If you’ve found this blog, like it and want to keep reading new posts, please amble on over to the new address www.systemsthinkingmethod.com/blog

Same blog, same person, different address.

See you there.

Stuart

A first meeting with a chief executive normally starts with the same question, ‘we want to make a change but we simply don’t know where to start, any ideas?’

Let’s think about the problem logically, you’d want to make sure that you get the best return on your actions wouldn’t you? So you’d probably start in your most broken and highest volume areas.

But how do you get the right combination between volume and urgency, I hear you ask. Well I’ve created a 2×2 to help you with the dilemma.

The horizontal axis measures the degree to which a service or business unit is failing and the vertical measures volume of customer transactions going through the area. (see figure 1 below)

The graph then gives four quadrants. Low volume low failure, high volume low failure, high failure low volume and high volume high failure. All you then have to do is to place a symbol that represents the service or process in the appropriate quadrant to prioritise which area needs the greatest attention.

Of-course you could do this intuitively, which I think is often good enough, or you could do it scientifically.
To use the empirical model simply measure the volume at each point of customer transaction for each service (phone, fax, e-mail, walk-in or letter). This will give you your number for the vertical axis.

Next measure the degree of failure demand (using the same scale) for each service. For example if you had four different service areas and area one took ten thousand calls per month turn the percentage failure into a number (50% being 5000 failure calls).

Then simply plot it on your graph. This gives you a simple method of plotting which service goes first.

This graph is known as the Corrigan volume/failure matrix (I’ve just named it), I hope you like it.

As per usual comments and questions always welcomed.

Stuart

First my apologies, I promised this on Tuesday; it’s been a hectic week.

Last week you may have read about my early experiences working with senior leaders, if you haven’t, go now to ‘My worst change management moment’. You might remember that the basic premise was that if you want to be treated as an equal advisor, rather than a peddler of change management, you have to position yourself differently; the key is to been seen as the authority on a subject.

I said that there were four steps in the positioning process:

1. Curiosity and desire
2. Proof
3. Bonding and relationship building
4. Providing a sample

This works because you’re (metaphorically speaking) lightly tapping your future customer on the shoulder and saying ‘hey have a look at this’, as opposed to a full frontal assault of selling.

It’s a process of soft influence, one where your client can feel like they’re calling all the shots and deciding when to move to the next stage of the process. And when you do get called in to have that meeting you’ll find that the atmosphere is very different to what you may have previously experienced. You’ll feel like you’re there to help and advise, you’ll be asked your opinion, and you’ll be given respect; sometimes I’ve even been offered coffee!

So how does it work?

Let’s look at each step in detail.

Curiosity and desire. In this first stage you are providing your client with information that is contrary to their current belief systems. For example let’s say you’ve developed a new breakfast cereal so good it’s being hailed as a superfood, and your potential client is someone who is interested in keeping a healthy life style.

Now imagine that client had spent their whole life believing that what they normally eat - muesli - was good for them. They may have eaten it every day for the past 10 years, and love it.

Then a special report comes out that shows that muesli is in-fact full of sugar and is very bad for them. Might they just be a bit interested to read what’s in the report? Further, the report then suggests that there’s a new superfood on the market that will not only help them stay fit and healthy it will provide other benefits such as energy in the morning. Wouldn’t they just be a bit curious and want to find out more about this amazing product?

That’s how the first stage of positioning works, you get some information to your client that A.) shows them you understand what they want (a healthy life style), B.) challenges their harmful current beliefs (muesli is good for you) and C.) shows the benefits of an alternative that will actually do what they want (the superfood). Stage 1 is complete, you now have their interest.

Proof. You may have their interest, but let’s be honest you’re the person selling the superfood; you would say it’s fantastic, wouldn’t you? So now you want them to hear from others who’ve eaten the food and now have the perfect body. So you’d take pictures and conduct interviews with others who’ve used the product and let them say how brilliant it is.

Now think change management. Most clients are about to invest a great deal of time and or money with you, so it stands to reason that they want to speak to others that have been though the process. Make it make it easy for them to get the information. For example you could interview previous people you’ve worked with, burn the interview to CD, or distribute it via an audio web link.

