Category: Outside-In

Who should you read? Who should you follow?

Let’s be honest. There are only so many hours in the day and in between eating, loving, sleeping, and pooping there aint much left over. However we all know the stresses and strains of keeping current, being of the moment. Keeping up to-date. It’s a full time task. So when asked at the PEX conference in Sydney in August “how do you do it?”I decided to start a list of the folks I follow.

Usually when grabbing a moment to myself I delve into the minds of others for inspiration.

Here is my list of the dirty dozen (for sharing) from the last 4 weeks:

Colin Shaw http://www.beyondphilosophy.com/ 
Daniel Pink http://www.danpink.com/
Ed Stalling http://www.maritzresearch.com/
Ernan Roman http://ernanroman.blogspot.co.uk/
Gregory Yankelovich http://piplzchoice.com/
Ian Golding http://ijgolding.com/
Kathy Klotz-Guest http://keepingithuman.com/
Maz Iqbal http://thecustomerblog.co.uk/
Michael Harris http://insightdemand.com/ 
Nate Brown http://communicatebetterblog.com/
Richard Branson http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/
Seth Godin http://www.sethgodin.com/


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
(Warwick UK Sep 15-19, Edmonton Canada Sep 22-26, Las Vegas US Sep 29, Sydney Australia Oct 27-31, Brisbane Australia Nov 3-7, Dubai UAE Dec 7-11, Orlando US Jan 22-23, Denver US Jan 26-30, London UK Mar 2-6)
www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

An internationally recognised program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.

Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism.www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

Moment of Truth at Starbucks

Starbucks actively manage every single moment of truth to ensure the experience they create is optimal and aligned with the successful customer outcome.

It isn’t some corporate slogan about the customer at the heart, it is literally  


“When we are fully engaged, we connect with, laugh with, and uplift the lives of our customers – even if just for a few moments.” 
http://www.starbucks.com/about-us/company-information/mission-statement

Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
(Warwick UK Sep 15-19, Edmonton Canada Sep 22-26, Las Vegas US Sep 29, Sydney Australia Oct 27-31, Brisbane Australia Nov 3-7, Dubai UAE Dec 7-11, Orlando US Jan 22-23, Denver US Jan 26-30, London UK Mar 2-6)
www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

An internationally recognised program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.

Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism.
www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

Customer Experience definitions

There are various definitions of Customer Experience including 
“ ‘Customer Experience Management’ represents the discipline, methodology and/or process used to comprehensively manage a customer’s cross-channel exposure, interaction and transaction with a company, product, brand or service.” (Bernd Schmitt 2003)
Customer Experience is how customers perceive their interactions with your company. (Forrester 2010)
Customer Experience is the customer’s perceptions and related feelings caused by the one-off and cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier’s employees, systems, channels or products. (Gartner 2013)
Customer Experience is the embodiment of a brand, and of each and every interaction between an organisation and a customer. (Cap Gemini 2013)
Customer experience (CX) is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods and/or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. (Wiki 2014)
We take exception with all these definitions.

They do go some of the way to describing an aspect of customer experience, however fall way short in terms of the everyday reality of our digital age. We need a broad view that encompasses all aspects of a customer experience, not just necessarily the encounters and feelings directly experienced by a customer. 


We need to get scientific about the customer experience. 
In this way our newly engineered processes and the complete customer experience can operate at 70-80% lower cost, 50-60% improved customer service and 3-4 times revenue improvements. In our definition of Customer Experience this is referred to as winning the Triple Crown. The concurrent and sustained ability to reduce costs, improve service and grow revenues simultaneously. 

Let’s paint a picture – a duck on the mill pond. What the customer sees and feels is the duck on the surface, however a great deal of effort to move the duck takes place out of view, below the surface if you like. That is a fundamental part of the customer experience. So our definition encompasses this idea – “Customer Experience is the collective energy and effort that produces the engineered encounter to provide value and substance to a customer” (Towers/Dodkins 2014). It is an understanding of the complete duck if you like.
 
Through this definition we can indeed get scientific about the customer experience. For instance to deliver the desired experience we must clearly articulate the cause and effect of work. A simple observation is that all work is ultimately the result of a customer interaction, somewhere, sometime. Another is that of the Successful Customer Outcome (SCO). 

We can shape the experience and expectations of customers and formulate measures that go way beyond the legacy production line mindsets. In fact we can better create and modify technologies that support the delivery of the SCO. 

Through this engineered understanding we can also contrast the effort currently undertaken and assess its contribution to the SCO. If it doesn’t contribute then potentially stop doing it. 
In this way our newly engineered processes and the complete customer experience can operate at 70-80% lower cost, 50-60% improved customer service and 3-4 times revenue improvements. In our definition of Customer Experience this is referred to as winning the Triple Crown. The concurrent and sustained ability to reduce costs, improve service and grow revenues simultaneously. 

Amazons tale of Outside-In (or working backwards as Jeff Bezos calls it)

This slide deck is a wonderful illustration of the hard work underway in the Customer Experience arena. Delivered by Pascal Spelier (www.finno.nl) – link with him here – it demonstrates how you connect customer journeys with process transformation.

The same old same old.

Business has changed forever.

If the top team tells the people who are in charge of the coach and horses to make sports cars it isn’t going to work. Don’t be surprised if they deliberately do not understand.

