| We talked before about the Five Simple Starting | | | | interesting minority reports that might convince other's |
| Points for creating the greatest customer experience | | | | to change their priorities. Let people re-position their |
| ever: 1) Focus inside out and look at your business the | | | | "X"'s if they have second thoughts-this is about |
| way a customer does, 2) Listen actively, 3) Measure | | | | engaging your customers, not arbitrary rules. |
| everything from the customer's perspective, 4) | | | | At the end of the hour you have a massive amount of |
| Maximum joy is your new goal, and 5) Improve | | | | data about how your customers think, what they think |
| constantly. | | | | about, what bugs them the most, and where you |
| Understanding measurement from the customer's | | | | should prioritize your improvement efforts. This is gold. |
| perspective is relatively straightforward although | | | | It's not pure gold like you'd get from a research |
| achieving accurate, actionable measures is an | | | | specialist, but its massively powerful. |
| enormously complex subject. We'll focus on the basic | | | | Remember, we said two steps. Second step, take |
| philosophy first; almost any of the various six sigma | | | | these identified priorities and turn them into highly |
| courses can then teach the mechanical details of | | | | focused, actionable measures. |
| statistically appropriate measurement. | | | | You'll need to do some translation. For a restaurant, |
| Customer experience measures can be analyzed in | | | | people may say "hot food" is the most important item. |
| two broad sets: satisfaction measures and process | | | | They probably didn't mean "hot bad food." They like |
| measures. Satisfaction measures collate the | | | | your cook, but your front-end crew is understaffed, |
| customer's self-reported perception of the service | | | | disorganized or undisciplined, so the food's sitting too |
| interaction; typically collected via a survey. Answers | | | | long. Pretty easy to measure the queue a few times |
| are usually reported on a 5 or a 10-point scale and | | | | each night. At a bookstore people might pick |
| capture the customer's somewhat arbitrary, but | | | | "recommends good titles" as an item to improve. |
| incredibly useful, assessment of whether the | | | | That's hard to measure as a process, but very easy |
| transaction, often relative to competitive experiences, | | | | as a management coaching opportunity. "Jim, when a |
| was excellent, good, fair, poor or very poor. Process | | | | customer asks for an exciting new novel, how do you |
| measures quantify error rates, cycle times, queue | | | | handle that?" You attempt to hide your utter horror at |
| lengths, talk times, elapsed time to resolution and a | | | | Jim's answer. "So, Jim, let's role play a little bit about |
| thousand other attributes involved in actually | | | | assessing which customers might not be into only |
| responding to the inquiry, cataloguing the problem and | | | | anime and inuyasha." |
| effectuating a resolution. So many items can be | | | | Make sure your measures reflect the customer's |
| measured that it is vitally important to measure those | | | | perception and reality across the entire process. If |
| things that are actually vital to the customer. Quality | | | | customers say that "accurate orders" are the most |
| professionals refer to these as the "vital few," "the | | | | important element for your supply company don't just |
| mighty minimum," "the quintessential essentials"-you get | | | | measure the purchase order against the packing list. |
| the picture. | | | | What if the customer wasn't given the right information |
| The easiest way to figure out what these vital few | | | | to put on the purchase order? What if the contents of |
| are is to ask. There are professionals out there that | | | | the box don't actually match the packing list? You |
| can ask in a very rigorous and scientifically valid | | | | need to find out what the error rate is at the customer, |
| manner-quite expensive, but worth every penny. A | | | | not in the individual steps of your internal process. |
| small business can just ask their customers in two | | | | Keep in mind that the priorities are constantly changing. |
| steps. First step, throw a few pizza parties, get 5-8 | | | | Many customers will not identify, as important, |
| customers together at each one, and listen for an hour | | | | elements of your business that are doing well. Often |
| about what they think is important to them about your | | | | what are identified are the problems. Once you fix |
| business. | | | | those problems a new list will gradually appear. |
| Multi-voting is a great way to get dozens of ideas | | | | Interacting with the customers, updating their priorities |
| from everyone simultaneously. Find a room with a big | | | | and reflecting the new challenges in your |
| blank painted wall. Give every attendee five sticky | | | | measurements should be ongoing. |
| notes, a marker and ten minutes. Ask them to write | | | | The most important, and most overlooked, part of |
| one thing on each note they believe is important to | | | | customer measurement is actually doing something |
| them about your product or service and stick it on the | | | | with the data. All you six sigma purists please forgive |
| wall. While they're sticking notes up walk around and | | | | me, but you're much better off with high-level indicators |
| clump duplicates together. Call time and then spend | | | | that you're actually working on instead of dozens of |
| fifteen minutes talking together about the results; check | | | | low-level data collection points that are creating |
| whether the clumps are aggregated appropriately. | | | | statistically significant graphs of your lack of progress. |
| Now give everyone three sticky notes each with a big | | | | You know that 5-10% of the customers' steaks are |
| "X" drawn on them. Ask everyone to spend another | | | | thawing out in transit, put in a bigger piece of dried ice |
| ten minutes and put their "X"'s on the clumps that they | | | | first, figure out that its 5.7% second. With the right |
| believe are the most important priorities for | | | | measures you might figure out that thicker insulation is |
| improvement. They can put all three "X"'s on one thing | | | | a better solution than more ice, but you'd like to stop |
| or three things. Talk for the remaining time about those | | | | distributing salmonella bombs while that is being |
| priorities and explore whether there are any really | | | | analyzed. |