Outside-in Part 2: Successful Customer Outcomes

So we've talked about what Outside-in has done and is currently doing for some of the best organisations in the world. But how does it actually work?

Outside in, fundamentally, is about aligning the way business is done with successful customer outcomes. That may sound like a no-brainer but careful thought is required to specify what the real customer outcome is. Outside-in takes an approach that focusses on the customer experience. The part that most organisations get wrong is that their definition of the customer experience is blinkered - the way that they have run their business and approached what they think their customers want has become immobile and inflexible.

Take two contrasting examples. British Airways struggles ahead selling seats on planes. Their approach to making money is just that - bums on seats. They are stuck in the mentality that the process is simply from check-in to baggage collection. It's thinking from decades ago. They are going slowly bust because they are a dinosaur unable to be flexible enough to adapt, to learn and to align with what today's airline passengers actually want. They can cost cut 'till the cows come home - it won't save them.

Meanwhile Ryanair are steaming ahead. They've looked at the customer experience and removed the blinkers. They've used outside-in to think outside the box - to give customers what they want - to fulfill the successful customer outcomes. They don't see the process as simply check-in to baggage collection - they have seen the opportunities: e.g.  online gambling, e-cigarettes and their latest innovation - removing check-in desks altogether.

So whilst traditional companies try to solve their problems by looking at their internal processes and improving them (with the misguided aim of improving their service to the customer) outside-in starts with the customer experience and builds the internal business processes to support the customer alignment.

But how do we do this I hear you scream?

Stay tuned for Outside-in Part 3: Moments of Truth.

- TPN

Comments

[Pascal (Belgium)]

I look forward to part 3! I'd really like to know how "Outside In" works from a practical point of view.
For instance, what are the different techniques to determine the customer experience? And do you only probe your existing client database or do you also include potential clients?

[The Process Ninja]

Hi Pascal, there are a few different ways of looking at the customer experience, but believe it or not people involved with the process are the best people to come up with this - the biggest issue is getting them to think outside the confines of their current processes and to sit in the customers shoes. Other ways of getting information on the customer experience include using the huge amount of information on the web (groups, twitter, etc) to gain an understanding of what are the disruptors to customer alignment or the converse (happy stories from customers!) Once you have that it's a case of getting the right people in the room with butchers paper and sticky notes - it's as simple as that! But I will explain more in part 3...

[Gary C]

Craig - Having flown Ryanair (and spoken to many others who have done so) I can tell you categorically that they have the worst customer experience of ANY airline in my experience (and I used to take 200 flights per year around the world so I know).

Sure, they are cheap, but they also treat customers as both inconveniences AND constant sources of money. ANYTHING is fair game when it comes to taking money off Ryanair customers, In addition to that their actual customer management process at check-in used to be unbelievably complex (http://process-cafe.blogspot.com/2009/03/ryanairs-process-issues.html) although that may have altered somewhat with the removal of airport check-in (and the addition of an additional £10 charge for check-in on-line!).

This, remember, is the airline that was considering charging customers to use lavatories in-flight and would actually remove the seats and make customers stand if it was allowed under FAA/CAA rules.

Now the flip side of this argument is that they are, of course, making money whereas others are not. But the maths behind this is very, very, complex (http://flyingcafe.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-do-ryanair-make-money.html) and indicates that somewhere down the line costs are potentially being hidden, or ignored - although there is no physical evidence of this. In addition to that Ryanair get large subsidies from certain local governments for using out-of-the-way airports and bringing business to certain regions.

I think there is a school of thought which is looking at the BA vs Ryanair profit differentials and extrapolating that to mean that Ryanair are doing it 'right' and BA are doing it 'wrong' when it comes to successful customer outcomes. I would urge you not to fall into that trap.

This doesn't - of course - take-away from the concept of focusing on the customer and identifying successful customer outcomes etc. etc. etc., which your article is concerned with.

Looking forward to part 3, Craig

Gary

[The Process Ninja]

Hi Gary - don't confuse the customer experience and successful customer outcomes with good customer service....from Ryanairs point of view they are achieving what they want to do and are raking in the profits big time. For their customers (and you clearly aren't one of them!) they are meeting what they want to do. Remember that they don't care about everyone flying with them - they want the fat dad with the wife and two kids who likes to booze, gamble, smoke, etc (apparently they have a photo of this family at their headquarters)...so I'd say you simply aren't in their target market (and I don't blame you for not flying with them!)