Bonding and relationship building. Maybe by now your client has decided that they want to try some of this superfood, but why should they get it from you? After-all they might never have heard of you. So this is where you give them information about your background, how you’ve been where they are and why you started to develop the superfood.

I often find I have empathy with managers because I was a manager myself. I think they’re relieved to find out that I wasn’t born carrying a laptop and mobile phone. I went through the same struggle they might have, I did all the traditional management stuff and I too found it difficult to accept that I’d been doing things wrong for ten years.

Provide a sample. They’re now keen to try your fantastic product, so give them some. Share some of your ideas and insights and recipes. I’m a genuine believer that if you help people you’ll get back ten times what you give out. So don’t hold, back send them some of your best ideas.

Here’s how you do it when marketing change management.

1. Curiosity and desire
• Sit down with a piece of paper and write out what your prospective client wants to achieve.
• Brainstorm all their current beliefs about how they think they will achieve their goals.
• Write a short report which provides them with information about the wrong paths and methods you know many try in order to get where they want to go.
• In the report also provide the benefits of using the more effective alternative method.
• Drop a short email to your client to let them know you have written a short report about X and where they can get it.
• Even if someone begs you to help them, insist they read the report first so they move forward informed.

2. Proof
• Interview a client or write a case study detailing the work you’ve done previously. Write to your client to let them know where they can get the report or audio.
3. Bonding
• Get a colleague to interview you so you can explain your background and what you do for your clients. Make sure you lay out the journey that led you to you your current beliefs and practices.
4. Sample
• Provide a report, audio or video that gives away one of your best methods for creating change
5. Only now should you suggest a meeting or even better invite your client to a seminar to learn more.

This process works because you’re giving useful information and along the way positioning yourself as the expert. And once you have done it once you can re-use the information over and over again.

Please take the time to re-read and implement this method, it’s (in my opinion) some of the best advice I’ve ever given away - and it works.

You’ll find that by using these tools you’ll get more chance of getting people to listen and let you help them and better commitment to putting changes in place with less effort. More importantly however, when you kick off your next change programme you’ll know how to position yourself so that you’re being asked to provide advice and being asked to guide, rather than pushing your opinions onto others.

As usual if you have any questions just drop me a comment.

Stuart

PS If you think a friend or colleague may like this blog please pass it on.

www.vanguardscotland.co.uk/blog-welcome

(A story of cold sausages, a string quartet and climate change protestors)

I was in London last week with some friends. On Friday morning we were sitting in a restaurant having breakfast. Then my blackberry went ballistic; message after message telling me that the link to the free guide on presenting data wasn’t working. And to make matters worse the team in the office didn’t have the PDF of the guide, so they couldn’t help.

Big problem, you see we use a web hosting company in the US and their system was down. So the first thing I did was to drop my fork and knife and ping a note back to everyone to let them know we were trying to resolve the situation.

Eventually I tracked down one of the team (who was on holiday) who had a copy of the guide (for who didn’t manage to pick it up click here) and we got it sent again as an attachment. And I as I chewed my way through my, now freezing cold, bacon and eggs I pondered the messages.

1. Trust is fleeting. It doesn’t really matter how much good you think you’ve done it can all go pear shaped in a moment.
2. Reliability is king. I continually hear people moaning that things are tough in the current climate. So you have to make the most of every opportunity. This is the same in the public sector, if you don’t keep your promises you get hit with failure demand, the cost to me was a cold breakfast, what would it be for you? So make sure every process delivers.
3. Knowledge will save the day. Stuff happens, things go wrong, I get that. But the key is to know the predictable nature of the failure. Is it a one off or is it predictable? The problem is that most managers don’t know, as a result they react to special causes as if they are every day occurrences and make a storm in a team into a hurricane. So you need measures that help you understand and improve performance, do you have that?

I was now firmly in the bad books with everyone. Denise, for spending two hours on my phone (I hope you appreciate what I do for you), Sean for bugging him on his holiday and you for a missing link. But there was light at the end of the tunnel and another message.

We left Covent Garden to the sound of music, not the Julie Andrews musical, but a string quartet. We stood and watched for a while, they were brilliant. Then they upped the ante, they started dancing with their violins! The crowd went wild and started throwing money at them.

