Performance Perspectives

Author Archives: Bob Champagne

Post #100 -Blogging on Performance Excellence…

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Time for a little celebration…And reflection…

While I’ve spent a little over two decades consulting and practicing in the area of Performance Management, blogging and writing in the online arena (as we know know it) is still relatively new to me. Sure,  I’ve written my share of traditional articles and case studies over the past several years around specific projects and experiences, but maintaining a “steady stream” of online content via the blogosphere is a different game altogether.

As you can tell from the title, I am viewing today as a bit of a milestone in that it is my 100th post for this particular blog. And while the frequency has varied more than I would have liked (from monthly to weekly to now almost daily), I feel I have now settled into a bit of a rhythm.  And from the feedback that I’ve received; the frequency, content, balance of topics, and the ability of the blog to stimulate healthy dialogue and debate, appears to have hit an optimal point. At least for me, and for now.

Nonetheless, I am continuously reminded that this is just a starting point for me, and while there is some pride in having hit the 100 mark, I am still humbled by how much I still have to learn. The blogs and posts that I read, be it though links on Social Media, or my ever expanding “Google Reader queue” , continue to amaze me. Everyday, I see something new, from a topic I want to expand on, to a new tactic I want to deploy.

So today, I will try and deviate from my typical content focus of Performance Management , and focus a little more heavily on sharing what I have learned through these first 100 posts. However, I suspect, that before the post is concluded (maybe sooner), I will somehow “wind my way back” to a performance management connection or implication. Hey, its just the nature of the beast!

Lessons Learned…

I realize this isn’t the first, or last post you’ll read on the “lessons learned” of blogging or writing in today’s online environment.

In fact, the number of “how to’s” in the arena of blogging, and all the derivatives of it; from how to drive traffic to your blog site, to how to use your blog to drive up your “follow count” and online “klout”, is reaching almost nauseating proportions. So much so that I struggled on whether or not I even wanted to go there at all. Let’s face it, a lot of what’s written on the topic is either pure babble, or so overtly self serving (apparent when the content on the page you’re directed to is weighted 90% toward ads and sales pitches, and only 10% to what little content remains), that it screams “TURN ME OFF” from the very first click.

The reason that I am continuing on with this is that I am also certain that there is some genuine interest by people like me who are in fact using this channel in the spirit with which I believe it was intended. That is, they are using this space  to engage in the kind of open dialogue and learning that will enhance and grow the area in which we share a common interest (the “rising tide” so to speak). Of course, most of us who use this vehicle in our professional endeavors have made some linkage (albeit subtle)  to their business or market development process. But overall, the business blog is more about brand and identity than it is an overt attempt to generate a quick “ad click through” or online sale of  Viagra.

So if you’re in my camp on that perspective, and are genuinely partaking in, or continuing your blogging activity for the purposes of learning, growth, and long term relationship building, then read on. If not, it’s probably best you tune out now. These are not tips on making your first million in the next 30 days. If you’re looking for that, you’re in the wrong place.

My Top 5 Lessons Learned…

Before I dive in, let me say a few words to bloggers who are new at this. There is a LOT of junk out there on the “how to’s” of blogging, as there are good tutorials on getting started. While you may find this post useful, it is not designed to be a complete “get started” guide, but rather some of the most important lessons learned for me ( i.e. Things that took a lot of trial and error to get close to right. Things you won’t learn in a 2 minutes guide to blogging). So if you’re new to all of this, try and get a good primer. You won’t have to look far, as about one on every 10 twitter posts relates to these kind of “how to’s”. I guarantee you, they will cover all the bases (importance of frequency, brevity, storytelling, engagement, actionable lists and suggestions, distribution channels, ..the list goes on.) Not worth wasting space on that here.

So what lies below are those “other” lessons learned that you probably won’t find in that online cookbook of blogging:

