Customer Service: 2009 Hall of Shame

Earlier, I have posted about Customer Service Hall of Shame survey in 2008. Recently, I found that 2009 survey results were released in June. Somehow, I missed the article that time, but nonetheless found it very interesting when I read it eventually. Providing an efficient and reliable Customer Service is of utmost importance to run a successful business. And surprisingly, so many companies fail to do so, again & again & again.

"How a company handles adversity can tell you a lot about its character. Does it stick to its guns, keeping the customer first? Or does it stick it to customers, raising prices and cutting service?

The recent economic turmoil has given companies a chance to prove their mettle. But many, particularly in the hard-hit financial-services industry, have failed to do so."

9 of these companies have featured in the top 10 listing of this survey in 2008. And despite their efforts to improve their customer service in reaction to such surveys, they still make it there. Now what is so challenging about improving customer service.

In my opinion, customer service is actually a very complex process to improve. Inherently, it is intangible and difficult to quantify issue. One can certainly weave a problem statement around "issue resolution time", "time of hold", "number of calls", "number of issues resolved in a certain amount of time", or what not. But the problem is that none of these measurements directly correlate to "customer satisfaction".

An efficient and great customer service is not just limited to "politely talking", "logging the issue", or "directing the call to a department". It is in fact, a function of a set of good communication skills, technical knowledge of product/service, an understanding of people's feelings, & the dynamics which come into play when an irate customer calls the customer service.

Cash for Clunkers

The recent "Cash for Clunkers" program from US government to augment the car sales was a great success, at least, for the auto companies which were craving for sales. Per the official website, www.cars.gov:

"The CARS program ended sales on the Monday night with nearly 700,000 clunkers taken off the roads, replaced by far more fuel efficient vehicles. Rebate applications worth $2.877 billion were submitted by the 8 p.m. deadline, under the $3 billion provided by Congress to run the program."

During this time, the auto dealers came up with some creative marketing strategies to allure the customers to buy automobiles from their piled up inventories and full lots. The Fuccillo Automotive Group in New York state is known for it's aggressive marketing and "It's Huge" campaign. One day got a mailer in my mailbox with a car key, followed by an invitation and offer number next day. It was pretty enticing offer, except for the fact that I was not looking to replace my 2007 Scion TC. But if I'd be driving a clunker, and spending an awful amount of money on gas, Fuccillo's marketing strategy would have certainly worked on me.

Risk Analysis in Process Design

Any good process improvement project, will have a slide with the before & after process map. The "before" process map depicts the process as-is, ideally at the project/initiative kick-off. The "after" process map shows the future state of the new, improved process. The hypothesis here is that the new, improved process, if implemented, will result in waste-elimination, reduced cycle-time, higher efficiency, increased output etc. depending on the scope of project.

Now, when the project leader, who is usually the Black Belt or Master Black Belt, presents this proposed process to either the leadership team, champion, or key stakeholders to get their buy-in, one question is usually asked.

"What are the risks involved with this new process? What can we potentially miss if we implement this process? What will fall apart if we stop following the current process?"

In my opinion, a very simple tool can be used to address these valid concerns. I call it Risk-Opportunity chart. I am not sure if it is a part of the standard Lean/Six-Sigma tool-set, but found it to be very useful. In the form of a classic four-blocker, this tool provides an excellent visual of not only the risks involved, but the opportunities associated along with. Remember that with every risk, comes an opportunity.

The Risk-Opportunity matrix will look like this. This is definitely a team-based tool. The Black Belt or project leader will facilitate this tool with the project team members, consisting of the process-owner and key experts of current process.

Steps:

1. Assemble the team in a room. Post the "before" and "after" process maps posted on a side-wall (on flip charts). Draw the four-blocker on a flip-chart.

2. Start going over the "after" process map step by step while asking the question: what are the potential risks involved here? You may refer to the "before" process-map whenever needed. (Having a high-level SIPOC of current process will immensely help)

3. Quantify every risk as Low or High per team consensus. For every risk, ask what is the associated opportunity. Quantify the opportunity as Low or High per team consensus.

4. Write the risk/opportunity pair in appropriate block of the four-blocker.

After finishing the data-collection, chart a strategy to address these risks involved in the priority shown as 1-2-3-4 . This tool will greatly enhance your understanding of the new process and its potential impact on other processes as well. Also, the visual created will come as a handy tool to communicate the analysis to others.

