Category Archives: Lean CX

Leadership Card 14 – CEOs versus Customers

June 5, 2018Ease of Use, Leadership Cards, Lean CXceos vs customers, customer experience, David McLachlan, ease of use, leadership, leadership card deck, leadership cards, Lean CXDavid McLachlan

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Design For Ease of Use with Lean CX – Leadership Card 14

Leadership Card 014 CEOs Customers - Lean CX Ease of Use

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The Customer Experience Disconnect

In a study by Bain & Co it was revealed that around 80% of firms believed they delivered a “superior customer experience”. The only trouble was, their customers didn’t agree, with just 8% of customers confirming they were provided a superior customer experience.

The study also found that companies were trying to do a good job – they truly believed they were customer focused and recognized the importance of their customers. They obviously genuinely wanted to provide a superior customer experience, they just didn’t know how to truly pull it off.

Instead of focusing on improvements that truly value the customer, they do things like relentlessly pursuing new customers at the cost of old ones. For example, heavy discounts for new customers while more expensive pricing for existing customers. Or they gathered immense loads of data on their customer’s habits without actually talking to them, understanding what makes them want to stay.

How Easy Was It To Get What You Wanted, Really?

Research and consulting firm Forrester has found that making it easy for your customer to get what they want goes a long, long way to providing them that “Superior” customer experience. In fact, customers are more likely see your company as competent and to forgive any mistakes that happen along the way.

Part of making it easy for a customer to get what they want is reducing the steps to getting what they want. The more “steps” a customer has to take, whether it’s talking to different people or departments, filling out multiple forms or needing to gather multiple pieces of information, all affects the ease of use and the likelihood of a good customer experience.

Checking in with your most profitable customers to understand what went well, and what didn’t go well, also helped the best companies design their experiences to attract more profitable clients.

Getting Intentional About Designing Your Work

The research by Bain & Co also found that companies who outperformed others when it came to customer experience had intentionally designed their work (i.e. the operations of their business) and customer experience. They called it Design, Delivery and Developing Capabilities, and this is where it is handy to have a simple yet powerful framework to work through decisions with. The Ease of Use framework first outlined in the book The Lean CX Score can immediately improve the ease of use for your customers and your team in a few simple ways.

First, it brings clarity to a process by making it repeatable. Then it reduces the steps to a customer getting what they want, by making hidden things visible and making it impossible to make a mistake. Finally, by checking in to see if the customer got what they wanted they can reduce the steps further and make things easier again.

Don’t fall into the trap of a complicated programme of work to improve the retention of your customers – make it easy with an easy framework and focus on the ease of use for your customers.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 13 – Focus On Strengths

June 4, 2018Ease of Use, Leadership Cards, Lean CXDavid McLachlan, design your work, ease of use, employee engagement, leadership, leadership card deck, leadership cards, Lean CX, team engagementDavid McLachlan

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Design For Ease of Use with Lean CX – Leadership Card 13

Leadership Card 013 Focus on Strengths - Lean CX Ease of Use

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Focus on Your Team’s Strengths

Have you ever been around someone who can only see the negative side of life? If there’s a rainbow, they focus on the rain. If they are somewhere, they’d rather be somewhere else. Nothing is ever good enough. It’s depressing, isn’t it? Well the latest research shows it’s depressing for your team as well, and it actually reduces their engagement, their productivity and your profit.

We already know that checking in with your team regularly is important, and just doing that can increase team engagement and help keep your results on track. But what Gallup Inc. also found when performing the study was that leaders who focus on their team’s strengths saw up to 22% higher engagement than their counterparts who focused only on their team’s negatives.

And it makes sense, doesn’t it? Nobody likes a wet blanket. But also, while showing someone what not to do can be effective and has its merits, just hearing where you’re going wrong all the time wears thin pretty quickly. So thin, in fact, that engagement and productivity go down. And the fact is that unhappy people don’t do that great of a job.

This Is All a Part of Leading Well

Many people don’t have a playbook when they first become leaders. So checking in regularly by itself can make a huge difference because you know your team, what they are up to, where they are struggling and what they enjoy. And that is the real key to this Leadership Card – when we talk to our team members and they reveal what they are good at, what flows naturally for them, what they find easy and what they enjoy, we can find a way to weave that into their tasks or the way they perform their tasks.

