Greetings!
I like this weeks theme (Quality is Everywhere) for a couple of reasons - the topics are fun and it allows me to do something I like to do - which is to write this article even on weeks that tend to be just a wee bit active. Life is good!!
My son has been constructing a small music studio in his home and ordered some audio equipment as part of the project through a company called Sweetwater.com. Knowing my son, who also has some background in quality as a mechanical engineer, I have no doubt that this studio will be 'top shelf' once completed. The only request from Dad on this endeavor is that I get some free studio time for a project or two I am thinking about ... all part of the fun of having grown kids - you get to use their stuff for a change.
He contacted me after receiving the equipment to relay the story of what transpired during the ordering process. Apparently, when he placed the order through their on-line ordering system, the system stated that there was sufficient quantity in stock to complete his order - but in fact, the inventory counts were incorrect. As a result, the estimated delivery date had to be pushed out.
What caught my son's attention was the fact that they contacted him (not the other way around) to report that there had been a error on their behalf and would he please accepted a package containing two 'high quality' audio cables (free - and not cheap) with their most sincere apologies for the mistake. When he receive the cables, they had also packaged up some chocolate for his eating pleasure.
Wow! In one fell swoop they were able to proactively turn around a customer even before he realized the issue. For this effort, and the cost of the cables (and chocolate), they now have a very loyal customer who will be going back to order more equipment on a regular basis.
Quality is an experience and Sweetwater absolutely gets that point. The ROI for just this one interaction is big. My son is ordering more equipment, he has told his fellow music colleagues, and I'm even writing about it! Did I say Wow already? ....
I did do a little actual research for this article and I called Sweetwater and spoke to the Customer Service Manager Bob regarding the interaction. I asked him if they had standardized a procedure to reimburse customers when they make an error on the order. He said there is no specific rule. It is incident based and they only require that their staff 'do the right thing'. When he made that statement, certain phrases immediately came to mind: employee trust, employee empowerment, customer partnership, progressive, long term thinking, etc. They do have a continuous improvement mechanism in place to consistently review customer based issues. And, they are working to continually improve the systems and processes that are in place now to aid in the customer experience. However, the immediate quality experience the customer is treated to cannot be underestimated as the key business building tool.
Claes Fornell, in his piece The Satisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for Buyer Preference states; "We might even have stumbled upon the holy grail for managers, as well as investors: Satisfied customers are economic assets with high returns and low risks. That is, you don’t have to take high risks to get high returns. This is contrary to what most financial analysts believe. It is also contrary to what many in business believe: ‘Be bold. Take risks. No risk, no reward. Nothing ventured, nothing gained".
There's 'quality gold in them there hills', and sometimes all one has to do to mine it is to turn the customer facing staff into true business partners.
Do you have other quality story you would like to let folks know about? Post a comment ....
Next article: Company road Trip
Monday, August 24, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Company Road Trip: Training keeps you on track
Greetings!
One of the many reasons I like living in the Boston area is the veritable cornucopia of industry types that are doing business here - and hiding in plain sight doing it too. Oh sure, they may not all have the sexy names you would see when driving along Rt. 237 in San Jose, but who cares. Certainly their customers don't - but they do like their products.
I had the pleasure of sitting down recently with Rob Gagnon, an engineering manager at one such technology company north of Boston that manages the delivery of business applications across a company's IT infrastructure. If Rob is a typical example of the type of leadership talent that has set up tent at this company, they are a very fortunate company indeed.
In our hour long meeting, we discussed a number of areas, and Rob made it a point during our discussion to stress that a key goal of the quality group was to 'reduce uncertainty'. I really like that phrase because it addresses one core tenant of Quality - that it is 'an experience'. And what better way to do that than to build product confidence with the customer. So, how do they go about such a task? Rob's philosophy is to develop product excellence through - in a word - training.
Now, I know what you may be saying, that every company says they encourage training. True, it is a commonly pronounced anthem. However, they mean it here, and they achieve it through their consistent, and persistent efforts.
Rob insures that employees are bulking up their domain knowledge as part of the annual review process. However, it doesn't begin and end with issuing a check mark on someone's performance review. The company's new product engineers develop web based product training that quality engineers can become certified on. There is also classroom training (for customers) that the quality team is encouraged to take as well. They even offer brown bag sessions and seminars as the need arises. Again, they are consistent on their training methods, and persistent in its application.
Ok, so the quality group is well trained and current on product line technology developments. So what does that buy you?
