MalcolmSays

Malcolm says:

The problem is that almost all organisations have too many processes that are no longer appropriate for today’s business environment.  Even worse, in some organisations staff hide behind the processes and use them as an excuse for their actions or inactions.

I’m been working with the new Managing Director of a company who during his first 90 days is personally reviewing and rewrite the major SOP’s (Standard operating procedures) of the £50M company. He believes that it’s the best way for him to really understand the business and make very clear what he expects of his staff. It’s going to be fascinating to see the result. Needless to say he is coming from a very customer centric way of thinking.

Whatever situation you are in it’s always good to look at existing processes and ask two simple questions.

1) How does this add value to our customers?

2) Does the manner in which this process is carried out fit the objectives and strategies of the organisation?

Interesting discussions always follow.

Malcolm says:

I’ve discovered that vision and mission statements can sometimes bring more confusion than clarity. Many people don’t understand the difference between the two and things like tag lines add to the problem. All organisations need some type of touchstone to test the validity of plans and ideas and some “curb stones” that will guide decision making across the organisation. I’ve found in many cases the effective term is the Purpose of the organisation. It’s what people understand.

I’ve listed before a few examples that I’ve developed for some of my clients. Looking at them raw like this only tells part of the story and you need the context to see their full value. (Call me if you want more background).

Building strong dependable vehicles for the community

Supplier of fire engines and other vehicles

Making media work for Retail

Specialist media company

The right supplies to the right location

Medical supplies logistics

Software to simplify real time back office processes

Specialist software company

Hands on training for hands on people

Training company specialising in engineering apprenticeships

Finding the right people with the right technology skills

Niche recruitment company

Here are a few more that I wish I’d help create.

The ultimate driving machine

BMW

Proclaim to all peoples the everlasting gospel in the context of the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14:6-12, leading them to accept Jesus as personal Saviour and to unite with His church, and nurturing them in preparation for His soon return.

Seventh-day Adventist Church

Our core purpose is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty

Tesco

Malcolm says:

Customers, even in strained economic times, don’t just buy based on price.  In broad terms they buy based on perceived value but in selecting one supplier over another a different set of factors come into play. It’s not necessarily the best price and best perceived value supplier in the market that is always selected.

The other set of criteria that comes into play is what I call the RET factor. This stands for Relationship, Expertise and Trust. If you already have a very good relationship with an existing supplier you might well want to stay with them even though they are not the lowest cost or provider of the best value. In some cases you may not even have a direct relationship with a potential supplier but you may want a relationship with them. An example of this could be a shop local campaign or a major brand that you want to be associated with such as Apple.

People are prepared to pay for demonstrated or perceived expertise. Would you buy the very cheapest tyres for your son’s car? The top aspect is Trust. Even if a supplier ticked all of the other boxes if you don’t trust them to deliver as promised you will not buy from them.

I believe that the after-crisis economy and the in-crisis economy favours organizations who can demonstrate high perceived RET factors in the minds of their customers.  To me the RET factor will be much more important than price in gaining Sales

Malcolm says:

The only way to understand the end-users experience is to ask them. You need to identify areas for improvement and subsequently measure if improvement has taken place. A survey is useful to set a benchmark but its only when you do another survey with exactly the same questions to a similar audience that you can measure change. A raw score number is of very limited value without a benchmark.

Questions have to be worded well to take out bias but the most critical point is to ask the same questions each time. Resist the temptation to “improve” them because it will likely skew the results when you repeat the survey. The questions will tell you what’s wrong but individual comments will tell you why. It’s therefore vital to give plenty of room for comments.

If you can do some face to face surveys use them to test out the possible questions. I’ve found that with well worded questionnaires I learn a lot about customer experience. To me the biggest challenge for organisations to recognise what they have discovered and to take appropriate actions based on those findings. That’s often where outside help can add significant value. The final point is to ensure that you tell your end users what you have done, or not done, as a result of their feedback. Only about 5% of surveys do this.

