Reducing Customer Casualties

By Michael B. Tatham, President, The Tatham Group

You would think that a recession might wake organizations up and make them focus on reducing customer casualties.  And many spend a lot of time and money working on this issue.  However, no matter how hard organizations try to ‘create customer focus’ the business is disconnected and therefore is just not capable.  If you keep doing what you’ve always done…

Recently at Tatham we had a piece of equipment producing poor quality output.  After many experiments, the root cause remained elusive.  After diligently explaining the situation to the service department, and all the experiments we had run, they decided to call in a service representative to take a look.

First disconnect: Upon his arrival we had to explain the entire issue over again including the experiments we ran.  Déjà vu?

Second disconnect: Immediately, we were informed that what we were using the machine for was not what it was designed for (even though it was specifically recommended to us by the sales department).  Annoyance.

Third disconnect: He did not have the right tools with him to diagnose the problem.  Frustration.

Finding Elegance in a Handful of Nails

By Michael Tatham Jr., President, The Tatham Group

I started working in the company at what I thought was the lowest level – producing training materials and processing customer orders. What I learned in this role were the key components to the success of any company: there is no role more important than one that services the customer, the more simple a process is the more elegant and everyone plays a critical part if the company is integrated.

More importantly, I learned the critical success factor for our company over the past forty years: our human nature leads us toward complexity. It is the desire to please, challenge or prove worthiness; the creation of rules, roles and processes to make ourselves feel special; the fear of losing control that creates a convoluted path to the customer receiving what they need; inability to accept and admit failure in order to learn from it; and many more. Since birth our environment has reinforced these behaviors making it difficult for us to change to an environment of success that requires less resources to maintain.

Closing the Loop

By John Munce, Deployment Executive, The Tatham Group

It was a little card sitting in the center of the hotel room desk.  I expected nothing and the maid doesn’t usually leave me love notes.  But that morning, on my way to a meeting, I told the desk clerk “65 degrees (F) is a little chilly for my room in the morning.”  Yes I had tried to raise the thermostat.  No nothing had happened.  Then I didn’t think about it again all day.

The card told me that Our Engineering Representative Was In Your Room Today at 4:48.  This bit of information alone was valuable.  I’ve been in other hotels when I had no idea whether anything had been done to respond to my complaint.

The card then said, “Checked windows, raised T-stat, will stop back to check Rm Temp.”  Now I had the answer to what was really done and a promise that he would confirm whether what he had done really worked.

The card also read, “(Sorry for the inconvenience).”  Wow, even the engineer would apologize.  Few things will make me angrier than service people who won’t even apologize for something not being right.  Even an insincere apology is better than nothing.  It at least recognizes that something was wrong.  How many times have you felt that you were inconveniencing a clerk because you wanted something adjusted or changed?

Adding Steps to Simplify

By John Munce, Deployment Executive, The Tatham Group

We process types often talk about simplifying processes. We’re on a relentless march to find the value-add step and then perform only that step. There can be a rallying cry for a team: Take out steps! Cut rework! Take out checking! Build in quality! Find the absolute minimum number of steps! Less is more!

But sometimes simplifying the process means adding in a step. It can seem unnecessary, even irrational.

My friend Ann is a process type and fierce project manager who’s dying of pancreatic cancer. When I went to see her the other day, she launched into a process critique of end-of-life health care. The medical establishment came off with a strong B. One item in particular fascinated her.

A nurse from hospice had come for the introductory visit. There was lots of chatting and information sharing. The nurse inspected the house and talked with my friend about whether she would want a hospital bed or other special equipment. Then she presented The Gift.

What Do Customers Know?

By Doug Powell, Senior Vice President, Wachovia

The Customer: Part II of III

What’s your favorite product? What’s your least favorite product? Why? We’re all customers and we all like to think that we know something about something, right? In Part I: “Knowing your Limits,” I noted how important it is to talk to the customer and that if we don’t we’re liable, and likely guaranteed, to develop functions in our products that customers don’t want and miss functionality that they do want. Talking to customers is an essential part of building quality into our products and services.

“But wait,” you say. “I’m a professional in my field, have years of experience, I do talk to customers and I know the industry. I know what customers want.” Really? OK. And I’m not calling into question anyone’s experience and intelligence—the business world is full of smart, hardworking people who know their business. Besides, almost everyone at some time or another has said the phrase “Customers don’t know what they want!”

What Does Customer Focus Really Mean?

By Michael Blackman, The Tatham Group

Virtually all business leaders now agree that customer focus is essential in 21^st century commerce.  The problem is that customer focus means very different things to different people, with the key difference falling along emotional vs. intellectual/systematic lines. 

 For those front-line associates and especially leaders who let emotions guide their definition of customer focus, one might expect to find comments and actions like:

• We love our customers
• We will do anything for our customers
• The customer is always right
• If the customer asks for something we will do it