  • Develop and harness your “idea machine”– Some bloggers will tell you that it’s good to carve out time everyday to generate ideas and fodder for future posts. While that may work for some, it’s never worked for me. Ideas hit me at various times throughout the day or night. So what works for me is to keep a log of ideas whenever they hit you (I write these down on a notepad or as an email to myself on my phone). Once a week or so, I use the draft feature on the WordPress blog site to get these “in the queue”, but only as titles at first. I fill in the body of those drafts as ideas come to me, and when I’ve got enough to work with, it only takes an hour or so to bang out a post. So instead of taking an hour a day to “create”, I’m literally creating all the time, logging ideas as I go. Instead, the hour I spend each day is on writing the actual post from one of the drafts in the queue.
  • Work within, and outside your “sandbox”– “They say” you should always write about what you know and are comfortable with. Perhaps that’s good advice when you are starting out, but as time goes on, challenge yourself to climb into the unknown a bit. I’m not talking about something completely unrelated (although that can also be good on occasion), but maybe an area that you haven’t applied your discipline to before- a new function, process, discipline, etc. This is as much about your learning as it is about communicating your ideas to others. Over time, you’ll find that working outside of your “sweet-spot” will not only open new doors for you in applying your expertise to new areas and applications, but will begin spark new ideas. Staying fixed within your comfort zone will force your idea queue to stagnate quickly, and will also prevent the type of learning and growth that is possible as you move forward.
  • Become a feedback “junkie”- Let’s face it, good feedback is not always the easiest thing to listen to. But we all have experienced the benefits that are generated from good feedback, and we inherently understand “why” we should crave it. We also understand that feedback from different sources has different value. Feedback from close friends and colleagues is much more valuable than it is from someone who doesn’t know you from Adam.The problem is that when you begin blogging, feedback will come from literally everywhere, the the explicit feedback you get in the comment section of your blog, to the indirect feedback you receive through your re-tweets and readership counts will become literally overwhelming for some. And when that happens, the temptation is to ignore it, either literally (simply by “turning off” comments feature on your blog), or by simply ignoring feedback from your “digital” network (in lieu of that comes to you via your good old “analog” friends). But in doing that, you’ll not only eliminate all of the unhelpful feedback, you’ll also eliminate a new source for those “future pearls” that will really make a difference in your growth and development. So instead of limiting the size of the “feedback pipe”, I say get better at how you filter the feedback that flows through it. The old adage “take what you like and leave the rest” is sage advice in this arena. Instead of getting upset or stewing over a particular comment or someone who disagrees with your point, simply thank the  contributor and file it away for potential future reflection. Then move onto the next. As your network and feedback stream grows, you’ll find that your new “digital best friends” will emerge that are just as important to your growth as your long time trusted analog ones. And once you find those, embracing that feedback through active dialogue and debate will really begin to lift your game. It takes time to make those distinctions and learn how to apply your “internal filter”. But getting good at this will multiply your learnings many times over.
  • Design a routine that works for you- I touched on this in point #1, but there is more to the routine than just writing. Getting good at this (and I am FAR away from mastering it myself) does take commitment. While it does not have to, nor should it, consume your every waking hour (lest it become like an an addictive “drug” of choice), it does take time. And that time NOT all about writing. For me, that  routine is simple. First, I spend an hour in the morning (something I do anyway) to read and learn Only now, instead of doing it via newspapers and an RSS reader, I do it on my mobile device with an application like “Pulse” that lets me quickly scan and read much quicker than before. It also gives me one click access to sharing posts I like “on the spot”. But the point is that my morning hour is about 75% reading, and 25% sharing what others have written. It also serves to feed the idea queue I mentioned above. Second, I spend about an hour late afternoon or early evening writing a new post from one of the “drafts” that are already mostly populated in my queue. If you get good at #1 above, this is a very easy step and the speed with which you write increases quickly. Finally, usually late in the evening, and often in bed with my iPad, I set aside some time for engaging others. Of course, like most of you, I engage throughout the day, dropping a post or two on twitter, and responding to others if I happen to have a few spare moments in a cab or on an airplane. But at night, my time is reserved for quality engagement like responding to someone else’s blog post via a well thought out response or some other type of “direct” interaction via email or message board. Now all of that may sound like a lot, but only one of those 3 hours represents something new (the actual blog post itself). All the rest is stuff I would have normally done, but simply changed the manner in which i do it so that it now serves multiple purposes.
  • Take the word “perfection” out of your vocabulary- … at least for this part of your life. Blogging by its nature is not formal “article writing”, although a few of your posts may evolve toward that. It is about getting your ideas on “paper” and engaging others to take that dialogue to another level. Sure, it makes sense to do a quick proof so that you don’t distract your audience, but this is not “book editing”. You should be comfortable trading off a small typo here or there, for the speed and flexibility that is necessary to create and participate in dialogue and learning. I’ve seen people (your’s truly included) spend so much time polishing something to perfection, that the topic and debate has come and gone by the time you’re ready to post. In this area, shoot to be “good” but not “perfect”.

I’ll mention one more thing, but I’ll keep it separate from the rest because you’ll see this discussed in a lot of other places. And that is  the importance of measuring your progress (See, I told you I’d get back to the performance management discipline before long). Seriously though, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Early on, your friends and colleagues (both analog and digital in variety) will  be a good enough barometer for you. But over time, as your audience gets more diverse, it will be helpful to start looking at some more formal indicators. Between WordPress and Twitter, you’ll have most of what you need at first. All you’re looking for is 3 things. First, what is happening to readership (the number itself is less important that the growth). Are you seeing week on week, or month on month, gains? Second, and more importantly, are you getting some secondary effect through email forwards or re-tweets? (btw- for my own tracking, I only count re-tweets from people who I can tell viewed the article, or who I know well enough to trust. Beware of those who Re-tweet a 10 paragraph post within a nano-second of your initial post!) And finally, while it’s not your primary objective at first, you should start looking at whether or not you are making a connection to your business (if that is in fact a secondary objective for you). I’m not talking about sales or ‘click-throughs’ per se, but simply whether you driving people to the objective you have, be it referrals, visitors to you company’s website, or something else that is important to you.

