The Process Ninja

A Triage for Hospital Processes

I recently had the pleasure of visiting lovely Ryde Hospital with a rather painful stomach. It was an interesting experience in process. What amazed me most about it was the incredible levels of duplication of effort and the vast inefficiency caused by needless beauraucracy. I have great sympathy for those having to work in such conditions and those that are left waiting in pain whilst healthcare professionals fill in endless forms - a waste of their skills and time.

Before I left for the hospital I was actually intent on seeing a GP. I remembered that Ryde hospital had a late night GP clinic so I googled it to see the opening hours. Great - it was open until 10pm (ideal at 9pm at night!) So off I went, parked the car a short distance away and went to the reception desk.

"Oh there's no GP clinic here anymore" said the lady behind the desk - you'll have to see an emergency doctor. Not a big deal but I couldn't help but think of all the people that must turn up with minor ailments taking up the time of emergency doctors who could be spending their time on more serious things.

So I stand at the desk for 5 minutes filling in details about who I am and being asked "what's wrong with you". I am amazed that I can turn up at hospital with just a medicare card and my DOB and get free medical treatment. I could have given my medicare card to anyone and they could easily use it. I wonder how many people sell healthcare on the black market this way.

Next I am sent to the triage nurse who fills in more details and asks "what's wrong with you" and "what medications are you taking". Triage - a concept invented in WW1 and still with us. (Can you think of anything else from 1914 that might be useful???)

She asks me to wait until I am called. About 15 mins later a nurse calls me in and asks "what's wrong with you" and "what medications are you taking". He takes blood (after butchering both of my hands) and prods my stomach. He then asks me to wait outside.

Another 15 minutes later a doctor appears and asks me to come back in. He asks "what's wrong with you" and "what medications are you taking" and I tell him the story again and he prods my stomach. Eventually he scribbles something down and says that he will inject me with some drug.

15 minutes later another person turns up to inject me. He doesn't tell me what it is until I ask, but he can't actually tell me what it does. Apparently he's just "the injecting guy". Nice job. The doctor then returns. I ask him what the stuff I have been injected with actually does. He's nice enough to actually tell me.

Another 15 minutes of sitting on the bed and I am sent on my way. Guts still sore and thinking that I should have gone to see my GP the next day...

So what could they have done better?

For a start it seems bonkers to me in this day and age that Australia doesn't have a centralised healthcare database. I find it bewildering that I have to go through entering and checking details every time I go to a hospital or doctor. The time spent doing data entry is staggering. What is more staggering is the reliance on bits of paper that travel here, there and everywhere in a hospital. Enter the data once and pass it on electronically - that's the trick. It would eliminate data entry, duplication of effort and improve the quality of healthcare - after all, we are talking about people's lives here. Just one small piece of information could cost a life (and the current system is like russian roulette).

And what about the customer experience?

Well, how wonderful would it be to log onto the internet and be able to see realtime wait times to see doctors, or even to register at the hospital before you leave the house. So much better to be able to enter accurate details of your ailments rather than have someone interpreting them for you. And how much better would it be if there was more than a scratchy TV in the waiting room that no-one can hear. And before anyone says it, it's not free - we all pay taxes so that we receive theses service - we are paying customers!

Unfortunately hospitals (like their triage system) are stuck in Edwardian England. It is a case of we do it this way because we do it this way. Hospitals deserve to have adequate supplies of money to provide services, but we also need to make them work productively, efficiently and improve the customer experience.

The system is sick, let's make it better.

- TPN

Process Ineptitude Personified

Insurance as a concept is not a difficult thing to grasp - so why do so many companies make a complete mess of it?

Yesterday I called around to get some quotes on a fairly niche insurance product - landlord insurance for a holiday rental property. Most insurance companies couldn't (or rather wouldn't) provide cover. But one who did was one of the major banks. Happily I used their online quote tool. After entering only my address details it instantly spat me back a quote.

Hmm...something not right there. Knowing what I do know about insurance and having completed other online quotes I knew that there was something wrong. Nonetheless I pressed on and was greeted with a screen which said something along the lines of "Oh you want an insurance quote, great, but this is all too difficult for our system to grasp so you're going to have to fill in a crappy form and someone will call you sometime in the future".

Confidence dwindling - but as their product looked good I pressed on and completed the online form. It gave me the option to enter my customer number (I have an account with this bank) which I thought was smart as it would streamline the application process.

A few hours later I had already signed up for another insurance provider (Ray White Insurance) who had provided me with some really good service.Still I was curious to see what our inept banking friends would do next.

