I can't believe that I have been blogging a year! I'm not a super-blogger by any means and certainly don't have the volume of posts that most bloggers do, but I'm pretty proud that I've stuck with it a year. It has been challenging, interesting, and a very positive experience overall. So, here is to 1 year. The goal for the next year is to post more and collaborate more with other bloggers in my subject area.

I've been toying with the idea for quite a while to develop an assessment that companies can use to evaluate how easy they are to do business with at a more detailed level and from a customer's perspective. I have tons of survey data that includes “How easy is it to do business with (X company)”?; however, very few actually break "easy" down into components

I've reviewed the Forester's Customer Service Innovation Framework and Self-Assessment http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,47688,00.html and think Natalie L. Petouhoff has done an excellent job of defining 150 best pratice capabilities.  Although I like her framework, I'd like one that could be applied to any business process.

A former boss of mine, Jerry Wittig, developed a draft assessment that I think could provide an excellent starting point. It had the following categories which could be rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest score and 5 being the best. The idea is that the customer of company X would rate their company interactions based upon the following categories and sub attributes:

Effortless  - less time, fewer steps, fewer decisions

Comfortable - friendly relationships/dialogs, free of embarassment

Informal - fewer worries, less rules/constraints

Unforced - per my timeline, few demands

Rewarding - high benefit for effort, unexpected pleasures

Jerry passed away some years ago and I'd like to think his legacy and work continues.  What assessments have you seen/used for assessing ease of doing business? What other characteristics do you think should be included in such an assessment? Send me your ideas/comments.