More lessons await…

Like I said before, there are hundreds of other tips you will encounter, whether you try to or not. As you begin to use social media more, you will get literally bombarded with helpful (and unhelpful) tips and you can’t and won’t avoid them all. So whether you try or not, you’ll get lots of tactics to try out, from where to place your twitter button and RSS feed, to the best way to syndicate your good posts.

And as your network grows, so will your feedback. Some will be helpful and some wont. Again, take what you like and leave the rest for your “bank for downstream consideration”. Also, as you’re network and readership grows, you need to stay alert to the principle of quality over quantity. That goes for your posts, AND your network. While you may amass a significant following, a good rule of thumb is that only 1 out of ever 20 followers (at best) are what I would call “true digital friends”. That is not meant to disparage any of your followers, but just as you trust some of your “analog friends” more than you do others, the same will apply in digital space. These may not necessarily be those with the biggest following or highest klout scores (most often, they’re not). Rather, they are those who engage you and provide you with quality feedback, good ideas, and have similar interests and objectives. So make  an ongoing commitment too identifying and harvesting these friendships, and growing  these relationships.

Here’s to another 100!

Of course the beauty of writing posts like this is that you are never “right or wrong”. They are YOUR (in this case MINE) experiences to share. And if someone disagrees or wishes to embellish, you’ll no doubt get that wonderful feedback in your “comments” for you to process as you like.

Thanks for reading and here’s to the next 100 posts!

b

Author: Bob Champagne is Managing Partner of onVector Consulting Group, a privately held international management consulting organization specializing in the design and deployment of Performance Management tools, systems, and solutions. Bob has over 25 years of Performance Management experience and has consulted with hundreds of companies across numerous industries and geographies. Bob can be contacted at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com

Data, Metrics, and Information- Are we better off than we were 4 years ago?

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Data, data…all around us…

Most of the projects I work on day in and day out involve data to varying degrees. I use data quite extensively in all of the assessments I do on organizational and operational performance. I use it heavily whenever I benchmark a company’s processes versus a comparable peer group. Data is at the very core of any target setting process. And, of course, data is (or at least should be) the beginning, and a continuous part of any gap analysis and any subsequent improvements that follows.

Today, the hunger that organizations have for good data has reached such unprecedented levels, that whole industries have developed in and around the domain of  what we now call “Business Intelligence” or BI. Having consulted to organizations over the last three decades, I’ve seen this hunger level increase steadily throughout the entire period. But no more so than in the past few years.

However, despite all the gyrations that we’ve gone through over the years, one of the first things I hear from C-Suite Executives is that they still feel  “Data rich and information poor”. So I’ll start this post off in the words of late President Ronald Regan by asking, “Are we better off or worse off than we were 4 years ago (in terms of translating data into useful and actionable information)?”

So are we better off than we were 4 years ago?

As any good politician, I would have to hedge a bit, and say yes, and no. And appropriately so I think.

We are most certainly better in our ability to “access” the data. If you’ve lived through the same decades as I have , you will remember the painstaking efforts we all made to extract data out of those proverbial “source systems” (when “SAS routines” had nothing to do with the SaaS of today). Everything from the data inside of our source systems, to the tools we use to access the data, to the ways in which we report and visualize the results has moved forward at lightening speed. And so, from that standpoint, we are, in fact, better off.

But on the other side of the coin, our tools have, in most cases, outpaced the abilities of our organizations and their leadership to truly leverage them. At a basic level, and in part because of the technology itself, we often have more data than we know what to do with (the proverbial “data overload”). Some would say that this is just a byproduct of  how wide the “data pipe” has become. And at some level, that’s hard to argue.

But I think the answer goes well beyond that.

“Data rich, information poor”…still?

In large measure, yes. The bigger issue in my view is the degree to which the organization’s skills and cultural abilities enable (or better said, disable) them to effectively utilize data in the right ways. Most companies have put such a large premium on data quality and the ability to extract it through their huge investments in IT infrastructure and financial reporting, that it has in some ways forced leadership to “take it’s eye off the ball” with respect to the way in which that data is operationalized.

So from the perspective of using the data to effect smarter operational decisions, I’d say the successes are few and far between.

