Reach out and touch a customer

Original post:  May 14, 2014

We talk about innovation a great deal. Innovation means more than just products. It can also include the services that we provide to others.

Whenever we discuss innovation, we usually start with the product or service that we currently offer. It's only natural to view the future through the lens of the past. When your frame of reference is riding on horseback, it might be difficult to imagine that they would ever be replaced by a horseless carriage. This article by HBR talks about one of the best ways to come up with the next breakthrough idea. It recommends that we examine our customer touch points.

It discusses the effort of a bank to differentiate its products. If you think about banking, there is very little that any one bank offers that cannot be found at every other bank. How do you stand out in that crowd? Here is what they did:

Rather than trying to improve the product or beef up the instructions to make its function more clear, which the bank had repeatedly tried to do over the years, the redesign team decided to completely reimagine the initial touch point – the moment when their customers would first experience the product. They turned to Apple for inspiration.

The banking team ordered a MacBook Pro and marveled at how the product made them feel when they opened the box – the quality of the packaging materials; the simple elegance of the assembly instructions; the beautiful design of the product itself. Why, they wondered, couldn’t their financial product create the same type of emotion for their customers? After all, the line of credit was providing them with a sense of financial security.

With the Apple experience fresh in their minds, the banking team redesigned the touch points surrounding the line of credit product – from how the product was delivered (in a beautiful box with a luxurious feel that makes the user feel they are opening a gift) to the color-coded operating instructions. What’s more, they provided customers with a product playbook, which included several examples of how the product could be used with multiple scenarios. Within six months of making these changes, call volume had declined by more than 40%.

The article goes on to give several examples of other companies and their efforts to use customer feedback to help them improve their products or services.

Here is the link to the full article:  For a Breakthrough Idea, Start by Examining Customer Touch Points - Brian Klapper - Harvard Business Review

How do you think you can use this example to help your department offer a new twist on your products or services?

Avoiding the soft "Yes"

Original post:  Oct 23, 2013

It is always difficult to get to a business result. Projects often require the assistance of many people who are unable or unwilling to help. In some cases, that task is made even more difficult by people who are trying to be helpful but end up diverting you away from the result that you need. It's especially important to minimize these types of distractions when you are working on an innovative project which has not proven its value to the organization yet!

There are many occasions where we may think that we've gained the agreement that we need. The other party has let us know that they support our idea. What we need to keep in mind is that without a firm commitment for action, we haven't really accomplished anything.

This article from HBR discusses "Avoiding the Soft 'Yes'".  Here is an excerpt describing the issue:

They’re more comfortable asking busy people to add another item to their to-do list. But since most people’s incentives are tied to delivering against the core business, they’ll likely nod their heads and agree to help out — but prioritize the tasks they feel they’re being paid to do over the pursuit of uncertain ideas.

Thus, the soft yes — people agree (in principle) to your request, but they don’t come through whole-heartedly. The net result is that innovation efforts limp along, making just enough progress to keep management intrigued, but not enough to have any material impact.

The solution is to have very clear resource requests early in any pitch. When everyone in the meeting is clear on the objectives, they will also understand that their agreement is also to provide the resources necessary to accomplish the necessary tasks.

Here is the link to the full article:  http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/07/avoiding-the-soft-yes/

We're not having the same conversation

Original post:  Aug 9, 2013

I'm sure we all have our differences from time to time with our co-workers. What's most important is to figure out the best way to settle our issues as quickly as possible so that we can collaborate effectively.

This article from HBR offers some insight into these very situations. Here is a quick excerpt:

I was running late. My wife Eleanor and I had agreed to meet at the restaurant at seven o'clock and it was already half past. I had a good excuse in the form of a client meeting that ran over and I wasted no time getting to the dinner as fast as possible.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I apologized and told her I didn't mean to be late.

She answered: "You never mean to be late." Uh oh, she was mad.

"Sorry," I retorted, "but it was unavoidable." I told her about the client meeting. Not only did my explanations not soothe her, they seemed to make things worse. That started to make me angry.

That dinner didn't turn out to be our best.

Several weeks later, when I was describing the situation to a friend of mine, Ken Hardy, a professor of family therapy, he smiled.

"You made a classic mistake," he told me.

"Me? I made the mistake?" I was only half joking.

"Yes. And you just made it again," he said. "You're stuck in your perspective: You didn't mean to be late. But that's not the point. The point is that you werelate. The point — and what's important in your communication — is how your lateness impacted Eleanor."

In other words, I was focused on my intention while Eleanor was focused on the consequences. We were having two different conversations. In the end, we both felt unacknowledged, misunderstood, and angry.

The author also offers some advice:

What should I have said to Eleanor?

"I see you're angry. You've been sitting here for 30 minutes and that's got to be frustrating. And it's not the first time. Also, I can see how it seems like I think being with a client gives me permission to be late. I'm sorry you had to sit here waiting for so long."

All of that is true. Your job is to acknowledge their reality — which is critical to maintaining the relationship. As Ken described it to me: "If someone's reality, as they see it, is negated, what motivation do they have to stay in the relationship?"

While it may seem difficult at first to take this approach, I am sure it will yield dividends. I am planning to see if I can incorporate it more often into my own experiences.

Here is the link to the full article:  http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2013/04/what-to-do-when-youve-angered.html?cm_sp=blog_flyout-_-bregman-_-what_to_do_when_youve_angered

The art of irresistible e-mail

Original post:  Aug 1, 2013

From HBR, here is a short article that discusses how you can create e-mail that people will actually open and read.

Katie Smith Milway has some basic plans for every e-mail:

Before you start typing, consider:

The objective. What do you want to achieve with this email? Is your purpose to inform? Request input? Ask for help?

