Category: Customer Experience

Reflecting on his success – a Virgin still?

This video from a few years ago captures both the man and the moment.

He goes from strength to strength and this quote epitomizes his credo “I believe that drudgery and clock-watching are a terrible betrayal of that universal, inborn entrepreneurial spirit.”

Rock on Richard, carry on challenging and changing. At the end of the day it is the customer who wins because of you.

Where is your work ethic mate?

One day a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach, with his fishing pole propped up in the sand and his solitary line cast out into the sparkling blue surf. He was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and the prospect of catching a fish.

(from the desk of James Dodkins)

About that time, a businessman came walking down the beach, trying to relieve some of the stress of his workday. He noticed the fisherman sitting on the beach and decided to find out why this fisherman was fishing instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his family.

“You aren’t going to catch many fish that way,” said the businessman to the fisherman, “you should be working rather than lying on the beach!” The fisherman looked up at the businessman, smiled and replied, “And what will my reward be?”

“Well, you can get bigger nets and catch more fish!” was the businessman’s answer. “And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman, still smiling.

The businessman replied, “You will make money and you’ll be able to buy a boat, which will then result in larger catches of fish!” “And then what will my reward be?” asked the fisherman again.

The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the fisherman’s questions. “You can buy a bigger boat, and hire some people to work for you!” he said. “And then what will my reward be?” repeated the fisherman.

The businessman was getting angry. “Don’t you understand? You can build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let all your employees catch fish for you!” Once again the fisherman asked, “And then what will my reward be?”

The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the fisherman, “Don’t you understand that you can become so rich that you will never have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your days sitting on this beach, looking at the sunset. You won’t have a care in the world!”

The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, “And what do you think I’m doing right now?”

FREE BPM-CEM-OutsideIn course. And receive a complimentary book – Outside-In.

Outside-in approaches create a completely new reality that reshapes how we manage and organize work so much so that functional pyramidal structures become artifacts of the past. 

Born in the complexity of the 21st century Outside-In companies believe that all effort in an organization should be centered around the customer and ultimately deliver Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO).

Part of the insight of Outside-In companies is the identification of work that does NOT contribute to the SCO and accordingly may be ‘dumb stuff’ – work that can be eradicated and removed. In doing so Outside-In wins the triple crown of simultaneously reducing costs, enhancing service and growing revenues. Leading practice organizations include Apple, Southwest airlines, Google, Samsung and Zara. In our book “Outside-In – The secret of the 21st century leading companies” we review many examples and lay the foundations for systematic approaches to enable Outside-In thinking and practice by all.
To access the online course: www.processmiracle.com
To join us on the journey: www.bpgroup.org

Towers-Dodkins, April 2014.

CEMMethod step 2: Crafting the Successful Customer Outcome

If you find this a useful addition to you Outside-In* toolkit let us know and we will release more 🙂

Will you Fail?

From the desk of James Dodkins
We can probably reasonably observe, without fear of understatement, that the
customer has changed forever. The reason our organisations exist, the people
who pay our wages, the cause of all the work we do has evolved beyond
recognition.
And yet has your organisation changed in response to this evolution?
Do we do our work in a different way from the last century?
Is work still flowing top to bottom and left to right?
Are we thinking about how our processes connect with customer success?
In the BP Groups research and experience with the leading companies of the
21st century the answer is … YES, some in fact do understand and act on
this new imperative. However the majority, including some previously
prestigious names are not getting it. Look at the troubles of Nokia, Kodak,
Sony, British Airways, Air India, United… the list is extensive and
disturbing.
For our examples of successful transformation and realignment we can include
Emirates, Zappos, Zara, Apple, Indigo, Hallmark and BMW. A wide selection
from different industries, cultures and operating models. We will get to
specifics later, for now let’s review the reason for their successful
adoption of Advanced BPM, otherwise known as Outside-In. The customer!
If things are changing faster Outside than in you will fail
The accepted business wisdom until the end of the last century was the
adoption and exploration of ideas originally described by Adam Smith in theWealth of Nations, published in 1776. This seminal work introduced the world to the concept of the sub division of labour.
Written during the advent of the industrial revolution the ‘Wealth of Nations’ created a framework for organising manufactories and people into similar skills and disciplines. In fact the original work in a Scottish pin factory demonstrated 20 fold improvements to productivity and as such became a template for achieving industrial and commercial success.
Two and a half centuries later the model is still taught in business schools and academia as the way to structure and organise work. After all it worked for 200+ years?
We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we
created them (Einstein)
And there is the rub. The challenges we face in the 21st century are very different to those being addressed by Adam Smith and the industrialists of the Napoleonic era.
Let’s get to grips with some of the shifts…
Kindest Regards
James Dodkins
Chief Customer Officer
BP Group

Twitter – @JDodkins

Six steps to winning with the Customer Experience

1. Start by identifying the Moments of Truth (customer interactions)that exist across all of your customer experiences (you can create more specific experience maps later).


