The world needs structure otherwise nothing would get done and one of the ways to achieve this is through the creation and implementation of processes.
As a customer a process should not be intrusive, in fact it should be invisible in that it follows what you’d naturally want it to do and enable you to achieve your desired outcome…assuming you are acting within the realms of being reasonable. Sadly customers do not implement processes so they do not get to design them either, or at best their input may be limited to the selected results of a survey.
Another highly influential factor are market forces, over the past 20 years we have witnessed expediential growth in means to communicate, this has resulted in companies offering new ways to complete transactions in terms of sales and secondly service. With such change has come many benefits, some of which we depended upon in 2020/21 during the Covid pandemic.
There is no doubt that there has never been any greater choice is how we communicate with others than there is now.
However, it’s apparent that behinds the scenes all is not so well, whilst companies have focused on adding new contact methods they have lagged behind in ensuring the processes that support their use and outcomes for the customer (as well as themselves) are not so evolved or coordinated, some examples are:
Digital Impact – Not all age groups are willing to switch to digital at a time where company resources and therefore processes are exclusively designed for the to do so. An example of this occurred today, my parents, who will not disagree when I describe them as being elderly, have a fault with their phone as it does not ring for inbound calls. Their way of dealing with such an issue is to call someone, but the phone provider wants them to text. To me text messages are old, but to them not so, the end result is I am having to do it for them and I’m not the acct holder so let’s see where that goes when the engineer’s appointment has to be made.
Misaligned Process – Every process has inputs mapped in to it so to enter any process you have to meet a criteria of sorts. Life is not so convenient, people can meet multiple or no exact criteria and this results in there being no process for them or multiple that don’t quite match. The outcome is exhaustive for customers who receive a very poor experience if any at all (many would say that’s the worst experience). The part of this that also worries me is most companies have no idea when this happens as customer satisfaction is asked at the end of a process when an outcome is known.
Biased to the company – Often the outcome of processes that are written to support changes to communication strategy and efficiency/cost control. Whilst it would be wrong to suggest when being created these processes do not consider their impact to the customer it would be realistic to say that their focus is too biased towards the company. This is usually a consequence of not engaging staff or customers within their creation or even having a through testing process that includes multiple points of view.
Incomplete or inconsistent processes – different to misaligned processes these are the ones that frustrate customers as they have entered them correctly, but the outcome is not relevant for complete for that purpose. Also consistency in how processes work is important, familiarly aids the customer during their journey though any process, so having processes that work differently for no good reason offers a customer a reason to not complete them.
Staff understanding – Equally important to customer understanding is that of the staff, especially when existing processes change (at times when staff see no benefit in the changes and empathise with customers who share that feeling). It is wise to assume that not all customers can fit in to a mainstream process and therefor need to be guided to a conclusion that best suits them. Do not overlook the additional skills and time staff need with these customers, it is time well spent not an inefficiency that requires process redesign or additional processes to meet 100% of needs.
Balanced approach – As I have mentioned customers are different as are the reasons they enter a process, it may not be possible for a customer to comply at all times to the process you, as a business, would prefer them to follow. So ensure you have a fall back that enables them to communicate with you and to reach their goal or the one you need to guide them towards. Whist matters such as security is vital, a pragmatic approach may be needed at a discretionary time/situation that takes the matter away from the normal procedure laid down by the process that fits 99% of situations.
It’s no surprise that one does no fit all, but it is surprising that my customer experience is too often that I have to fit in to someone else’s process that still does not guarantee a satisfactory outcome. So to avoid subjecting your customers, and staff, becoming victims of the garbage compactor make sure you don’t inadvertently make their escape impossible.
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