Streamlining Your Customer Service Experience

There’s always a lot that can be done to provide a faster, more adequate customer service to your clients. You may not even realize that you have any problems on that front, especially if you aren’t tracking the right metrics. But at the end of the day, providing a good service is not something that people see as a bonus tacked on to their initial purchase it’s become a fundamental requirement in the eyes of many consumers.

Expectations Are Changing Fast

That’s because things like the internet and smartphones have completely changed the landscape, and have promoted a much more rapid style of interaction between consumers and the businesses they use. Many people now expect their queries to be answered as fast as possible, in some cases even immediately. And while it’s possible to reach that state, it won’t happen without a significant amount of effort on your part, as well as lots of planning ahead of time.

Responding to a Growing Market

You have to adapt the way you’re working to a market that’s constantly growing and changing at a very rapid rate. Approaches that are relevant today will be anything but just a few years from now, and you have to come to terms with that fact. You must also ensure that your company is able to keep up with the growing demands of its consumers. In some cases, it’s not just about providing fast and reliable support you have to make sure that your customer always feels like they are your top priority.

Product or Service?

The distinction between a product and an ongoing service is becoming thinner and thinner, and many people now treat all of their purchases like the latter. It’s not hard to see why either, with the advance of various new solutions like software-as-a-service that consumers have realized, have lots of benefits. But it’s not always that easy to implement these methodologies in the work of every company, especially those that provide more specific types of products that are likely not immediately susceptible to this.

The point is, you have to figure out a way to present your product as more of a service if you want to draw the attention of your consumers and keep it pinned. This is not as easy as it looks, and it’s going to take some effort.

Eliminating Unnecessary Points

Waste is a big problem in customer service and remains a troubling factor for many companies on the market. It’s not always that easy to address it either, because it can take some surprising forms. You have to implement methodologies like Six Sigma if you want to ensure that waste is kept to a minimum, but finding the right specialists who are familiar enough with those topics can be quite the challenge. It’s also something that can benefit your company tremendously in the long run though, so if you can afford to do this kind of search now, it’s definitely a good idea to get started on it.

The Importance of Constant Evaluation

You should also keep track of your progress at all times, and ensure that you’re moving in the right direction. This can be difficult to do without an adequate overview of how well you’re doing though, and that in turn requires some complex analytical systems that produce enough data from multiple points. It will take some time to set those things up at first, but once you’ve got the ball rolling, you should be able to easily keep track of everything that’s happening in your support facilities, and know when there’s a problem that needs your intervention.

If you’ve done things right though, that should not happen often at all. And when it does, you should not treat it as a negative factor by itself. Problems can be surprisingly useful in the long run, because they can teach you various details about the way your business is running that may not have been obvious otherwise. And the more you continue to explore your market and collect data about the way it works, the more confident you’re going to be in the long run when making your next moves. And with that, you’ll be able to create the perfect customer support system.

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The construction industry has been mired in an environment that has been siloed and antiquated for years. The view has been that things have always been done a certain way and there is no reason to change. Meanwhile, numerous industries have embraced lean methodologies and have significantly reduced waste, improved efficiency and delivered higher quality products which meet or exceed customer expectations. Surveys show that at least 50% of processes involved in planning and construction are wasteful. The industry has adopted lean construction methods, which are starting to change an industry that lagged behind others.

Learn more here about lean construction!

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Muda means waste and refers to a wide range of non-value-adding activities; eliminating waste is the key to efficiency. When you look at the Toyota Production System (TPS), eliminating Muda waste is one of the main principles of the Just-in-Time system. Some things that are considered waste are unnecessary financing costs, storage costs and worthless stock of old items. Toyota divides Muda into seven categories:

1. Transportation – increases risk of product being damaged, lost or delayed.
2. Inventory – Outlay of capital that doesn’t immediately produce income.
3. Motion – Damage inflicted through the production process.
4. Waiting – Product sitting idle.
5. Over-processing – Doing more work than is necessary.
6. Over-production – Making more product than is required by the customer.
7. Defects – Replacing faulty parts or products.

Processes consumes resources and naturally, waste can occur. The more resources that are used, the more opportunity exists for waste. The tools of Lean manufacturing and the TPS help focus on the elimination of Muda waste and create a heightened awareness. Understanding exactly what waste exists and where it is exists is crucial to any Lean manufacturing process. Even though products differ between manufacturing organizations, lean practitioners understand that the types of wastes are very similar.

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Boeing builds the venerable 737 workhorse at a rate of one every nine days! That is a monumental feat of Lean manufacturing. The Boeing 737 is the workhorse of many airlines across the globe, flying short and medium range flights. It was originally designed in 1964 and took its first flight in 1967. In 1968, Lufthansa airlines put the Boeing 737 into service across their service areas. Since its inception, the aircraft has been through numerous upgrades and modernization changes that continue to make it an in-demand aircraft among airlines. As of 2006, there were an average of 1,250 Boeing 737s airborne at any given time, with two either departing or landing somewhere every five seconds. 

Watch this video and see how they do it!

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Take a step back in time with a vintage Honda factory tour! Since 1959, Honda has been setting records. They are the largest manufacturers of motorcycles and internal combustion engines in the world. In 2001, they became the second largest Japanese auto manufacturer. Honda also manufactures garden equipment, marine engines, personal watercraft, power generators, and other products. Since its inception, Honda has applied the principles of Lean manufacturing, and this timeless video will take you back and show you how they do it.

Take some time and enjoy a flashback in Lean manufacturing!

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Marketing professionals are starting to take their cues from the manufacturing industry and adopt lean agile principles to improve performance and value. A common tool in lean agile practices used in manufacturing are sprints. The two practices are complementary, and achieve significant results when applied appropriately.

