Eliminate the Unessential, Streamline the Essential, & Invest in the Valued. An efficient experience is a win-win-win.  It is a win for the customers when an efficient experience delights them.  It is a win for the front-line employees, who are supported by competent processes and systems, and engage in more positive encounters with happy customers....

This post The Efficient Experience appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.

The directive was clear, “You have a week to find a way to defuse our ‘process bombs.”  This was the challenge put out by the new Vice President at a Fortune 200 company upon inheriting a business process fraught with delays and errors. It is amazing what a sense of urgency and an aggressive deadline will...

This post Defuse the Process Bombs by Kelvin F. Cross appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.

The vice president of leading HMO (Health Maintenance Organization) laments: “We know how to streamline work from point A to point B, but we don’t know how to routinely and rapidly streamline learning from our collective experiences, especially across our disparate functions and  processes.” She is not alone.  Many see that streamlining processes has worked, but...

This post Stream-Mining Work: Connecting the Crosscurrents of Knowledge by Kelvin F. Cross appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.

Small teams in large corporations can ‘out small’ today’s successful smaller players, and win big. Smaller competitors to today’s largest corporations are consistently winning in customer satisfaction ratings without the so-called economies of scale associated with large (frequently out-sourced) customer care centers. For the largest companies in some key sectors – such as telecommunications, technology, andfinancial services – there is the potential...

This post Small Teams, Big Results appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.

Are your call center costs way too high? Are your customers’ experiences way too low? Poor customer care is not only pervasive and widely publicized, but seems to be getting worse. Witness the recent uproars about Dell Computer and AOL. More and more I have seen clients that are frantic, though internally focused, saying, “Our budget for handling...

This post Eliminate Unnecessary Customer Calls appeared first on Operational Excellence Society.