A few days ago my attention was drawn to this question posted on the LinkedIn discussion forum. The question, posed by Genna Weiss, is seeking opinions on methodologies for aligning the customer experience with process improvement. In principal there is clearly nothing wrong with this aim, after all, it’s just about getting it right in the most efficient way, but I was less comfortable with some of the suggestions that were made

Clearly there were some very worthwhile and practical suggestions, but there were a couple that, to my eyes, did not appear to have been thought through. For example, the contribution that read only “Involve your customer in process redesign” made me quite uncomfortable

I read a lot of material on the subject of management. Some I consider very good and insightful, other stuff I don’t, and I’m noticing a growing tendency for an over-use of certain platitudes, such as “customer involvement” and “leadership” without much of an attempt to add substance, or give any clues as to what that may add up to in terms of planning, implementation or measurement

Let’s take the idea that we should involve our customer in process re-design as an example. It sounds lovely, but let’s try and think it though. How would we do it? Involving the customer in process design is quite different to involving the customer in product or service design. Involving the customer in product/service design is a clear and obviously very valid attempt to get our “whats” right. To make sure we build in all of those things the customer wants and values, and that we edit out those aspects the customer could not care less about. Involving the customer in these activities, getting our information from the horse’s mouth so to speak, increases our chances we’re going to hit the mark. Quality Function Deployment and Kansei Engineering are a couple of methodologies a company might use to add structure to that process

Process design on the other hand is about getting our “hows” not only right, but also getting them as efficient as possible. Now, there will always be exceptions to the rule, but generally the customer will not know enough about the nature of your working systems, terrain, supplier network, plant, materials, staff, past problems, economic environment, legislation or regulatory framework to be able to offer an informed opinion on the subject of how you should run your processes. You’re supposed to be the expert in those areas, not them

Anyway, the point I’d like to make in the post is that while I continue to be a big fan of keeping things simple, I do feel that there are natural limits to that principle, and sometimes we just have to roll up our sleeves and use our own talent and experience to solve the occasional tough problem