A MOMENT
OF REFLECTION
There’s
something about the end of one year and the beginning of another that
makes me reflective. I find my thoughts drifting back to things I’ve done
in the past and then, like a cow chewing its cud, I ruminate about the
ideas I had back then.
The other day I thought back to the days of when I was involved in
quality management. You remember: TQM, ISO, quality systems, quality manuals,
quality assurance, continuous improvement - Kaizen if you were really
up with the play - teamwork, and so on. The message from customers in
those days was that, yes, price is important, but reliability is much
more important. “Your quality problems can ruin my business,” customers
would tell companies, “because they make it impossible for me to give
my customers what they want. And when you get it wrong, my customers blame
me, not you.”
Isn’t that as true today as it ever was?
Most companies have moved on from quality management, unfortunately
not because they mastered those principles and sorted out their quality
problems, but because they have been seduced by new ideas such as customer
service, CRM, and customer loyalty programs. The trouble is, you’re never
going to satisfy a customer or keep them coming back for more if you cannot
deliver the goods. At the end of the day, customers have very basic needs.
They would like what they ordered to be delivered to the right place,
at the right time, in good condition. Many of us would do well to remember
that.
I remember a fellow coming up to me years ago after I’d given a speech
on that theme and telling me about a recent experience he’d had with a
new car. The car developed a small problem so he took it back to the dealer
and asked if the repair was covered under the warranty. He was told it
was. He asked if they could fix it at the dealer’s and he was told it
could be. He asked if they could fix it that day and they said it could.
He was told the car would be ready at 4PM. The fellow said he was sceptical
that it would be ready on time since it was already 10 o’clock in the
morning but he left it there anyway and went back at 4PM expecting to
have to wait. But, no, the car was ready on time. “Not only that,” he
told me, “the car had been valeted and the wheels blackened. Inside, there
was a note apologizing for the problem and the contact details of someone
I could call if I had any further problems. There was even a bunch of
flowers for me to take home to my wife. I felt like a million dollars,” he
told me, “as I pulled out onto the road to drive home. That is, until
I discovered they hadn’t fixed what I took it in for in the first place!”
I thought of this story recently as I sat on an Air New Zealand flight
going to Perth. First, the pilot apologized for the late departure. Then
the In-flight Service Director announced he was sorry about the problems
they were having getting the in-flight movie to work. At meal times, they
even apologized in advance in case they had run out of the meal you wanted.
I began to wonder just how many times a day Air New Zealand apologizes
to its customers. Because they fly around the world, I suspect the sun
never sets on an Air New Zealand apology.
What all of us need to remember is that customers don’t want apologies.
They don’t want excuses. They don’t even want explanations. All they want
is for us to do what we say we are going to do. Or, in the language of
quality management, to do it right, first time.
Perhaps that’s a good resolution for the New Year?
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