And yes there’s a message here, if you want to do well, even during tough times, you need more than just reliability…

4. Be unique. This can come in the form of a product, a service, or how about a guarantee. Most people can’t offer a guarantee because they are too scared that they will mess up. Though that problem soon disappears when you have knowledge about how the work works.

And if you’re in the public sector and you’re reading this and wondering how it applies? My thoughts are that what would make you unique would be the delivery of consistently high service at low cost, do you agree?

Having seen the quartet I now had a warm feeling, everything was all right with the world. Or was the warm feeling something else. Was it climate change? The protestors in London that day certainly believe it’s the latter. And don’t get me wrong I’m all for a good rant and saving the planet, but…

We wanted to cross the road and the protestors were shouting at everyone as they crossed the line; time for another lesson. In some sectors your message might not be to everyone’s taste, so don’t make it worse by being difficult to deal with (one pedestrian got so infuriated he even burst a protestor’s balloon; that could have gone nasty). Here’s the lesson:

5. When you want people to comply with your message or process, don’t infuriate them by being difficult.

We ended our weekend by a visit to a Japanese restaurant chain in terminal 5 called Wagamama, it was brilliant. And it had a number of amazing characteristics:

1. They told us when what was going to happen and when we would get our food. Then they delivered on their promises.
2. They had a simple method to keep track of who was getting what and who still had to get their meals. They wrote the number of the dish on the menu. That way if a customer didn’t get the right food, the waiter knew before the customer.
3. They were unique. The food was unusual but very tasty.
4. It was easy and flawless.

Isn’t it funny how things go full circle?

P.S. This week I have an e-book of some questions I’ve answered over the past few months. The questions range from how to improve support for drug users, how systems thinking works in businesses that need to grow and get new clients, whether Kanban is appropriate to service organisations, and a few more. You can get the short book by clicking here (and yes I’m praying that it works).

Many Thanks

Stuart Corrigan

First I want to say thanks for all the emails I get every week giving me suggestions and ideas for the blog. I read them all. Also to those of you have written with questions I hope that you have found my answers useful. Thanks again for taking the time to read and interact.

Now on with the blog, this week’s was inspired by a story from Scott Finnie. Scott wrote to tell me about an article he read in a magazine.

“Hello Stuart,

It’s just over a year since I attended the process mapping workshop with Azmi and I’m still very early in the journey to enlightenment. Systems Thinking has however brought a new ‘waste aware’ lens to my life and given weight and depth to my customer-centric intuition. So for that I’m very grateful.

Anyway, to the main point of the message. I receive various industry journals one of which (”Call Centre Focus”) has an article this month entitled “Dying to Help”. It chronicles the very sad case of France Telecom, where 24 members of staff have committed suicide in 18 months. The latest victim - a 51-year old contact centre worker - caused the company to halt its re-organisation, suspend the programme’s mastermin, and scrap staff performance indicators in its call centres.

As a response, that sounds like a potentially decent start by the company (albeit late - why the previous 23 deaths didn’t cause alarm isn’t covered in the article).

That however, is the only modicum of good news. The rest of the article is given over to tips and suggestions for agents to deal with stress in the contact centre. Let me list them for you:

1. Learn to manage your time more effectively
2. Adopt a healthy lifestyle
3. Know your limitations
4. Find out what causes you stress
5. Avoid unnecessary conflict
6. Accept the things you can’t change
7. Take time out to relax & recharge your batteries
8. Find time to meet friends
9. Try to see things differently, develop a positive thinking style
10. Avoid alcohol, nicotine and caffeine as coping mechanisms

In other words, an entire article focused on the 5% (the people) and no mention of the 95% (the system). There’s a passing hint that maybe helping employees deal with stress might be treating the symptom rather than the cause: “communicate context and purpose to employees”, “…as a manager you are responsible for peoples’ workload and their feelings of satisfaction…”

But there’s no mention - and I suspect no understanding - of the need to work on the system. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s nevertheless quite depressing when a supposed industry best practice magazine prints such a misinformed message.”

My reaction, maybe like yours, was to want to write a piece on the poor quality of this advice and how it’s in rife our organisations.But then I took a deep breath and thought ‘no, be helpful, what should the contact centre have done?’

