Are you with it?

There are insights into the way we do business that mean we have to rethink everything we thought we knew. Its time for a brand new model.

What insights are you involved with?

Are your colleagues on the same page?

What are you going to do tomorrow to implement the new ways?

Are you part of the solution?




Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.

Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html



The Customer Is Always Right: Boosting CEM to Boost Sales

“The times, they are a ‘changin.”- Bob Dylan

Everything changes- businesses, people, relationships, products, food- you name it. If everything is changing, why would a successful business stick to the same old tired routine? We’ve noticed it before- rapidly destabilizing work environments, unhappy employees, and unhappy customers. What used to work simply isn’t doing it anymore.
Why?
Because age old tactics like Lean Six Sigma that only approach customers as an end to reduce waste, whereas the only true focus is to reduce waste and lower costs are driving customers away.  

Good businesses operate with an “outside- in” approach that allows them to succeed in the highly transparent times that technology has created. Instead of putting your customers at the end of the list- most modern, successful businesses (like Google, Acuity, Twitter or Intuit) have started putting the customer first. Sure, it’s a novel idea, but the end result is the same- to increase sales, do what customers want. There are a wide variety of ways that modern companies are approaching this topic:
  • User Experience Technicians
  • Enterprise Feedback Management
  • Voice/Needs of the Customer
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
  • Understanding CEM (Customer Experience Management)

But in general, it’s all about simply collecting and analyzing the things that customers say about your brand, business or market. Then, you have measure the gap between what you’re doing and what you want to do, and close the gap. The way modern businesses are doing this is by supporting the idea that positive customer experiences fuel sales and retain customers- and that’s going to increase the overall organization’s market position.
There are 8 Ways to Achieve the Outside- In Approach In Your Business
1. Figure out who your customer is.
2. Define what outcome you want your customer to have.
3. Figure out how to align your goals with your customer goals (this is called SCO [Successful Customer Outcome] in the business world)
4. Identify what is keeping your customer experience scores lower than perfect
5. Use these scores and interpretations to figure out your weak points internally and eliminate them
6. Establish plans that reinforce achievement of your SCO to boost sales exponentially
7. Execute your plan as you go
8. Don’t wait to improve your customer’s experience, start now instead of waiting for a sign off from upper executives
  
When all your eggs fall into the right basket, everything works perfectly. Your business revenues skyrocket, your employees are happier because your customers are happier, and you’re lowering costs because you’ve cut out the parts that aren’t working, and buying more because you can afford to branch out. The facts are thus:
-You’ll see 10% pipeline conversion to your competitors
-40% increases in staff productivity
-25-30% improvement to customer retention  
-lower costs across the board


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

It is change Jim, but not as we know it.

The accelerating rate of change brought about by digitization and customer promiscuity has changed the change agenda forever. What can individuals and corporations do to win the day and stay in front of their game?

Interviewed at the annual PEX summit in the USA I share some possibilities and options for today, next week and the next decade.


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

Lean Six Sigma – let’s bridge the Gap

In my encounters I am frequently asked the question of what is the difference between Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Customer Experience Management method (CEMMethod™). Often the question is prompted as a consequence of the huge investment many large corporations have made into up-skilling their people and processes to LSS. Many times those same executives are querying the return on those investments and hence now looking at more progressive alternative approaches to evolve their business performance.
For those familiar with Outside-In thinking and practice the difference is fundamental however if you haven’t been exposed to such training or working in one of the worlds leading Outside-In companies it would be good to have a short comparison of the key thematic differences.
In the interests of full disclosure I was an Industrial Engineer qualified as a Lean Master and Six Sigma Master black belt and I see and witness the significant differences everyday. Does the implication of the difference mean we should abandon LSS? No, far from it. In fact integrating the Outside-In perspectives into existing programs is a proven tried and tested way of advancing LSS to the centre stage of winning performance.
Case in point is a North American plastics extrusion company. They had previously been a powerhouse of Six Sigma, grown into and become a Lean ‘Toyota way’ dynamo only to run into the problem of diminishing returns. Investing just as much in getting better the decreasing returns and eroding margins made it an issue at the top table. In true pragmatic Texan style (their CEO is from Dallas) they embraced Outside-In big time. Over 6-9 months people were upskilled and let loose to transform the organisation. Not only did they save their bacon they are now a world leading company. And what do they call their program? OIL – Outside-In Lean. Nice eh?
So be pragmatic. Look for the bridges from here to there and you can have the best of both worlds.

