How to help your customers: Customer Effort

What do we understand by Customer Effort (CES)? It is about measuring how much it costs the client to resolve a management or doubt when he comes into contact with the company, giving an assessment to the following question: “How much did it cost you to find this article, perform this management or call the customer service solve you a doubt?” It’s that simple. Customer Effort seeks to analyze customer behavior to reduce the barriers that can be found throughout its life cycle with the company during any type of management. Let us put ourselves in the client’s shoes, not only to analyze the Customer Journey but also to understand the difficulty that certains managements.

In addition, Customer Effort is related to the economic part of the company, that is, it seeks above all to reduce the barriers of the company with the client, or in other words, to facilitate the client’s efforts with the company itself, a client or a person when access the website of a company and looking for a product, the more barriers (steps, difficulty of compression, etc.) are placed, the less likely it will be to close the purchase, we are talking in terms of customer acquisition or crosselling.

 

HOW CUSTOMERS COMPARE COMPANIES?

Keep in mind that a fundamental rule in business is that customers are not going to compare you with your direct competitor, but with other companies where they make arrangements, that is, they leave outside the sector in which you operate to perform a Benchmarking of their compare basically the companies with which they operate day by day, in many cases they are their favorite brands.

However, keep in mind that your company will not generate the same feeling in the client as another, since the action may be totally different or the reward that will be achieved, but if it is going to weigh how easy is the management and He will compare it with his daily environment.

All companies look for:

– Reduce the operating cost.

– Increase customer satisfaction.

– Automate processes that do not add value in the Customer Cycle Value.

– Facilitate the sale of products without human interaction.

HOW IS CUSTOMER EFFORT CALCULATED?

Like other indicators in the same area, it is calculated with a numerical scale to the question we saw before, “How much did it cost you to find this article, perform this management or find information?”, Where 1 is associated with extremely difficult and 10 with really easy .

So to get a good assessment it is important to understand our processes and the customer’s journey.

It is clear and we all agree that we cannot have inefficient processes and automate them, because we would be automating inefficiency.

We have to change them to make them more agile and from there understand what is best for our customers. The exact same thing happens with Customer Cicle Life.

A very practical matrix to understand how much effort we generate in our clients is the following:

From the interpretation of the data we will be able to identify those points where it costs the customer to perform a management, we have to be able to trace the drivers that generate that our company is not able to generate satisfaction in our customers.

I leave several tips for those who enter the world of Customer Effort:

1- Customer expectations: very dangerous, in this metric more than in any other it is very important to cover the customer’s expectation, in some cases some companies get to ask if “it has been more difficult than you expected?”, Be careful Do not change the communication channel, in which the client can do it by himself.

2 – Emotional and rational part: When we talk about ration and emotion (both very complex) linked to the client and the company, it always stands out when the client is emotionally linked to the company. On many occasions we do not know what makes the client fall in love with our company but it does irritate him, and this brings down his level of satisfaction. Let’s control what makes them angry.

Let’s be simple and remove the barriers!

Author: Rodrigo González González

What is quality? Lean Thinking

Recently my company has been certified in ISO 9001, that Standard that says that a company is as ineffective in its processes, and it is wonderful in the news of internal communication, in some association of quality and hung on the wall, but the Reflection that I pose myself, is, what is quality? What do we mean by quality? Why does a company work so well?

Quality is not a role, quality is not something that is said, quality is not for a day, if you believe that is really wrong, you are going astray.

Quality is a way of life, a culture of work and a philosophy of understanding the operative.

There have been great quality gurus, thanks to them the quality is where it is, but as it says, whenever it is looking for continuous improvement everything has to evolve. We are at a time where innovation at all levels is the key to new successes, new challenges, new failures and undoubtedly new illusions that will make you bigger and wiser.

The quality, apart from the paper that you can have hanging in the department, is something that is breathed, and that the whole company must breathe and know well. Personally, in this sense, I am constantly striving to show the intrinsic benefits of good quality management, that all people know what we work for, what we work for and give merit to the people who deserve it.

What we have ever seen written Lean Thinking, is the reality that is slowly taking root in companies, many of them do not give as much value to a certification as to the fact of doing things right.

Things to , process improvement, people involvement, project implementation, the set of all activities are what creates the core of quality. The core of the company. Quality is NOT expensive, we have to forget that quality is expensive, implementing the different methodologies we have is a wonderful challenge that makes quality an exciting world to live with.

I encourage everyone to make quality and forget certificates.

Make Lean Thinking!

Blueprinting method: Analyze your services and optimize them

Blueprinting is a methodology that is based on analyzing, visualizing and presenting a map of services. It serves to see the evolution of a process or the provision of services through a flow chart.

As a final result we will obtain a diagram where the activities of the process are chronologically represented on a horizontal axis. Depending on the proximity to the client these processes or activities will be at one level or another level within a vertical axis.

 

What do we get with Blueprinting?

We achieve two points of view, within the company (processes) and outside the company (customer experience). Blueprinting focuses on detailing the configuration of a service-based process to achieve an optimal result both inside and outside the company. The philosophy of work is to dismantle the conceptual map of services to achieve continuous improvement through customer satisfaction, as well as increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of processes (associated cost reduction, process waste, etc.).

To achieve success within companies, it is necessary to work under three pillars: developing alternative strategies, focusing on clear objectives and making decisions based on concise data.

From the analysis of the results we develop options to mark a strategy and a posterior evaluation. Always setting some guidelines for action in the face of problems and new challenges, applying competently improvement actions and focusing / sizing efforts.