1. Study the nature of demand and response. I suspect that much of the problem is that there is a high volume of failure demand calls (calls caused by a failure of the system to do the right thing for the customer).

There’s a simple logic here, if you give people crappy work to do their life will be crappy. And having customers moan complain and shout at you will certainly ruin your day. Prolong that and you will soon become tired, angry and depressed.

And to make matters worse…what if in addition to being shouted at you are unable to help? This is a common issue in service organisations. The system is designed (not deliberately) so that the agent can’t do what matters to the customer.

And then just to tip the agent over the edge they will get a 1:1 from their manager asking why they’d not hit their call targets. Here’s an example, I needed to transfer money from my business bank account to my personal account last week. My passkey had broken. Despite the fact that the bank knows more personal stuff about me than my wife does, the agent couldn’t help.

She told me that I should have had my accounts linked, I responded by telling her that I’d completed 4 forms and that accounts hadn’t been changed. I ended the call and we were both disgruntled; me because I didn’t get what I wanted, her because she was disempowered.

2. Act on the system . Having understood the main types of failure as well as transactions where the agent was unable to add value guess what the manager should do? You got it; fix it, it’s not difficult really.

The problem is that fixing the system requires an admission from the manager that their thinking about the design and management of the work is the problem. And that it’s likely that this thinking is ubiquitous in the organisation.

So change requires that managers get knowledge about how the work works (or doesn’t) and then learn to give up their ideas about managing top down, using service standards, targets and incentives within a functional design.

Look this is really important. If you want change you can get it, fast. And it’s easy, get knowledge about the work, use the knowledge to make change and then find out if what you have changed has made things better. Then repeat.

Though I do have to say that I think an industry sector magazine could give better advice than ‘find time to meet friends, and avoid alcohol’, that’s weak, they should have said ‘drink more!’

So let’s finish with some good news of people we helped to do it the right way. The roads department of the City of Edinburgh Council won the Guardian Public Sector Award for Frontline Engagement on Tuesday night; you can read their story here.

Also Alison Angus who worked as part of the team who made the change tells how they did it in the interview I did with her last night. Click here and listen or download for listening on your MP3 player.

——————————————————————————————

Finally I want to thank the 198 people who have bought the system that Ron and I put together for call centre sector improvement.

Here’s some feedback from those who’ve seen the system:

If you want to improve service, morale and reduce costs, you’d better get this system” - John Seddon

“A simple and effective yet powerful guide to service improvement” - Steve Thomson, Marketing Manager Edinburgh

“If you have any interest at all in making life better for your customers and staff, you need this system” - David Steen, Service Centre Manager, Wilmslow

As per usual, if you have questions about change in the service sector email me directly. If you have a comment about the blog. post it on the site.

Many Thanks
Stuart Corrigan

PS If you think a friend or colleague may like this blog please pass it on.

Pressure from customers, pressure from the government, pressure from the regulator, pressure from the economic climate; whether you are in the public or the private sector being in business is tough right now.  So what do you do to survive and prosper?  Improve service, cut costs, and change your product.  How about a fourth option, one that’s cheaper, better and bound to get you noticed: be remarkable.

Being remarkable means to do something worth talking about, and doing something worth talking about gets you new customers, or existing customers buying more of what you offer; that’s the private sector of-course.  In the public sector it can actually have the opposite effect; that what you do is so smooth that you get less demand, less call backs and less visits.  Sure they still talk about you but not to you.  That’s what you want isn’t it?  The customer asks for a service, and they don’t need to come back because it worked so well. 

And, by the way, the same principle works in services where compliance is required, like the criminal justice system, if you make it easy for the accused to comply they go through the system fast and once (unless they commit more crime which is a different issue).  Hence, for the doubting Thomas’s, remarkable really is cheaper.

