As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Process Engineer, and if you’ve ever read any of my stuff about the whole purpose of CX, you know I’m all about processes. One of the coolest things I ever discovered in my professional journey was the great applicability of these traditional waste- and error-reduction methods to simply making your Customers happier and driving alignment between your Brand Promise and your Brand Delivery. It’s quite truly my bread-and-butter and the animating principle of my entire practice. So yes. Let’s fix your processes; and thus your outcomes.
But here’s the thing, too: Sometimes it’s not even your processes that are the problem, but rather your policies.
Most of the impactful changes you can make that will improve your Customers’ experiences really do have to do with the way you carry out your systems. Internal, behind-the-curtain stuff that quite frankly your Customers aren’t even likely aware of. I often note that, aside from the Customer Insights portion (which, mind you, is a huge factor, so don’t get me wrong!), most of the heavy lifting in CX is done behind closed doors, working on your internal ways of doing business. Surely, it’s nice to include your Customers as seems appropriate (‘How do you like this?’ ‘What about that?’). But the paradox is that a lot of the impactful work you’ll do in CX is mostly unseen by them. While they’ll reap the rewards of that work (and notice that your systems and processes are now producing much more aligned results for them), for the most part, you’re under your own hood tinkering without them. That’s often how process work goes: Unseen heroes cranking out improvements for the world to see later.
But there’s another (often seen, but rarely understood by your Customers—and sometimes not even within your organization) source of Customer friction: Your policies.
Often, even if your processes are top-notch (and let’s all concede that they’re never perfect, but rather always in need of some tweaking…they don’t call it ‘Continuous Improvement’ for nothing), whenever anything goes wrong, or even if there’s a question that comes up, it’s your policies that make things maddening for your Customers.
Think about the limits on your Customer Care agents: Are they allowed to answer simple, general questions without demanding your Customer’s identification? Are certain sources of information hidden purposely from your Customers because you’re always trying to drive them to a hard-sell channel? Are refunds or exchanges nearly impossible? Are your Customers required to repeat their information over and over, perhaps cycling on the same few questions every time they contact you? When you walk in your Customers’ shoes (you’re doing that, right?!), do you ever wonder: Why do we make our Customers do that? Or, Why don’t we allow our Customers to do that?
Likely it’s your policies.
Interestingly enough, it’s frequently the case that certain policies that make your Customers’ lives more aggravating when dealing with you are legacy left-overs from previously inefficient processes. I once worked somewhere where there was a joke about a Richardson Report. (I’ve changed the name, but hear me out.) Apparently there had been a previous leader there (named Richardson) who’d demanded to see some sort of weekly analysis. He’d left the organization years before, and nobody since (nor other than him while he was there, in fact) had cared about seeing this information. But for quite a long time the analytics shop continued to produce the Richardson Report. It wasn’t until two bosses later that someone inquired, “Why are we publishing this?”
Conversely, when our systems need fixing, we’ll often implement policies to get around the problems. Fast-forward and some enterprising hot-shot fixes the original problem. But for some reason, the work-arounds or procedures that were intended to mitigate the no-longer-existing problem stick like gum on your shoe. It’s like still stepping over a crack in the sidewalk that’s long since been filled…often we do it out of habit.
Inertia isn’t the only reason we end up with policies that are vexing to our Customers. Often, it’s just that we corporately don’t trust them. That’s where your refund and exchange policies get to be so mean-hearted. Someone may take advantage of us, so we have to have strict rules in place. Okay, but keep in mind that the crafty and unscrupulous Customer who’d take advantage of a liberal return policy is likely going to find a way to circumvent it whether you think you’re outsmarting him or not. Why put all your Customers through the third-degree just to keep those ones out that’ll likely find a way in anyway? For that matter (strictly from an efficiency perspective), how much does that compliance cost you versus knowing a few bad apples here and there will get away with something (especially again, considering they’re likely doing it anyway)? That’s not a process problem, it’s a short-sighted policy.
When you’re reviewing how you do business, make sure you’re looking at your processes. Those will be the most obvious sources of frustration for your Customers. But don’t overlook your policies. You’ll find that, not only are they even easier to identify (simply by walking in your Customers’ shoes), they’re also easy to improve (usually it just takes a new memo to the team, or perhaps some re-writing of procedures).
Even better, they often more directly impact your Customers’ experiences.
