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One of the biggest killers of delivering great service is variation in product quality and delivery.
The starting point in understanding the danger with allowing variation to creep into your business is the saying,
"Perception is Reality"
Whatever the customer’s perception, IS THE CUSTOMER’S REALITY.
What this means is any business which is serious about their service levels, increasing repeat business and enhancing customer loyalty, must make controlling the customers perception a number one priority.
When variation in product quality and service delivery occurs the customer is experiencing different feelings (some good and some bad) each time they come into contact with the business. With every variation comes a further cracking in your relationship with the customer. Even if the particular experience was a good one it will still lead to customer churn. Why? Because if your customer has had one or more negative experiences and then have a good experience their reaction quite often is, “Why don’t I get this all the time!!!!.”
How do you reduce variation?
There is no single solution to reducing variation. It requires a comprehensive approach.
However, the starting point just has to be introducing targeted measurement. This requires organizations to ensure they have an equal distribution of
1. Process Measurements
2. Outcome Measurements
A process measurement is where the organization implements internal measurements focusing on their internal processes. Here are some examples;
Call Center – How many calls we take each hour, how
long the wait time is, average call length.
Production Line – How many widgets come off the
manufacturing line each hour, number of
defective products per shift
An outcome measurement is where the organization implements measurements based on their customers input. Here are some examples;
Written surveys - completed by customers asking
them to rate the performance of the
organizations staff and products.
Telephone evaluation/surveys – Call backs to
customers seeking feedback on a
transaction that has occurred.
Focus Groups – where customers are brought
together in a group and asked for their
views on the organizations products
and services.
Most organizations generally have reasonable process measurements but are quite lax in implementing Outcome Measurements. There is a reason for this and that is outcome measurements require a serious investment in time and money.
For organizations to say they cannot afford the time or money to implement a coordinated and systematic set of outcome measurements is truly a false financial assumption. Variation leads to customer churn and resultant loss of sales and increased advertising needs. Removal of variation leads to customer loyalty and an increase in repeat business.
Measurement Tips
1. Use your initial measurements to create
benchmark targets
2. Try to have a 50/50 balance of both process and
outcome measurements.
3. Make sure your reward and recognition programs
encourage behavior that leads to the desired
outcome. This will require you to think through the
outcomes you are seeking. Let me give you an
example of how it can go wrong.
Take the simple, “we always answer the telephone
within three rings”.
The intent of this measurement is to ensure staff
are focused on answering the telephone quickly
and to provide customers with a quick and positive
experience as they enter the business.
However, what this measurement may well do is
focus staff on speed of answering and not
necessarluiy quality of communication. You
could finish up with high ratings for promptly
answering the telephone, and poor ratings for the
way the call was handled.
4. Make your daily/weekly targets visible for all the
team to see.
5. Get staff involved on a rotational basis to complete
the target boards each day/week.
6. Create fun competitions amongst staff that lead to
targets being reached. Note, often it is a good idea
to have these competitions over a short period of
time to keep enthusiasm at a high level.
"
…… from the desk of Graeme Alford
Last week our host computer in the office decided to take long service leave and would not turn on. I unplugged it and took it to the local computer repair shop here in Heidelberg.
As I approached the counter the guy said “Can I help you”, I then explained the problem and he said he would need to get some details. He then sat down at his computer and after about 5 minutes of getting up and down and going to look at the other terminals he announced in front of myself and several other customers “Unfortunately I cannot boot up our computer!!!!!”
This was not what I wanted to hear!!!
He then proceeded to write down my details manually and asked me to call him later that day and he would give me a job number which I did. He also said he would have a quote for the repairs the next day and could I ring in the afternoon.
I rang the following day and was told they were still waiting on a part from Head Office to determine exactly what was wrong and could I ring back tomorrow.
I rang the next day asked for Tafe and was told by the guy who answered the telephone he was out for lunch. I told this guy my job number and asked could he give me an update. He replied,
“Mate I am the salesman here. I don’t know anything about the repairs and when they will be ready. Can you call back later.”
I replied, “no, I am sick of ringing you guys and getting nowhere, get someone to ring me and by the way your service is appalling”. To which he responded, “what do you expect me to do, I am just the salesman!”.
I burst out laughing and told him just get someone to call me.
Three days later after several more telephone calls I found out they could not fix it so I picked up the machine and have ordered a replacement.
Lessons
There are several vital lessons in this episode but by far the most important one is the failure of this business to control the process. Asking your customers to ring you to find out where the process is at is dumbness of monumental proportions. You are inviting variation. All contact after I gave them the computer should have been outbound from them to me. That way they are controlling my perceptions.
Motivational Focus Pty Ltd
PO Box 1049, Ivanhoe, Vic, 3079
Tel: 03 94328800 Fax: 03 94329300
Email: graeme@motivationalfocus.com
www.motivationalfocus.com
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