Of course, you can google any of the “big 3″ IT vendors and find a myriad of testimonials about how much better their decision making processes have gotten. But look at who’s doing the speaking in the majority of cases. It is largely from the Financial and IT communities, where  the changes have been most visible. But it’s in many of these same companies where operating executives and managers still clamor for better data and deeper insights.

So while at certain levels, and in certain vertical slices of the business, the organization is becoming more satisfied with its reporting capabilities, translating that information into rich insights and good fodder for problem solving still poses a great challenge. And unfortunately, better systems, more data, and more tools will not begin to bridge that gap until we get to the heart of some deeper cultural dynamics.

Needed: A new culture of “problem solvers”

Early in my career, I was asked to follow and accept what appeared to me at the time to be a strange “mantra”: “If it ain’t broke, ASK WHY?” That sounded a little crazy to me having grown up around the similar sounding but distinctly different phrase: “If it aint’t broke, DONT fix it”.

That shift in thinking took a little getting used to, and began to work some “muscles” I hadn’t worked before. For things that were actually working well, began asking ourselves “why?”. At first, we began to see areas where best practices and lessons learned could be “exported to other areas. But over time, we quickly learned that what appeared to be well functioning processes, wasn’t so well functioning after all. We saw processes, issues, and trends that pointed to potential downstream failures. In essence, we were viewing processes that were actually broken, but appeared to be A-ok because of inefficient (albeit effective) workarounds.

“Asking why?” is a hard thing to do for processes that appears to be working well. It goes against our conventional thinking and instincts, and forces us to ask questions…LOTS of questions. And to answer those questions requires data…GOOD data. Doing this in what appeared initially to be a healthy process was at first difficult. You had to dig deeper to find the flaws and breakdowns. But by learning how to explore and diagnose an apparently strong processes, doing that in an environment of process

 

failure became second nature. In the end, we not only learned how to explore and diagnose both: The apparent “good processes”, and those that were inherently broken. And for the first time in that organization, a culture of problem solving began to take root.

Prior to that point, the organization looked at problems in a very different way. Performance areas were highlighted, and instinctively management proceeded to solve them. Symptoms were mitigated, while root causes were ignored. Instead of process breakdowns being resolved, they were merely transferred to other areas where those processes became less efficient. And what appeared to be the functioning parts of the business, were largely overlooked, even though many of them were headed for a” failure cliff”.

Indication, Analysis, and Insight

Few organizations invest in a “culture of problem solving” like the one I describe above. Even the one I reference above, deployed these techniques in a selected area where leadership was committed to creating that type of environment. But throughout industry, the investment in generating these skills, abilities and behaviors across the enterprise, pales in comparison to what is invested annually in our IT environment. And without bringing that into balance, the real value of our data universe will go largely unharvested.

There are a myriad of ways a company can address this. And some have. We can point to the icons of the quality movement for one, where cultures were shaped holistically across whole enterprises. More recently, we’ve seen both quality and efficiency (more critical to eliminating waste and driving ROI) get addressed universally within companies through their investments in the Six Sigma, and more recent Lean movements.

But if I had to define a place to start (like the business unit example I described above), I would focus on three parts of the problem solving equation, that are essential to building the bridge toward a more effective Enterprise Performance Management process.

  • Indication– We need to extend our scorecards and dashboards to begin covering more operational areas of our business. While most of us have “results oriented” scorecards that convey a good sense of how the “company” or “business unit” is doing, most have not gone past that to the degree we need to. And if we have, we’ve done it in the easier, more tangible areas (sales, production, etc). Even there however, we focus largely on result or lagging indicators versus predictive or leading metrics. And in cases where we have decent data on the latter, it is rarely ever connected and correlated with the result oriented data and metrics. How many companies have truly integrated their asset registers and failure databases with outage and plant level availability? How many have integrated call patterns and behavioral demographics with downstream sales and churn data? All of this is needed to get a real handle on where problems exist, or where they may likely arise in the future.
  • Analysis– When many companies hear the word “analysis”, they go straight to thinking about how they can better “work the data” they have. They begin by taking their scorecard down a few layers. The word “drill down” becomes synonymous with “analysis”. However, while they each are critical activities, they play very separate roles in the process. The act of “drilling down” (slicing data between plants, operating regions, time periods, etc.) will give you some good indication where problems exist. But  it is not  “real analysis” that will get you very far down the path of defining root causes and ultimately bettersolutions. And often, it’s  why we get stuck at this level. Continuous spinning of the “cube” gets you no closer to the solution unless you get there by accident. And that is certainly the long way home. Good analysis starts with good questions. It takes you into the generation of a hypothesis which you may test, change and retest several times. It more often than not takes you into collecting data that may not (and perhaps should not) reside in your scorecard and dashboard. It requires sampling events and testing your hypotheses. And it often involves modeling of causal factors and drivers. But it all starts with good questions. When we refer to “spending more time in the problem”, this is what we’re talking about. Not merely spinning the scorecard around its multiple dimensions to see what solutions “emerge”.
  • Insight– I’d like to say when you do the above two things right, insights emerge. And sometimes they do. But more often than not, insights of the type and magnitude we are looking for are usually not attainable without the third leg of this problem solving stool. Insight requires its own set of skills which revolve around creativity, innovation, and “out of the box” thinking. And while some of us think of these skills as innate, they are very much learnable. But rather than “textbook learning” (although there are some great resources on the art of innovation that can be applied here), these abilities are best learned by being facilitated through the process, watching and learning how this thought process occurs, and then working those skills yourself on real life problems.