 

How do you start working with Blueprinting?

1- First, we have to establish the limits of the system, in this case, we are talking about our services and products. In this way we will be able to visualize a dimension of our study, we refer to the E2E (End to End) of the system. Therefore it is important to reflect the essence of the system in sight, then we have to identify what are the key points of this system, these points are our activities or processes.

This first step will unfold all those processes that have an impact both on the operations of our organization and, on the face of the customer, to know what factors are those aspects that will influence the decision of our brand for another one of the competition.

2- All this we have to take it to a graphic representation, for the representation of this process, we will work on a diagram that marks the interactions with the client, with the company, zones of perception, etc. All this we are going to carry out Through the use of a symbology by all recognizable.

In this representation it is necessary to begin to identify in a clear way that internal processes are intimately related to client experience. We must identify how these two routes, one internal and one external, mark the roadmap to generate the start-up of a service with the maximum possible potential.

Obviously to develop this mapping diagram of both processes and client is necessary to set time guidelines, it seems totally obvious but has a non-trivial character that will define the vision of the E2E process and analyze how they impact the processes inside and outside the Organization through the Customer Journey you achieve to reach how much of good or bad is the customer experience. Mides KPIs on both sides and paramétrizas how to improve internally so that it impacts on customer and vice versa.

This methodology may be accompanied by others such as the Servqual Technique or a DMAIC. With this we will uncover “moments of truth“.

3- When deploying our Process diagram and Customer Journey, we have a general life cycle of our system that makes it easier to identify faults. A widely used practice is to identify faults as potential risk areas for customers, these areas must also have a special attention on our part. The areas where failures occur is where we have to start working, it is very important to define in our protocol of action that is important and critical, we should not direct our actions to something that can “wait” to start with actions that have greater priority.

With this we will avoid the occurrence of these failures and even anticipate future failures that may be blocking our services.

4- Once we have identified the failures and we have set a priority or criticality in front of each of them, whether with affection to our clients or in the internal operative, we have to establish a battery of actions in front of these problems. To the extent possible we will work to minimize current errors and prevent futures to reduce impact.

Let’s see them on a real case, to analyze all the steps we have seen. And pursue those aspects that can generate more impact within the organization.

Of course, from this mapping we can integrate KPIs and customer satisfaction indicators that delimit improvement actions on a specific focus to optimize processes and generate value actions towards our final client.

To gain the trust of the client is to offer a service that meets the needs of this and do not have any fuss, we do not like to be surprised with unwanted bills, services or products that do not meet our needs because we feel cheated and will be very difficult That the customer re-believe in us, that is why he marks the end of the process with a face of ambiguity. Since we must remain alert and give a successful service. In the complicated moments we must get our arsenal and get the customer to move as far as possible from that yellow face to pass to a green of satisfaction.

How to implement a Map of the Value Chain or Value Stream Mapping in our organizations

Today we will try to give a small guide to the development of Value Chain Mapping, Value Stream Mapping or VSM within our organizations. The philosophy of this technique is to analyze the process in detail to reach the maximum knowledge of it and to see where our process is failing or can simply improve, with this we will achieve that the performance and efficiency of our processes also help save costs .

To start with this type of techniques you have to start by making clear some concepts such as:

– Production lead time: is the time from the time the order is received until it is ready for packaging and shipping to the customer.

– Processing Time: is the time required to perform the tasks of manufacturing a product.

– Time of configuration, or change of tools: is the time it takes to move from one process to another.

– Number of Reprocessed: is the number of units that need to be reprocessed because of faults or defects.

– Batch Size: is the number of units of product that are realized in a determined time.

– Available Time of Equipment (Working Time Available or Uptime): it is the time that we dedicate, or the time of activity, in a determined period (h / day, h / week, h / month …), here we have to despise meetings, Breaks … everything that can disturb the working time, this data can be given in%.

– Waste (Scrap): are the unnecessary costs that are generated in each process. We can differentiate the following:

– Overproduction resulting in excess inventory (stocks of end products and products in progress),

– Unnecessary movements and transport.

– Waiting points and bottlenecks that slow down the process.

– Nonconforming products (manufacture defective products which must then be reprocessed to repair their faults).

– Other activities that generate inefficiencies or unnecessary costs.

– Demand: it is the number of product that we need to manufacture to cover the orders, or the needs of the market.

– Warehouse process: is the stock of products in progress, both in the process and in warehouses and transport.

Then the data to collect and mark in each of the processes are the following, I contribute the encoding of signs for each one.

Next I present a theoretical model of VSM of how the structure of a global map would be after performing the initial study of how we work within our organization, in this step it is important to devote time to it, because any details that can escape repercussion at the time Of the final results. It is necessary to give detail in the flow of the product, information flow, processes and re-processes that are realized, to control the quantity of all the materials with which it is working, times described above, etc.

When we have represented our process, and we have a global vision the next step is to move to the data. Here as well as before you have to carry out an exhaustive study of what data you have to put in each case and most importantly the type of metrics with which we are going to work, for this we must help from different supports in other areas.

In each process, we highlight as basic data to take into account: cycle time, task time,% activity in that process and Batch size or lot size. With the obtaining of all the data we will be able to complete the map and have a vision of how each of the processes and steps are being carried out within the process. With the next step we can carry out a separate study of each process, discovering in this way its capacity and seeing where there are bottlenecks that block the overall process.