2. Make a list of all the Moments of Truth (MOT).For each MOT write a description, method of interaction, and customer expectation.
We use the Diagnostics dashboard to make sure we turn the MOTs into 15 quantifiable and actionable metrics.

There are three ways to collect and collate this information:

  • Workshops of all interested people.
    That includes customers, advisors, employees and management.
  • Recording of actual experiences.
    Yes, record the experiences and evaluate afterwards. We use a video technique that identified Moments of Truth with red flashes, Internal Interactions with blue and decision points as green.
  • Analysis of customer feedback.
    Review the letters, calls and social network commentary and capture the experiences to gain insights and a better understanding.

3. Document the learning and produce a visual illustration(process activity maps).


4. Use the maps to identify areas working well and those that need improvement.Focus on the critical MOTs — those crucial interactions that determine whether the experience you are creating delivers the optimum encounter, expectation and emotion.


5. Build a Action Plan to engineer the ABACUS of the customer experience.
At each stage identify the relevant MOTs that cover off these elements:

  • Awareness
    When and How does the customer become aware of the process, product or service you offer?
  • Buy-In
    How and Where does the customer ‘get it’ and become an advocate for the experience?
  • Acquisition
    How is the purchase made. Not just a product buy but the actual commitment.
  • Care
    Why should the customer care? How do you ensure the trust and commitment is reciprocal and reinforced?
  • Use
    How does the product, service work. Has it been designed from the customers perspective (Outside-In)? Ease of use goes beyond efficiency and focuses directly on the actual customer experience.
  • Share
    In our always-on world how does Share happen? Is that understood and optimized? Recall the fantastic tale from Canada – Westjet Christmas story[1] with more than 35 million hits on youtube in 3 months. By the way that is more than the population of Canada! That’s good news, but what about capturing the bad news before it becomes a crisis – recall the United Breaks guitar[2] story?


6. Engage the entire organization to undertake the journey to Customer Experience Management.We use the structured CEMMethod™, derived from the work of companies such as Virgin, Disney, Southwest Airlines, Emirate, BMW, Bentley, Zara and many more truly Outside-In enterprises. Whoever and where-ever you are it is directly and immediately useful.

If you are serious about engineering the Customer Experience then let us know (below). We will provide immediate links to videos, resources and an expert community doing this stuff as a way of life.



[1] Westjet Christmas – a terrific example of sharing your values and ethos – http://bit.ly/1habsP2

[2] United Breaks Guitars – how a bad experience turns into a corporate crisis – http://bit.ly/1dmOKaW
 

BPM Resources from the BP Group (updated)

(note: save for ongoing reference)
http://bit.ly/joinbpgroup – 12,000+ members networking with ideas
http://www.twitter.com/stowers – Posts several times daily, new approaches, examples and case studies
http://www.twitter.com/jdodkins – items linking into the customer experience
http://www.bpgroup.org/ – Dozens of courses leading to the Certified Process Professional qualification (CPP) all over the globe

http://www.processmiracle.com/ – FREE course featuring the Secret Sauce

http://www.successfulcustomeroutcomes.net – 350+ articles on Advanced BPM

http://bpcommunity.blogspot.co.uk/ – 200+ articles on process improvement

https://www.youtube.com/user/snoozers69 – Over 60 videos on the theme

http://www.slideshare.net/stowers/ – More than 90 presentations (downloadable)

http://www.oibpm.com/ – for all things and links Outside In

http://www.certifiedprocessprofessional.com/ – Professional qualifications since 1992

http://www.bpgroup.org/their-opinion.html  – Testimonials about us

http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/contributors/794-steve-towers/
PEXNetwork articles from Steve Towers, CEO at the BP Group
http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/contributors/4586-james-dodkins/
PEXNetwork articles from James Dodkins, CCO at the BP Group
http://bit.ly/1jTSXWi Videos and case studies – many less than 5 mins for quick consumption 🙂
Enjoy!

Customer Experience. Two dirty words.

–>

Do you feel, as a customer, like a nuisance to be endured?
You are the disruption to a good days sleep in so many inside-out companies. The fact you pay their salaries is accepted under sufferance and they do the level best to avoid directly dealing with you, locking you into automated lines with interminable messages about how important service is.
 These clumsy organizations even go to conferences now for advice on how to avoid dealing with customers; how to market to them in the automated lines and worst of all how to get you repeating your calls over and over. Feels wrong? Yes it should. 
Our research suggest the answer is simple for progressive companies.
Just answer the phone and talk with your customer.