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Customer’s Clock Rules

In a previous blog,  http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blogs/ease-of-doing-business/archive/2008/11/20/disneyworld-does-it.aspx,  I cite  5 rules for ease of doing business and improving customer experience.  The 2nd rule I cited was that you must “Evaluate your processes and procedures with #1(put the customer first) in mind”.  If you are working to transform a critical customer process, you need to know: 1) what you are trying to accomplish? and 2) how do you know when you get there?  The latter gets to developing the right measures.   Let me give you an example of this.  If I was looking at customer turnaround time for a specific process, would I measure time in business hours (the time that the establishment is open) or would I measure it in customer real-time?  If you’ve read the title of this blog you should know the answer, but you would be surprised how many companies don’t do this.  Customers don’t care if the office was closed between 6pm and 8am. They want a response and they want it now. If they made a request yesterday and don’t get an answer until today, that’s a 24 hour response in their mind.  Systems may have limitations that get in the way of measuring your performance in “customer time” but in order to follow the first 2 rules (#1: putting the customer first; and 2: Evaluate your processes and procedures with #1 in mind), you have to ensure your measurements are consistent with the customer view.

 

Go forth and measure! But, make sure you do it with the customer mindset – not the internal view or just the way the system allows you to.

 

Posted 03-05-2009 10:20 PM by christina.sullivan
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Comments

Mike Moroze wrote re: Customer’s Clock Rules
on 03-09-2009 3:04 PM

Christina, great point!

I never understood why there was such a thing as "business days" and "normal days".  Whenever I'm waiting for a repair or service, with my needs and expectations heightened, it was always frustrating to hear that my "repair/service" will be handled within 2 business days.  On a weekend, or holiday, that always meant a longer wait.

Similarly, in usability, I am very focused on customer perceived time.  When a system is working on many processes to complete a task - it may seem like the system is humming along feverishly, but from a user's perspective, it may be taking a long time to complete.  In these cases, it's preferred to let the user accomplish other tasks. Certainly giving the user visual indications that the system is still working is a good thing! The analogous approach may also be used for customer service issues. I'd much rather get an "I'm still working on solving your problem" email while it is still in process than to wait extra time until some resolution is finalized...

I agree that the way customers see time is not the same as the way we (those of us inside the company) see time...

christina.sullivan wrote re: Customer’s Clock Rules
on 03-09-2009 8:57 PM

Thanks Mike for your post and insights into usability. Great comment.

Yangpeng Yang wrote re: Customer’s Clock Rules
on 03-10-2009 11:30 AM

"put the customer first"is very important,I am a Chinese,I want to work at HP，because I want to improve myself and redound the society!

Elaina wrote re: Customer’s Clock Rules
on 03-19-2009 1:51 PM

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Elaina

www.freearticletrove.com

christina.sullivan wrote re: Customer’s Clock Rules
on 03-20-2009 8:38 PM

Elaina - thank you for writing in. Hope to hear from you again.

Christina

christina.sullivan wrote re: Customer’s Clock Rules
on 03-20-2009 8:40 PM

Dear Frank H.

You wrote in with a customer support issue and I have strict guidelines to route those issues to our customer support team but I'll need your email and product information. Can you please contact me directly and provide that so I can appropriately handle your complaint? Thanks for commenting!

christina.sullivan@hp.com

Pradeep Solanki wrote re: Customer’s Clock Rules
on 04-01-2009 5:15 AM

I recently wrote about a Muni N driver who defines customer service in customer terms:

The 8:37 am Muni N train driver delays his departure by 2-4 minutes everyday to accommodate two groups of customers as they cross the street from the SF Caltrain station. Rather than have them wait on the station on cold wet morning this thoughtfulness really strikes a chord. In the past several drivers have driven off complaining of late arrival of Caltrain and that they are running 5 minutes late eating into their 10 minutes of break time. He also prewarns riders to hold on when starting up after a stop.

In this fast paced world where many organizations pay lip service to customer service this attention to detail is exemplary. This driver clearly understands the customer service mission - deliver a pleasant end to end experience to as many customers as possible at the cost of personal loss and delays. He also displays a rare trait of taking intiative and independent decision making to deliver this superior customer experience.

This Muni driver could be a fine addition to any customer service team!!!

hpsucks wrote re: Customer’s Clock Rules
on 04-06-2009 12:03 AM

Hewlett Packard provides the worst customer experience I've had since AT&T split. Everyone from cust. support to tech is completely useless, rude and unhelpful. How can you possibly title this 'ease of doing business' when hp demonstrates the complete opposite. There's not even a place on HP's website for clients to tell them what a crappy company they are! Sadly, it didn't used to be that bad. Feel sorry for you.

christina.sullivan wrote re: Customer’s Clock Rules
on 04-09-2009 3:24 PM

Dear hpsucks: Are you an Enterprise customer? I'd love to discuss with you to understand the specifics of your experience. Please contact me directly at christina.sullivan@hp.com and leave me your contact details so we can discuss. Thanks for commenting!

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