Do they enjoy speaking with people? Find a way to put more stakeholder tasks, customer tasks, or running meetings into their work and go from there. Or maybe they prefer working with data? Can they manage a spreadsheet of their tasks or results, or do the same for their team, department or company? How about sales figures or customer drop off points on a website?

The point is, even in a team that performs similar tasks you will find people with different strengths. And you don’t usually get to find out what those strengths are to make the most of them, without actually checking in with your team.

Focusing on your team’s strengths isn’t as hard as some might think, and the rewards you will see will absolutely change your life and work for the better.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 12 – Checking In To Increase Engagement

June 3, 2018Ease of Use, Leadership Cards, Lean CXchecking in, customer experience, David McLachlan, ease of use, employee engagement, focus on strengths, leadership, leadership card, leadership card deck, Lean CX, team engagementDavid McLachlan

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Design For Ease of Use with Lean CX – Leadership Card 12

Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card - Engagement Model 4

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Checking In To Increase Engagement

Imagine if you had a spouse who you loved very much, but you were not allowed to speak to them? You couldn’t check in to see how they were doing, ask how their day was, ask what was troubling them or what brought them happiness in the moment. Chances are, it wouldn’t be much of a relationship, would it?

Checking in regularly with someone let’s them know that you’re important to them. It helps you know how they are doing, and it helps you know if you are on the same path together or on a different planet completely. Just the simple act of checking in can bring you back together or help adjust slightly when you need to.

And it’s the same for your team.

Checking in regularly, at least once a week, to see how each team mate is doing has been proven to increase employee engagement by up to 27%, especially when you treat it like any good relationship, and focus on doing more of what’s right – in this case, focusing on the strengths they bring to the role.

Improving Strengths Gives Greater Rewards

Almost every successful entrepreneur will tell you: Focus on improving your strengths, not your weaknesses. Improving your weaknesses will make you mediocre at best, while improving your strengths can make you absolutely world class.

It’s the same with your team. By focusing on their strengths not only will you get better results and rewards, but you’ll be doing what is necessary for a happy team too.

It’s Just Like A Flight Plan

In the same way that a pilot will have a goal destination in mind before taking off, and then need to adjust their course along the way to get there safe and sound, checking in with your team allows you to see how you are doing and adjust if you need to.

Seeing as most managers don’t have a clear objective (51%) and few check in regularly with their team against those objectives, doing this can have some very serious results and improve things in a lot of different areas.

Having that clarity of what to do and how they are tracking against it really makes sense when you think about it. Simply muddling along with no real meaning will absolutely reduce someone’s drive and happiness, and affect your results too.

So check in with your team members regularly, at least once a week, see how they are doing against your clear objective and clear path to get there, and focus the work you give them on their strengths, not yours. You will see some astounding things begin to happen.

Chat soon – David Mclachlan

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Leadership Card 11 – Clarity and Empathy and Employee Engagement

June 2, 2018Ease of Use, Leadership Cards, Lean CXcustomer experience, David McLachlan, ease of use, employee engagement, leadership, leadership card deck, leadership cards, Lean CXDavid McLachlan

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Design For Ease of Use with Lean CX – Leadership Card 11

Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card - Engagement Model 3

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Clarity and Empathy – Two Major Keys To Employee Engagement

Straight out of Harvard comes a story and research showing a simple way to improve employee engagement and your productivity, profit and happiness. It’s called caring. Actually caring what your customers are trying to solve, actually caring what your team is trying to solve, and providing clarity on the path to solve that problem.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

Yet almost no one does this. Most people are too busy either putting out fires in their own business, or creating fuzzy, vague outcomes and mission statements that when it comes down to it mean absolutely nothing.

To Be Clear Is To Be Unkind

Something financial guru and entrepreneur Dave Ramsey says is “To be unclear is to be unkind”. And that kinda makes sense, doesn’t it? It happens so often not just in business but also in relationships – when you have an expectation that something will happen but you haven’t actually made that clear. You haven’t told the person what you would like! And since they can’t read minds, there is a good chance they won’t actually do the thing you secretly wanted them to do.

So make it clear.