Assembling all the mapping of our process, we can begin to analyze it and use the Lean philosophy, one of the first problems that we can encounter is the production in Batch push, each process produces at a different pace in such a way that there will be in areas that are Accumulate material and in others where there is not, therefore, it is sought that a process produces the necessary and fair amount for the next process, or move to a pull production where the next process demand is worked. Trying to perform a JIT process (just in time) from the client to the resources will help the overall process have shorter delivery times with better quality and lower cost. Techniques like FIFO, 5S, Ishikawa, AMFE, Poka Yoke … help to achieve the efficiency of the process, ultimately Kaizen and Kanban philosophy.

So you have to design a plan to reach an optimal performance model from the VSM. Once each technique is implanted in the process it is important to mark them on the map in such a way that we know about each one being executed. Without disregarding the maintenance work performed by the operator, this maintenance can be: corrective, preventive, predictive or total productive on this pillar is based on the philosophy Jidoka, where the operator takes a vital role in fault detection.

Canvas: project management framework

It emerges as a project management methodology, helping guide these and focusing on a creative design by creating a canvas project to work on. In this way Canvas allows us to draw as our project would be in a series of steps that define in an agile way through the intervention of all stakeholders involved, reducing the TTM and improving the penetration of our products.
We can simplify the realization of Canvas in 3 main blocks which in turn are subdivided:
The first of the blocks located in the center defines what would be the pillars of the project, in this case the final product, on the other hand the activities needed to get that product.

On the right side we will develop market components, product value proposition, broadcast channels, customer relationship and sources of revenue.
Finally the left block defines this methodology would be to identify what resources are going to be needed, use of technological platforms (ICT), relationship between them and what is needed by each in the different steps of the project and of course establish A cost structure.

What benefits does Canvas offer?

– The Canvas model allows rapid modifications on the progress of the project based on data analysis and testing the hypotheses that mark the guidelines of the success of the project, marking the viability of the business.
– Canvas allows the interaction of the different affected areas in a friendly and flexible way, in a very intuitive way and encouraging the interaction between people.
– Undoubtedly encourages teamwork, the way in which different workshops are held to work on the evolution of the product launch. Working with a canvas model allows to establish a better relationship between the people who are going to intervene. You can use methodologies like Scamper or brainstorming.
– Improves the overall visualization of the holistic of the project. Once the Canvas is made, it will be shown to all the people who have taken part in this activity and that will be part of the achievement of the launch of the product.
Now we will develop and define other aspects that we have seen that are necessary to successfully achieve the development of Canvas.

1- Customer Segmentation: The most important thing you have to ask is who is going to be directed to your product, what penetration is going to have and if you are going to have the buying power that you have planned on that niche market.
2- Proposal of value: that is, what you need to cover, the key is to know what problem you will be able to solve your group of customers.
3- Channels of diffusion: to generate a good market penetration it is very important to define through which channels you are going to spread your product on your target audience. At this point you have to be able to discern the audience to which the product is directed and it is based on this you have the possibility to choose the best channel. If it is a group of young customers, it encourages the digital channel while in other sectors, traditional channels may be more successful.
4- Customer Journey: In this process of launching products you have to stop and think about how the relationship with your customers will be. Set touchpoints within the customer and product lifecycle. Ways of contact and feelings that can lift these touchpoints.
5 – Obtaining income: always have to justify a department’s budget to start working on a project, then, let’s see what points are sensitive to the client: how much is the customer willing to pay, how does the payment, sale Direct, online sales … then you have to evaluate all the possibilities of earning money.

When we are clear in what environment the company will move on these new products or services, we will work the internal alliances. We will evaluate the internal part of the project that we need and what expenses we will support, the points to see at this time of project development are:

1- Internal resources: we must identify what people are going to need to achieve our goal, which departments are going to be involved and of those who are going to wear the “monkey” job.
2- Actions to be carried out: it is very important to define the concept of product as market, so, we must establish some lines of action in front of this new horizon. It is very important to know that you want to not waste your time in development.
3- Internal alliances: within this canvas our actors must maintain a good communication and clear lines of action. Based on these values, we must promote the accessibility and transparency of information. It is necessary to make a foment of companionship and to eliminate it with the resources of departments involved.
4- Cost structure: we have seen that we need to identify where our benefits come from, but we also have to have identified where our costs come from. It identifies these outbreaks and establishes a prioritization to reduce these costs.

Once we have all this identified, how do we move forward?
We have marked a starting point in the execution of our project, we must update our Canvas, we must continue to update the changes that happen in our product development and when we finally launch the product to the market we are able to analyze what strengths and weaknesses have influenced our. That helps us to mark a better route at the time of the execution of new projects Canvas or of the nature that is.

Once we have finalized the project we have to take the appropriate metrics to know how good the product we have launched to the market, in these cases it is very interesting to work with Analysis AB, where through the execution of drivers you have a sample of how they affect your products to your customers and can make comparisons between groups of customers without the need to launch the product to your entire portfolio. They are agile methodologies that help to obtain quick results on impact to clients.

Digital transformation. What are our customers looking for?

We are in an absolute spiral of new technologies, the world evolves to bring people away, to improve communications between people, videoconferences, chats of all kinds, search engines. We are talking about Generation X, Generation Y and some Millenials (which sounds very futuristic) … in short, different people with different attitudes towards companies.

These are the ones that have to adapt their way of contacting the customer to provide a better service and stay on the crest of the wave. Everything happens in the end to digitize its customers, which has been the happy Digital Transformation, that paradigm that will change the world to make it better, that is why companies are passing large, medium, SMEs; Young entrepreneurs who directly generate a digital business with a customer service based on RRSS or digital platforms, we could talk about Entrepreuners for Milenials and that your Community Manager manages order, your claim … sounds cool.