Let me know if you have questions or feedback regarding this.

Process-Mapping on YouTube

Sometimes, the wealth of real knowledge freely available on WWW just amazes me. It just depends on us, how we choose to spend our time and utilize the power of Web 2.0 in enhancing our knowledge base and honing our skill-set. For instance check this video on "Process-Mapping in Lean Six Sigma". Gone are those days, when companies had to higher highly paid consultants to train their work-force in process improvement tools, when the good quality stuff is available online...free. However, it does a lot of motivation and focus to do such things online. Maybe that's why the classroom training still exists. Anyway, enjoy the video:

Think Process!!! ....But how?

In those rare cases, where an explanation of Process & Process Management (per my previous post) is able to generate the other person's interest, the conversation usually goes this way:

Him: "Interesting! So, you are a process improvement professional."
Me" "Yeah! sounds like fun ..isn't it?"
Him: "Maybe for yourself..... So, tell me one thing.."
Me: "Sure"
Him: "What is your general approach when you are doing problem-solving and/or process-improvement?"
Me: " Well...The mantra of success is always: Think Process!. One has to develop his process-based thinking and the ability to visualize a process, no matter how complicated the problem is."
Him:"Hmmm.....but how do you do that?"
Me: "Well, maybe it just comes naturally...or ...aaaannn...I don't know. Seriously!"

This conversation sent me through the thinking path: How do you develop the process based thinking? And the answer came in the form of a SIPOC, an acronym for Supplier, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers. In Six-Sigma DMAIC roadmap, SIPOC analysis is used the Define phase to map the high-level process and the relationships among suppliers, process, & customer via respective inputs & outputs. A quick search over Google brought this excellent link on SIPOC Analysis and the steps needed to perform one. A typical SIPOC diagram for a project looks like this:

Now coming back to the point, how does SIPOC help to generate process based thinking? Whenever you are trying to understand a problem symptoms, try to identify what is the main process involved here and what are it's inputs and outputs. Next, think about who is supplying the inputs and how can they impact the quality (in either positive or negative way) of the process and it's outputs. Next, identify the outputs and whom and what they impact, i.e. the customers or other processes. Let me give a simple example:

Say, one fine morning, your coffee doesn't taste good, or rather let's say it tastes real bad. Now the Process here is coffee-making. The equipment used is the coffee-maker and the process parameters are temperature, length of time for brewing, etc. The Inputs of the process are coffee beans, and water (and sugar, creamer, etc.). Suppliers are coffee-bean company, & water supply (or bottled water company). Output is off-course the coffee (which is of bad quality) and the Customer is the coffee-drinker (in this case, is yourself).

I agree that this is a very simple example compared to the processes we deal with in a business or organization, but the idea is that one's thought process has to be aligned in a SIPOC way. This will help you a lot in ....guess what...."thinking process".

Data.gov

Recently, I found this cool website, which is essentially a huge data-dump. It has all kinds of data-sets to play around and hone your statistical tool skills. From my six-Sigma training and the subsequent trainings I have given to Green-Belts, I found that the data-sets used in the examples, and practice sessions are very boring and manufacturing oriented. This website, www.data.gov, has some really cool data which can be more meaningful in teaching the analytical & statistical tools to the Green/Black Belts. The website introduction is:

"The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a limited portion of the rich variety of Federal datasets presently available, we invite you to actively participate in shaping the future of Data.gov by suggesting additional datasets and site enhancements to provide seamless access and use of your Federal data."

"Data.gov includes searchable data catalogs providing access to data in three ways: through the "raw" data catalog, the tool catalog and the geodata catalog. "

I downloaded the "Airline On-Time Performance and Causes of Flight Delays" data-set and started playing around with it. It has all kinds of data, which can be used to make interesting and more engaging case-studies, than the standard age-old examples from manufacturing, cycle-time, etc. still being used in the trainings, where a good majority of people are from transactional backgrounds. Well, I'm working on making something from these enormous data-sets and will put them here soon.

Enjoy playing with the data!!!