Like all progressive engineering managers, Rob wants his development AND quality teams as far upstream in the development life cycle as possible. Think what a well informed quality engineer can bring to the table during the marketing requirements document phase. If this process is fully flushed out, the resulting quality of this effort just rolls down stream from there to the development plan (and yes, for your SDLC junkies, they do a combo Waterfall/Agile method which is very interesting, but could be a whole topic on its own).
Also, you don't want your staff speaking to your customer base if they are only superficially informed about your product. Again remember, they wish to reduce uncertainty with their customers and what better way than to have SMEs speaking with them. Ever see your customers speak with someone they feel is knowledgeable on their issues - they often want to adopt them.
Now, it's not to say that life is perfect. After all, what fun would that be! The company, like my golf game, has challenges it must overcome. Time to market and resource availability pressures can crimp even the best laid plans. And like most companies, they are not immune to these pressures. However, they do take on a very noble challenge from release to release - to work very hard at making sure, as Rob said; 'to put all the best practices into the box before it goes to the customer'. In other words, they take their test escape analysis process very seriously - attempting to turn lessons found promptly into improved quality release over release.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out an area of quality too often overlooked. The company's corporate office is elsewhere, and without a quality culture that encourages trust, good goal alignment and good communications (can't have the first two without the third), you've got ... well ... no trust, mission confusion and a rumor mill. Not exactly a recipe for success. This company gets it - the best ones always do. You had to look no further than Rob to see that this company values an inclusive culture, transparent communications and understands the importance of its role in helping employees be successful. Now that's a quality relationship.
Fran
Next article theme: Quality is Everywhere
One of the many reasons I like living in the Boston area is the veritable cornucopia of industry types that are doing business here - and hiding in plain sight doing it too. Oh sure, they may not all have the sexy names you would see when driving along Rt. 237 in San Jose, but who cares. Certainly their customers don't - but they do like their products.
I had the pleasure of sitting down recently with Rob Gagnon, an engineering manager at one such technology company north of Boston that manages the delivery of business applications across a company's IT infrastructure. If Rob is a typical example of the type of leadership talent that has set up tent at this company, they are a very fortunate company indeed.
In our hour long meeting, we discussed a number of areas, and Rob made it a point during our discussion to stress that a key goal of the quality group was to 'reduce uncertainty'. I really like that phrase because it addresses one core tenant of Quality - that it is 'an experience'. And what better way to do that than to build product confidence with the customer. So, how do they go about such a task? Rob's philosophy is to develop product excellence through - in a word - training.
Now, I know what you may be saying, that every company says they encourage training. True, it is a commonly pronounced anthem. However, they mean it here, and they achieve it through their consistent, and persistent efforts.
Rob insures that employees are bulking up their domain knowledge as part of the annual review process. However, it doesn't begin and end with issuing a check mark on someone's performance review. The company's new product engineers develop web based product training that quality engineers can become certified on. There is also classroom training (for customers) that the quality team is encouraged to take as well. They even offer brown bag sessions and seminars as the need arises. Again, they are consistent on their training methods, and persistent in its application.
Ok, so the quality group is well trained and current on product line technology developments. So what does that buy you?
Like all progressive engineering managers, Rob wants his development AND quality teams as far upstream in the development life cycle as possible. Think what a well informed quality engineer can bring to the table during the marketing requirements document phase. If this process is fully flushed out, the resulting quality of this effort just rolls down stream from there to the development plan (and yes, for your SDLC junkies, they do a combo Waterfall/Agile method which is very interesting, but could be a whole topic on its own).
Also, you don't want your staff speaking to your customer base if they are only superficially informed about your product. Again remember, they wish to reduce uncertainty with their customers and what better way than to have SMEs speaking with them. Ever see your customers speak with someone they feel is knowledgeable on their issues - they often want to adopt them.
Now, it's not to say that life is perfect. After all, what fun would that be! The company, like my golf game, has challenges it must overcome. Time to market and resource availability pressures can crimp even the best laid plans. And like most companies, they are not immune to these pressures. However, they do take on a very noble challenge from release to release - to work very hard at making sure, as Rob said; 'to put all the best practices into the box before it goes to the customer'. In other words, they take their test escape analysis process very seriously - attempting to turn lessons found promptly into improved quality release over release.
I would be remiss if I didn't point out an area of quality too often overlooked. The company's corporate office is elsewhere, and without a quality culture that encourages trust, good goal alignment and good communications (can't have the first two without the third), you've got ... well ... no trust, mission confusion and a rumor mill. Not exactly a recipe for success. This company gets it - the best ones always do. You had to look no further than Rob to see that this company values an inclusive culture, transparent communications and understands the importance of its role in helping employees be successful. Now that's a quality relationship.
Fran
Next article theme: Quality is Everywhere
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