Customer Care: Surprise and Delight

Customers and customer care is a hot topic! There are many ideas and opinions in books, magazines and electronic media on how to retain existing customers, how to get new customers and at the same time, beat the competition.

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

The book summary describes 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.”

VizPro® Customer Care focuses on those processes where customer care matters. Through step by step definition of the process in an interactive, high energy workshop where graphics are the principal form of documentation, participants debate and agree:

	Where the customer contact is (Moment of Truth);
	What would cause Moments of Disappointment, Satisfaction and Delight.

From this analysis, action plans are created collaboratively to ensure that there is a combined commitment to deliver Moments of Delight, and most of all to be aware of all process points where a customer could be gained, retained or lost.

VizPro® Customer Care defines the Surprise and Delight moments in Customer Care.

Look for the surprise in this En Route in the next article about measuring time and productivity! 
 

Project Management - Measuring Time and Productivity

By MJ Fick

I am a self confessed gadget addict – not so much physical gadgets, but software programs and utilities that make my life behind the computer easier. Some of it is for work purposes, like software to analyse the quality of my MS Project Schedules. Others are simply for play, like utilities to capture flash videos from YouTube and other sites. But I’d like to share a real gem that I’ve discovered (thanks to Google!) in 2006 and which the Pétanque team uses to log and track time, by client, by project and task. At month end I simply collate the team’s spreadsheets and with a push of a button, I can generate billing reports and invoices. Since 2006 my month-end weekends belong to me again! This software will work for anyone who needs to track time against projects or activities – whether you run a large PMO or are a single consultant, believe me you will find value!

I’m talking about Timesheet Xpress. For a case study to tell you more, click here. And here is the surprise and delight: for a limited time until the 31st of August 2009, Acksen Ltd is offering the readers of En Route 15% off the already favourable price on any of the products in the Timesheet Xpress range. All you have to do is download a trial version of the package that will suit your needs and if you decide to buy, provide the code PET15PC310809 when you purchase online on their website. Don’t hesitate to forward this En Route to colleagues or friends who you think will benefit from Timesheet Xpress.
 

Thank you

Thank you all for your time an effort in sharing your opinion on En Route in the survey that we held at the end of June. Your feedback is very valuable to us, and we’re trying our utmost best to apply your suggestions so that we can provide you with valuable reading.
 

DIY - Facilitate a Business Process Review

Many of our clients and associates express an interest in learning how to apply VizPro® internally. For that reason we’ve started the VizPro® Training Programme.

We share a few tips on how to get started with a VizPro® workshop in this En Route. It is an extract from the content covered in the Preparing for Mapping Work Sessions section, and you’ll notice that it applies to any meeting that you facilitate, and not only to a VizPro® work session.

	Be well prepared for the work session:    - Review the work done so far;   - List what clarifications are needed from the session;   - Review the Action List and plan what to highlight in the work session.
	Ensure all details are taken care of, including assurance that lunch and teas are arranged and will arrive on time, if relevant.
	Allow enough time and capacity for materials and printed documents to be on time: a VizPro® work session without the required data and information is not productive.
	Arrive early to set-up.

And this one is key to optimal engagement:

Arrange seating to be comfortable, and also interesting. For example: if the chairs are behind desks in a u-shape, remove the desks and have free space between the VizPro® Facilitator and the screen. If working from a hardcopy map, create standing and walking space: let participants sit or stand right in front of the map on the wall. This helps to create energy if people stand and walk about during the work session.

Hungry for more? Request a quote to fully train four of your staff for in-house business process facilitation, documentation and analysis.

For an in-house course a minimum of only 4 participants is required, and you’ll be trained by 2 trainers. This format makes learning very interactive, with skills development for immediate application in projects. View our training programme here.
 

Project Management for Multi-Nationals

TenStep Inc, our partner in the TenStep Strategy Delivery Office, offers project management training and consulting through over 50 offices to almost every country in the world. These offices support over 25 languages. The advantage of a global partner is that TenStep coordinates your account centrally while providing services locally. This ensures delivery of consistent services for government business, strategy development, green project management and more. TenStep offers bundled, competitive global pricing on products and services.

Worth a visit is the ICPM, TenStep’s global community that provides a network for project managers and project management enthusiasts, with articles, videos, resources, and a forum for discussions.

Level your Playing Field

 Women in business are invited to celebrate Women’s Day with the Cape Chamber! The Chamber has put together a delightful day programme on the topic “Leveling the Playing Field – Women in Business”, hosted in Cape Town on 6 August. The event promises to be enlightening and inspiring, and with an expected attendance of 250 delegates – a great networking opportunity!

Amongst others, Truida Prekel, of SynNovation, Dr Karin Baatjes, of Prof Apffelstaedt and Associates, and Caroline Engelke of Metropolitan Life will be sharing their views and experience. Pétanque’s Non-Executive Director Yvonne Finch (Coaching Specialist, Facilitator and Business Strategist) will be the cement for the event, as the emcee.

Attendance is open for members (R75) as well as non-members (R85) of the Chamber. Contact Alexia at 021 4024307 for more information.

ITWeb BPM Summit 2009

This two day conference programme will feature 24 leading BPM professionals, including 13 case studies from ABSA, Telkom, Eskom, Sasol, Old Mutual, SAPO, Mutual & Federal, Nedbank, Santam, ABSA Life, Medihelp, L@W, and PBMR.

This year’s theme is: creating a strategy to enable a single partnership of people, processes and technology to drive the successful implementation of BPM in your business. Dr. Michélle Booysen, MD of Pétanque, is co-presenting with Marietjie Lancaster, SAPO’s Group Executive: Strategy, on how such a partnership of people, processes and technology is achieved at the SA Post Office.

The event takes place from 25-27 August 2009, at Montecasino. For more info, or to register, visit the conference website.

September - Arbor month

Thanks to lobbying by Food & Trees for Africa (FTFA)) the month September is declared Arbor Month.

Over the past 19 years FTFA has been planting trees to offset carbon emissions, restore ecosystems, improve the environment, and create a healthier planet now and into the future.

Celebrate Arbor Month by planting a tree in your garden, in your community, or surprise one of the numerous disadvantaged communities that apply to FTFA for trees. Pétanque has committed to planting a tree through Food & Trees for Africa for each invoice that we receive payment on.

Our network

Meet our Strategic Partners and view our Clients.

Offices

The Colosseum
Foyer 3, 1st Floor
Century Way
Century City
Cape Town
Tel: 0861 PTNQUE (786783)
(international: +27 21 5260473)

You can download the directions from our website.