Process Management

For last few days, I have been thinking that what should be the first post on this redesigned blog. And after some thought, I decided to post on the concept of "Process Management". Time and again, people ask me what do I do? Merely saying that I am a "Six Sigma Black Belt" actually doesn't help much. It is usually followed by a "What do you actually do?" look. Then I try to explain my job further by talking about quality, continuous improvement, and process management. So, what exactly is process management? What is a process? What is process improvement?

Based on my experiential learning, I have made a visual to explain these terms and their inter-relationships. And now I will try to explain them.

Process: A series of steps, or tasks which add value to their inputs and result in an output. An input can be in the form of information or a physical material. Similarly, the output of a process can be in the form of a material, product, or information.

Process Improvement: It includes a series of tasks with the sole objective of improving the process. The improvement can be in terms of improving the quality of the output, increasing the efficiency of the process, or reducing the operating cost of the process itself. The data generated from process-monitoring and the feedback on the output need to be analyzed properly to identify the improvements needed in the process, or in the process-monitoring to get a better picture of the process. The last but not the least is the execution of those improvements leading to process management.

Process Management: Process Management means the ability to manage processes efficiently and improving them continuously. It encompasses an expertise in utilizing the tools-set of Six-Sigma, Lean, Project Management, Systems Thinking etc., the art of devising right strategy, and the ability to drive change in the system & among the people. It is the efficient process management which results in a sustainable change/improvement in the process.

Now, processes exists at each and every layer in the hierarchy of an organization. Those at the high level are termed as business processed, while the ones in the subsequent layers are called functional processes. And never forget that no matter what your process is, it needs to be improved!

The New Look

I have launched the Process Improvement Blog in an entirely new look. It was "The Photoshopper" who suggested me the redesigning of this blog and then volunteered to lead this task. Myself being a demanding quality professional, it was not easy for him to come up with a template which satisfies all my requirements. Using his experience in Photoshop, HTML coding, and vast knowledge of blog tools, widgets, do's & dont's, etc. this blog finally got its new look.

I think it looks lot more smooth, and is more user-friendly than its predecessor. Please feel free to leave your comments on the new design. Now, the pressure is on me to post regularly and keep the blog alive in steeply growing blogosphere.

If you are looking for some freelance design services to get a new website, blog, or logo I would highly recommend contacting "The Photoshopper".

Blog under Redesign

This blog is under schedule maintainence and redesign from 6/28/09 to 7/1/09.
Thank you for checking it now. Don't forget to check the redesigned blog. I will need your comments and feedback on the new design and content.

The redesigning is being done by The Photoshopper. You can see the progress of the new theme design Here.

Minitab Method Chooser

If you are even remotely related to either of the following professions: Quality, Six-Sigma, Reliability, or Quantitative Analysis used in agricultural/clinical/medical research; I' am sure you have used or heard of Minitab at one point. Minitab is the most widely used software package for data-analysis and statistics. I use it for all sort of data crunching I need to do as part of Six-Sigma projects and I really like it. The package in itself has evolved a lot and become lot more user friendly rather than statistician friendly as it used to be long ago.

One thing I like in particular is the Resources section on their website, which has lots of tutorials, tips, and tricks on using the software. Recently they have released a"Method Chooser". If you are wondering what it is exactly, then let me quote it from their website:

"Method Chooser directs you to the Minitab analysis that’s most appropriate for your data and your objectives. This tool provides an interactive decision tree for each key area and includes concise explanations and concrete examples for support. Use it to quickly grasp the basic requirements and perform the right analysis, every time."

In essence, it is a detailed statistical data-analysis roadmap to lead you to the right analysis for your data-type and your intended purpose of analysis. I have used such roadmaps in past and they tend to be very useful. This time, Minitab has really done a terrific job by putting the most comprehensive roadmap, I have ever seen. You can download the whole package from this link. It consists of five sections as following:

1. Basic Statistical Tests
2. Regression and ANOVA
3. Measurement Systems Analysis
4. Control Charts
5. Capability Analysis

Here is a screen-shot of an example from the road map. The examples described in the main window are corresponding to the analysis shown in the left menu bar. Isn't it great that you don't have to flip through pages or scroll around to match the text with the road map?


"On a side note, I find the name "Method Chooser" to be very funny. I am sure some statistician coined this term, and not a marketing or sales guy."