Random thoughts after a lay-off
As you hopefully noticed, I have missed a few weeks of my blog. I have not been on holiday (unfortunately) or struck down with Covid (fortunately), but tied up in a house move that did not go according to the carefully planned process, therefore continuing during a period when we had a lot on in ICDP. It did not stop me thinking about blog topics though, so here are a few random thoughts and observations derived from what has been going on.
Digital Readiness
In the course of interviews for our dealer digitalisation and online channel webinars (November 19th and December 8th respectively) but also in personal online interactions related to the house move, I was struck by the huge spread of understandings and behaviours within and across markets in respect of digital business. When you are working with the topic every day, your thinking evolves and the risk is that you assume the same applies to others. This is clearly not the case, and they do not think about their digital channels from a user or customer perspective. They assume obstacles exist which others have demonstrated are not real, or can be overcome in a relatively straightforward way. In our world of automotive distribution, this could itself become a barrier, as omni-channel solutions are applied at a market level, and will be developed at a European or global level. However as the saying goes, “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”, so the omni-channel solutions will only perform as intended, if all the players are “digital ready”. That might turn out to be a greater barrier to change than the technology itself.
Customer Service
Sharing a link to the point about digital readiness, it seems that many organisations with ‘customer service’ in their title, or individuals who have that role, actually fail at the first hurdle by failing to understand the customer perspective. I am thinking here about both large and small companies, almost certainly with a spread from structured processes to loose direction, but there is a common denominator of not trying to sit in the customer’s seat. Queuing systems on phone lines that repeatedly give you a false apology for the ‘delay due to unprecedented call volumes/Covid-19’ are the first problem. Given how often you call the same line and get the same response, then that does not appear to be an “unprecedented” volume, but business as usual, to which the correct response is add more capacity. When you do get through, it is rare to find someone who takes the problem, understands the impact that it is having on you, and then follows through to a conclusion as fast as possible. Instead, they offer some sort of ‘pain relief’ promise of a solution then leave you to join the call queue again in a few days when that fails to materialise. We have talked in the past about Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton, and their outstanding customer service, delivered by strong processes, robust systems and most importantly people who have been hired for attitude and given delegated responsibility to fix problems when they arise. These are lessons that have still not been widely learned.
Planning
As I said earlier, I had planned my house move to allow an overlap of some days, time to prepare the new house before actually moving in, time to ensure that there was a smooth handover to the new owners of my previous house. That is not how things turned out, largely due to failures in customer service to address some known and some new problems in the new house (which we are renting, so not subject to the normal deep investigations associated with buying a house in the UK). In the midst of the subsequent chaos, I wondered whether there was more that I could have done, and was reminded of the risk analysis approach we advocated in Kearney, where I spent many years, still advocated by one of my colleagues, Keith Baxter, now an independent. This applied to large programmes rather than house moves, but that is exactly what we face when looking at the introduction of omni-channel, large scale network restructuring or a transition to agency. Some OEMs will be planning all three together – what could possibly go wrong? ‘ABCD’ risk management, as the technique was titled, requires a brainstorming of all the things that could possibly go wrong, then an assessment of the potential impact and the probability of the risk materialising. This allows all the potential risks to be categorised in a four box ‘ABCD’ matrix, at which point you plan mitigating actions that either reduce the impact or the probability or both. For those where no such actions are possible, you are at least aware of the risk and can consider a plan to respond to these. For anyone who is planning a large scale change, I strongly advocate a structured risk management plan – missing your blog cycle for four weeks is no big deal, not being able to sell cars is a bit more catastrophic…
With that, stay safe and I hope that you work through the challenges to a successful year end.