“That never happens.” Well it did to me!
While doing research for a presentation for a firm with annual revenues of $2 billion, I visited the franchise nearest to my office. I’d been told that every facility in their entire organization was spotless. The walls were all painted white and all the employees behaved in a certain fashion.
On a scale of 1-10 where 10 is top condition, to my surprise, this place was a 3. The place was dirty. The walls had not been painted in 5 years, at least. The employees, who asked to remain anonymous, told me stories in contradiction to what the CEO and senior management had given me.
Later, when I mentioned the visit to upper managment, without hesitation they said, “Oh, you had to pick that office. We are going to be updating that facility. Why’d you choose that one?” Hey, it was near my office.
What I’ve become accustomed to hearing, and maybe you’re saying as an excuse to customer is, “That doesn’t happen here,” or “This is such a rare occurrence.” I’ve learned that more often than not, the incidences you label “rare” are in fact, more often than not, the most common.
A 99% on-time rate means that your service was late, and who cares about the others. If you were the one in 100 that dies in a hospital, the other 99 don’t matter to your family. What matters is that as management, seeking perfection comes in many forms
1. Outline the entire customer experience from start to finish. Too many managers are so concerned with business growth that they forget taking care of business everyday to the same degree. That means taking the time to write down and process what should happen to a customer in the ultimate condition. An online computer ink cartridge company got me as a customer and then the package arrived 14 days late. When I called they said this was atypical. I tried them again and the package was only 8 days late, causing our office to go pick up a $55.00 package at our local store.
2. Always be checking your own system. If you don’t look at your own system regularly, your customers will learn to see through your façade. A top computer-sales company can’t be testing their systems. We placed a purchase for a much needed server and after documenting 14 hours of conversations with upwards of a dozen employees, it’s easy to find that they must be growing too fast considering so many employees can’t return phone calls, answer questions about their products or even give the proper extensions to call to get help. Every senior manager has in one way or another said that this is atypical
3. Keep your products up to date, including everything from pricing on retail floors to literature used to sell a product or even schematics for products. If you order a part used by one of the top household brand name appliance companies, you will find the exploded parts instructions don’t match the product sent in the bag. The company’s staff will tell you that their employees make every effort to insure that the product in the bag is the correct product.
4. Inspect your own systems regularly. Some companies have this taken care of with internal auditors. However, they too often become so engrained in the systems they miss the obvious.
5. Make sure that what you advertise works or is what you say it will be. You’ve seen picture of products, especially for children, that don’t look that nice in person. A major hotel’s chains just advertised one of the best internet high speed services available. The trouble is that so many have gone to wireless that “great” is inconsistent. In a hotel in Tahoe, the there was not one place in my room where I could get even more than a poor signal strength. When I called the front desk I was told no one could help me because their IT manager quit. Again a rare instance.
Agreeably it’s not easy leading and managing in business, government, or any of the nonprofit sectors. But it’s much easier when you get real with yourself and admit that your organization definitely has room for growth and improvement. When you can look at the organization objectively, rather than through rose-colored glasses, you can see what customers and employees have to struggle with, which is the perfect place to begin your improvements.