Basically, and from personal experience the customer service leaves a lot to be desired. However, they are companies focused on the sale and if the customer has some problem “that he will manage”. I am not talking about the giant Amazon, where it provides a service of the highest quality and with the investment that can make it can be a benchmark in terms of customer service.
Returning to communication with customers, what do they want ?, simple, that their concerns are heard, as easy as that. And this said not all companies have so easy to afford to adapt to new times, to enter into the paradigm of change, to be digital.
And then, why a company happens to be digital ?, the first step is for your customers to know what exists in the digital world of that company, to be known in that area and to provide a service where the customer understands what he is doing. I explained, those millenials will know perfectly how to perform actions with your company because they are perfectly familiarized with that environment in other companies, but not all of your customers, not so, some (quite possibly a majority need help), that’s where it comes into play The genius of companies, digital processes understandable by all, global digitization. As we improve processes so our customers have to wait less, have exact answers, get what they are looking for, this is exactly the same, global digitization.
And here it is that the real change is created, that digital is not for a few, but for a few, accessibility but with a usability within the reach of the X, Y … Z.

We think of the big one when it comes to developing technology but, exactly for whom? Those millenials are not going to make your ROI in technology investment look green at the end of the year. Let’s think big about the usability of technology, let’s make that technology available to everyone that makes a company really stand out and stand out in its service and Self Service, which began a few years ago, and have written a good stack of books On the world of Self Service, next to the space race is a joke.
By making an analogy to the space race, when a customer puts the first foot on our website, what do you expect to see ?, What do you expect to be able to do? Will you understand what you are doing?, think as a customer, when you call the phone what you hear is “perfect, Sr XX we have successfully processed your management, need to perform another? “, What gives the customer peace of mind is to hear those sweet words -” processed successfully “, the security that he has asked for has been done, who have paid attention to him.

So if we want to transform our customers into more “dinosaurs” and send them into the digital age, we have to go through a process of knowledge and understanding of our customers. Facilitate technology but with common sense, generate usability.

I would define this article in three words: accessible, usable and simple.
That the customer feels clothed, replacing the sound of the other person on the phone for a colder (digital) world is difficult, so the transition must be done in a warm and welcoming. Our customers are the first ones who want to save those unnecessary calls, which as my grandmother said “that this runs and then comes the bill”

Let’s be digital, Yes, and let’s still be universal.

Methods for measuring customer satisfaction

For Everyone knows that the customer is at the heart of the organization, product or service we provide revolves around him and the satisfaction that has this of our business, there are many indicators that help us measure the perceived quality of products and services with these customers, the happy customer satisfaction indicators. These indicators are generated through telephone surveys, by post and other means to provide this information. But is it really a reliable indicator? Are there factors that distort the final result and make us make a wrong strategy?, I mean the correct interpretation or not made about this data. The aim of this article is to know some of the indicators that make the company take a series of decisions based on these results to focus resources toward continuous improvement.

The first indicator with which work will be the NPS, Net Promoter Score, is an easily obtainable and measurable indicator that is extracted through only question where the customer passes rated Promoter (P), Neutral ( N) or Detractor (N) depending on the score you have given to the question asked of 10-9 Promoter, Neutral 8-7 and 6-0 Detractor (although it depends on the requirement of service the company in question) . Once calculated is simple to interpret and mark a benchmark against the competition and work on sectoral studies.

However, contrary to the simplicity of this indicator have been studies that provide evidence that is not the best predictor of customer loyalty.

 

What makes this indicator loses strength analysis?

1. We begin with that for this metric information is lost, that is, work with 3 groups (PND), we can not make a separate calculation and increases the statistical error. To give you an idea, in a survey do not get the grade of each client (0-10) but we will talk about a perceived quality of excellent service to poor there is a difference of 10%, we lose Customization by each customer. We had a continuous variable 11 groups (0a 10) to a discrete variable (3 groups).

2. We have more than one interpretation with respect to the same result, going into detail, we can get the same NPS for two very different situations, this means very different performance requirements.

3. This metric is very sensitive to small changes, since the changes that occur in scores between groups involved in obtaining a very different NPS facing a similar assessment.

4. Difficulty to mark a cutoff between groups. Since every company is going to perform according to their needs.

We can determine that the NPS is a purely intuitive metric that gives us an idea of ​​where our company moves, and a relative position of how we find ourselves at another point in time or over the competition. To create a more stable indicator is necessary to be clear that numbers work.

The second of the indicators work is the NSI (Net Satisfaction Index), again we return to measure customer satisfaction based on the number of responses against a qualitative survey and quality of those votes. This time the service Very Satisfactory Unsatisfactory Very valued. Depending on the volume that has been obtained in the different groups perceived quality of service.

As shown in this formula are weighted with greater value responses higher semantic evaluation. Even the group’s responses of “Dissatisfied” are weighted 25% and it is assumed that the client has “some” small satisfaction that is. Positioning values ​​NSI allow us to know our level of quality as far as customer satisfaction is concerned are set out in the following table.

