Will Inequalities Grow?
We are now into just over a year since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, and still nations are struggling to contain it. In some, vaccines are now available, and infections and deaths are, mercifully, falling. Others, however, still wait deliveries of both PPE and vaccines.
- Several areas vital to a country’s growth may turn into major problems for government: Education
- Production
- Administration
- Business decline
Let’s start with education.
Schools have been forced to close and pupils to study from home online. For those in countries where there is robust and cheap internet access, and assuming they have computers at home, this is not an issue. However, those without internet access or access to computers are going to “fall behind” and be at an educational disadvantage compared to their relatively wealthier and/or better equipped counterparts. We will see a widening education gap and associated psycho-social effects in students. As a result, will employers find more applicants with lower educational achievement results in the years to come? Will mental health issues show a rise?
On the production front, we again have two groups:
- Those whose job allows them to work from home
- Those who have to be on site
The first group could be analysts, relationship managers, and certain categories of call centre worker (if calls and information can be switched through to their home and they have robust internet access).
The second includes manual workers: assembly lines, packaging plants, garment factory workers, office cleaners, waste disposal, port workers, tour guides, hotel workers, government workers issuing permits/licences/visas, etc and those working in “vital retail businesses” (e.g., healthcare, supermarkets, pharmacies). Some of these may rely on that job to generate their family’s only income to put food on the table.
The second category will be more at risk of transmission/infection, leading to a slowdown in productivity and profitability for the business concerned. In the longer-term, businesses may review their operations to see whether increased automation is a way forward, leading to potentially higher unemployment.
For the final area of business decline, if "lockdown rules" prevent people from shopping for all bu the "essentials", will we see a decline in the number of businesses large and small in our economy. In some cases, this has already happened, with the travel and hospitality industries severely curtailed.
The simple answer going forward seems to be vaccination of “vital” populations: healthcare workers, school-age children, their teachers/lecturers and the on-site” workforce to ensure the continuing viability of a country’s economy and administration, along with a sufficient stream of suitably educated people to run it. This is what at least one country has chosen to do, in direct contrast to others who have targeted the vaccine at “vulnerable” populations (the elderly, those with severe health conditions as an example).
Am I advocating ignoring the elderly or those with severe health conditions? No, but I am asking where priorities should lie in such situations. We will experience other (and perhaps more deadly) pandemics and need to decide how to handle them. In such cases, the first in line for vaccination may not be the same groups as during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I would certainly advocate that mechanisms for dealing with the next plague be more robust, that stocks of PPE for vital health workers be sufficient and that supplies don’t depend on nations who have their own “problems to deal with”…
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Crisis Management, Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Strategy, Teamwork
Asking Questions Right
I often receive questionnaires or “feedback forms” asking what I think about the “Customer Service” (or just the “Service”) I’ve received from a particular business. In some cases, the questionnaire/feedback form comes right after my interaction.
Every organisation that’s serious about keeping its customers loyal wants to know what it can do to make things better. If we don’t look after our customers, someone else will, and bang goes our business.
The three main ingredients for a successful customer experience are that:
- It should meet customers’ needs
- It should be easy to use
- It should be enjoyable
All our efforts should be geared towards these three goals. To do this, we need to ask the questions that support this.
The art is knowing why we’re asking, when to ask, what to ask, how to ask, what we’ll do with the information and how our customers will benefit.
Why Are We Asking?
Are we introducing new products, improving service or making sure that service is meeting (or exceeding) our customers’ expectations? What answers do we need and what will we do with them (see below).
When to Ask?
Closely related to Why Are We Asking, this depends on the business and why it’s asking. If we want immediate feedback, we ask right after the interaction. If we’re looking at introducing new/different products/services, we ask before making any major investments.
What to Ask:
What do we really need to know to make our customers happy? We should never assume we know what they need. Needs evolve over time, particularly if there’s competition. I’ve worked with businesses whose competitive advantage is simply the quality of service they provide. Others may be cheaper, faster or closer, but this isn’t always what customers want. In short, we need to ask the “right” questions.
What Do We Do to Make it Easy to Answer?
After working out the “right” questions, we need to “ask them right”. It’s no use working on what information to extract if we can’t extract it in a way that ensures that we’re “on the same page” as our customers. For example, I’ve been asked to rate my level of satisfaction with one of several “emojis”, e.g:
😠 ☹️ 😐 🙂 😃
It’s one way of obtaining quick, easy-to-give feedback, but does my definition of (say) 😐correspond with what the business means? Does 😐mean “neutral” or “satisfied”? If our customer is in a position where they’re asking themselves, “What do they mean by…?”, we haven’t asked the question right.
If we want the “right” answers to what we think are the “right” questions, we have to make sure customers understand what we mean. However hard we try, this is never easy. My definition of “satisfactory” may be stricter or more demanding than someone else’s, so what I describe as “satisfactory” may be “excellent” for someone else as we both have different expectations.
What Action Will We Take?
Assuming we’ve asked the “right” questions and obtained the “right” answers, what are we going to do? Is there anything we can do (assuming we can afford it and we’re not breaking any laws, etc)? There’s no point in getting a response, building up a customer’s expectations, and then finding we can’t do anything.
How Will Respondents Benefit?
If I respond to a questionnaire or feedback form, my expectation is that something will happen (even if it’s just a response from the business thanking me). Too often, my experience has been that my response seems to disappear into cyberspace (even if I’ve given a low score for something).
Making sure we’re meeting (and exceeding) our customer’s needs is key to surviving in a world that’s growing ever more competitive. Knowing how our customers think and what they really want is the key to success.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Strategy
"Salami Slicing"
I first learned about the other meaning of the phrase “salami slicing” during a negotiation course some years ago. The phrase is used to describe a situation where either you or your counterparty ask for something and, when it is agreed, ask for something else and after that’s agreed, something else and so on. By the end of the process, you end up with one party that may have gained a major advantage though requesting “small” extras and a counterparty who has lost patience with the endless stream of requests for “just one more thing” …
This happens not only in negotiating or sales meetings, but also in the way we businesses deal with customers. Generally, it boils down to terms and conditions and/or documentation. Whilst seasoned negotiators may enjoy the cat-and-mouse game that is negotiating, customers’ needs are different. They want to get in, get the product/service and get out with the least amount of “hassle”. Requests for ID, proof of residence, eligibility for whatever it is and so on are acceptable, but ONLY if handled correctly.
Many of us will remember occasions when we were told that, in order to obtain something, we had to meet conditions 1, 2 and 3 (say). On meeting them, we go to the store, counter, office or bureau in question to complete our business, only to be told there’s a condition 4 as well that we weren’t told about (or that has just been implemented). Even worse, having met condition 4 (after more effort) on our return, there’s condition 5…
So, if this happens to us, how often does it happen to our customers? How many do we annoy through “our way” of doing things? Could we do better?
The essence of a good “Customer Experience” is that it should:
- Meet customers’ needs;
- Be easy to use;
- Be enjoyable.
If we don’t meet these conditions, we risk losing business.
I understand that laws and regulations may demand that we follow certain procedures and request certain documents or other items, but how often do we look at the situation from the customer’s point of view? We can hide behind “the law” or “policy”, but that’s only doing half our job. How do customers feel about being asked to comply with "yet another" requirement?
One solution that frequently strikes me is that we take insufficient time to “think it through” – often because we have little time at our disposal anyway in our busy lives, or again because it’s easier to hide behind “the law” or “policy”. The next time we find ourselves looking to implement a change in processes, our first question needs to be, “Will this benefit our customers?” If the answer’s no, but the change is still needed, how do we make it as “painless” as possible?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Regulation, Selling, Strategy
