Lean Thinking

Lean Thinking

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  • Ralf Lippold
    Ralf Lippold    Premium Member   Group moderator
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    Making the Most of Customer Complaints
    Hello everybody,

    Don't you sometimes come across situations in your daily work or even personal life where you think by yourself, "Why am I treated as a non-customer?"

    How could you be part of the problem solving process and achieving the LEAN ENTERPRISE you would like to see serving you and your needs?

    http://sloanreview.mit.edu/wsj/insight/brand/2008/09/22/

    ...gives some interesting insights:

    # Service Recovery should be seen as a mission, integrating three stakeholders (customers, who want their complaints resolved; managers in charge of the process of addressing those concerns; frontline employees who deal with the customers)

    # Successfully integrating the above mentioned stakeholders is done in fewer than 8% of the 60 organizations on the survey

    # Learning happens only when you accept the service failures and analyse them thoroughly (the lean attitude - not the tools!)

    # Without feedback of the service failure into the organization itself there will be more problems in the future

    # Rewards for low complaint rates feed negatively back into the service level as fronline employees tend to send dissatisfied customers away instead of admitting a failure has occured - this could also lead to lowering of callcenter size, as failures are not perceived by management

    # Most managers are eagerly looking for the QUICK FIX - that definitely DOESN'T work!

    ......and lots more on that in the article.

    I would like to do a Skype LTT later on that month - anybody interested, please give me a note.

    I personally was -again- part of the customer side as I needed support this morning concerning help on the employment agency website. Using the general service-number, only to be told by the call-center agent to call a second number to get through to the internet service hotline.

    This ended in the information that changing the password on the website entry will be sent to me by normal post (no link, as should be perceived by all us, who use the internet:-(). No info on that on the website (!), the agent told me, "You will find that written down in the agency policy! Don't worry the new password will come by post!"

    Three things that disturbed me:

    1. Two different numbers without the possibility to put through my call to the internet service hotline
    2. No information or warning on the website after entering the apply for new password
    3. Extra costs in money and time (especially for myself, as I have to have for 1-2 days getting the mail with the new password) on the mail

    Good service could be really easy - and yet companies seldom listen to their customers in a sustainable fashion. On contrary they make things worse, as customers drop the services/products and move to other companies, as a result the service call-centers are downsized in order to save money (instead of using them to further increase service and continuous improvement in the service business that covers over 60% of our daily connections with the business world!).

    Best for now,

    Ralf
    • 22 Sep 2008, 5:44 pm
  • Ralf Lippold
    Ralf Lippold    Premium Member   Group moderator
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    Re: subject changed: Customer Service a TRUE lean mindset
    Hi everybody,

    How often have you made the experience that the service you
    hoped and wished for detoriated in the moment your service
    clerk, boss, ... open his mouth?

    Then imagine asking, "Whether there would be another possibility
    to deliver the service".

    Any answer that satisfied you?

    Harvard Business Review has more http://ow.ly/bsA

    "This is about choreographing what you already have (technologies, people, offerings) to better respond to your customers' needs and wants.
    ...
    So let's get started: Where is your company when it comes to embracing customer experience?"

    Sounds pretty much like Peter Senge's good sailor who knows how to use the wind (even when blowing upfront - short video in some other thread - if you are interested search for it).

    Best

    Ralf

    PS.: By the way, which of the companies in the lean community (here) is using Twitter actively yet?
    Which German CEO are twittering and connect with customers? Seems to be that we are still 10
    years behind what is going on at the Americas:-( It has been the same with the Internet, Email and
    other stuff (skateboard, rollerscates).
    This post was modified on 09 Feb 2009 at 08:47 pm.
    • 09 Feb 2009, 8:46 pm