David McCoy

Hey!  Here’s a radical idea.  What if all you CEOs and process owners acted like customers of your own products and services?  Here’s how it works… You buy one of your own products and then call the customer service number listed on the package.  Or, sign up for one of your company’s services and then call the customer service number listed in the contract.   Call in to say, "Hi. I just bought your product and I have a question about the warranty."  Let’s see how easy it is.

Now, don’t cheat.  Don’t use your internal phone directory, don’t walk down the hall to see if Betty in contracts can get the information you need, and don’t use your internal slush pile of documentation.  Act like a customer.  Act like you don’t know any of the secret doors to the company.  Hunt for the customer service phone number, play the game with select-1-for-billing, and see how you like it.  Do you get a human?  If so, do you get humanity?  How are you treated?  Do you get results?  Do you get the right results?

If, as you do this exercise, you have a wonderful experience playing customer, pat yourself on the back and thank the kind folks who run your operations (and  thank the process guys).  If, on the other hand, you have a miserable time and want to strangle someone, well… that someone is you, isn’t it?

More to come in a future post entitled "Lived-in Processes: The Antithesis of Industrial Disdain"

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Category: Business Process Management (BPM) Technowishing     Tags:

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