What-who-when. Your objective will inform the message, including what to write, who should receive it and when to send it. Also think about whether it should come from you, or someone with more seniority.

Visual logic. Clear structure and typographical signalling will boost the odds that your reader will get your message quickly and respond in ways that meet your goal.

She then adds six specific tips:

1. Put the subject line to work. Most of us already use our subject line to predict the "what," e.g. "Re monthly financials." But it's also the place to build a personal bridge: "Re monthly financials, per Peter's request," and to indicate urgency: "Re monthly financials, per Peter's request. Need feedback by Tuesday."
2. Visually highlight the key message. Structure your email so the most important request or information is at the top, then put it in bold. This may seem like a, "duh," but people often "bury the lede", as journalists like to say, several paragraphs down. If you are sending to multiple readers, also bold the names of anyone you address directly, so they immediately connect to content that's relevant to them. If you're making multiple points, use indentations and numbers or bullets.
3. Use links to go deep; voting buttons to get answers. If you want someone to act on your email then make it concise and jargon-free. Use links to let readers go deeper or access forms, and voting buttons to get folks to sign up.
4. Time the delivery for maximum impact. Never send an email at the end of the day or the start of a weekend. Make sure people are opening it at a time when they're at their desks and have time to read it.
5. Add clout by having a superior co-sign. We may be moving into a less hierarchical work world, but the boss's name still gets attention. If you need help, ask for it.
6. Leave the ball in the reader's court. If you want people to get back to you or take action, make sure you put the request in bold as well. Make clear what you need from them.

There is a "before and after" example that helps clarify these points.

Here is the link to the full article:  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/07/the_art_of_irresistible_email.html

To link or not to link?

Original post:  Jul 1, 2013

Like many other business professionals, I have a LinkedIn account. The easiest way to describe this is to call it a business version of Facebook. While I don't post daily activities, it is useful as a way to keep in touch with some of the contacts that I may only see from time to time. It even helped me in one situation where someone from another organization needed to contact me because their phone was stolen and they weren't sure when our meeting was supposed to be. They reached out to me via LinkedIn and we were able to connect successfully!

Social networking for business can be a delicate area. LinkedIn users often post a business résumé. No one is required to add any data, but most people freely contribute. The more information you put about yourself and your job, the more useful the tool is for the others in the network. For the most part, only individuals in your network can see your full profile. There is one major exception. While membership is free, there is a paid side of the service as well that allows individuals and companies to see everything that is posted. That can sometimes lead to unwanted solicitations.

Everyone has to come up with a strategy that works for them. I found an article that has some helpful tips and an interesting rule that the author uses to decide whether or not to accept LinkedIn invitations. I thought the "would you do a favor for this person or ask them to do a favor for you" a good rule of thumb.

Here is the link to the full article:  http://blogs.hbr.org/samuel/2013/06/should-i-accept-that-linkedin.html?goback=%2Egde_42218_member_253236061

Transforming data into insight

Original post: Jun 20, 2013

There is a lot of buzz within Information Systems about "Big Data." We are coming up with new and better ways to collect information. We are also hoping to figure out how to extract meaningful information from the volumes of various threads stored in the files.

It's one thing to collect all of the information. It's a much more difficult task to transform all of that data into a few simple insights that can translate into meaningful business results.

Tesco is one of the world's largest retailers. They are early adopters of all kinds of operational excellence programs. They have adopted the Toyota Production System and integrated those techniques into their logistical systems. They have been collecting immense amounts of data for about thirty years. What could they do with all of this data?

In an article in Harvard Business Review, they found an answer:

But to get the full value of its improved supply chain capabilities, Tesco needed to marry its upgraded operations with a deeper knowledge of its customers than it could get from aggregated scanner data. So in 1993, the company launched its "Clubcard" with which customers could earn points for purchases, redeemable for discounts or gifts. While it was building loyalty with Clubcard points, Tesco quietly built up profiles of its card-holders, including which areas of the store they visited and their product preferences. Working with consultancy dunnhumby, they eventually defined 16 lifestyle "clusters" by combining in-store shopping data (which told them what customers bought and where) and home shopping data (which also told them what customers wanted to buy but which wasn't available).

You may be saying, OK, so they built a customer database. What's the big deal? The big deal, and what's really powerful, is what Tesco did with the insights it gathered. It used the customer profiles to uncover unmet needs, and to design and launch a series of services to meet those needs, including smaller local convenience stores and online shopping. Tesco tracked where customers bought — online, or in convenience, High Street, supermarket or hypermarket formats. Then it customized the product ranges at smaller stores for the local customer base. With only 1,500 items, a convenience store has to get its product mix just right. As told to me by Dan Jones, the chairman of the Lean Academy who worked with Tesco, CEO Terry Leahy was convinced that the company should develop these new formats, and actively supported their development, despite the concerns of store managers that their sales would be cannibalized. (For more on the Tesco story, see Terry Leahy's book Management in 10 Words and Dan Jones' book Lean Solutions).

Linking supply chain capabilities and customer insights, Tesco worked out the operational details of how to deliver exactly what customers wanted to each type of store. Their agile supply chain allowed them to replenish small stores at the same cost as big stores — so they could charge the same prices in every format. They continued to use insights from Clubcard to regularly adjust offers, tweaking the supply chain accordingly. Interestingly, as soon as they rolled out home shopping, store managers saw increased sales rather than cannibalization and so were quickly won over.

The bottom line is that this type of work is extremely hard--even for a company as forward-thinking and receptive to change as Tesco. But this type of work is vital to the long-term survival of any organization.

Here is the link to the full article:  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/03/operational_excellence_meet_cu.html