Table 1: Comparison of some differences between Lean Six Sigma and the CEMMethod(tm).

Element
Lean Six Sigma
Customer Experience Management/Outside-In
Mind-set
Industrial Age
Customer Digital Age
Focus
Improve current work
Align to achieve SCO’s
Intent
Process will exist at the end of a review
Processes may be removed
Results
Focused on improving outputs
Focused on delivering Outcomes
Cost reduction
Triple Crown achievement (Cost/Service/Revenue)
Structure
Accepts the functional hierarchy
Proposes the appropriate structure to deliver SCO’s
Techniques
Effect based activity (value/non value added – waste identification – SPC etc.)
Causal based activity (what creates the work in the org. then let’s fix the causes)
Intelligent Processes
No mechanism exists to ensure processes are intelligent
Specifically designed to implement and mature intelligent processes
Customer
End to End working e.g. SIPOC
Centric working – the customer is at the heart of everything that happens
Are at the end and beginning of processes
Are enlightened, Promiscuous, Rebellious, Prosumer, Multi-channel, high expectations
Enterprise objectives
Operational and tactical. Aims to fix process.
Strategic and Operational. Aims to implement a sustainable architecture.
Scope
Process based improvements
Enterprise wide transformation
Other resources to explore:
Outside In The Secret: www.outsideinthesecret.com
CEMMethod™: www.cemmethod.com
Certified Process Professional: www.certifiedprocessprofessional.com


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

Customer Journey Mapping – ensuring success

Forrester Research’s[1] recent report suggested that despite good intent many Customer Journey Mapping initiatives fail. Why is this so despite the often significant investment required, the many consultants offering help, and the good intent of the people involved? The key reason in our findings is that fundamentally Customer Journey Mapping does not sufficiently represent the Complete Customer Experience and instead skates the surface and emphasizes just customer touch points and the customer lifecycle.
So how do you represent the Complete Customer Experience?
The BP Groups research with 800+ clients worldwide in the last two years provides us with an easy to apply 1-2-3 guide to maximise the chances of success.
  1. Ensure your mapping exercise encompasses 
    (a) the customer experience – the moments of truth, and 
    (b) the internal interactions which contribute to the moments of truth, the handovers and business rules within our organizations.[2] 
    The reality here is that all work an organization does is ultimately spawned from those moments of truth. Hence you need to map the complete customer experience.
  2. Understand the Successful Customer Outcome[3]
    Mapping is a worthy task however it needs to have context. Do you fully comprehend the real customer needs that shape the customer experience? There are organizations that spend years customer journey mapping with context. Why are we doing this and what is the ultimate Successful Customer Outcome? 
    It should come as no great surprise that top teams lose faith with efforts that lack clear definition and purposeful delivery.
  3. Focus on mapping the Causes of Work[4]
    It stands to reason that identifying the causes of work and then seeking to eliminate them will significantly reduce costs and improve service simultaneously. All too often process improvement work focuses on the tasks and activities that are an ‘effect’ created by a ’cause’. Masking the pain never works, it will get worse and spreads. You need to identify the Cause of the pain and eliminate it. 
    This then becomes a ‘seek and destroy’ mission and as a consequence Customer Journey Map’s should be broad and deep. It is about the Causes of Work that create the activity across functional silo’s. By identifying the very Causes of Work and in subsequently fixing them much of the internal complexity becomes unnecessary. Do not get deflected by specialists who may be fixed in a shape of work created decades ago.
The Complete Customer Experience represents a unified view that enables Customer Journey Map’s to deliver success from the get go.
Customer journey mapping is just the beginning of customer centric transformation. To deliver ultimate success you need to include the complete customer experience – not just the bits directly experienced by the customer but as importantly how the internal systems and processes are wired. Reframing the organisation to achieve success requires a multi disciplinary effort involving the front line, the back office, the top team and the technologists. For a more detailed review of emerging shape of organisations James Dodkins latest book ‘Foundations for Customer Centricity’ is short and stimulating read. You can download a complimentary copy at this link:http://bit.ly/foundationsEbook
In summary Customer Journey Mapping should be inclusive – let’s make it so.
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8KSN_McWIg


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
Orlando USA March 16-20, Denver USA March 23-27, Dubai UAE Apr 12-16http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html
An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.
Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html