how good your service is, go and be a customer.  Shadow some customers through your service and see what they experience.

Need a hand with this, then call me on 07775 595 595.

Oh, the answer : 87

Just turn the screen around ;-)

Book Review : Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth

A fascinating book that explores the economy as a system of many factors, offering up a new way of measuring success as we face multiple global challenges.

How do we measure the state of the economy - easy - GDP%.  A single number - 1.5%, 2.0% 3.0% - and we immediately have an understanding of whether things are good, bad, or changing.  Or do we?  What is growth?  What does it really mean? And is it really right for the 21st century?

In Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth, Raworth asks these questions and begins to formulate a way to pull together the keys issues of the 21st century, and builds an economic framework around: resources, climate, pollution, as well as the social foundations for health, wealth and well being.

It highlights how the economic models of the early/mid 20th Century may have been useful then, when it seemed like ‘growth’ would continue forever with infinite resources available and the earth could service anything, but we need to look differently now.  It’s a ‘Whole System’ approach that ensures we balance the system, and consider all aspects of modern life.

It makes you wonder how we survived with measuring such a complex system with just one percentage figure….

Read more about Doughnut Economics here:

https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/

Buy the book here:

Amazon : Doughnut Economics

Stick to Purpose, and remove the Waste Work.

I’ve just completed a great assignment with an electric company - a rapid change to their collections processes that now focusses on outcomes rather than activity.

In little more the two months, the team changed their priorities to tackling the larger/hardest debts first, dealing with them to conclusion, resolving upstream issues, and allocating more resource to problem resolution away from basic dialling. 

The buzz in the office was amazing.  The advisors were clearly active on the phone, investigating, chasing and progressing issues.  The numbers spoke for themselves.  And the staff satisfaction level leapt up.

All based on core Systems-Thinking principles of purpose, customer, demand and eliminating the waste work.

It’s amazing what a simple scientific method can lead too, and quickly.

Happy New Year!

Like a Rubiks Cube

I love my job.  That might already be clear from articles that I write.

There’s good reason - every day is like solving a Rubik’s cube.  However difficult a situation is, I know there’s an answer.  The solution is right there in front of you - you just need a method to work it out.

There are 42 million million million combinations of Rubik’s cube.  But aged about 10, I was given some instructions on how to solve the puzzle.  After some learning, I was able to complete the cube in about 2 minutes.

I find solving process-flow issues in contact centres, processing centres or service systems just like solving the Rubik’s cube.  These organisation rarely involve rocket-science - most send bills, fix customer queries, chase money - but many I see have tied themselves in a knot and ended up with service in decline, backlogs forming, and the teams struggling to get on top of things.  But I always know the solution is in there somewhere.

If only there was a method to apply to solve this puzzle.

Good job that there is then:

• What’s the purpose?

• What is the customer demand?

• How we are dealing with customer queries?

• What’s stopping us dealing with issues right-first-time?

• What are the root-cause issues?

• Why is the customer unhappy?

• Why are there backlogs?

• How many times is the customer contacting us?

• How many touches are there to resolve the customer issue?

• Who’s measuring the backlogs?

• What does the backlog look like?

• How long does it take to resolve the issues?

And of course, don’t forgot the people and the management:

• Are the leaders in the work, understanding how the work works?

• What’s stopping them doing that?

• Are they focussing on and prioritising the customer journey?

• Are they looking for ares of waste and rework?

• What measures are they focussing on?

The Systems Thinking approach, when applied to the service industry, soon highlights the real issues, surfaces where the waste work is being undertaken, and where rework and unnecessary customer contact is coming in.

It’s not complicated - when you’ve got a method.

Want to know more:
 - about Matt Arnold

 - give me a call on 07775 595 595

 - email on matt595@me.com

Strategic v Tactical…. or is it fundamental? Part 2

In my last article I wrote about the difference between strategic and tactical thinking with respect to large processing / contact centres, and, in my opinion, explained why I thought this was just wrong-headed. 

When a large part of the organisation is there to ensure customers are happy, it’s fundamental to ensure queries are cleared as soon as possible, or better still, avoid queries all together.

So, how do organisations get into this situation in the first place…?

1. A lack of consideration of: purpose; the customer demand and; what they are actually there to do.  Many of my articles explain this further.

But I think other issues start to arise too.

2. As people get promoted, from agent, to team leader, to senior, to manager etc, they get further from the work.  Many want to get further from the work - they’ve been there long enough, it’s someone else’s turn - especially if the customers aren’t happy because they’re spinning around in the waste work.

My point: as people get more senior, they need to understand the flow of work better than ever - to explore the true customer journey, looking for blockages and hot-spots - to ensure purpose is being met.

A good leader needs to understand the bigger picture AND understand the detail.  They need to understand what the customer experiences, and understand the work that such a huge and expensive resource undertakes.

I’ve seen many large scale operations where most of the work being undertaken is processed twice-over - think of the cost.  I’ve also seen organisations where the work seems to just continually spin round and round...

In a “man-in-a-van” housing repairs operation I reviewed a few years back, the director soon picked up on what I’d discovered.

On almost every visit to a customer, we were welcomed with “Hello, nice to see you again.”  “Again?” - we’d come to fix something, and someone had already been out to fix it, but failed.  A trip to the depot, picking up parts, a drive across town, have a go at fixing something - all done twice over.