 

The standard of excellence EFQM also shows the measurement of quality in its parent REDER in this case refers to Nª6 section of this standard called result in customers. Unlike the previous indicators EFQM makes a note of satisfaction in terms of the definition we make ourselves what we mean by customer, within this major criterion is divided into two sub-criteria: 6a refers to the perception of the service received, that is, on his view of how we have done our job. Ultimately measured customer satisfaction, users or beneficiaries of the organization. These measures can refer to aspects such as technical skills, behavior, accessibility, communication, responsiveness, courtesy, empathy, added value, innovation, handling complaints and claims, loyalty …

And the sub-criterion 6b Try on internal measures to analyze the performance of activities with customers, users or beneficiaries, ie on the amount of things we do. These measures can refer to aspects such as: number of interventions, complaints and claims rate, number of service demands, error rates or incidents, response time, types of services offered, attended segmentation of collective …

Likewise, the ISO 9001 in its Point 8.2.1 talks about customer satisfaction, but never tells you how to measure, like EFQM is limited to the measurement of customer satisfaction is a mandatory requirement to pass certification and always seek areas for improvement to increase this satisfaction.

I will be adding new ways to measure customer satisfaction, do not miss it.

Emotional memory: Customer Experience

Much is said about the customer experience in enterprise environments, but ¿really good management of this new power to improve the relationship with the client is seeking?, Companies do their work in the best of forms and giving the best possible deal, this deal is remembered?

The human brain is an organ with a discriminatory storage capacity and record of immense emotions, so when interacting with customers is very important to keep a memorable souvenir of our company.

In the business world the term now used to reach WOW achieve a degree of emotional surprise with the highest customer, this will mean the difference between a good and bad memories, to recommend your brand, whether by necessity have to unsubscribe your company is the first to ask deals, which reach more than a give what the customer needs and longer.

Let’s go to real examples, an American family decided to take a trip to the beach and stay at the Ritz-Carlton hotel for a week, the experience was terrific with an exquisite, perfect, but it was not where I highlight the relationship the hotel has with its customers, in this case, and after spending family holidays got home and the younger children had not realized that his favorite stuffed animal, a giraffe called Joshie, realizing that he had not his favorite stuffed the child began to mourn, the parents called the hotel to ask if Teddy was at its facilities. The answer was no, not the whereabouts of Joshie known. Within a week, the family received a call Customer Service at the Ritz, they had found the bear in the laundry, after a few days I get a package to the family home, there was Joshie, but not only that also it included some pictures where it seemed that the giraffe had spent his own vacation, from this original way the Ritz managed to capture fond memories for parents and a positive, almost convinced I would comment on the experience for the baby of the house Joshie magnificent vacation on the beach with his classmates. All in all a very positive experience against something that appears not as significant and an unpleasant memory for the baby of the house, again positive emotional reinforcement.

Since science is very clear that the emotional memory marks a clear difference on their experiences, a business to mistreat a client or management has been delayed and has had a bad result is recorded in the client’s memory, thus becoming someone completely the enemy to our brand. A client may leave the company but not for bad service.

Going a little further on emotional memory, a great story between mother and child, she suffered from Alzehimer and he was devoted to caring for her mother, created routines for her to have a mental planning, the question How do you take your daily life? – He replied – “For me the two key tools are cognitive stimulation and love” – ​​little more to add, we talk about the great story of Paul A. Barredo and mother. They are the two words that any company should devote its customers cognitive stimulation and love. Strengthen the bond of the most unexpected way makes exponentially increase the possibility of generating a positive memory of our brand.

 

How do you manage to surprise the customers?

Everyone is different, every customer has needs at all times and they will contact us for help in everything that is related to our brand, often do not seek anything but a simple solution without any frills, but are accompanied and we are able to understand their situation. And we recommend solve the problem for you have at hand but also find an innovative way to strengthen the relationship. Maybe not now but later, just by the fact of asking him if he was satisfied with the care provided in a disinterested way, just to know if after the resolution is all to your liking, capture the customer’s attention since we talk about people. Customers usually do not expect a second contact of the company confirming the excellence of the brand, here it is where we can make positive reinforcement.

Depending on the sector to which your brand engages you be able to create this positive experience to your customers, only seeks the right time and remember that every client is unique with its peculiarities, to everyone’s problems do not affect them equally, so we are breaking protocols in cases where necessary.

PDCA Cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act): The Deming cycle and the continuous improvement

The PDCA cycle is the most used methodology to implement a continuous improvement system in a company or organization.

In this article, we are going to explain to you what it represents, how it works and what is the relationship with the PDCA Cycle and some ISO standards, as ISO 9001 for Quality Management Systems, in which is mentioned as a fundamental principle for the quality continuous improvement.

 

What is the PDCA Cycle ?

The name of PDCA comes from the acronym “Plan , Do, Check, Act” (PHVA in Spanish) , and is also known as the cycle of continuous improvement or Deming Cycle (because the name of its author, Edwards Deming). This methodology describes the four essential steps that should be carried out systematically to achieve continuous improvement , defined as a continuous way to improve the quality of our products and processes (decrease failures, increase effectiveness and efficiency, problem solving, avoid potential risks … ) .

The Deming Cycle is composed for four cyclic steps , so that once finished the final stage we have to start again with the first one, and repeat the cycle again. Doing that in a company,  the activities are reevaluated periodically to incorporate new enhancements . The application of this methodology is primarily intended to be used for companies and organizations, but you can also use it in any other situation.

 

How to implement the PDCA cycle in a company?

The four steps in the cycle are as follows:

1. Plan: Locate what can be improved, fix an objective and think about how this objective can be archived. You can create working groups to search potential improvements in the processes and products of your company.  It can help to listen to the ideas of the employees, and find better and new technologies that the company has not used yet.

2. Do: We made the required changes to implement the proposed improvement in our processes. In general, it is recommended to do a pilot project to test the operation before making large-scale changes.

