Search results matching tag 'Ease of Doing Business'

EODB Assessments and Anniversary

christina.sullivan — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:45:00 GMT

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.

Create Amazing

christina.sullivan — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:18:00 GMT

I'm taking a slight detour from my usual topics to share an incredible opportunity with you. Yesterday, I was informed about a creative contest which gives everyone a chance to share how HP helps you “create amazing”: From dreaming up amazing things to actually making it happen—never stopping at impossible

What do you have to do ? Create an ad for HP and showcase your talent!

Enter to win a chance to meet Spike Lee at the Cannes Lions 2009 Advertising Festival. You could win an on-set visit to his next production and other great cash, travel, and product prizes.

It’s all part of “You to the Power of 12 – U12”, a MOFILM User Generated Content Competition. Hosted by writer, director, actor and producer Spike Lee, the competition gives people around the world the chance to develop a video advertisement for HP or some of the world’s other leading brands. The competition is designed to showcase global talent at the Cannes Lions 2009

Advertising Festival June 21-27.

Download the HP creative brief today and begin production! Hurry as the contest deadline is

June 8^th. Let the world’s next ad genius be you.

Learn more

Help me get the word out. I can't wait to see the results and hope that my theme of "ease" is represented.

Positive Earnings Announcements and Focus on Customer Experience

christina.sullivan — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:09:00 GMT

As I receive blog alerts about “Ease of Doing Business” and “Customer Experience”, I’ve been watching the comments regarding the latest Forrester customer experience index (CxPi) Survey which indicates Apple came up with a “good” rating at 80% while Compaq/HP came up with a 63% to 66%, and Dell came in at the bottom of a “poor” rating with 58%. Read Bruce Temkin’s blog on this subject at http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/apple-beats-windows-in-customer-experience/ . Of course, I’m not happy with the Compaq/ HP rating as my job focuses on making interactions with the customer easier, but I also have insight into customer improvements HP is working on and know sometimes there is a lag between improvements and the results seen in surveys. Other than being distracted by all the comments posted to Temkin’s blog, the other thing I noticed was the large number of Q1 earnings announcements this week and the mention of customer experience. Take a look at Amazon, JetBlue, Stamps.com, Yahoo, and even the newcomer, Chipotle, comments:

“We remain heads down focused on driving a better customer experience through price, selection and convenience. We believe putting customers first is the only reliable way to create lasting value for shareholders”. (Amazon Q1 Earnings)
“During the quarter we continued to enhance our customer experience. We introduced free premium movies for our customers traveling to the Caribbean and we continued to test the sale of food onboard our aircraft. Our goal is to provide our customers with products and services they value, especially at a time when customers are carefully managing their budgets”.(JetBlue Q1 Earnings)
“Second in our 2009 plan, we are going to continue optimizing our business model and our overall customer experience in several ways.”(Stamps.com Q1 Earnings)
“Yahoo is focusing on having a Wow! experience for all of its users around the world.” (Yahoo Q1 Earnings)
“These benefits are apparent throughout our business model, and in nearly every facet of the customer experience. For example, we're providing better customer service and better food while improving the cost of labor and food and reducing our G&A expenditures.” (Chipotle Q1 Earnings)

Is it a coincidence that these companies had strong performance and positive earnings? I think not. I’m pleased to see that those focusing on improving the customer experience are reaping the rewards.

Customer’s Clock Rules

christina.sullivan — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:20:00 GMT

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 2^nd 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.

Putting Customers First

christina.sullivan — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:59:00 GMT

In a previous blog, http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blogs/ease-of-doing-business/archive/2008/11/20/disneyworld-does-it.aspx, I referenced 5 steps for ease of doing business and improving customer experience. Although very simple steps, the challenges of the enterprise business doesn’t always allow for these steps to be followed as the rule and are sometimes the exception. Although HP follows this, I’m sure not every company adheres the most important rule:

Rule #1: Put the customer first

A recent study performed by the CMO Council and sponsored by Satmetrix entitled, “Giving Customer Voice More Volume,” reveals only 29% of the 480 senior marketers surveyed say their companies rate highly in their ability to handle and resolve customer problems or complaints.