So let’s say you buy into the idea, you want to be remarkable, how do you do it?  Here are the principles:

1. Study each point of interaction with your customer.  For example, last week I was in hospital.  The points of interaction were: the front desk at A&E, the nurse, the doctor, the consultant, the porter, the wheel chair, the food, the bed, the ward nurse, the anaesthetist, and the chemist.
2. At each point ask yourself, what really matters to the customer here?  For example at the front desk I wanted to some empathy, at A&E I wanted to be told how long I had to wait and what was going to happen, next I wanted to see the person that could help (not the nurse or the Doctor), when I had my scan I wanted someone there that could tell me what the picture meant,  I wanted to see the consultant fast to find out what might be wrong, and finally I after my operation I wanted to know if I was going to live (a bit dramatic I know but that’s how you feel if you get no information).  Do you see that straight away there are opportunities to save money and provide a remarkable experience?
3. At each point of interaction take it to right to the edge of your imagination.  For example if what mattered to me was being seen by the consultant, getting my scan and finding out my course of action fast.  Then why not study the type and frequency of demand into A&E and put the right consultants and machines there.  I bet lots of people would be seen really fast, would get fantastic service, it would be cheaper, and many wouldn’t end up in the ward.
4. If you have trouble going to the edge of your imagination think about other systems that work well and look for the lessons.  For example what if you designed A&E like your local deli, everything you need is right there, and the expert is at the front.

But the knowledge of how to be remarkable is only any good if you are one of the people who A) want to do it, and B) have the guts to see it through, in other words you’re remarkable!

What do you think? Are you remarkable? Is your organisation remarkable or do you know a company or organisation that is remarkable? Let me know by posting your comments here

The #1 rule for keeping your customers

On Thursday night Daniel (my eldest son) and I went for a quick bite to eat. We were near to a shopping centre so we stopped at an O’Briens sandwich shop.

There was a long queue but we waited and ordered our food. When I tried to pay, the assistant told me that their chip and pin machine was broken; she also went on to say that management had forbidden them to put up a sign to warn customers.

I then had to deal with the hassle and stress of finding a cash machine and by the time I got back my food was cold.

At least if they’d told me what was going to happen next I could have made an informed choice, go and get cash, or go elsewhere. Most importantly I would have used them again.

Instead what they did was con me. And they will never again get my business.

I believe that the number one rule in business is to be transparent.

Let your customers know how the process works, what they are getting into, what the product costs, how long it’s going to take. And if they don’t like it they will tell you, you can fix it, and keep their custom or goodwill.

But if you annoy them and they can go elsewhere, they will. If they can’t go elsewhere, they will cost you money in dealing with complaints.

Either way your reputation as being trustworthy will be ruined.

So here’s my attempt at total transparency.

In the current climate some organisations simply don’t have the budget to invest in external consultancy, but need help.

So we are going to launch a new service.

The service will consist of resources such as e-books, reports and e-courses that will be focused on how to do specific aspects of change management.

Here are some examples:

• How to build presentations that create change (series of reports)
• How to survey your staff and customers (e-course)
• How to run a change programme (e-course)
• How to manage a call centre for better service and lower costs (e-course)

In some cases the reports will be free and will offer the opportunity to upgrade to an e-course or one day on-site course. In other cases there will be a small charge for the report or e-course (between £7 and £40). And in some of the reports I might offer links to other products that I have personally tested. Again some of these will be free and in some cases there will be a charge.

However, even if the report or mini e-course is free, my goal is that it will create value so that you will want to refer to it again and maybe even pass it to a friend. So we both gain.

I am giving you an example of a report that I think you will find useful. To download it just click on the link below. It’s called:

10 reasons why change programmes fail, and the questions & tips you can use to avoid them.

I hope you learn to love the service and can always see that I’m being transparent, because I’m pretty sure that if you don’t like it you will either tell me or leave.

Regards

Stuart

PS As ever, I would love to hear your comments on this blog. Click here now and share your thoughts .

I was invited to attend to opening of Duncan Bannatyne’s new spa in Edinburgh last week (I know the manager and was making up the numbers).  I just happened to be getting my tour as Duncan arrived.  The first thing he did was ask to buy a voucher for the spa - he really did pay for it.  I watched with interested as he studied the process, and then made suggestions to his health club managing director as to how it should be improved.