3. Check: Once the changes are implemented, we establish a trial period to verify the developing of the new process. If the improvement does not achieve the initial expectations we will have to modify the process again to obtain the desired objectives.

4. Act: Finally , when the trial period ends, we have to study the results and compare the performance of our processes and activities before and after the improvement. If the results are satisfactory the improvements will be implemented permanently. However, if they are not satisfactory we will have to decide whether to make more changes to adjust the results or to discard them and return to the start point.

Once completed the step 4, you have to return to the first step periodically to implement more new improvements.

 

Example of a PDCA Cycle implementation

Let’s take a simple example: A factory that produces aluminum pieces.

We assume that the company has introduced a continuous improvement system, based on the PDCA cycle in conjunction with other tools (such as Lean, Six Sigma , 5S, FMEA or Kaizen … ). Applying the continuous improvement could happen the following:

1 ) Potential improvements are searched and analyzed, either because there have been detected problems, because the workers have proposed a different way to perform some task, because the market offers more efficient machines that would save costs, etc. .

2) The potential improvements and its impact are studied. We choose the improvements that can work better and we decided to implement them in a small-scale pilot test.

3) Once finished the on the pilot test, it is verified that the changes work correctly and that they archive the desired result. If the changes do not meet expectations, they have to be modified to work as expected.

4) Finally, if the results are satisfactory, the improvements will be implanted on a large scale in the production line of the factory.

Once completed and implanted the improvements, the activities in the factory aluminum pieces will work more efficiently. However, in the future we should reapply the Deming Cycle periodically.

 

Influences of the PDCA cycle of continuous improvement in the ISO standards

Several ISO standards talk about the concept of Continuous Improvement. For example ISO 9001 talks about the continuous improvement in the quality management system, explicitly naming the PDCA Cycle (Plan, Do, Check and Act). According to ISO 9001:2008, all Quality Management Systems certified with this standard must apply the methodology of continuous improvement in a systematic way. Another widespread standard that refers to continuous improvement is ISO 14001 “environmental management systems”. It also refers to the PDCA cycle again as the basis for the implementation of an environmental management system.

Read here the original post: Ciclo PDCA.

Kano Analysis: Product development thinking in the customer satisfaction

The Japanese model developed by Noriaki Kano consists on study the features that we are going to add during to our product during its development. The poit is to think in obtain customer satisfaction without adding features that do not add value.

 

The Kano characteristics

Kano proposes to classify the consumer preferences into several categories according to these aspects:

– Attractive factors.

– Linear or normal factors.

– Essential or basic factors.

– Indifferent factors.

– Refusal or contrary factors.

  

Attractive factors: These are the product characteristics or attributes that provide customer satisfaction when they are present, but at the same time they do not cause dissatisfaction when they are not present. Generally they are attributes that customers don’t expect, so when they are present it’s going to produce satisfaction and surprise in the consumer. (For example, in a car, put automatic headlights or other features that aren’t normally included).

Linear or normal factors: These are the characteristics that produce satisfaction when they are present and dissatisfaction when not. They tend to be the main characteristics of the product, which the customer chooses a product or brand. (For example, in a car, they can be the engine power, the consumption…).

Essential, basic or “should be” factors: They are attributes that are assumed to be present, and if they aren’t, it creates dissatisfaction. That is, by adding them you are not going to create any kind of customer satisfaction, but their absence will cause dissatisfaction. They are usually the basic features inherent in the product. (For example, in a car, it have to have seats, wheels, ceiling, lights, air conditioner…).

Indifferent factors: This refers to the attributes that are not perceived as either good or bad, and therefore will not produce any sensation on the customer. Therefore, it can be removed, saving costs and without decrease your sales. (For example, in a car, they are the accessory items that many users do not use ever).

Rejection Factors: Those that when  are present, the customer perceives them as negative. You should avoid them because they increase the cost production and the sales will decrease. (For example, in a car designed for executives, perhaps brightly colored seats or a flashy stickers may not attract to potential consumers because it not fits in with what they are looking for).

Designing the product taking into account the customer expectations

Kano analysis give us a way to study and classify the most relevant product or service attributes, to know what of them are the most suitable for each type of customer.

The purpose of the method is to optimize the specifications of each product, adding only the features necessary to provide the customer satisfaction and removing the irrelevant ones or the features that create us more costs than benefits.

The “basic end” products will have only the essential features (and of course, they will be cheaper), the mid-range products will also include certain linear features. Finally, the luxury products, will have all linear features plus some other attractive features to cause surprise and delight in the customer.

Original post (in Spanish):  https://pdcahome.blogspot.com/p/analisis-de-kano-desarrollo-de.html

SERVQUAL Model: Quality analysis of services

Servqual model developed by Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry in the 80s comes as a facilitator to measure, evaluate and manage quality analysis of services and has also been named as a method of analysis of the deficiencies in service from the process to improve the service provided.

According Servqual gives a quality measure based on a facilitators or service quality indicators, on paper we can find some small change on what to measure and how they act on the client, ie, how to create an experience negative or positive about the product offered. So it is clear that each organization should set its indicators in the sector to engaged and of course the process to which we are referring.

Let us see what are the foundations on which this model is based, and will see your application on any type of industry is easily adaptable.

 

– Perception that the customer has the service:

And certainly if there is no customer there is no business, to the phrase, “customer comes first”, not always indeed but if it is a fundamental pillar to meet the needs of our customer target, this will make the strategy to be followed so that the difference between the service expected by the customer and really offered whatever it more close possible, i.e., to offer a service that conforms to the maximum to what the client expects. Align the ideas of customer and company. 

