The 2006 book Customer Expectation Management – Success without Exception, identified global leading best practices and lessons from the worlds top performing companies. We have now harnessd these best practices into a set of practical and easy to use toolkits and education services which will help you transform the way processes work forever.
I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the book! It really helped tie together various concepts and practices I have been evolving towards over a number of years, crystallizing them into a simple but powerful framework. Steve Melville, Director, Oracle, USA.
In 2010 the book Outside In The Secret galvanized global leading corporations to redefine their view of business, and in doing create clear water between themselves and their competitors. In redrawing the business map companies progressively with the Triple Crown as they simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance customer services.
It is a copernican shift in the way people do business.
You will never think of business in the same way again.
Customer Experience Management is about aligning everything to Successful Customer Outcomes.
After all if we do not deliver SCO’s our business will fail. Developing the skills and ambition to engineer and deliver SCO’s is a critical differentiator in the second decade of the 21st century,
From the desk of James Dodkins There is no easy way to introduce a new order of things however there are some principles that can be followed based on this type of mind shift. 1. Objective and immediate. The results we achieve with Outside-In are significant and substantive e.g. Triple Crown*. Accordingly any effort should first of all identify the clear tangible benefits. 2. Talk is cheap. Fine words and phrases will not win hearts and minds without substance. Delivery is key, hence the ‘start where you are’ sentiment. In current projects (where support may be lacking) introduce the techniques within the CEMMethod by stealth. Lift the heads of those around you to think of Moments of Truth, Break Points and Business Rules for instance. “Nothing new mate, just some stuff other guys have used within… Six Sigma../..Lean../..EA../..compliance etc. (delete as appropriate)” 3. Build support. With (2) underway you will build support. That is the point to shift focus and begin the more practical discussion of where and how. 4. Go for broke. If you are extremely lucky/persuasive and have the top team already onboard go for broke. Discover the worst most problematic issues and set to righting em. By fixing the Cause you will remove the Effect.
5. Move on. It is a 400 year shift in mindset (Dee Hock, VISA founder). It will ultimately transform the planet. The jury is in fact back and the results speak for themselves. So when all looks desolate and casting your pearls before swine is depressing, remind the swine that they are part of the problem and move on.
6. Make it so. YOU ARE NOT ALONE it just feels that way when surrounded by flat-landers (doh). Learn, exchange and do.
Well as it is so often said, it isn’t rocket science. In fact it has to be one of the simplest concepts available in business today – and yet so often missed. It is often so simple it is elegant, so let’s review what Disneys SCO might just be…
Most of us have been there. A car full of screaming kids eager to start their Disney vacation, however trouble is you’ve driven six hours (or flown ten) and frankly the last thing you want to do is fight the car lot. Much better find that quiet hotel room and bar and chill until tomorrow? Not so. This is the kids vacation and they’re going to squeeze every minute out of the long awaited trip to the Magic Kingdom. So what say Disney in this situation? Do they leave you to fight the crowds, get incredibly irritated and leave you with a pile of now prickly family? Well no – they have been there too after all and it is real easy to see it from the customers point of view.
Perhaps the SCO is ‘simply magic’? Not some weird business jargon Mission/Vision but something that talks and causes everyone in the Disney business to ensure they are aligned and delivering to that promise. So how would the SCO ‘simply magic’ work? Let’s review where we are – on the way to the busiest car lot this side of the LA freeway. It is the hottest day this summer the question ¨are we there yet?¨ echoes around yourself, partner and three kids in the car (that’s the average party size to arrive at Disney – five). And yes you are! So you find a spot disembark the kids, look around to size your location and… shut the car doors.
In the ‘rush to the fun’ process Disney discovered that many people lock their keys in the car so right at the start they have on-hand a team of professional locksmiths. They drive through the lot looking for distressed families and unlock their cars – free of charge. Simply Magic. Then there’s the walk to the gates – but wait. Driving through the crowds are golf carts and helpers to steer you towards the nearest ‘magic bus’ with color coded location tags! You probably get the picture and that’s one of the things that makes the Disney performance truly outstanding. The belief that if everything gets itself aligned to the SCO we reduce cost (how much effort do you currently apply to fixing stuff that goes wrong that results in queries and non value added activity?), drive up revenue (how many people would you tell?) and improves customer satisfaction (would you be pleased?).
To coin a phrase, the SCO is a gift that just keeps on giving.
“I would hope people would say that Amazon is earth’s most customer-centric company, and that we work backwards from customers. Many companies sort of look at what their skills are and they work forward from their skills. They say this is what we’re good at, and this is what we’ll do. It’s a very different approach from saying here is what our customers need, and we will learn whatever skills we need.”
That really describes the difference between inside-out thinking (examine your capabilities and figure out how to optimize them) to Outside-In – (figure out the Customer needs and align everything to deliver the Successful Customer Outcome) http://bit.ly/AmazonOutsideIn
If you are into or responsible for Customer Satisfaction or Customer Experience you must access this rebuttal of (NPS) Net Promoter Score. What do we think at the BP Group? Whatever we do know we have to get more scientific about the Customer Experience.