When reporting this back in the board room, the director immediately understood - “have we got twice the number of men and vans we should have…?”  Possibly.  Better still, use the existing team to fix the work in a shorter time, and complete more work.  A reduced cost-per-fix, and happier customers.

If you really want to understand what your team is doing, go and review a customer journey:

• Pick a customer on the computer system, and see how many contacts it took to complete the query.

• Hop in a van and see what the workman actually faces as they do their work.

• Listen to some calls, and hear what the customer says, and listen to what your staff do in response.

Was this the customer’s first contact?  Was it fixed right first time?  Could we have done better?  Could the problem be resolved all together such that no other customers repeat that journey?

Leadership is about understanding what’s really happening on the floor, and helping your team achieve great service for your customer.

Strategic v Tactical…. or is it fundamental?

Much of my work is undertaken in the service industry, and often in large processing centres where the work is done, customers phone in, problems are resolved, and often payment is chased.  In recent times, these have included utility companies, banks and councils.

I’ve had a few really interesting discussions over the last few months as to whether this work is tactical, or strategic.  

Undertaking my work, I’ll spend a fair bit of time talking to the Operations Director and/or the CEO about where the problems are, why this is happening, how we might fix it, and any changes to structure that may be required.  Equally, much time is required in the work, looking at the real detail of what is going on: the processes being followed (or not), keeping up with housekeeping / exception reports (or not), and tracking work load (or backlogs).

Ultimately, I think the strategic/tactical debate is just plain wrong.

If the organisation has a clear purpose (and many don’t), and the diagnosis is that many of the staff are not in a position to be able to complete their work (mostly it’s not their fault), then this isn’t tactical or strategic.  It’s fundamental.

At a utility company in 2017, I was reviewing an entire customer journey end-to-end.  The contact centre looked very busy, but they knew they had issues - they just couldn’t work it out.   My review found amongst other things:

• high levels of customer query backlogs
• manual billing processes where upstream errors had created very complicated situations for new CSAs to attempt to rectify
• processing work that was being “interrupted” by customer queries.

I’ve seen this situation in many service centres, across many service areas.  It was like they were going round in circles.

One thing that is always guaranteed:

• everyone was working hard
• everyone wants to do a good job
• there are lots of really good people working in these centres.

But, if you’re not careful, you can very easily get tied in a knot:

• you answer a call, and begin to understand the customer issue
• you complete the call, and begin to spend a little time resolving the problem
• then the next customer calls (and you haven’t finished the last one)
• you don’t get a chance to complete the first customer, who then calls back a week later
• repeat

Taking time to resolve the root-cause, and also the root-cause so that it doesn’t happen to other customer too, is the way to lead the team into great customer satisfaction.

Sounds easy - when you know how.

I’ve seen whole contact centres do this - 100’s of people, going round in circles:

• Meeting KPIs : average call time, number of calls a day, reasonable customer satisfaction etc.
• But failing to complete the true task  - failing to meet purpose.

Just think of the cost:

• 100’s of salaries paid for CSAs to go around in circles
• unhappy customers stuck in these whirlpools of problems

Getting to the heart of these problems and lining up the work to avoid waste isn’t tactical or strategic - it’s fundamental.

Want to know mare - call me - 07775 595 595

Changing the system to get very different results.

I’ve posted before about how small changes in the system can deliver dramatic results.  I especially like the ones where the answer isn’t where you’d expect it to be. 

One has to really study the system first:

• what is the purpose of the operation?
• what is the customer journey?
• what other factors are playing out?
• what demands are being placed on the work?

I came across a fascinating one today - one that has already significantly reduced loss of life…

A previous examples - in fact my very first blog - and I frequently re-tell the story of the bins in the fast-food store:

https://595or.blogspot.com/2011/08/design-problem-out.html

If you make the bin holes smaller, the tray can’t be thrown away.

Another previous example - The Lincoln Memorial issue was similar:

https://595or.blogspot.com/2015/03/systems-thinking-and-why-lean-tools.html

A small change in the system, at literally zero cost, drastically altered the outcomes.

The one I heard about today involves a story that we’ve all seen in the news over recent times - mostly in the US, frequently involving race connotations, and it’s pretty much what started The Black Lives Matter movement.

A study of the way US police officers pursue and intercept targets has shown that its the heat of the pursuit that affects decision making, potentially leading to death of the suspect.

From the BBC Inquiry podcast “Can you train people to be less prejudiced” - a change in the system of pursuit that lead to dramatic reduction in fatalities.  By taking the heat out of the situation, adding more time into the equation, and helping the officer re-assess and balance any bias they may have, has dramatically changed outcomes.

The whole podcast is worth a listen, but the key message is described from 17:01, and takes less than 2 minutes:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/can-you-train-people-to-be-less-prejudiced/id932499233?i=1000414269329&mt=2

By changing the current ‘hot’ “foot pursuit” policy to one where they hold back, call for help, and surround the situation, the officer-involved shootings have gone down - dramatically.

And of course, there are business opportunities here too:

• Taking the heat out of rapid decision making
• Taking a step back and seeing the whole picture
• Identifying potential bias situations

could lead to improved decision making and outcomes.