Additionally, the study citied that “Customer listening, learning and leveling are critical qualities that need to be part of an institutionalized corporate culture, the CMO Council said. Yet, survey data demonstrates that most companies treat customer interactions around service situations and incidents only as problems that need quick resolution:

Just more than one-third (38%) of companies gather customer insight from customer engagement situations.
Less than one-third (32%) look for ways to turn problems into new sales opportunities, and only 15% introduce new products or services to further monetize the relationship.
Less than two in 10 (17%) use customer interaction opportunities to identify and cultivate potential champions and advocates.

Putting the customer first starts with actively engaging the customer. It includes not only listening but taking action on customer feedback. But, more than merely a reactive process to customer feedback, “putting the customer first” means that anytime a new procedure, policy or process is considered, the first critical question is “how will this impact the customer”? It requires the discipline of taking the customer perspective in every improvement effort or strategic initiative. It has to be a mindset and a way of life for the company to be successful and authentic with their customers.

During this economic climate, when the focus is on cost-cutting, putting the customer first can be a challenging concept to get buy-in and to implement. Companies that understand “customer first” or the “outside-in view” will be the ones prospering in the aftermath. Who will step up to the plate? Time will tell.

Let me hear your comments. What companies do you think put the customer first? I’d love to hear your examples of companies that are living by this rule. Send them my way.

Close Kins: Customer Experience and Ease of Doing Business (EODB)

christina.sullivan — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:33:00 GMT

I often get asked “how is ease of doing business and customer experience alike or different”? In Bruce Temkin’s Customer Experience Matters Blog, http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/what-the-heck-is-customer-experience/, He defines the customer experience as “the perception that customers have of their interactions with an organization”. I think Bruce Temkin’s definition works nicely for EODB as well, but if I replaced the word “interaction” with “transaction” I think I’d get closer to the EODB definition. I think the customer experience encompasses much more than “ease” and therefore, ease is a sub-set of but an important component of customer experience.

Why do I think the word “transaction” applies better to ease of doing business? In my mind, a transaction (making a purchase, paying an invoice, making a support request) is the focus for ease and it has heavy emphasis on the process. The process needs to be designed with the customer in mind to make every transaction or customer touch point as easy as possible. However, what is considered an “easy” transaction for one customer may well be different for another customer. So, the key is that every transaction or touchpoint must be customized/tailored and easy per the customer’s specification across the lifecycle. E.g., “making a purchase may be easy for one customer on the web, for another through direct buying, for another through a channel.

Ease of Doing Business covers the entire value chain including every process that touches the customer which can either enhance or degrade their experience, but customer experience is something more. Customer experience includes the functional, emotional and social needs of the customer. As mentioned in the wiki definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_experience, “Customer Experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier”. How GOOD or BAD the experience is depends on how well we address the functional, emotional and social. Creating a great customer experience requires we address these aspects; however, ease of doing business focuses on how easily the functional need is fulfilled. A functional process can be completed efficiently and accurately and thus be perceived as “easy”, but we still may not be touching the emotion of the customer. Easy may be achieved through a paperless process or elimination of a process altogether. If a customer completes an interaction and is saying “wow, that was easy!” then you’re hitting the emotional sweet spot and getting the functional process completed. So, ease of doing business is a close cousin or kin to customer experience. You can have one without the other but the most powerful relationship is built when we focus on making it easy for our customers to do business with AND a great customer experience.

Thanks to my colleague, Susan Sherman, our resident expert in customer experience, for her valuable contribution to this blog.

As this is my last blog for the year (due to holiday and vacation time much needed), I wish all of you some “easiness” in your life and work in 2009. Bye!