Malcolm says:

I do a lot of customer relationship surveys and when we ask what customers really care about the same top three points come up almost every time.

1. Your… see more expertise

2. The quality of your product/service

3. Your price positioning

Get these three things right as perceived by the client and they will be happy.  But, that is just the cost of entry. To make her/him so happy that they continue buying from you needs digging deeper into other aspects of what they really care about. These additional factors relate to processes, relationship and trust and will be very specific to your company and your customers. So you have to ask and not assume what makes them happy or unhappy.

Malcolm says:

The foundation is that top management set the standard by communicating regularly and consistently in an easy to understand way that adds value. Others will then follow… see more the model. I’m a firm believer that anything that has to be communicated has to be capable of being communicated in just one page or less. For example I use one page business plans and many other one page tools. I’ve learnt that communicating well internally is much harder than communicating well externally. Just as in external communications if you do not communicate frequently and well internally unfavorable rumour or misinformation will fill the void.

Malcolm says:

I recommend to my clients that they start by understanding why people became their customers in the first place. This gives you a base of… see more things to keep doing. In reality most purchase decisions are based on how a prospective customers regards you based upon three factors: Relationship, Trust and Expertise. To understand more about what these factors mean to your specific customers you have to ask them about their views on the relationship they have with you. The best way to do this is via a third party because many customers will not tell you what they really care about. The worst way to do it is to ask your our sales force. They are too close to the action and have too much to lose from negative comments.

By asking the right questions in the right way a lot of valuable information will be uncovered. My advice is to first ask your own staff how they think customers will rate their relationship with the company. Then go out and ask customers. Comparing the answers highlights the differences and because of the personal involvement of staff and customers improvements are more likely to be implemented. These improvements could both encourage existing customers to stay and buy more but in many cases also presents opportunities to reduce cost.  Get the balance right and your company will stand out from your competition. Several papers on my website explain more about this approach and has some examples of the benefits.

www.simpleplans.co.uk/7.HTML

Malcolm says,

Using internal recharging processes does not bring additional revenues into the business and in my experience needs to be treated with a light touch.… see more Having said that support functions can and should help generate revenues for the business. The objective of all support functions is to help the overall business achieve its goals and objectives by ultimately adding value to customers in some form. For example HR ensure that the right people are hired, given the appropriate training, rewarded and measured fairly in line with the overall company plans. These actions keep costs down, save time, improve interaction with customers and make the business run more efficiently. Together they ultimately contribute to both attracting and retaining good customers. Would you trust a supplier who doesn’t care about their staff? A similar case can be made for any support function. The challenge is making it happen and getting the business to operate as one joined up entity. The foundation to making this happen is a simple joined up business plan that is well communicated and implemented. With the plan in place the test for all functions is the simple question. How will what I’m doing help the business achieve its goals and objectives?

Malcolm says:

I recently carried out a survey of over 60 companies to find out which marketing tools worked best to get new business. The number one answer… see more was face to face networking. 84% of people said that it worked for them. Partners and agencies were in the number two slot. The least successful were Call centres, cold calling and price cuts. If you want to read the complete summary report go the below link.  

www.simpleplans.co.uk/resources/Which+are+the+best+marketing+tools+for+acquiring+new+customers.pdf

Malcolm says,

To me a great service provider is one who retains a larger than average percentage of existing customers and finds it easier than competitors to attract new customers.  To find out more about how good service providers become great we got 67 companies to tell us “What do your suppliers do for you?” We wanted to discover… see more why particular suppliers were selected and/or retained.

The bottom line is that the three factors are: Quality, Expertise and Price, in that order.  It’s also as perceived by the customer at all their interactions and touch points. It was very clear that having the “best” product or service was rarely a deciding factor because frequently the company had no basis on which to determine which offering was actually “best”. This makes other factors such as quality customer service not just good to have but critical to retaining customers and attracting new ones. The link below will take you straight to a summary of the findings from the overall survey. www.simpleplans.co.uk/resources/What+do+your+suppliers+do+for+you.pdf