Make it clear by understanding what your customer wants. Make it clear in a standard, repeatable process that shapes the path for your team. Make it clear when you check in regularly to see if everything is on track.

When you’ve made it clear, another thing can happen. It might be clear that the process is actually pretty hard. Maybe it’s an emotional time or area for a customer, maybe it’s a long and boring process. Nothing is perfect. So this is where the second part of our equation comes in:

Care.

Care about your team, sympathize with their troubles. Yes, problem solve with them using Lean CX when you can, but also just listen. Sometimes people need to vent, and need to be heard that they are going through something tough. Acknowledge that it is, and don’t minimize it.

Empathy and Clarity. They both make a difference to your team’s engagement, and if you use both I absolutely guarantee you will see some astounding results.

Chat soon – David Mclachlan

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Leadership Card 9 – Setting Clear Outcomes

May 31, 2018Ease of Use, Leadership Cards, Lean CXcustomer experience, design your work, ease of use, entrepreneur, leadership, leadership card deck, leadership cards, Lean CXDavid McLachlan

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Design For Ease of Use with Lean CX – Leadership Card 9

Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card - Engagement Model 1

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A Simple Way To Improve Engagement

In the research Leadership Cards previously we’ve seen that a big part of getting where you’re going is having a destination in the first place. It’s that old cliche, worn out but it’s true, of setting goals to have success in your business and your life.

But setting goals can sound boring, can’t it? Instead, we could look at it this way – it’s not so much about setting goals as it is about getting stuff done. And further to that, getting the right things done. Setting a clear outcome, a clear destination for your team, puts them on the right path, gives them clarity in their work and life direction.

If you were a pilot taking off from an airport, you would want to have somewhere to go. If you just flew round in circles for a few hours, you would run out of fuel and crash. That’s what’s happening with your teams.

The research also showed that setting outcomes collaboratively, where you sit down with your team, choose tasks that suit their strengths, improved results by up to 35%, and in some cases more.

So make it clear! As part of the Ease of Use framework, outlined in the book “The Lean CX Score”, you find your customers (the people you serve), find what they want, and outline the steps to get there. That’s clarity.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 8 – 50% of Employees Don’t Know What is Expected

May 30, 2018Ease of Use, Leadership Cards, Lean CXcustomer experience, David McLachlan, design your work, ease of use, entrepreneur, leadership card deck, leadership cards, Lean CX, startup, team buildingDavid McLachlan

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Design For Ease of Use with Lean CX – Leadership Card 8

Lean CX Leadership Card- Employees dont know what is expected

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If You Don’t Know What’s Expected, What Are You To Do?

Imagine this: in a high performing company there are two teams. One team is given a clear objective and is clear on their path to get there. The other team is given no direction at all – in fact some of them are not even sure why they turn up each day.

Which one do you think will do a better job? And if you’re a business owner, which team do you think will be worth the wage you’re paying them?

When we put it like this, it seems obvious, doesn’t it? The team with the clear direction, objective and path will certainly outperform. Yet recent research shows that around 50% of employees in work today are not clear on what is expected of them at work.

And when they’re not clear, as we found above, they’re probably not going to be doing a great job for you or your customers. Here’s the thing about people who aren’t clear on what their objective is – they perform 35% worse and are 34% more likely to be disengaged in their work.

So set clear outcomes. Better yet, do it collaboratively with your team. You will be pleasantly surprised by the results and the improvement to your revenue and profit.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 7 – The Benefits Of Clear Outcomes

May 29, 2018Ease of Use, Leadership Cards, Lean CXbusiness improvement, David McLachlan, design your work, ease of use, entrepreneur, leadership card deck, Lean CX, small business, startupDavid McLachlan

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Design Your Work For Ease of Use with Lean CX – Leadership Card 7

Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card - 35pc gap in what was achieved

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Having Something To Aim For Makes A Difference

Have you ever tried crumpling up a piece of paper, taking aim at the nearest waste basket, doing your favorite basketballer impression and shooting a three pointer while an imaginary crown goes wild?

Well, maybe your version wasn’t that elaborate (or maybe it was), but being able to see the waste paper basket – knowing it is there and having something to aim for makes a big difference in whether you get it in or have to take another try.

