Given the difference between standard customer care, surprise customer care and delight customer care (refer earlier blog on Customer Care: Surprise and Delight), here is another real time experience.

I was speeding with my car a month ago, not much, but enough to cause a fine, which arrived in the tell tale packaging in my post box earlier this month. The SA Post Office is a pay point for fines – yaaaay! Well it used to be a delight, now it is a standard.

So I go to the Post Office who takes only cash for this sort of inconvenience. I cashdraw from the ATM right next to the Post Office and expecting the exercise to take a good 5 to 10 minutes of waiting, I am surprised to see the queue moving extremely fast, with three customer care ladies doing their jobs very quickly and efficiently.

Within 2 minutes I present my fine and cash and the lady is soooooo friendly. More surprise. I lament my money spend on something as useless as a fine and then she notices my wallet, which is small, but very unique. She delights in the wallet, and asks me where I had bought it and compliments my taste in wallets.

That was my delight: a brief moment of interaction, laughter and silly banter, but I needed the break in the stresses of the day and left the Post Office smiling.

Given the difference between standard customer care, surprise customer care and delight customer care (refer earlier blog on Customer Care: Surprise and Delight), here is a real time experience during the week:

I need to buy some garments. I go to Woolworths, and being rushed, quickly make a selection. Why Woolworths: I enjoy the displays and frequent changes that Woolworths makes in its stores - it is bright, clean and interesting. I expect that of Woolworths, it is the standard for me.

The surprise was that the garment was priced in range with competitors, and in addition, the queue to the cashier was less than 30 seconds wait, and the cashier was friendly when I presented my purchase.

And here is the delight: when the cashier took the garment of the hanger, she looked at me, then at the garment, and most diplomatically asked: Ma’am, are you sure this size is correct. “Yes”, I said, “it is my size”. She discreetly put the garment on the counter and again said, “I am not so sure”. I had to agree, it looked way too big even though it was the size I usually take. She called the supervisor, who offered to fetch a smaller size, and when the latter arrived, it certainly looked “more my fit”.

Why was this delight: she cared enough not to make me go home, find the garment too big, and either donating it or returning it, only to receive the value from my buy much later or not at all. Well done Woolworths on excellent staff and great training.

Customers and customer care is, and for the past few years has been, a hot topic: with many opinions (in books, magazines, and all manner of electronic communication) on how to retain existing customers and have the edge to bring in new customers, ahead of the competition.

Starbucks, the successful global coffee vendor, prides itself in delivering pleasure and delight. The book The Starbucks Experience highlights the “5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary”.

The book summary describes, amongst others, one of the success elements of Starbucks:

Principle 3: Surprise and Delight
As early back as 1912, The Rueckheim brothers, who are behind the successful candy brand Cracker Jack, already knew that adding a surprise to each package would dramatically increase the appeal of their product.
In that vein, delight is the caramelized popcorn – the basic product customers get – while surprise is the prize they get! Customers want the predictable and the consistent, while hoping for an occasional positive twist or added value thrown in. Customer delight comes from surprise as well as predictability.

For us, in the consulting service, the pleasure should relate to delivering what was promised on time, in budget and in scope better than the competition could hope to, and, if it is a repeat customer to deliver even better than before.
The delight is what needs to come after the pleasure – that extra, unexpected, and usually unplanned value to the client. What this would be depends on the client: perhaps it is about saving time for the client by doing something that would take the client 30 minutes, and for me it would take 15 because I have the fast track to do the activity. Or making them smile or laugh when there is much pressure. Perhaps it is just acknowledging something about them or their business, a feel good element which is offered with sincerity. The delight is what makes your service or business unique and stand out.

Last week I did an informal survey on what people understood under this topic of pleasure and delight. Surprised I was to learn that the survey respondents ALL regarded what is standard practice as the surprise, and regarded what is surprise, as the delight.

Here is an example:

A - The standards for business service delivery:
Be on time and present professionally.

B - The Surprise:
Be on time and deliver a fun, high energy, informative, value packed message that the audience enjoys.