Dont forget “line of sight”

A few days ago I wrote a post on the concept of “line of sight” integration of your performance management content and infrastructure. It’s important here to reinforce the importance of tracking all of this back to that underlying construct.

The process of operationalizing information, is but one of many in the “line of sight” chain from your company’s vision, to the operational solutions that manifest here. And this process of operationalizing change is only a beginning of the journey you will make to translating these gains into ROI for the business (what I’ve referred to before as “value capture” or “value release”).

So as you navigate your path through the above activities, its useful to keep it in context and remember that the desired end state is to enable your business to see that clear “line of sight” from the very top of the organization right down to the work-face.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

There’s not enough space in a post like this to elaborate as much as we could on each of these. And creating real cultural change clearly involves more than a few quick bullet points. But as has been my tradition in this blog, my intent is to introduce you to principles and techniques that can get you started on this journey, or increase the ability for you to navigate the road your on.

b

Author: Bob Champagne is Managing Partner of onVector Consulting Group, a privately held international management consulting organization specializing in the design and deployment of Performance Management tools, systems, and solutions. Bob has over 25 years of Performance Management experience and has consulted with hundreds of companies across numerous industries and geographies. Bob can be contacted at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com

Apology Not Accepted! Beyond the empty words of a typical customer apology…

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Sorry seems to be the hardest word…

Almost everyone, at least from my era, remembers that old song by Sir Elton John. While you may or not like his “style” of late, you’ve got to agree, the guy does make some good tunes!

But no, this is not a blog about music, or any other topic that could emanate from a reference to Sir Elton.This is actually a post about a serious condition that is infecting the culture of many businesses today. For lack of a better term, I’ll just call it “the propensity to apologize”.

We are all taught at a very early age to say “I’m sorry” any time we harmed another person. And throughout our lives, we say it often. We say it when we offend someone we like (or sometimes even those we don’t like!). We say it when we bump into someone accidentally on the street. We say it when we interrupt or treat someone inappropriately. Initially, the words “I’m sorry” had a quite literal meaning, often used after injuring or harming someone. But over time, they began to take on broader meanings, from expressing sympathy for someone’s loss to more general feelings of regret.

Real regret or “empty words”?

But like so many words that once had quite a literal meaning, the words “I’m sorry” are now used  for a wide array of purposes, and are heard repeatedly in conversations all around us. Just listen closely, and count how many times those words are spoken throughout a normal day. And while those words were once meant to “comfort” someone, they sometimes now have the opposite effect.

If you’ve ever spent time around someone in a 12 step recovery program, you know that the process of “making amends” are a big part of their journey. There is a whole body of literature on that very topic, but suffice it to say that anyone who really understands the concept of “amends”, will tell you that it goes way beyond the words “I’m sorry”. And while the spectrum of interpretation for the word “amends” can even vary widely; from the most literal definitions found in webster (“reparation or compensation for a wrong inflicted”), to a more fundamental willingness to do your part in ‘righting a wrong’, the principle remains the same. For those who take the words “I’m sorry” seriously, and who truly use them in the spirit that I believe they were intended, the words are more about ‘doing what you can to make the situation (or relationship) better’, than are about simply expressing regret or disappointment.

But today, those words seem to take on a much more shallow meaning and, more often than not, can actually have the opposite effect from “creating comfort” or “a commitment to repairing something that is broken”.

I was reminded of this when a family member told me of a recent trip he took. When sharing the details of his trip he said this to me:

“From the time I left my home until I got to my final destination, the words “I’m sorry ” were used 22 times…What the hell does that mean?”

In not one of those interactions did he feel that the words were sincere. He felt this mostly because they were expressed in such a casual manner that the “apology” appeared to him as simply a tactic used to get the customer to ‘move on’ in the process as it was designed. In other words, to him,  the expression ONLY meant that the agent (or whatever provider was saying the words) was telling him (the customer) something like this: ‘Look, I’m as inconvenienced by this as you are, but let’s face it, nothing is going to change the outcome, so lets both just move on’. Perhaps they were intended to be listened that way, or perhaps they weren’t; but they created that impression nonetheless.