To achieve that this difference is minimal need to perform the following steps: A study of our customer card, meet expectations, meet the volume of demand and create solid processes by reducing unnecessary steps in the customer service. All this will help provide a fast and accurate service.

– The reliability of service provided:

This concept indicates confidence will put our customers in us, however when a customer gets in touch with us we must try to give solution in the fewest number of possible interactions with the greatest possible agility, providing a high level of quality and that this is consistent. In this way the capacity we have to develop customer loyalty increased and this means to increase the rate of our customers, as clients themselves act as promoters of our brand. Everything focuses on creating credible services for the client.

 

– Quality of care provided:

We note at this point the personalized on our part, customer looking for that familiar treatment received, anyone he likes to call once talking with someone and the next call is referring to the same event is with someone other that very possibly give different indications, this is a very common mistake where we move away from the comfort of the customer zone getting to be a potential decline. However in this whole process with the customer care we give training to our employees, or at least some guidelines where we make clear how it must greet the customer and as assist, standardization of questions and the creation of workflows will help making decisions and of course facilitate the solution of the problem to be solved.

 

– Virtual and physical accessibility:

It is based on the idea you show us close to the customer, who may contact the client quickly, and also we have different sources of communication, the use of social networks, telephone and physical presence. As the customer type is very different we must be prepared for any possible interaction, the use of social media grows rapidly even though not all our customers will be aware or know use with agility, it is important to have a troubleshooting multi-channel service. Also within each communication to be effective and direct.

 

– Quality Assurance and Safety:

As previously mentioned the number of interactions and the quality will be synonymous with differentiation with respect to our competitors, where the customer to see refugee by a problem happened or simply for asking for information is client should see ourselves as a friends to be able to turn without problems and have a sense of security, those intangible so famous are those going to help increase customer loyalty and therefore promote the feeling of belonging to that brand. If to this we add the fact to create surprise on the client by using a gift, valuing his faithfulness, this will become the most powerful weapon to fight in competitive markets.

As seen Servqual model is presented as a strategic component within the organization in which concepts enter service quality, customer needs, communication, accessibility … with these we can analyze how we are working and improve those aspects which are to minimize the gap established between what is expected and what is done. To set this concept which are briefly summarized minimize GAP.

1. Gap between what the customer expects and what the company believes that expected

2. Gap between what the company thinks and what the service provides

3. Gap between service planned and that really lends

4. Gap between what has been delivered to the customer and what has been reported

5. Gap between customer expectations and what has been

 

Then with this entire idea of minimizing the gap, do we face the challenge of developing the modelling of Servqual?, the first step is to create a good base of indicators reliable and efficient, from here to develop initiatives to create a service more effective surveys, development of effective and close communication by different routes. And prolong the time metrics that help measure both quality of service and customer satisfaction.

PCDA Home Group.

Original post (in Spanish): https://pdcahome.blogspot.com/2013/07/modelo-servqual-analisis-de-la-calidad.html

ABC Analysis – How to optimize warehouses and inventory

ABC Analysis is a simple way to classify items (products, files, folders or anything) used when we want to optimize the layout of our inventory or warehouse. This methodology is generally used in logistic companies and stores to classify any kind of stock. Its purpose is to organize the stock products to reduce the time that the workers are going to need to manage this stuff (the time to keep, search, obtain or move items in the warehouse or shelves).

 

How to do an ABC Analysis?

To organize our stock according to the rules of the ABC Analysis, firstly we have to identify the most important items that we have in our catalogue. Therefore, we are going to classify our items in 3 groups:

– Group A: Here we put the most important item (the most used, the best sellers or the most urgent to obtain in case of necessity). In a store, these items are usually the ones which give to the company the most amounts of profits.

– Group B: These are items less used, or which have a secondary importance.

– Group C: These are those items which are nearly irrelevant. Many times to have them in the store costs more money than the profit they bring.

 

Once the classification have been done, we have to place the Group A items in the most accessible zone of the Warehouse (eg. in the warehouse entrance, in the front of the shelves, in the more visited areas of the stores). Then, the Group B items have to be placed and finally, Group C items will be placed in the remaining space, because the need to dispose of them is less urgent.

The ABC method is used to increase the efficiency of the stores and to save time for managers when they have to pick up and leave items.

Original post:  https://pdcahome.blogspot.com/p/analisis-abc-optimizar-la-distribucion.html

Quality Function Deployment (QFD): What is QFD and how to use it

The Quality Function Deployment, also called The House of Quality,  is a methodology used in design and quality engineering to create products that suit the desires and needs of the client/customer of them. Thus, with QFD we will be able to calculate what features should be added to the design of our product or service. Also, we will know what are the unnecessary features that add an  extra cost to the product without being appreciated by the customer and give us a vision about how is our product placed in the market, in order to choose which are the priority areas to improve.

In summary, the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) help us when we have to design a new product:

– QFD gives us an objective point of view about what our future customers are looking for in a product and the requirements it must have.

– QFD gives us a prioritization about what features are most important to add, and which ones are not necessary.

– QFD tell us about the situation of how is our current product against similar others, and what are the areas of improvement to be more competitive (and sell more, of course).

In this post we will explain the steps to apply this methodology.

You also have an example of a QFD in the end of the post to download it.

Generally, QFD has this shape:

To do this, you have to follow the order indicated in the drawing. To explain it step by step, we will take an example of a fictional company that wants to launch a new digital camera:

 

1. “WHAT” List

The WHAT List includes the aspects that our clients and customers expects from our product. At this point you have to put as many things as you can, in order to not forget any aspect. Later, we will  discard the WHAT points less relevant.