C - The Delight:
Close the presentation 10 minutes earlier and offer refreshments and time for informal discussion: this gives the short-of-time people in the room a breather to enjoy tea/coffee or to leave early and be less rushed for the next appointment, and creates one on one discussion opportunity for those who did not want to publicly speak and wanted more information.

In my survey, A was seen as the surprise, B as the Delight. The surprise provides an edge; the delight is the key to different customer or client care. The survey respondents completely missed the key to unique Customer Care.

The other day I felt like playing chef at home. Of course none of the ingredients that I needed could be found in our kitchen (recipe books always get that wrong…), so I sought out a store that should have all the stuff I needed.

I needed farfalle, mustard, non-alcohol wine and chocolate mousse. That sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? I picked up the pasta and mustard and headed off to the frozen section for the chocolate mousse. Oi! I could not see Cadbury’s anywhere. There was another cheaper brand though, so for about 5 minutes I was torn between, "Should I or Shouldn’t I". I decided I should. I bought the smallest tub, opened it and tasted some. It tasted terrible, but at least I found that out before I got home!

I couldn’t find the wine I was looking for either. So again I was torn, should I buy what I found here and scout for the rest of the stuff somewhere else, or do I abandon what I have and buy everything elsewhere. It took me a ½ hour already to get what I had, so I went with the first option.

It took me 10km to find the store that had the wine I was looking for, and another ½ hour to find the nearest Woolworths for their chocolate mousse.

It sounds crazy to do so, but I want what I trusted. As any other consumer, I was willing to go with something cheaper, hoping I would find the same result I would with Cadbury or Woolies, but couldn’t compromise on quality like that. So I went the extra mile to find quality.

Spending some time on the road on my quest for a good meal, I started thinking about service delivery in general:

1. If you are a service provider and are selling something new the client, don’t be angry or even surprised if the client wants to sample a small bit first. Create that sample environment and deliver the best you have to offer.
2. If the client does not want what you can offer, find another client, but keep this one in the loop, just in case they change their mind or you can deliver in the future.
3. If you can’t offer what the client wants, consider a strategic alliance with those who can.

All the customer wants is to whip a meal, and they’re desperate for the right ingredients.

By Jeanne Fredericks

John Hayden, MD of John Hayden and Associates, shared his view on BPM at the Free Process Transformation Executive Forum, Johannesburg:

Hayden says BPM takes commitment and without the right people with the right attitude, BPM will not be the silver bullet: “BPM is a philosophy, mindset and management discipline. According to a Harvard Business Review, a firm's competitive success depends on transforming its key end-to-end processes into strategic capabilities that consistently provide superior value to the customer.”

Hayden notes that business process automation will improve customer service, cost-reduction, compliance and business agility. However, he adds that any change is always a headache and businesses have to go through some rigorous risk analysis to determine if it is viable to turn to BPM.

Hayden says before companies automate, they need to first redesign and reengineer their processes: “BPM is a multi-step process, with multiple predefined routing options and many role players. There are times that I believe you don't have to rush into technology.”

“Businesses should not underestimate the change management challenges in implementation from a staff point of view. Put in place a formal change-management and communications strategy. Make sure you know exactly why you want to automate the process and what the business is trying to achieve. Focus on customer-interfacing, revenue-generating processes.”

Hayden adds: “The single most important skill in BPM is analysis, interpersonal skills and the dialogue of sharing and understanding what's going on. It's about a collaborative debate with IT colleagues and business custodians on what the real benefits are.”

This platform for debate and knowledge share that Hayden is referring to, is created in VizPro® work sessions, where role players are invited to question and challenge current processes, share experiences, and come up with ideas for improvement. The non-threatening environment creates a forum for multi-level communication and interaction. While the discussions take place a process map is developed real-time, visualising the process to allow participants to see and understand the end-to-end processes and interfaces.

The facilitator ensures that the processes are directed by the organisation’s vision, aligning business processes to strategic objectives, resulting in a market driven process. Required improvements in the process to achieve the strategic goals are documented in an Action List, appointing an owner and setting a timeline, to ensure execution.

During each work session we experience that involving role players, listening to opinions, and sharing knowledge around the process, enlightens and enthuses people, and makes them receptive for change. This is opening doors to offer more value to your customers.