Recently, a marketing director with a Fortune 100 organization observed the lean agile process of sprints in their engineering team. They would use month long bursts (sprints) to create and test the potential value of projects. At the end of each sprint, the engineering team would examine what worked and what didn’t. If it was deemed a success, the process was adopted. If it didn’t, then the process was eliminated from consideration. The marketing director found inspiration in the process and success of the engineers, and imagined the same success in the marketing department. Research shows that 77% of marketing departments had adopted lean agile practices in the past five years. Of those respondents, 67% of those organizations increased revenue and profits. This clearly shows the potential of lean agile practice performance in the marketing profession.

Marketing Lean Agile Sprints Work

In this specific marketing department, the director adopted the lean agile process of their engineers and started on a new journey of excellence. The director prioritized a list of their most important projects and delayed lesser ideas until later months. They went to work and ran sprints on their top priorities. When they made their marketing process more customer centric, they also found they started sharing a common language with others in the organization. The overall team started working together and better understanding individual roles. The marketing department developed the process to where they would run a large project and two smaller ones each month. They were able to focus the efforts of marketing to better fit into what the rest of the organization really need form the team. They developed a year-long plan for their sprints, which significantly improved the overall effectiveness of the marketing team. The marketing department was better able to say no, not right now to requests and really focus on what made a difference for the entire organization. The entire team was able to become more comfortable with both failure and honesty. It was like new life came into the department. A mindset developed within marketing that they could experiment with campaigns to reduce workload and effort when putting a new product into the marketplace.

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In taking a cue from manufacturing, marketing departments are embracing the principles of lean agile practices. Research shows that over the past five years, 77% of marketing departments have embraced lean agile principles, and 67% of those have shown increases in both revenue and profits. Needless to say, lean agile principles are making an impact in the marketing community.

Please take some time and watch this informative video on the topic!

https://youtu.be/j-r5W_Eq4G4

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When first learning about TPS and lean, most become focused on the tools. They tend to be flashy and lend to endless discussion about technique and application. But as you gain experience and understanding of lean and TPS, an epiphany occurs. The true essence and spirit of the applications are about continuous improvement and respect for people. The are truly the two pillars of lean and TPS. Waste reduction and management tools are not pillars of the methodology.

The essence of methodology is that each individual employee is given the opportunity to find problems in his own way of working, to solve them and to make improvements.

Wakamatsu and Kondo, Toyota experts

The essence of lean thinking and TPS is simply put. Keep the focus on building people, then building products, which includes creating an environment of challenging the status quo. The true brilliance and strength of the TPS and lean thinking is the ability to harness the intellectual power of the average employee. This concept is lost on many organizations who get themselves lost in the tools and miss the obvious simplicity of the concepts.

The concept of respect for people not just about the customer or end user. It refers to everyone inside and outside of the organization who has contact with the process. This means line workers, support personnel, vendors and supply personnel. If you follow through with this principle, you will continually analyze the process and seek perfection with involving the customer. This will nurture the ability of the organization to self-identify problems and lead to continuous improvement, or Kaizen. Ultimately, the organization will start to challenge everything and embrace change with ease. More important than the actual improvements, the true value of continuous improvement is in creating an atmosphere of continuous learning and an environment that not only accepts, but actually embraces change.

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The true concept of lean and TPS has two main pillars. These two pillars are respect for people and continuous improvement. Many organizations who try and embrace lean thinking and TPS are often distracted by the tools, instead of focusing on the true strength of lean thinking. Accepting the concepts of the two pillars will allow organizations to challenge everything and embrace the mindset of change.

Check out this informative video on the Two Pillars of TPS and lean!

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It is said that somewhere between Point A and Point B lies the truth. Finding that elusive point of fact is one of the most challenging opportunities in quality management. Everyone has their view of how things are and their opinion is what they perceive to be the truth. If you ask ten different employees why they all complete the same task, you will get ten differing opinions. Each opinion will be fully supported by what they perceive to be the facts. Unfortunately, in most cases, you get ten different opinions that are just slightly different than the fact you are seeking. Nobody will be intentionally deceiving you, and they are confident that their facts are the truth. It is simply human nature. However, for businesses to be successful, they must operate on facts and not perception of fact. Getting to the facts is the goal of using the RCA.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a valuable tool in quality improvement for identifying the underlying causes or facts of a issue or incident so proper solutions can be identified and implemented. It is a tool designed to identify not only what happened and how it happened, but also why. When you truly able to determine the facts of why an event happened, then you be be able to apply workable corrective actions to prevent future events. Some organizations mistakenly interpret the term root cause’ to mean there is one root cause of an issue. Nothing could be further from the elusive truth. Focusing on one cause can easily allow you to implement a solution that misses the problem all together. The root’ of a plant is not singular, so the root cause of a problem typically is not singular. 

RCA Cause Mapping Method

Define – What is the problem? Define the issue or event by the impact on the goals.

Analyze – Why did it happen? Use a cause map to visually represent the issues.

Solve – What will be done? Make effective solutions that change how the work is executed.

The most effective cause map is a simple one, which illustrates the how and why an incident or event occurred. Begin the exploration of the 5 Why’s and expand that into as much detail as necessary. The more complex and challenging an issue, the more times you ask why. The RCA cause map will allow you to understand the issue and create a visual dialog. It will show where there needs to be a bit more exploration of the roots to find the truth.

An effective RCA process moves past the typically excuses of human error’ and procedure not followed’ that many organizations tend to use as excuses. It is a deep dive that can result in true quality improvement for the organization.      

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