What’s your feedback loop? Do you even have one? Do you actively seek feedback for your business? And if customers offer unsolicited feedback, do you pay attention?
Recently, my son participated in an out of town hockey camp. Let’s just say the marketing team did a great job, but the coaching staff, well, not so much. After the first day, I called the program administrator and was told camp will progress throughout the week. After the second, I called the head coach. Nothing changed and at the end of the week (with obviously zero leverage) I asked for a full or partial refund. With zero pushback, they refunded 40% (my son had opted out of 2 of the 5 days). They knew they hadn’t delivered. As an aside, he’s attended numerous camps; most are great so this kind of experience was a first for us.
One of my best clients reviews every quality issue at a monthly executive team meeting. At times, I have wondered why we review every issue (there are often items on the list with less than a $100 impact). The focus of the discussion is always the same. How can we improve? How could we have prevented each issue?
Sometimes, it gets down to customer communication. The deadline wasn’t clear or a step was skipped in the sign-off process. OK, how do we prevent that going forward? Other times, it’s a machine issue causing a quality problem? Does the machine need recalibrated? Was there an underlying raw materials problem? There are times when an operator made a mistake. Have we let the operator know about the problem and how to correct it going forward? Does a specific operator make repeated errors? Solutions include training, new equipment, adjustments to current equipment, improved raw materials, customer communication, and changes to software.
And more importantly than reviewing the issues with the executive team, they are reviewed with the machine operators as well. Further, quality issues impact their quarterly performance bonuses, so operators have an incentive to continually improve. Do we expect to get to zero errors? Realistically, no. But that doesn’t stop us from trying.
So, back to my original question. What’s the feedback loop in your company? Do you have a formal C-Sat (Customer Satisfaction) scoring program and should you? And how can you use the examples above to improve?
In the hockey example, the starting point would have been reviewing the marketing materials and asking if the camp was meeting each of the key deliverables. And if there was an unwillingness by the coaching staff to change the training, they could have changed the marketing materials so that the marketing and training were in alignment. It was a classic case of over promise, under deliver. Don’t do that.
With my client example, what can you learn from this and how can you incorporate similar practices into your business. Do you keep track of quality issues and review them on a regular basis? And do you do this not with the goal of criticizing people for mistakes but with the goal of finding ways to prevent them in the future?
If your business could benefit from fractional CFO services, I would welcome the chance to speak with you. Please give me a call at (314) 863-6637 or send an email to [email protected]
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your cash is flowing. know where.®
Ken Homza
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