There is a whole body of knowledge out there on how linguistics can generate a wide array of emotions, perceptions, and even somatic reactions in people. I won’t get into all that here, because we all know that we can be better speakers AND better listeners, and that doing so can often prevent these kind of interactions from ruining our day. So for the purposes of this post, I’m going only to focus on the “speaking” side of the equation, and perhaps a little on the culture of the organization behind the expression of the apology.

Ok, “you’re sorry”, now what?

In a business transaction,  the words “I’m sorry” are usually used after something in the transaction has gone awry- and a point at which the customer’s state of mind is, shall we say, “altered”. At this point, the customer often doesn’t give ‘one hill of beans’ about the words spoken, but instead just want the problem resolved. Sometimes that’s possible (often in more cases than not), and sometimes it isn’t. But when those words are spoken, there is often renewed “hope” (no matter how small)  that they will leave the exchange in “better shape” than when it was initiated. And when we look at it like this, that changes the game a bit.

So what would have to happen for the words “I’m sorry” to truly have a meaningful impact, and an outcome that both customer and provider felt better about?

Solving this problem is not an easy one. And it needs to involve things at the front line level in terms of the words, tone, and behavior of the person delivering them. But more importantly, it has to involve changes to the culture within which that person operates, and the way in which that culture views commitments. More specifically, the way in which commitments are made, managed, and delivered upon. After all, most if not all business transactions revolve around commitments.

There is a great body of knowledge written on the subject of “commitment management”, and I encourage you to spend some time exploring it. There are many practices that can help in this arena, all of which can be learned, shared, and embedded within the culture of your business. Some of them are referenced in my previous blogs, and I’ll make an attempt to consolidate those for you in the future.

Toward a “commitment based” culture…

But for our purposes here, let’s look at what those practices would look like in this specific example:

1. The tone and perspective from which the words were said, would come from a standpoint of “resolution” rather than that of a simple transaction. That is, there would be an intent to change something in the future, and yes, the front line rep would feel some accountability for making that happen, even if it’s simple escalation of the matter after the immediate transaction has concluded. While all of us want problems resolved in the ‘here and now’, we are certainly more “comforted” when we feel that there is an increased likelihood of a process fix, than we are when we are just serving as a ‘stopping point’ in a broken one.

2. The company and its leadership would have an effective process for seeking out (and acting on) feedback. At a minimum that means not punishing feedback, which unfortunately is what happens all too often (look to airline pilot protocols for some great practices here). But it also involves actually encouraging it, and acting on it when it comes to light. While feedback is often withheld out of fear of punishment (which there really is no excuse for in leadership these days), feedback is often withheld because the individual simply feels it will not be acted upon.

3. Acting on the feedback, and the results of fixes would become evident. Within short order, the employee would begin to see small changes in both the process and result, and would openly talk about what they were seeing. And ultimately, it would become visible to customers, little by little. And how would this happen, you ask?

4. It’s a little thing called measurement. In problem solving terms, we would call this the “M” in the DMAIC model (Define-MEASURE-analyze improve-control). It would involve an early action by leadership (perhaps initiated by front line management if necessary) to establish a baseline of the broken process, and a commitment to measuring and reporting future changes in performance. Only then will those changes have a chance of being noticed, and further improved upon.

It’s a big job, but start now!

Today, unfortunately,  the words of apology don’t even begin to scratch the surface of connoting real change. When they are spoken, they are simply an attempt by a provider to “get absolution” (in the form of a customer proceeding to the next step of the process) without having to do anything differently.

As I said in my last post, fixing a problem should start with solid leadership, as the basis for building a true “commitment based culture”. And the steps outlined above are only a glimpse of what is necessary to get there. But we can initiate change by recognizing what success looks like, and beginning to demonstrate these practices, even of they are only in the pockets of the business in which we reside and/or lead.

Next time you hear, or say the words “I’m sorry”...think bigger. Think less about it being a regretful end to a transaction, and more about it as a renewed commitment to excellence in delivery.

b

Author: Bob Champagne is Managing Partner of onVector Consulting Group, a privately held international management consulting organization specializing in the design and deployment of Performance Management tools, systems, and solutions. Bob has over 25 years of Performance Management experience and has consulted with hundreds of companies across numerous industries and geographies. Bob can be contacted at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com

When Did “Common Sense” Go Extinct from the workplace?

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When a Customer Service problem becomes an organizational one…

This evening, as I sat down to write this post, I originally envisioned that it would simply extend on some previous posts about Performance Improvement in the Customer Service and CRM arena. But as I thought through the examples I would use to illustrate my points, I realized just how much this issue touches the entire organization and its culture. So while my examples do revolve mainly around CS, I encourage you to reflect on the broader organizational implications, and by all means, feel free to offer your observations and experiences regardless of the process or function they relate to.