To realize the full benefits of the digital age you need to look at things differently and then do stuff in original ways. You need to see things Outside-In. 

Work in Progress includes Amazon, Southwest Airlines, Emirates, Samsung, Google, Zara.. to name a few. Are you coach and horses, or do you belong with the future?

Enabling customer centric business through process (workshop)

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?!
Well I certainly hope not as we host a 3 hour workshop on 29 Sep at Caesars Palace at the The Business Performance Excellence Summit. Attendees will potentially have their opinion and practice of process changed forever with hands-on insights, tools and techniques. I will be sharing some of the content from my upcoming book “High Performance Organizations” and providing 10+ Gb of information as takeaways.

Join me and the team from IQPC to see what will happen in Vegas.
Here’s the skinny of the workshop with links:

Workshop link | Conference link
Classically process activity has focused on improving productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. Methods and approaches have evolved over decades to help organizations streamline, remove waste and standardize processes to great effect. In fact the American economic success story can be attributed to these fine efforts from global companies. However times have changed and we must change with them.

This session will discuss and review some of the ‘new’ approaches and techniques developed in 21st century leading companies from diverse sectors such as aviation, pharmaceutical, retail fashion, technology and banking. We will look at the common ingredients of their success and how using the power of process linked with customer centric strategy and operations produces a winning and sustainable formula suited to the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Delegates will go away with:
• Overview of the ‘new’ methods and approaches
• Three proven techniques to provide immediate cost reductions, revenue improvements and customer satisfaction improvements
• The 101 Guide to linking process to successful customer outcomes
• In addition delegates will gain access to (a) quick guides, (b) videos, (c) case studies and (d) work sheets for immediate use
• Copy of Steve Towers latest book, The High Performance Organization


Workshop link | Conference link

Oh and let’s finish with a Julius Ceasarism (slightly edited)

Customer Experience trumps standardization

A restaurant chain might not be the first place that comes to mind as a hub of innovative thinking–a consequence perhaps of the corporate motherships that standardize everything from the order-taker’s scripted lines to the clamshell boxes presented on abundant plastic trays.

Panera CEO Ron Shaich:
“SOME PEOPLE CONFUSE PANERA 2.0 AS A TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION. IT ISN’T. IT’S A SOLUTION FOR GUEST SATISFACTION.
IT’S ABOUT CHANGING THE GUEST EXPERIENCE.“

Review the full story at: http://bit.ly/CXuseyourloaf

CEMMethod (updated) download new material

I hope you are well. Where has this year gone?

** CEMMethod v. 10 **
As with all these things Customer Experience Management continues to develop as organizations mature and understand better the need to align everything they do to the successful customer outcome. And in the spirit of new boots and pants we have updated the CEMMethod and associated glossary to version ten. Eleven years after its public launch now with 40+ individual techniques and approaches designed to hand hold you through the tricky territory of reframing process Outside-In.

** Updated Training program **
Naturally the training has evolved alongside the latest thinking and practice in the worlds leading organizations, so if you need a refresher talk to us about the very special pricing. If you have colleagues who should adopt the CEMMethod and become qualified business process professionals then join us for three or five day sessions at a venue near you soon.

** CPP Masters program **
Johannesburg, Sydney, Brisbane, Dubai, Denver, Orlando, London, Singapore http://bit.ly/BPGroupCPP

CEMMethod (v10) – download the guide and glossary –https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vqle3vskzekqql2/AADJ9iMtWS-sz1cRO6-d0tuBa?dl=0

Note the links expire January 30, 2015

Ciao
Steve


Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program
(Orlando US Jan 22-23, Denver US Jan 26-30, London UK Mar 2-6)
www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

An internationally recognised program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.

Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism.www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

Customer Experience is BMW

“The dealership experience is as old as the car industry, roughly one hundred years old. While cars have changed, the retail experience is much the same as it was one hundred years ago,” says Dr. Ian Robertson Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Sales and Marketing BMW.

BMW leaders asked themselves “what business are we really in?” and determined to move beyond “just automotive”. In fact automotive describes more of what is done, rather than the result and outcome that is achieved, and in this digital enabled market it is more important than ever to align the business to the desired successful customer outcomes.

According to Robertson it led to “a complete redevelopment of BMW’s digital world, the physical experience at the dealership, and how our people interact with customers in the sales process.” Looking at next practice in organizations such as Apple and Disney, BMW created a new role in its dealerships—the product genius. The BMW product genius is a non-commissioned expert who invests as long as it takes to help shoppers with their choices. “The product genius is not encumbered by the sale process and is not motivated to sell a car,” Robertson responded. “His motivation is customer satisfaction.”
According to BMW, product geniuses are appearing at dealerships in France, the United Kingdom, China and the Netherlands before finally arriving in the United States.
“The objective here is to better support customers with in-depth product knowledge as well as enabling the customer to better utilize and configure products in accordance with their particular needs,” said BMW in a statement. “As the product genius needs to be mobile, he or she will be equipped with a state-of-the-art Information Management System on a tablet device, allowing, for example, product configuration and in-depth explanation of features supported by visuals and films.”
Robertson made an observation that applies to most business ventures in today’s digital economy: “What we have done in the past is definitely, definitely, definitely, not good enough for the future.”