Customer Satisfaction Training

At this point, most CEO's should probably stop reading. The process to which you are about to be introduced has been known to cause emotional explosions, high blood pressure, irrational behavior, performance anxiety, impotence, and early retirement planning.

No one goes to work planning to make a mistake. But mistakes happen. And the same error that happened to your customer last week and happened to mine the week before will probably happen this week — if it hasn't already. But we recovered from the errors. Made the deliveries. And that mistake shouldn't happen again. Right? Right!

Wrong. If we define an error as anything having to be done a second time because it wasn't done right the first there are far more errors occurring than any one person knows about. The costs and occurrence of spoilage — unplanned waste — are usually hidden, multi-departmental, and ongoing. They're practically unstoppable until we approach the process of finding them differently. And we are all paying for the errors. Our customers pay through what we sincerely believe are necessary higher prices. Fellow associates pay through loss of self esteem, and reduced productivity. Loss of confidence in associates and one's company in being able to get a client's work out correctly and on time is a major contributor to employee attrition. Have you asked yourself about the high turnover in personnel, both in production in sales? Have you thought about the investment in training you've put into these employees and now have lost?

More importantly, our customers' damaged perception of our reliability may never be completely erased. That perception of our reliability affects our margins, our bidding requirements, and our frequency of being called for service.

I call this process of uncovering hidden spoilage the customer-satisfaction-quality-assurance check-up. I recommend the check-up at least every two weeks to be effective. Some printers use this process as the opening agenda of their sales meeting. It hurts, but they do it.

The reason they do it is that there isn't anything else they can generate internally that correctly focuses on the enormous hidden errors they are generating — and where and when to train.

Assemble your sales team (including sales reps, CSRs, estimators, and sales manager), production supervisors, and plant manager — for one hour. I recommend that the meeting be held from 7:00 until 8:00 on Monday morning, with the usual fresh donuts and coffee.

There are several objectives to the customer-satisfaction-quality-assurance check-up. Uncovering the causes of those errors that are occuring, and determining the correct procedures to avoid those errors in the future, are only two.

Your check-up discussion can be led by anyone. The position of chairperson for your check-up can even rotate — and possibly should. The opening comments from your biweekly check-up chairperson should follow this example: "We all recognize that no one comes to work expecting to make a mistake. Mistakes basically happen from inadequate training and lack of concentration, which is another symptom of inadequate training (though inadequate training isn't the only cause.) Additionally, errors often occur from a lack of adequate information. This is another way of saying that manufacturing never has a chance to do things right if sales doesn't generate correct information regarding what should and should not happen. With this as our introduction, what errors have we experienced over the last two weeks?" In this scenario, errors are defined as anything having to be done a second time because it wasn't done right the first.

The experiences from the group will come slowly at first. Be aware that in the beginning sessions you are only hearing the "tip of the iceberg." But with each error that is submitted for discussion, confidence in your intent will grow if several interpersonal conditions prevail. One is that there is seldom a single department or individual that should fear bringing forth an error. And there is seldom one department or individual who is solely responsible for an error occuring.

Keep a record of each error submitted. Use a flip chart, so all participants can see. Remember you aren't getting all of the errors that occurred — just those remembered and those your associates believe you are willing to hear.

Here is the information you should have for each error:

1. Who is the account and what is a brief description of the error? Describe the job and what, if anything, was unique about it.

2. What did the error cost us in dollars (from the cost of time needed to correct the error [try $50.00 per hour if equipment wasn't tied-up and an hour rate isn't available], mileage having to be driven, long distance phone calls required to be made, and job materials needed to correct the error), and goodwill and perceived reliability.

3. What should have happened or what do we want to happen next time this situation presents itself? This sounds simplistic. It's not. You must define what the correct process or instructions should be.

4. What were the contributing causes? Be aware that, just as in a patrolman's accident report, there are almost always several contributing causes when an error occurs. For example, a dummy wasn't in the job jacket; the client reviewed a flat dylux instead of a trimmed dylux; or the salesperson gave verbal instructions instead of written ones regarding the corrections. Other examples would be that the specs weren't reviewed with the buyer; order entry didn't catch the discrepancy; and prep assumed the original specs were correct. Get the picture?

5. Who else should know about this? Should the solution be in writing, and if it is would we use it for training new employees? Answers to this question will indicate one of several reasons that the same mistakes occur repeatedly. One of the precautions I offer is not to try to save money by eliminating part of customer service or estimating from the check-up session — unless you want a halftrained team? At this step you may be indirectly building your much needed internal training manual — the one no one ever had time to write.

Before you stand back for an overview at your chart of entries, circle the dollar amounts for each entry. My experience is that in, a five million dollar a year printing company, there occurs between $2,000 and $4,000 in hidden, unrecorded, spoilage each week. And until the errors of hidden spoilage are brought forth — without fear of penalty or punishment — the spoilage will remain hidden, and unrecorded!

Now look for a pattern in the errors — not a pattern that includes all errors, but a pattern involving several similar errors involving a process, or a department, or a customer market, or whatever. It may even take one or two customer-satisfaction-quality-assurance check-up sessions to find a pattern, requiring you to put several flip chart entries side-by-side. But the pattern is there. And it will change over time as you set about correcting errors that are costing you thousands of dollars internally each week. Your corrective actions will cause several predictable events to develop.

Firstly, as you begin to commit your newly found awareness to needed operating policies and a written instruction and training manual, you will often find yourself struggling over how to correctly articulate what should happen when. This struggle is living testimony for written training instructions.

Secondly, unless you tightly control the types of work entering your plant, you will experience changes in the types of errors that are being recorded.

The relationships of reliability and difficulty are inseparable in that as we improve our quality, we somehow unconsciously evolve into more demanding work to produce. This is a natural evolution between client's perception of higher reliability and the sales team seeking more demanding work for more dollar volume. Recognizing that this process is occurring is one of the strategic opportunities for the CEO — if you haven't yet sought early retirement. If you move up in the quality of work you are willing to produce, the frequency and magnitude of new errors will recycle. But that's an opportunity.

In performing a customer-satisfaction-quality-assurance check-up, everyone has the opportunity to win: your customer through increased reliability; your fellow associate through stronger and appropriate training; and, most of all, your company through a more stable team of employees, decreased spoilage, increased profits, and a significantly lower turnover of accounts.

Only by capturing both the frequency and magnitude of hidden spoilage will you have a good chance to uncover and correct the errors, and reduce the spoilage and waste. And you'll never find them unless you seek them out in a non-punitive atmosphere — as a team.

The customer-satisfaction-quality-assurance check-up procedure requires heart and character in self-examination. It requires a deep desire to build a better company — from the inside.

Profits and growth follow. Profits and growth are the byproducts of doing things right for your customer — consistently.