We shouldn’t be asking customers what they want because they will tell us.

I was recently interviewed by BPMTips.com Zbigniew Misiak. It was a fun experience as he put me on the spot about a whole range of things including Ducks! Here is an extract and you can access the full interview below (with a useful bonus handout of the SCO Canvas!) Zbigniew Misiak, Editor BPMTips.com We shouldn’t be asking customers what they want because they will tell us. Provocative? Maybe. Making you think? Surely. One of the common problems with processes is focusing on the wrong things. We model processes that do not need to be modeled or in a way that does not create value. We improve things in processes that customers do not care about. But how are we supposed to know what should we focus on? Of course, experience helps, but what if you did not spend last 35 years doing BPM and Customer Experience projects? No worries - you can listen to the BPM Tips interview with Steve Towers and benefit from the decades of his experience. Steve tells about the difference between what customer wants and needs, and shares lots of actionable tips for anyone interested in processes, so grab a pen and notebook and listen to the interview: http://bpmtips.com/interview-with-steve-towers-customer-experience-management-and-bpm/ Best, Zbigniew PS. Steve was so kind to provide a PDF template for defining Successful Customer Outcomes as a bonus for the listeners. You can download it directly from here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2r34eo1tb6pj9a/Steve_Towers_interview_SCO_Canvas.pdf?dl=0

Copyright © 2016 BPM Tips, All rights reserved. Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Emirates success Certified Process Professional Masters Champions (CPP-Master) Program http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries. The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector. Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

Amazon - I love you but you gotta stop this quick!

Amazon are iconic. They set the bar very high with radical new ways of delivering successful customer outcomes, whether it is Prime, Prime Instant (deliveries in 2 hours) or the Dash buttons. Quite exceptional but at what cost?

I buy stuff every week, and once a month order 'magic paper', usually 10 rolls at a time. For the last three months I have also received a mountain of cardboard, plastic fuller and some very tired drivers. Why?
Something has gone very wrong at the Scotland Amazon depot who see fit to send every order separately packaged.

Let me walk you through the waste tip that has become our hall...

Item ordered - one legamaster roll x 10

Delivery as it arrived

And then all the resulting open boxes

With finally the pile of trash for the disposal 

Legamaster rolls packed nicely in original packaging (ten rolls)

Now unpacking and bursting all that fancy bubble wrap took 40 minutes of mess. Please please Mr. Bezos I do not know what is happening at the Scottish distribution centre  but please get it fixed quick -  otherwise you will have the world and his brother of environmentalists screaming wasteful capitalists! And you and your loyal customers do not need that.

Do you want to get in the picture? Join us soon at a session in a city near you...

Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Emirates success

Certified Process Professional Masters  Champions (CPP-Master) Program

http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 150 times, in 57 cities with delegates from 108 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.

Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

The one most important thing

Everyday brings a new challenge. There are however a only few fundamental truths when it comes to working and being with others. 

Integrity, that is everything.

Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Amazons success

Certified Process Professional Masters
(CPP-Master) Program

http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.

Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism http://www.bpgroup.org/book-class.html

Say what you do, do what you say

Managing customer expectations and creating the experience to deliver it makes good sense. 

Why is it then almost an after-thought for most large corporates? At best it seems happen chance. 

The way to success is to put the effort into creating successful customer outcomes (SCO) and then managing customers expectations to them.

Craft the associated experience and ensure all the interactions (external and internal) contribute to this SCO.

Another perspective? See http://www.successfulcustomeroutcomes.net/2014/11/customer-experience-management-truth.html

Certified Process Professional Masters (CPP-Master) Program

(Dubai UAE Dec 7-11, Orlando US Jan 22-23, Denver US Jan 26-30, London UK Mar 2-6)
www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

An internationally recognised program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 130 times, in 52 cities with delegates from 105 countries.
The program, now in its tenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service. Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.

Become a qualified CPP-Master and demonstrate your professionalism.www.bpgroup.org/certification-by-city.html

Customer Experience definitions

There are various definitions of Customer Experience including 

“ 'Customer Experience Management' represents the discipline, methodology and/or process used to comprehensively manage a customer's cross-channel exposure, interaction and transaction with a company, product, brand or service.” (Bernd Schmitt 2003)

Customer Experience is how customers perceive their interactions with your company. (Forrester 2010)

Customer Experience is the customer’s perceptions and related feelings caused by the one-off and cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier’s employees, systems, channels or products. (Gartner 2013)

Customer Experience is the embodiment of a brand, and of each and every interaction between an organisation and a customer. (Cap Gemini 2013)

Customer experience (CX) is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods and/or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. (Wiki 2014)

We take exception with all these definitions.

They do go some of the way to describing an aspect of customer experience, however fall way short in terms of the everyday reality of our digital age. We need a broad view that encompasses all aspects of a customer experience, not just necessarily the encounters and feelings directly experienced by a customer. 

We need to get scientific about the customer experience. 
In this way our newly engineered processes and the complete customer experience can operate at 70-80% lower cost, 50-60% improved customer service and 3-4 times revenue improvements. In our definition of Customer Experience this is referred to as winning the Triple Crown. The concurrent and sustained ability to reduce costs, improve service and grow revenues simultaneously. 

Let’s paint a picture - a duck on the mill pond. What the customer sees and feels is the duck on the surface, however a great deal of effort to move the duck takes place out of view, below the surface if you like. That is a fundamental part of the customer experience. So our definition encompasses this idea - “Customer Experience is the collective energy and effort that produces the engineered encounter to provide value and substance to a customer” (Towers/Dodkins 2014). It is an understanding of the complete duck if you like.

 

Through this definition we can indeed get scientific about the customer experience. For instance to deliver the desired experience we must clearly articulate the cause and effect of work. A simple observation is that all work is ultimately the result of a customer interaction, somewhere, sometime. Another is that of the Successful Customer Outcome (SCO). 

We can shape the experience and expectations of customers and formulate measures that go way beyond the legacy production line mindsets. In fact we can better create and modify technologies that support the delivery of the SCO. 

Through this engineered understanding we can also contrast the effort currently undertaken and assess its contribution to the SCO. If it doesn’t contribute then potentially stop doing it. 
In this way our newly engineered processes and the complete customer experience can operate at 70-80% lower cost, 50-60% improved customer service and 3-4 times revenue improvements. In our definition of Customer Experience this is referred to as winning the Triple Crown. The concurrent and sustained ability to reduce costs, improve service and grow revenues simultaneously.