Later in the evening I was speaking to Duncan’s wife, Joanne, and I asked her about the earlier voucher purchase.  She explained that as Duncan visited his businesses he made a point of testing out the core processes to see if they worked.  She claimed that was one of his key principles for maintaining service standards and keeping cost low.  I was also interested, given that he is group chief executive, how he had the time do study his businesses in this manner.  Joanne explained that though he was busy, Duncan wanted to find a way of keeping in touch with the customer and this was his way of doing it.  The moral of this story is simple: if Duncan has time to do it then so do you. 

So here’s the idea, for the next hour become a customer of your own organisation.  Go to your website and try to buy a product, call your contact centre and try to arrange a service, call your IVR and see what happens.  Go on I dare you to try. Let me know what you find via the make a comment section and I will arrange for the best one to get a voucher for the use of a Bannatyne’s or other spa near you.  The voucher will include use of the facilities and a facial (even if you are a man). 

Given that there is a recession going on, I know because the news never lets us forget, the question I’d like to address today is how to continue to prosper during hard times? 

A few weeks ago I covered the issue of cutting costs, so there are only three other alternatives, get existing clients to buy more, get existing clients to spend more, or find new clients. 

I’m also making the assumption that operationally you are making sure that everyone that asks to buy is allowed to and that you have done the maths and you know which clients are most and least profitable. So what’s next?

The next stage is to enhance and/or design new products and services, but how? The exercise is called ‘finding out’, named so because it’s about finding out what matters to your customers and then designing your products, services and operations such that you can gain a competitive advantage in the market. And also, this is not restricted to the private sector it can be used by the public sector too. 

The whole process is shown in figure 1. below.

Figure 1. An overview of the finding out process.

The idea is to study all the point of transactions with you customer and find out what they what that you don’t offer or hate that you do. 

Let’s define points of transaction; this refers to any time a customer interacts with any part of your product or service. Let me give you an example. When I go to the gym there are quite a few different transaction points from the time that I enter the car park to the time I leave. On entering the car park the barrier has to raise (1), I have to park (2), I have to go through the doors (3), go through the turnstile at reception (4), open my locker (5), go to the loo (6), get on and use a CV machine (7), use weights (8), return to the dressing room and use the shower (9), buy a coffee (10), and use the internet (11). Note depending on the demand I place on the system, e.g., if I’m playing tennis or taking Matthew, my youngest, to the soft play, the points of transaction change. 

To understand all your points of transaction take a value demand and simply list all the different bits of the product and service that a client touches.

The next part in the system is to find out what is important to your customers when transacting with the system. So phone a few clients and go and see them. Simply ask the question when you have to do X, for example enter the car park, open your locker, what is important to you. Asking this question will give you a list of important factors, e.g. when I get to the barrier I want it to open first time, I want the turnstiles to work, I want all the machines in the gym to work.

Now go to the top of the list and ask “on a scale of 1-7, how important is this”, and having done that go back to the top of the list again and ask “on a scale of 1-7, how well are we doing?” See figure 2 below.

Figure 2, sample questionnaire design.

Three things will happen, 1. There will inevitably areas where you fall short, 2. There will be areas into which you are putting lots of effort that no-one cares about 3. You will get some amazing ideas to improve or create new stuff for clients.

But the secret of a well performing organisation is a system that is designed to align performance with what is important to the customer. 
If you plot your answers on a graph, it will probably look something like this:

Figure 3. This chart shows the relative importance vs. performance on a range of hypothetical items that might appear on a questionnaire.

Having identified the difference between what matters to customers and your performance the job of the leader is to bridge the gap

I first did this exercise with a client 10 years ago. I have to be honest in that the client’s service was already good so I wasn’t sure what we would find, but this method is also used as part of a wider analysis when designing a company strategy, which I was doing. But the results were astonishing.

The company in was a fireplace manufacturer. Their clients said that what was important to them was quick delivery in small batches, correct invoices, boxes that were easy to open, staples put into the box in certain way so that they weren’t sharp. They commented on how they wanted the designs to look, how and when to discount. In short the told the manufacturer how to re-invent their business, and they did just that. By doing so they turned around the company from a loss making situation into profit within 12 months.

So why don’t you give it a go? 

I can guarantee you one thing, if you do it, you will get more business and perceived service improvement, even if it’s just because you are out talking to customers about their favourite subject, them!

