Making an Impact
In this issue:
Experience or Expense?
This is the section where I share with you the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the customer experience, the impact everyone can have on it - in either direction, and the resulting impact on image, reputation, brand, customer relationships, your whole organisation and your bottom line. We have all been customers at some point, and we all give customer experiences to others, whether it's in work or out of it - so our neighbours, friends and relations can all be viewed as our customers too.
I have a growing list of just such experiences which I am looking forward to sharing and in some cases, venting! You'll see that I do rather get on my soapbox about some of these!
Giant Leap For Mankind
Unless any of us have literally been on another planet, I don't think we can have failed to see the news that this year is the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. In fact the actual date was 20th July. Some people still to this day believe the whole thing was a hoax. They either believe it was a publicity stunt to outdo the Russians, or that in 1969, it would not have been possible to achieve such an amazing feat, considering many people still didn't even have a colour television back on earth, and personal computers and mobile phones hadn't been invented, so the ability to put a man on the moon then seems highly unlikely to them.
The evidence does however seem firmly weighted in favour of it indeed having been achieved. So how did they achieve something so extraordinary in a world where the micro chip was more like a mega chip and the size of a room?
President John F Kennedy first had the belief in the vision that this was possible. In his famous address to the nation on 12th September 1962, he said:
"This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward.
If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.
To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money………we have given this program a high national priority - even though I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us. But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun…….and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out - then we must be bold.
However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the sixties
And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked."
The cost of going to the moon might have indeed been 'astronomical' and beyond the imagination of some people, but the task itself was something they felt they could achieve with some 'down to earth' common sense logic, coupled with 'out of this world' thinking, and it seems also, with a great deal of belief, determination, imagination and ingenuity.
This was totally new territory for any human, so it meant that no previous way of thinking or even experience could help them achieve this. They had to think differently, think bigger and better. The goal posts didn't just have to change, they had to be removed altogether if they were going to have any chance of success and take brave decisions that no one had ever taken, the outcome of which could not truly be known or tested.
Kennedy makes the point that they will have to be bold if they are going to succeed in such a massive, ground-breaking mission.
They wanted it to be recognised for outstanding achievement and be remembered for achieving something beyond their time, and importantly, being the first to achieve it.
They gathered the foremost scientists and engineers to work on the task to attempt what some still thought was impossible.
They built the largest rocket ever – the Saturn 5, but first had to extend the hanger to be able to build it. It had to attain distances no other rocket and command module had ever reached, so they had to invent new types of metal to withstand new stresses and environments. It had to contain brand new technology capable of doing things which had never been done or even calibrated before. They then had to build the largest launch pad ever to accommodate the rocket. Getting Saturn 5 to the launch pad was then the next challenge. So they had to design and construct a carrier that was going to take the weight and be able to safely transport it. Of course they had to construct the rails the transporter was to run on and decide how slowly/ quickly it could be moved along the rails.
They built the largest crane ever to hoist the rocket upright and into position. At each of these points, they were breaking new ground and achieving firsts by building what had never been built before on that scale, and they had no idea whether each stage would be a success or not. The only thing they could be certain of was that they had explored every possibility they could think of, and thought round ever eventuality. Still at this point they had no idea whether the module would land safely on the moon, or indeed take off again and return to earth safely having been somewhere nothing had ever ventured before.
As we know, it was indeed a massive success and key defining moment in history, which more than put the USA in first place on the map of world innovation and space exploration.
Throwing away the goal posts, except the one which had 'The moon' written on it of course, was in fact their only hope of achieving this. Had they been constrained by bureaucracy or political manoeuvrings or belief restrictions or lack of imagination in what they could and couldn't do, they would not have achieved so much in what was a relatively short amount of time.
Crucially, if these people hadn't constantly been looking for ways to circumnavigate new problems, thinking innovatively, found ways to achieve the seemingly unachievable, been determined enough to keep looking when they came up against brick walls, and looked beyond anything they had done before, they would not have been able to achieve something so immense and history-making.
It would have been easy to let the Russians get there first, let them do all the hard work, spend the money and make the mistakes, but then the USA would have lost the ultimate prize of being the first, and being recognised for this level of innovation and leadership. How differently did the world then view the USA for having reached the moon, and what impact did that make back down on earth? Their innovation legacy and reputation lives on. The rest of the world wanted their expertise and success.