In reading articles, blogs and daily posts on Twitter, etc., you’re likely to find that most discussions focus on the newer channels of CRM. And while I agree that these mediums, largely Social Media and IT/ systems driven, I would venture to say that most of today’s frustrations from customers, are more heavily driven by the more traditional channels (via Call Center, or Face to face) for servicing customers. These more basic delivery channels still occupy the majority of interaction, and while I agree that over time we will see a sea change in that trend, we cannot afford to overlook the damage that is still being caused in the most basic forms of customer interaction.

An “all to common” scenario…

Within that context, let’s fast forward to a recent experience that one of my colleagues had with a CSR in an Insurance Company call center. The interaction went something like this:

  • Customer calls, responds to the voice prompts and spends about a minutes in the hold queue
  • CSR- “Thank you for calling xyz company, would you mind if I placed you on hold?”
  • Customer- “Well actually (click- customer is now speaking into dead silence), I am in my car and I really can’t hold because I may lose a signal and I don’t want to lose my place in the queue”
  • CSR (returns after about 3 minutes into the dead space)- “Thank you for calling xyz company, can I have your account number please?”
  • Customer- “Well let’s back up. You asked me a question of whether I could hold or not, but didn’t give me the opportunity to answer…Did you really want an answer because I was about to say that I could’t hold”
  • CSR- (dead silence/ implies some level of frustration)…followed by “Sir, can you please just give me your account number”
  • Customer- “Like I tried to say, when you clicked off the line, I’m in my car and don’t have it handy. Can you look it up by my phone number or some other way?”
  • CSR (exhales audibly as if inconvenienced)- “Fine, give me your phone number”
  • Customer: “xxx-xxx-xxxx”
  • Rep: (after proceeding through 3 steps of a verification process consuming another 30-45 seconds)- “OK, How may I help you?”
  • Customer: (Explains a bit about his recent storm loss, a roof leak in his kitchen caused by severe “ice damming”- about 2 minutes…)
  • Rep: (asks a few more questions)- what state/county are you located in?,When did the loss occur?, etc.
  • Rep- “Oh wait a second, are you calling about a home loss or an auto loss?”
  • Customer: (with slight sarcasm) “Well, last time I checked, “Ice damming in the kitchen, and roof leaks” don’t usually happen in cars and boats…”
  • Rep: “Well you’re in the auto claims area”
  • Customer: “Maybe I am, and I’m sorry about that, but the system didn’t give me an option to make that distinction”
  • Rep: “Yes, I know, its the same number for both”
  • Customer: Ok
  • Rep: “…so I am going to have to transfer you and will be a bit of a hold since they are quite busy today”
  • Customer: “Well, ok then, please transfer me”
  • Rep: “No problem, but before I do, I have a few questions…”
  • Customer: “Ok, but I’m in a hurry, because I said I’m in my car and I may lose my signal, and I don’t want to through all this again. In fact, Is there a direct number to the homeowners area if we get disconnected?”
  • Rep: “No, you’ll have to go through the same process; …but this will only take a few more seconds”
  • Customer: “…ok, but…”
  • Rep: “Is this your first time calling our claims center?
  • Customer: “yes”
  • Rep: “Were you happy with the serviceI provided you?”
  • Customer: “Ummmm…No, not yet” (again with a little more sarcasm)
  • Rep: “Sir I’m just trying to do my job”
  • Customer: “I know, but…”
  • Rep: “On a scale of 1-5, how would you…”
  • Customer (connection lost. Reason unclear.)

Now, while there were many areas of breakdown here, I would say there were three key ones in this specific exchange. Can you determine what they were?

Breakdowns abound…

First, the rep asked a question, for which she really had no desire to accept an answer to. No doubt, this is a process breakdown that starts with the company and the script it provides the rep with. But after the sarcastic response, and the fact that the customer was on his mobile (a scenario which is very common these days), she should have concluded that forging ahead with the “process” was going to have a bad result. I’d have to give the company an “F” for design of the process/ script, but I’d also flunk the rep for not recognizing the situation and course correcting as appropriate. (By the way, if this type of question is on your script, then either design your process to accept an answer, or change the words to, “sir I have to put you on hold for about x minutes”).

Second, was the verification process being deployed before finding out the right queue the customer needed to be in. Another clear “moment of truth”, if you will, that really failed the customer in this instance, mostly because there was no way for the customer to prevent it. The customer was now “hostage” inside of a “black hole” with no way out, and a cell signal that could very well crap out and leave him with having to replay this ugly scenario. Again, an “F” for the designers of the process, with little if anything the rep could have done to change it at that instance. So my grade for the rep would really have to be an “incomplete”, until I could see whether or not the rep actually communicated the process flaw to the company’s higher ups, and the nature and urgency with which she did so.