As usual let me know your thoughts, and if you want a full case study on how to do strategy let me know and I will write it. 

Regards

Stuart

Here’s how you voted in the Vanguard Scotland Service Awards

The companies you loved were

Audi Service Centres
T mobile
British Airways
Virgin Trains
Gear for Girls
Novatech
Symantec
Jet Blue Airlines
O2
The Folio Society

The companies most disliked were

Sky (by a longshot)
Trainline
Scottish Power
Scotrail
Ryanair
British Telecom
Pizza Hut
Abbey National
APH

Most telling however is the reasons why you liked and loathed companies. In the first category you liked the fact that they got the basics right.

Most blog readers talked about ease:
“Easy to deal with”
“They made life easy for me”
“Their aftercare service was easy to access”

Then you talked about flexibility:
“When I needed to stop my membership they froze it without any quibbles”

“The driver of the bus went out of his way to help me”
“They phone you back to save your phone bill”
“Their front line staff were able to answer all my questions and make all the decisions.”

You liked that as an existing customer they gave you a little bit extra:
“Gave me special rates on existing contract that normally only applied to new customers and threw in a new handset as well”

“Bloke in the shop gave me £20 off my monthly bill for 6 months while I considered my options - with no hard sell about taking an upgrade. Unconditional. 2. I wanted to transfer the account to my company as well as upgrade”.

And finally, you liked that the companies really tried to understand your needs rather than using standardised scripts and responses:
“They deliver a personal service and their priority is making you, the customer, happy. This is done through asking what they can do for you rather than assuming they know what you want”
“You can phone their support team at any time and the response to the phone call is almost immediate (no multiple options)”.

So in summary you liked Ease of use, flexibility, giving a wee bit extra when needed, and taking time to understand your needs.

And for those that you disliked.
IVR machines were high on your list of dislikes:
“If the call centre staff are all busy dealing with other customers, the system will simply ask you to call back, then disconnect the call. And this is after putting you through menus, name and address details and security checks, all the time charging you for the call”
“After 3 unsuccessful attempts at booking tickets online, I called the contact number, went through a lengthy Voice Recognition thingy, at the end of which I was transferred to a real person who then asked me all the same questions, was perfectly charming and took my booking. Unfortunately, she booked me on the wrong train.”
“Their automated online answer service is a joke”.

Poor delivery and not doing what they said they would was next on the list:
“Furiously disappointed with delivery service”
“could not deliver to non-billing address nor outside 9-5.”
“Had to take a day off work. ok. but then they used a delivery company than failed to turn up at the allocated 8-12noon, I called their customer support line in India and was told the delivery would be there by 18:00. Waited till then, still no show. Left the house raging at my wasted day only to return at 20:00 to find a note just put through the door blatantly lying that a delivery was attempted at 16:00″
“I recently transferred bank accounts to Abbey, they messed up my direct debits and standing orders - when I called to let them know they had left my previous account overdrawn as they hadn’t moved everything over, despite their assurances, they said it would be easier for me to do it, than it would be for them to go back and fix it”

“Where do I start! They are fragmented, don’t do what they say they will. I have had a number of issues with the reliability of service and also customer service”
“I had an appalling trip to pizza hut recently. We queued for 20 mins then got told the kids special meals had run out. We were eventually seated only to be told they had run out of small pizza bases.”

And finally you really hated that front line staff could not make decisions:
“They phoned the other day to ask if I wanted to return to them for calls, my broadband was still not working and they hadn’t made a refund they promised two months before - guess what, the guy in sales didn’t deal with that!”
“When you do get through the person answering is not empowered to be able to resolve your problem.”

“Trying to talk to someone who can make a decision when installing SKY+ impossible!”

So there you have it you really disliked IVR machines, companies not doing what they said they would and the inability of front line staff to make decisions.

I bet you’re thinking, no surprises there then! I agree, but what frequently astonishes is me is that common sense is still not common practice. And I also bet that if we wrote to the chief execs of these businesses they would tell us how wrong we were in with our research.

Still if even one person in the thousand people that read this blog can use the results to make change in their business then your vote has done some good.

Many thanks for voting. Have a great week

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Regards

Stuart