For example, for a digital camera we could write those WHAT points:

The camera should have…

a good battery

a hight quality lens

flash light

it has to be able to record video

a big internal memory

a large LED display

a easy to use software

a compact design

a pretty design

a ergonomic shape

it has to take photos quickly

bluetooth

it has to be able to synchronize with the computer

resistant to shocks

it has to be able to expand it with a memory card

it should come with a cover

2. WHAT Analysis

Now, the first thing to do is to order the WHAT points by its importance. In order to do it, you can create a quest or survey of potential users /clients/customers, which rate the importance of each aspect from 1 to 5 (1 = not important, 5 = very important).

These results of importance have to be written in one column (column 1) in an Excel and they will be used later.

The next columns to fill are those about what is the current status of our product for each WHAT (column 3) and how are the other companies (columns 4 and 5), filling them with values ​​between 1 and 5 for each WHAT,  (1 = very bad situation and 5 = very good situation). For example, if our product does not have Flash, you will receive a 1 in that box, and if you have very good flash will be a 5. (See the example below).

Once that it’s done and based on the importance of each WHAT, you have to put an objective or goal between 1 and 5, which will we placed in the next column (6).

Now we calculate the improvement ratio (column 8) by dividing the current status of each WHAT with your goal (column 8 = column 7 / column 3).

The following to fill is the column of the marketing “sales pitch” (column 9). Here, you will get a value between 1 and 1.5 if the mentioned WHAT is a good sales pitch (1 = bad, 1.5 = good pitch). With this, we have included in our design not only the customer preferences (that are in column 1) but also ours preferences as a company.

The next task is to calculate the absolute weight in the next column, as the multiplication between the importance (column 1), the improvement ratio (column 8) and the sales pitch (column 9). We can also take the relative weight in percentage and absolute weight of each WHAT divided by the sum of the absolute weights.

Once we know what are the most important aspects to improve, we can look the weight of each WHAT and we can implement only those who have more weight, discarding others less important.

3. HOW List

After considering what has to have our product, the next step is to define the technical requirements to obtain it.  So we will create a HOW List with the features that must have our product.

For example, for the digital camera:

for a good battery -> Battery capacity (mAh) and amount of shots per charge (photos / charge)

for a hight quality lens -> quality (1 … 10)

for flash light -> flash light included (0 = no, 1 = yes) and luminosity (lux)

for be able to record video -> (0 = no, 1 = yes)

for a big internal memory -> Internal memory capacity (MB)

for a large LED display -> Screen Size (inches) and Screen Resolution (dpi)

for a easy to use software -> accessibility (1 … 10)

for a compact design -> volume (cm ^ 3)

for a pretty design -> design (1 … 10)

for a ergonomic shape -> ergonomics (1 … 10)

for taking photos quickly -> speed in taking photos (fps)

bluetooth -> (0 = no, 1 = yes)

for be able to synchronize with the computer -> compatibility with Windows/Linux/Mac (0 = no, 1 = yes)

for be resistant to shocks -> strength (1 … 10)

fo be able to expand it with a memory card -> (0 = no, 1 = yes)

come with a cover -> cover included (0 = no, 1 = yes)

Note that beside each feature is included its measuring scale.

 

4. Relationship between the HOW points

This is the famous triangle (or roof) that is above the QFD shape, by which this method is also called the House of Quality.

This triangular matrix relates the HOW points between themselves. The relationships can be positive, negative or zero (eg: flash have much negative impact on the battery). This part of the QFD is optional and it’s not usual to put it unless the interactions are very strong.

 

5. Relationship between WHAT and HOW points

This matrix is ​​in center of the QFD and serves to link the WHAT ant the HOW aspects. With this, we will translate the abstract aspects of the list of measurable characteristics “WHAT” to the HOW list.

To do this we will classy from 1 to 9 the relationship between each WHAT and each HOW. For example, “to have a good battery” and “battery capacity (mAh)” have a 9 because they are closely linked, but has a 1 with “strength (1 … 10)” because they have no relationship.

Note: It is crucial to verify that all major WHAT are connected with one or more HOW, since otherwise we would have issues not contemplated.

Once completed this, the aspect of our QFD will be like this (click on the image to enlarge it):

6. HOW analysis

It only remains to fill in the last part of our QFD, which calculates the technical objectives we need to finally obtain the specifications required by our product:

Here we have first fixed the desired orientation of each HOW (more value = better or more value = worst). For example, in a digital camera, more internal memory is better, but more weight is worse.

The following is to calculate the absolute and relative weight of each HOW. For each HOW is calculated: absolute Weight = Sum (Value of each  relationship between WHAT and HOW * Relative Weight associated with the WHAT). From here we will get the order of importance of each of the technical aspects.

Finally, we fill what are the technical aspects of our product and the technical aspects of the other companies product, and we will set what are the characteristics that will be implemented in our product taking into account the relevance of each feature weight, and also, taking into account the situation of the other companies in each of the characteristics.

The end result will be as follows:

 

Conclusion

With QFD analysis we have achieved the next goals:

– To prioritize what our customers want.

– To know what are the essentials you should put in your product and what are the superfluous aspects that you can remove without losing sells.

– To have a vision about your situation in the market, and to compare yourself with other companies and products.

– To know which technical features are the most important in the product, and which are superfluous and can be eliminated.

– To set objectives for the technical features that should be in the future.