| We talked before about the Five Simple Starting | | | | fine line between success and failure. Even the |
| Points for creating the greatest customer | | | | best team with the most experienced |
| experience ever: 1) Focus inside out; look at your | | | | practitioners can slip the wheels off the macadam |
| business the way a customer does, 2) Listen | | | | into a bit of mud when they're running hard and |
| actively, 3) Measure everything from the | | | | it's a little late. The natural reaction is to give it |
| customer's perspective, 4) Maximum joy is your | | | | some gas and steer harder back onto the road, |
| new goal, and 5) Improve constantly. | | | | which throws the back end into the mud and |
| We've talked a lot about how to create the | | | | results in a little more gas, a lot more |
| greatest customer experience ever and fulfill your | | | | over-steering, and suddenly the truck is upside |
| customer's dreams of maximum joy. But it | | | | down, gas tank ablaze, in an alligator filled swamp. |
| doesn't always go well, in fact, sometimes it's a | | | | When it's bad in a service environment the issue |
| total freaking meltdown. Be honest now, we've all | | | | is almost always under-staffing in one form or |
| been there. Sometimes you're not looking for that | | | | another. The "synergy" projections from the |
| one perfect improvement to cap a year of | | | | acquisition were a good fit with the financial |
| steady growth, quality awards, and customer | | | | models, but a bad fit with reality. That |
| accolades. Sometimes you're hanging on by a | | | | re-engineering effort was going to improve cycle |
| thread in the middle of a maelstrom and your | | | | time by 50% so you stopped hiring six months in |
| boss is sawing away on that last little bit of string | | | | advance of an implementation date that is now 18 |
| holding you to the mast. | | | | months overdue. The new CRM system was |
| Just for fun let's look at three simple questions | | | | going to eliminate 70% of the human interactions; |
| that the Chairman almost always asks just before | | | | and so on. Remember under-staffing can occur |
| he kicks you out of the building-or worse tells you | | | | even if you have too many people. If the |
| to clean up the mess. | | | | representatives don't know what to do, or how |
| First, how bad is it? Second, how did it get this | | | | to do it effectively, or don't want to do it, from |
| bad? Third, what do we do now? | | | | the customer's perspective, the building might as |
| First, how bad is it? I was on an operational | | | | well be empty. |
| readiness tour with one company and found a | | | | Note to Chairman on the second point-"Weren't |
| group of 150 employees at a remote site that did | | | | you the one who approved the 20% reduction in |
| not have a boss. Their boss had left 9 months | | | | my operating budget recommended by the |
| before to take another position in another town | | | | process improvement consultants?" |
| with another company and had not even | | | | Third, what do we do now? The fix is always so |
| bothered to resign. He just packed his office and | | | | trite. Remember stop, drop and roll? You can't run |
| left. The employees hadn't mentioned this | | | | away from a fire, you've got to get down in the |
| because they knew that headquarters was busy | | | | dirt and smother the problem. |
| with an acquisition and they didn't want to bother | | | | Assign a dedicated team of your most |
| anyone. | | | | experienced, hard-nosed people and take away |
| How bad is it? I asked one of my function heads | | | | everything else they're doing. Some people are |
| once how far behind we were on inquiry | | | | going to be shell-shocked and burned out; move |
| processing. He said we needed some overtime to | | | | them to the side for a while and help them |
| catch up. I asked how much overtime. He said, | | | | recover. |
| "maybe 30-40% per person for a year." We had | | | | Pour money all over the problem. Your operations |
| 1,500 people in this unit. We were 500-800 people | | | | budget is now officially a joke; you need to save |
| short, the training time for new hires was one | | | | your brand at this point. Throw operational |
| year and attrition was 20%. It would have taken | | | | resources at the nitty gritty smelly underside of |
| less time to explore the surface of Mars than to | | | | the problem; no grand strategies, no mission |
| catch our backlog. | | | | statements--just get to work. Write off the |
| How bad is it? On one project we'd spent a little | | | | low-value inventory as fast as possible to get |
| over $150 million dollars against a budget of $100 | | | | some breathing room. Talk directly to the staff |
| million. I asked the project lead how much more it | | | | on the front line and ask for help. You got them |
| would cost to finish. He walked out of my office, | | | | into this mess, but they'll still help get you out. |
| into his office, shut the door, and emailed me his | | | | Take one tiny step at a time, but really really |
| resignation. | | | | quickly; thousands of steps a day. Report every |
| How bad can it be? We launched 18 new products | | | | morning of every day what you did the day |
| in the space of one year. We congratulated | | | | before to make it better. |
| ourselves on a massive effort and pulled the | | | | Keep running the business while you're fixing the |
| financials to check their profitability. Every single | | | | business; which means a lot of people are going |
| one was losing money; flawlessly implemented | | | | to work seven days a week until its finished |
| massive swirling sinkholes of good money chasing | | | | because you can't hire enough people fast enough |
| bad money down the drain. | | | | to make a difference in the short term. Rinse and |
| Note to Chairman on first point-"It can be real | | | | repeat. |
| bad." | | | | Note to Chairman on the third point-"Do I get to |
| Second, how did it get this bad? There is a very | | | | sleep when it's over? |