Are you doing Needs of Customer. or sadly its previous now mostly defunct Voice of Customer?

Listening to what customers say they want and then developing it is the height of enterprise stupidity. Go ask Nokia, Kodak, Blockbuster how their VOC programs helped them decline and become history.
Alternatively seek advice from Disney, Samsung, Virgin and Apple who work out the NOC even when the customer doesn’t know it themselves.

Do you have a viable and effective Needs of Customer method?
Review: www.cemmethod.com 

You get what you measure – how do you know you are not just doing busy work?

Measure dumb stuff and don’t be surprised when you get poor results.
Too many people focus their attention on measuring and fixing what already happens. Often times what happens doesn’t need to and you should stop doing it.
Make sure your measures contribute to the achievement of a Successful Customer Outcome.
Watch – Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO) http://bit.ly/1flfSmm

Three Steps to Process and Customer Nirvana

Three things to focus on with immediate benefits:
1.     Define a Successful Customer Outcome for the processes you are involved with.
Watch – What is a Successful Customer Outcome (SCO) http://bit.ly/1flfSmm
Watch – Step by step guide to creating a SCO.
2.     Identify all the customer[1] touchpoints (aka Moments of Truth – MOT) in your process
Watch – What is a Moment of Truth (MOT) http://bit.ly/1fxHO8T
3.     Evaluate all the MOT’s and classify them as (a) aligned to the SCO, or (b) not aligned. For the latter identify actions to remove or improve the MOT.
These three easy and quick to do steps will lead to reductions in cost and complexity, improvements to service and delivery, and for revenue generating processes growth in income.

[1]Customer as defined within your SCO map.
Note customers can be
(a) Primary – the ones providing the revenue and paying our salaries. (b) Secondary – those folks interested in our process but not directly involved e.g. Regulators. (c) Internal – other departments/functions or across the value chain partners,

How do you start the journey to Enterprise BPM/Outside-In?

James Dodkins (far right) is the
BP Groups Chief Customer Officer

From the desk of James Dodkins

If I scan the fifteen or so new OI initiatives in large corporations I have worked closely with (in the last three years) I would say 80% of that work is through what you can think of is a 1-2-3 project cycle.

1. Start where you are – deploy, for instance the CEMMethod techniques, especially the Moments of Truth, Breakpoints and Business Rules, in whatever is your remit. Just get going.

2. On the back of that success move upstream and downstream in the particular process. You will have internal advocates at this stage who understand how to do this stuff. At this point the fun and the wildfire starts 🙂

3. Take the ‘boil the ocean’ proposition to the top team. Ask for the biggest current organization wide challenge and relate the internal benefits (Project 1&2, the external case studies, the videos of the CEO’s, the HBR articles, the Business week case studies blah blah) They will love the talk of results – reducing costs, improving revenue, enhancing service.
Whenever have you talked to a top team and somebody has turned round and said those elements were not part of this years agenda eh?

Bingo – six months in and you’re on the organization wide Outside-In transformation.

Points of Failure – How to remove and improve (3 minute video)

Upcoming events? http://www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html
Amsterdam – Cape Town – Orlando – London – Bangalore – Dubai – Brisbane – Denver – Sydney – Singapore – Dubai in 2014 

Can you trust your call centre – a tale of Enterprise lies and unfulfilled expectations.

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Are you measuring and rewarding dumb stuff?

A close colleague recently arranged to move some large furniture and being aware of size constraints spent some time researching and contacting various ‘self drive hire’ firms for a suitable vehicle. The best offer was confirmed following a long discussion with sales folks in the Enterprise[1]call center which included comprehensive discussion of specific (height, breadth, width) measures to ensure a good fit. Job done or so my colleague thought.


A few days later they went to collect the vehicle. Armed with a tape measure to double check the details they were shocked to discover the actual measurements were between 15-20% less than the call center really trustworthy sales guy stated. Naturally the van hire didn’t progress however the response of the depot was even more shocking. “Oh yes they do that in the call center to make a sale.” Whoops.
That goes to a point about paying people for achieving the wrong outcomes.
Reward people for doing dumb stuff and they’ll get really smart at it. 
Many times people would be duped and accept the sales persons assurances. It is often too late in the day to change (when you are stood out in the cold and snow) so customers would have to go with it. Not so my colleague who demanded a refund. The depot staff obliged however did say it would take several days to process.
Funny how you can accept $550 one minute and refuse to give it back the next?

What about customer satisfaction?
Well if you measured my colleagues response at the point of call center confirmation using Net Promoter Score[2] it would have been 9 out of 9 (A Promoter) plus a willingness to recommend to a friend. After the depot visit 0 out of 9 and tweets to followers to avoid using Enterprise. So let’s review the measures:

Organization Measures in the call center:

·      Duration of the call – optimum

·      Call experience – excellent

·      Customer Expectations – met and exceeded

Vehicle depot:

·      Reception services – excellent

·      Processing of paperwork – optimum

·      Staff interaction with customer – excellent

·      Payment processing – optimum

·      Vehicle to specifications – Not. Zero. Nil.

How many of the 10 measures are actually aligned to achieving a Successful Customer Outcome[3]?

Perhaps one. And yet Enterprise will award their people for achieving the other nine. What sort of behavior does this create? Well whatever it certainly isn’t geared to achieving Successful Customer Outcomes.


Trust Based Management
Much of this experience comes down to trust. Four questions to ask yourself, your organization, and even perhaps your customers. 

1.     Can you trust your people to do the right thing by the customer?

2.     Can you trust your fellow employees – or are they prepared to lie and deceive for their own self interest?

3.     Do you award for Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO’s)?

4.     What measures could you put in place to evolve more towards (3).

Final thought:
Enterprise’s kicker is “We’ll pick you up” Perhaps it should now be “We’ll let you down”

Business Process Management – what is it? How can it help? (4 min video)

BPM – A view Outside-In

Upcoming events? http://www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html
Amsterdam – Cape Town – Orlando – London – Bangalore – Dubai – Brisbane – Denver – Sydney – Singapore – Dubai in 2014

6 Tips for Understanding Customer Needs, even when they don’t know themselves (with 4 min video and Guide)

6 Tips for Understanding Customer Needs, even when they don’t know themselves

Get your hands on SCO’s. What are they? How can they help?

Need a handy Guide? Download the SCO101 : http://bit.ly/SCO101


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
(Orlando US Jan 22-23, Denver US Jan 26-30, London UK Mar 2-6)
www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

An internationally recognised 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.www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

PEX USA – another great win for IQPC

PEX week

The annual event in the USA (now in its 15 year) attracts the very best of the community and this year was no exception.

With stimulating speakers and a awesome Awards program* the IQPC team lifted the bar a notch or two higher. http://www.pexweek.com/ which also includes the PEX BP Group Certified Process Professional two day program. 

PEX BPGroup Certified Process Professionals Florida 2014 This year more than 40+ people from across the globe qualified as Certified Process Professionals to join the 25,000 in the least 4 years.

You can already review and sign-up for the next years – which on behalf of the BP Group – I highly recommend at http://www.pexweek.com 

Note: For those of you in South East Asia I will be chairing that event http://bit.ly/PEXAsia2014 in February.
The two day CPP workshop is featured on Monday/Tuesday 24-25 February is a most have for the aspirant business process specialist.

*we are running a feature on the PEX 2014 Awards program later this week.