Can you imagine walking, blindfolded, into a room while holding the same crumpled up piece of paper, and throwing it in any random direction with the hope that it somehow makes it into a waste paper basket?

Well that’s exactly what the majority of businesses, startups, and teams within those businesses are doing today. They’re going into business without a clear idea of what to aim for. They’re delving into their work without clear outcomes.

Clear outcomes mean you have a clear objective – a goal, an aim, a target – and have taken the time to outline clear steps to get there. Are the steps going to be right every time? Of course not. Despite what some people will tell you, no one can see the future. But having something to start with and get you on your way certainly helps.

Now a few business disciplines have been misinterpreted and been taken completely the other way. Agile, iterative planning, continuous development, the Lean Startup and Minimum Viable Products can (and have) been used as an excuse by lazy managers not to do any planning or set any clear outcomes at all. Those managers say they will test and learn, and they don’t know what they don’t know. And those managers are missing the point. “Iterating” towards something still means you have to have a clear objective to iterate towards in the first place. And having clear steps to start with is like having a flight plan that you can take off with, and adjust it as you go.

Apart from all that, the research actually backs up the approach of setting clear outcomes in a big way. Teams and companies who set clear outcomes outperformed those who didn’t by 35% in their results, according to this Stanford University study, and found no less by the man who invented SWOT analysis (an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, well known by your typical MBA graduate).

So set clear outcomes with your team, do it collaboratively, and you will see a big improvement in your results.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 6 – Employee Engagement and Defects, Theft and Safety

May 28, 2018Ease of Use, Leadership Cards, Lean CXDavid McLachlan, defects, design your work, ease of use, employee engagement, leadership card deck, leadership cards, Lean CX, safety, theftDavid McLachlan

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Design Your Work For Ease of Use Using Lean CX – Leadership Card 6

Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card - Theft and Defects

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Have You Ever Been Happy?

Silly question, I know. But… have you? Really, truly happy? Do you remember what it’s like? Maybe it was this morning, maybe it was yesterday, maybe it was last week or maybe it was last year. But the thing about happy people – people who are fulfilled, at peace with their place in life, and satisfied with what they have, is that they are nicer people to have around for a variety of reasons.

Sure, they are happier, they don’t grumble as much, and are generally more fun to be around. But the statistics also take it a step further, because people who are happy, find meaning from and are completely engaged in their work actually make fewer mistakes, have fewer safety incidents, and steal less.

Employee engagement is so important when it comes to safety incidents, in fact, that one CEO I recently worked with used to have a rule: “Don’t tell me the engagement score, just tell me how many safety incidents and absentees your team has had.” That was all the information he needed to know to get a gauge on whether or not the team would be working well or far off track.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 2 – Levels Of Engagement

May 21, 2018Ease of Use, Leadership Cards, Lean CXDavid McLachlan, design your work, ease of use, leadership cards, Lean CXDavid McLachlan

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Design Your Work For Ease of Use, Leadership Card 2

Ease of use leadership card 2 Levels of engagement

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Recent research has found that the majority of workers are not “engaged” in their work. By engagement we mean they know what is expected of them, have the tools to do their work and enjoy their work.

The effects of low engagement can be huge on a company. As you will soon see in future Leadership Cards, sales are lower, productivity is lower, and absenteeism is higher. It’s a hidden cost that leaders may believe they have no control over, however by being intentional about designing your work for ease of use, using the ease of use framework, you can significantly improve the engagement of your teams.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 1 – Introduction

May 20, 2018Ease of Use, Leadership Cards, Lean CXDavid McLachlan, design your work, design your work cards, ease of use, ease of use cards, frameworks, leadership cards, Lean CX, research, strategyDavid McLachlan

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Welcome to the first Leadership Card by David McLachlan.

So many studies have shown the benefits of intentionally designing your work, designing your customer experiences, and designing your products for Ease of Use. Huge benefits, like outperforming other companies in the stock market by 76% on average over five years (during market crises too), enabling customers to stay for six years on average (instead of just one), and much much more.

The Leadership Cards will bring you research and frameworks, packaged in a neat card for you to collect each week as you improve your business, your leadership, and your life.

Please enjoy!

Leadership Card Deck 001 Introduction - Lean CX Ease of Use