Eight Steps to Improving Customer Experience

Transcription

1 Eight Steps to Improving Customer Experience Randall Brandt Founder & Principal

2 Eight Steps to Improving Customer Experience It s been nearly a quarter of a century since John Goodman and his colleagues at TARP called out customer surveys for being ineffective and inactionable. 1 Sadly, not much has changed since then. Recent studies by Forrester and the Temkin Group reveal that most organizations continue to be much better at capturing the voice of the customer than they are at using it: Forrester reports that only about 3 in 10 companies have formal processes for setting priorities for improvement initiatives. Temkin reports that only 3 in 10 companies are successfully making changes or improvements based on customer feedback. Forrester reports that only about 2 in 10 companies track and can verify the success of improvement efforts. 2 It doesn t have to be this way. This paper describes an eight-step process your organization can use to transform learning from the Voice of the Customer into systemic improvements. 1 DEFINE THE ISSUE Use VoC data to conduct a customer experience triage. Do survey results point to specific customer experience elements as areas in need of improvement? Do insights drawn from unsolicited customer communications, social media, and feedback from front-line employees reinforce these survey findings? Do these customer experience elements in need of improvement also strongly influence the probability of customer retention or defection? Do they play a major role in creating brand promoters or detractors? Customer experience elements for which the answer to each of the above questions is yes should be flagged as priorities for action Voice Crafter. All Rights Reserved. 1

3 2 ESTABLISH OWNERSHIP Identify owners for each action item. Ensure that team of owners includes representatives from all parts of the organization that have a hand in shaping what the customer experiences with regard to the action item. Interestingly, some organizations do this for all customer experience elements before even looking at customer feedback. For example, Eastman Chemical, a Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award winner, implemented a customer stewardship process specifying which business units are accountable for each of the measures captured by customer surveys, before surveys actually are conducted and/or results shared. 3 The benefit of this practice is that, when results are shared and one of the measures is identified as an action item, its owners are ready to go to work. Most organizations continue to be much better at capturing the voice of the customer than they are at using it. 3 ENSURE CLARITY & UNDERSTANDING Make sure those who are accountable for taking action understand what the customer wants the organization to do better or differently. Look carefully at survey verbatims and other text data for details about the customer experience element that has been targeted for improvement. Conduct drill-down investigations if necessary. One of the biggest barriers to VoC-driven action is getting enough detail about customer needs and needs to pinpoint where in the organization problems originate. 4 So, ensuring that action item owners have a clear picture of what the customer is trying to tell your organization is critical. 4 IDENTIFY ROOT CAUSES Pinpoint the origins of poor or dissatisfactory customer experiences. Look closely at policies, processes, practices, technology, and people that have a hand in shaping the customer experience element in question. This too can be done for all key customer experience elements prior to conducting the VoC triage described in Step 1. Some organizations use a process known as customer-centric business blueprinting for this purpose. 5 Others wait until an action item has been identified, and then use Six Sigma tools, such as fishbone diagrams or 5 Why s analysis. Whatever approach you choose, make sure action item owners have identified what may need to be fixed or changed before moving ahead Voice Crafter. All Rights Reserved. 2

4 5 GENERATE POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS For each origin or root cause, identify at least one potential corrective action, innovation, or solution. Some improvement teams use brainstorming sessions for this purpose. Others organize kaizen events or utilize techniques like the K-J method. 6 I have found the Nominal Group Technique to be a very effective approach. 7 A key benefit of each of these methods is that they hold evaluation at bay until all potential solutions have been identified and shared with team members. 6 EVALUATE & SELECT SOLUTIONS Once all potential actions and solutions have been generated, each must be evaluated, and a decision must be made whether to include it in the final improvement plan. There are a variety of criteria that can be utilized for this purpose, 8 but I have found six to be particularly useful: Clarity the action or solution is easy to explain and understand Impact the action or solution will really help improve the customer experience Difficulty the action or solution will not be difficult to implement Time the action or solution can be implemented in a timely fashion Cost financial resources are available to implement this action or solution Resources human and other necessary resources are available to implement this action or solution Potential actions and solutions that stand up well to these criteria are the ones with which action item owners will want to move forward. 7 FINALIZE & ENACT PLAN Armed with a set of actions and solutions that pass the test, the owners now can finalize and implement the improvement plan. The team should document the plan in the form of an Improvement Plan Charter. 9 The Charter should include: Description of the action item Summary of key origins and root causes Descriptions of actions to be taken Explanation of how each action will address and resolve one or more root cause 2015 Voice Crafter. All Rights Reserved. 3

5 Team members and other stakeholders who will be responsible for implementation A Gantt Chart or some other means of displaying implementation schedule and key milestones Summary of required financial, human, and other resources Description of expected outcomes and deliverables Measures that will be used to evaluate the success of the improvement effort Once a plan has been implemented, start looking for evidence of impact and improvement. In most organizations, senior leaders will need to approve the proposed improvement plan. Once approved, it s time to act! 8 DETERMINE THE IMPACT Once the plan has been implemented, start looking for evidence of impact and improvement. Begin with relevant metrics. For example, if a survey item was one of the VoC data points used to define an action item, it just makes sense to watch that measure closely once the improvement plan has been hatched. Change may not happen immediately, but at some point evidence of improvement should manifest itself in the form of upward movement in scores for the relevant measure. Success also can be based on hitting targets for those scores that were defined during the action planning process. Additional indicators of improvement may include fewer customer complaints, more favorable posts on social media, and positive feedback from front-line employees. Taken together, these metrics and data sources can furnish evidence of a successful improvement effort. If/when they do, it s time to celebrate! CONCLUSION There is more to putting the voice of your customer to work than simply capturing and sharing customer feedback. Unfortunately, this is as far as a majority of organizations seem to have progressed. The eight-step customer experience improvement approach described above can be used at multiple enterprise levels and for different customer segments. Its use will go a long way toward ensuring that your organization gets the most out of investments made to capture and leverage the Voice of Your Customer Voice Crafter. All Rights Reserved. 4

6 End Notes 1 Goodman, J.A., Broetzmann, S.A., and C.Adamson (May 1992). Ineffective That s the Problem with Customer Satisfaction Surveys. Quality Progress; pp Schmidt-Subramanian, M. (20 June 2014). State of Voice of the Customer Programs, 2014: It s Time to Act. Forrester Report; and Temkin, B. (October 2014). State of Voice of the Customer Programs Temkin Group Insight Report. 3 Shiba, S., Heller, T., and K. Taschioglou (1995). No Limits to Latent Human Capabilities: Sustainable Excellence at Eastman Chemical. Center for Quality Management Journal. Volume 4 (3); pp Morgan, N. A., Anderson, E. W., and Mittal, V. (July 2005). Understanding Firms Customer Satisfaction Information Usage. Journal of Marketing; pp For a description of customer-centric business blueprinting, see Brandt, D. R. (October 2004). Voice Lessons. Quirk s Marketing Research Review; pp Spool, J. M. (2004). The K-J Technique. Retrieved from 7 Kubiak, T.M. and D.W. Benbow (2009). The Certified Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook. Milwaukee: ASQ Press; p VijayaKumar, A. (21 June 2012). Six Sigma Quality Improvements: Evaluate Potential Solutions. Retrieved from 9 Pyzdek, T. and P. Keller (2010). The Six Sigma Handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill; pp Get More from the Voice of Your Customer Voice Crafter. All Rights Reserved. 5