Help Needed

christina.sullivan — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:30:00 GMT

What do customers want to make it Easy to do Business With? I recently reviewed a study that indicated the most important attribute for Enterprise Customers in the IT Industry is quickly receiving help during the ordering and purchasing process. Obviously, the easier we make it for our customers to order the less likely they will need to request help. But, if they do need help, it is important to provide a variety of options to customers ranging from online mechanisms inclusive of chat features, support line phone numbers to talk to real people, to assistance from individual sales representatives. There is no one-size fits all for Enterprise customers (or any customer for that matter). What has been your company's most satisfying "assistance" received during the ordering or purchasing process?

Moving for Change

christina.sullivan — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:30:00 GMT

I’ve been away from my blog for a while due to vacation and a relocation across country. What an adventure! My family had the good fortune of starting our cross-country journey from Houston, Texas to Roseville, California on September 8^th and completely avoided Hurricane Ike and the aftermath. My heart goes out to my colleagues, friends and family as they work to recover from the storm. Although we missed the hurricane, we had somewhat of our own storm with 3 moving trucks (my husband owns a moving company) and 2 personal vehicles – 2 hired drivers, my husband, myself and our 2 children under the age of 5. Believe me - there is nothing easy about driving 2,000 miles with 2 small children! To make matters even more complicated we had one of our drivers decide somewhere near Phoenix that they didn’t want to go any further and bailed out at the Phoenix airport. I could tell you more about the trials and tribulations of the Sullivan family’s journey out west, but back to our topic of ease of doing business.

As I have tried to acclimate myself to a new location without the use of the Internet for the first week (another of our various mishaps which I won’t go into), I’ve been feeling more like a person that has been transplanted to a foreign country. The language is still English but the fact that it is another state brings a whole host of new things to learn. The list of “to-do’s” is endless – everything from dealing with the DMV for licenses and registrations of our vehicles, to finding grocery stores, doctors, churches, filing for corporate and state licenses for my husband’s business, etc. I’ve been asking myself – “why is everything so hard and takes so long?” Half the battle is figuring out what needs to be done with conflicting information and long text of instructions to read.

I wonder if this is what our Enterprise customers feel like? Do they feel like foreigners learning new rules, approaches, and ways to get things done or do we make them feel at home and treat them as welcome guests? We all want to become productive as quickly as possible – in our business and our lives. Are we doing everything we can to make it as easy as possible for our customers to navigate through our system? Do we make our customers wait like so many experiences at the DMV? Apologies to my new friends at the DMV, but I think most people can relate to the analogy. Are we providing easy instructions and quick answers when our customers run into questions or problems? What can we do to move toward a better, easier way of doing business?

Focusing on Enterprise Customers

christina.sullivan — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:24:00 GMT

While we bloggers always appreciate comments to our posts, I’d like to clear up a misconception about this blog. For all the folks that have posted comments related to consumer support issues, I wanted to let you know that I’m unable to publish them because they are not relevant to my focus: Enterprise customers. However, take heart, I have referred your issues to the appropriate organizations for resolution. Reading the various comments has been an eye-opener, so I thank you for submitting them. Would any Enterprise customers like to comment on their experiences? I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Some Things Never Die

christina.sullivan — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:09:00 GMT

A colleague of mine recently handed me an article from a technology magazine, Digital Leader. It was a special report entitled: "Quality Needs Work" and there was a small box containing the phrase "Ease of Doing Business", which of course peaked my interest. I quickly scanned the article subheadings:

Integrated Customer/Partner Support
Contracts and Licensing Simplification
Service Contract Simplification
Communication Initiative

It seemed like a reasonable list and very close to the areas our customers often cite when describing needed improvements. Then my colleague brought my attention to the date, "1996". That's when I started to get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Could it be what one company was addressing 12 years ago are the same issues customers face today? With all the technological advances it seems hard to believe, but it's true. In our industry, we struggle with the ever changing landscape. It's hard to make processes more simple when our business is getting more complex and our customers expectations continue to climb. I'm a perpetual optimist though and believe we can eventually drive improvements in these long-standing issues. Never give up.