But the third breakdown was the main failure point in my view. If their were such thing as an “F-“, I’d hand it out to both the company and the rep. Sadly though, proceeding to a “survey” before the process is even started, is actually something that I experience very frequently. And every time I experience it, I have the same reaction: Anger, followed by amazement, followed by pure resignation to the fact that, for some companies, this is “as good as its going to get” under their current leadership.

Think about this for a second. We have actually allowed an objective of performance improvement  and the tools that enable it (which is really the basis for gathering customer feedback) become its most debilitating barrier to improvement. By asking (sometimes begging) for feedback as the process is playing out, it becomes very visibly all about YOU and not the CUSTOMER. And this goes well beyond “survey madness”. How many times is the customer simply trying  to get transferred to the right person, but instead has to withstand a 5-10 second “expression of gratitude” that often feels like 5 minutes? If we had better vehicles for tapping into the real needs and emotions of the customer (like those “dials” they ask people to use during presidential debates and speeches to detect emotional swings), we’d quickly learn that this stupid “exit interview” we put our customers through before a call transfer, or  upon completion, does NOTHING more than serve the company’s ego.

Organizational and Cultural implications…

Now while most of blame for all of this lies on the leadership of the company, the processes that are behind this madness, and perhaps even the CS community in general (we can’t let the vendors who design call centers, those who write the scripts, and the “survey happy” researchers off the hook here, can we?); I believe the employee carries at least some burden for the mess this continues to create. At some point, common sense needs to take over and put a stop to this. And as unfortunate as it may sound, in these types of cultures, that catalyst sometimes needs to start at the transaction/ front line level.

Ultimately, yes, this is a leadership problem. And its leadership that must create a culture of autonomy that will allow a front line worker to essentially do the manufacturing equivalent of “pushing the stop button on the assembly line”. And, yes, for it to become an embedded organizational value, that will take a lot of work in everything from skills and training, to processes and systems, to fundamental leadership values and behaviors.

But to the front line worker and lower levels of management, I think it is incumbent on you to take a risk, step out of the comfort zone, and apply some common sense to our everyday transactions. Often, management needs you to take their blinders off, and see the problems in clear daylight. And front line employees can be a catalyst in making that happen. But in the end, it will no doubt require stepping out of the  comfort zone.

And while it may be a bit naive to expect employees to take that kind of risk in this economy ( the risk that management will “punish that kind of speaking up” and /or continue to deploy a process as fundamentally broken as the one above), I think survival of the business might very well depend on it.

-b

Author: Bob Champagne is Managing Partner of onVector Consulting Group, a privately held international management consulting organization specializing in the design and deployment of Performance Management tools, systems, and solutions. Bob has over 25 years of Performance Management experience and has consulted with hundreds of companies across numerous industries and geographies. Bob can be contacted at bob.champagne@onvectorconsulting.com

Links Customer Service Articles from “Performance Perspectives”…

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Click below for a direct link to posts related specifically to…

Customer Service and CRM Performance Management Issues

Practicing What I Preach...

Lately, most of my writings on Enterprise Performance Management (i.e. performance measurement, business intelligence, change management, continuous improvement (and the myriad of other topics that fall within the realm of performance management), have revolved around the impact and implications that EPM has on Customer Service.

It’s only natural to me, since I’ve spent such a large part of my career in this space, and I generally believe that the “customer facing” functions and processes (be it call centers, customer storefronts, CRM, marketing, sales, etc.) are the most fertile ground for business change. Why? Because it is the one area that generates some of the highest “value” for the Enterprise (for obvious reasons), is perhaps the most dynamic in terms of change, and generates some of the largest opportunities for business improvement.

Some of theses posts are based on my personal experiences and lessons learned, while others are quite specific and serve as practical applications for applying “best practices” in the Performance Management and business improvement arenas.

Therefore, I’ve decided to create a post with links to just those articles that Customer Service topics, so that you (the #CustServ  crowd on Twitter for example) will have an easy reference to them. Feel free to bookmark this page in the event you want a handy reference to either refer back to, or to browse any of my new posts on the topic. I’ll do my best to keep this updated, and will try to make sure my old posts on the topic are referenced here as well. Alternatively, if you’d like to DM me on twitter @bobchampagne , I’d be happy to add you to an email distribution I maintain for my specific CS posts.

I hope you find this reference useful and convenient for you.

Bob

PS- the reason I included the image of the Apple Store on 5th Avenue is not because I feel that an investment like this is required for good CS (in fact most of their stores are quite simple in their layout and function), but because to date, they still represent for me a good “standard”  or bogey for what we should all be striving to achieve.

Below are the links to the CS Posts (in reverse chronological order):

Those are the ones from 2011 thus far. I’ll go back and add the older ones soon. For now, the above should serve for good “light reading”. Hope you enjoy!!!