This is an excerpt from the book "Five Minute Lean", by David McLachlan - a wonderful book that blends teaching of the tools, culture and philosophy of traditional Lean with a modern-day Lean parable. You can get the whole book on Amazon here and enjoy your own copy.
Use Feedback to Fix and Guarantee
Many industries will have their pet hates – things that have become almost clichés as they annoy customers in that industry the most. Perhaps you’ve had the cable technician who never turns up on time, or the call centre operator who moves slower than a glacier. Great companies and businesses that survive the longest are ones that take this into consideration and do something about it.
One of the most simple and powerful methods we can use here is to:
1. Find out what annoys the customer most
Discover what annoys your customers by using the Net Promoter Score “Dissatisfiers”, and collecting customer complaints. Examples of this step might include a tradesperson that doesn’t show up, clothes bought from an online store that don’t fit, or food that is cold when it’s delivered.
2. Fix it
Imagine if your tradesperson actually did show up right on time, every time? Or your clothes were either the right size or you could exchange them? Or your food really was delivered hot and fresh for every order? We can fix what annoys customers the most using the tools in this book.
3. Then guarantee it
Now imagine if your tradesperson showed up on time, guaranteed? Or your clothes were the right size or you could exchange them for free, guaranteed? Or your food was delivered hot and fresh guaranteed, or it’s free?
These three steps are truly one of the fastest ways to get yourself raving fans, and raving fans turn average earnings into outstanding earnings.
The examples above were not just chosen at random either – they are real life examples of outstanding companies. Domino’s Pizza implemented the idea of pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free, guaranteed and the company has gone from strength to strength in business and in its stock price since.
Zappos is an online clothing and footwear company that implemented a 365 day return policy (effectively a satisfaction guarantee), and has grown from a small online store to turning over more than a billion dollars a year.
And lastly, local tradespeople who show up on time, guaranteed, have more work than they need and can often charge more than the average as well.
When you combine all of the five steps in “Define Value” you have a quick and easy way to get insight into what brings your customer value and what they would be willing to pay for. This is truly powerful information, and can save you a lot of heartache down the track, whether you are just starting a business or improving an existing one.
This is an excerpt from the book "Five Minute Lean", by David McLachlan - a wonderful book that blends teaching of the tools, culture and philosophy of traditional Lean with a modern-day Lean parable. You can get the whole book on Amazon here and enjoy your own copy.
Selected chapters from the story within Five minute Lean:
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Makes a Change
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Discovers a New Way
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Performs a Balancing Act
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Pulls the Trigger
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Sets a New Standard
- Lean Parable – Where Lisa Becomes a Leader
Check out these selected chapters from the teachings within Five Minute Lean:
- Five Minute Lean – Create a New Standard Procedure and Checklist for Quality Control
- Five Minute Lean – Use Feedback to Fix and Guarantee
- The Five Minute Catch-up
- Five Minute Lean – Add Important Data to Your Map
- Five Minute Lean – Create a Pull System with FIFO, Kanban Triggers and Visual Management
- Five Minute Lean – Make Feedback Meaningful with Kano Analysis
- Five Minute Lean – Collect and Measure Feedback With the Net Promoter Score
- Five Minute Lean: Glossary
- Five Minute Lean – Build in Quality with Error-Proofing and Autonomation
- Five Minute Lean – Value is Determined by the Customer
- Five Minute Lean – Introduction
- Five Minute Lean – Solve the Real Cause of the Problem
- Five Minute Lean – Map the Value Stream to Reveal Opportunities
- Five Minute Lean – Implement With Agile for Fast Iterations and Feedback
- Five Minute Lean – Put it Together With Design for Ease of Use
- Five Minute Lean – Use Pareto to Find Where to Start
- Five Minute Lean – Work Towards One-Piece-Flow (and Reducing Silos or Batching)
- Five Minute Lean – Use Kaizen and Kaizen Events to Help Stakeholder Buy-In
- Five Minute Lean – Eliminate the Eight Wastes to Improve Flow
- Five Minute Lean – Organise Your Process with Five S