New ground needs to be broken in business too. If we're not constantly looking beyond our own work planet and asking ourselves the question, 'what else could we achieve, what more could we do?', then we won't find any more to achieve, and we don't know what prizes and recognition we might be missing. How differently would our customers, business partners and even competitors view us if we did something new, innovative, imaginative and daring, that benefited the customer experience, which would therefore inherently benefit us too?
How often in your organisation, not only at a strategic level, do you look at what you already do and question how you could make it bigger and better? Like the Apollo mission scientists and engineers, is there something extra you could do that no-one in your market place has done before, that would set you apart from them and give you a lasting positive recognition and reputation, which would in turn give customers a better experience of you, see you in a better light, and attract more customers and partners to you?
It's easier said than done, but adding a hefty amount of determination could make all the difference too. It might cost you too in various ways, but picking something that is tougher, where the rewards could be greater, rather than something easier where the achievement will be smaller and no different to others' achievements, but where the outcome is more assured, is easier and safer....but it won't get you to the moon. It also has to be something your organisation is totally committed to, where your goal is clear and enthusiasm of all concerned is high to want to achieve it and get past the tough parts.
It could be said that it was determination, passion, belief, braveness and crucially, innovative thinking that put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon, not metal and rocket fuel.
You might not have the moon in mind, but try throwing away your goal posts, looking into your space to see what new things you could put there to improve others' experience of you, looking beyond where you are now and seeing how far you could leap into another world of possibilities, and rewards.
Observation Post
Uninhabited Planet
Why is it that often when you phone a good number of companies' customer service lines and supposed, 'help' lines, no matter how many options you press, no matter how many times you redial and press different options, you still don't manage to talk to a human being, and end up with a recorded, 'we've run out of options' message?
This can also be true of some online 'help' and customer service centres, which send you round loops of FAQs, none of which are the question you wanted answered, yet there's no option to email a real person to get a human answer. Even if you think you've hit on a link to a person, you then get an auto-response with another list of guesses at your question.
I'm sure some people do indeed get their queries answered, but what experience are these companies giving to those people who frustratingly go round in circles, getting nowhere except more annoyed with the company in question?
Would providing a quicker route to a human being perhaps be a better advancement of the customer experience than relying so much on the automated one technology allows us to generate now?
Making Your Mark
One Small Step For Man
Try taking one area, aspect, task or project of your role. Once you're focused on that, ask yourself two questions: The first being, "How can I make this bigger (in terms of impact) and better than it is now? What is one new thing/ way of working/ new idea I could add to this to make it bigger and better?" The second question, requiring more boldness: "If I was to scrap this completely and forget it existed, what would I put in its place that would be a better replacement and give a better experience to customers and partners?"
Try choosing something which is difficult too, don't gravitate to the easier option, tackle the more difficult one, the rewards just might be greater if you do.
The second question may well lead you to a better outcome than the first, but it will require you to explore totally new territory – try making yourself go boldly where no-one in your organisation has gone before! You might be amazed how far you go and what impact you could make with your customers and business partners.
Speaking Events
I speak at a range of different corporate conferences, both all-staff and management. I also speak at industry and professional body conferences and events, which have themes such as the customer experience and customer service, sales and marketing, branding, team working, leadership, effectiveness and efficiency, and celebrating success. For example, I have spoken for the Institute of Customer Service, the Institute of Sales and Marketing and the Chartered Institute of Housing.
See the new showreel on my website from one of these events.
If you would like to know more about these or the other types of events and conferences I speak at, or indeed have one you would like me to speak at, then do get in touch. If you would like to find out more about the workshops and development sessions I run for organisations, which include ones to improve the customer experience and to develop teams, then just give me a ring or drop me a line. You can see a rundown of my workshops on my website too.
Thanks for reading, I hope you found it useful and thought provoking. If we haven't spoken or met already, I hope we get to do so in the not too distant future. If we have, then I look forward to chatting to you again.
See you next time.
Mob: 07787 573539
carolyn@carolyndallaway.com
www.carolyndallaway.com
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