At 11:30 am the next day (a mere 24 hours later! - too slow!) I received a call from the bank who proceeded to grill me about my account details: "what is your card number? What is your limit? What is your address? Do you have any regular payments? Where did you collect the card from?"

"Wait, is all of this necessary? - I just want to get an insurance quote" I replied to which I was told that it was necessary as the bank had called me and they needed to verify my ID (which I had no idea why they had trouble doing this since I knew very well what my address, card number and other details were). "What you'll need to do is to call us back."

"What????" I replied "But what if I wasn't a customer? How would I get a quote"

"Oh, you'd have to call us, we wouldn't call you".

So I take down the number I am supposed to call her back on and throw it in the bin. Or should I say, the "too hard basket".

So by all accounts this bank don't call people back to give them quotes. They also don't make it easy for current customers to take out insurance. They also don't have an online quote tool that works. They have created a process that suits themselves and not their customers, and the equation is therefore very simple - the customers will not buy - and that includes me.

- TPN 

Do Your Processes Give Your Customers Away?

Today I was given away. Not expensively, not cheaply, but freely. I was tossed into the garbage like an empty milkshake.

But I wasn't an empty milkshake, I was full. I had plenty of juicy milky goodness. So why was I thrown away? Because they didn't care and they didn't ask so I wasn't given an opportunity to tell them so that they had the opportunity to try to keep me.

Today I called AAMI to let them know that I wanted to cancel my home contents insurance with them. After a few confirmations and a few clicks I was told "that's all done for you, you'll receive a refund of your policy by mail...thank-you for calling AAMI..."

There was no "why are you leaving?" There was no "how can we help you to stay?" There wasn't even the slightest hint of curiosity as to why a customer with three AAMI policies would suddenly cancel one of them. Here was as obvious a moment of truth as you can find, and AAMI failed spectacularly.

The reasons for this are clear - staff are disconnected from the customer experience. They have become robotic and unable to think. They have no incentive to try to keep a customer. They just do their job and think "it's not my problem".

In an age where big business throws millions of dollars around trying to persuade us to join them, I find it a tragedy when they give us away for nothing.

- TPN

Eat Your Own Dog Food

I worked for an  IT Company that had an IT helpdesk that was beyond helpless. I worked for a Telecommunications company where the boss created an atmosphere of fear and hatred. I worked for an insurance company where the staff would burst into tears. I worked for a bank with a stationery cupboard with no stationery in it.

If this is the way we treat our employees, how do you think our customers will feel? But no, we treat our customers like kings, right? But if we look upon our employees, no matter where they sit in an organisation, they all have (or must have) an end impact on the customer experience – we are all part of the chain that leads to the customer. Break that chain or pass the wrong message down the line and we do damage.

So when you come to work for a company that earns billions of dollars profit a year and you don’t have paper to write on, don’t have a cup to drink out of and the printer has been broken for a week, what is the impact? Do you turn up at work full of the joys of spring? Or do you brood and fester your discontent until it spreads like a slow poison?

For too long now businesses have been treating their staff like disposable assets, and in the last year or so employees have been taken advantage of more and more. Whilst many organisations have suffered, many still continue to reap huge harvests – but that doesn’t stop them from cancelling xmas parties and forcing “imposed leave”. So when you talk in fuzzy Marketing speak about how you are going to look after your customers, remember that it all starts within your gilded doors. If you can’t eat your own dog food then how do you expect anyone else to?

The tide is turning, the boats are waiting on the shore.

Are you going to be one of “them” or one of us…?

- TPN

If it seems too hard, it is too hard

In those moments where you throw up your hands and say “why is it so hard?!!!” I am thinking of you. And if you are really lucky, somewhere there is a company on the cutting edge thinking about it too.

Unfortunately there are many that aren’t. I had one such “why is it so hard?!!” moment last weekend. This moment came when I stood in front of an aisle in Bunnings Warehouse (hardware store), light fitting in hand staring at the thousands of lightbulbs in front of me. All I wanted was a BW22. How hard could that be? Well as the lightbulbs were arranged by brand rather than type and as most of the boxes were the same size, it was like trying to find a raindrop in a swimming pool. Not only this, but the light bulb code was written on the boxes in tiny print, so walking along the rows and reading the codes took forever. Of course as they were organised by brand I had to find each BW22 in a different section so that I could compare the price. Then, of course I had to find out which BW22 had the Edison screw, not the bayonet.

Then I gave up.

I’ll just ask someone, I thought. 10 minutes later, after wandering to the other side of the store I finally found a little helper who cheerfully advised me on lightbulb types.

So in the end, I got what I wanted, but why did I have to spend 30 minutes to buy a lightbulb? Is this a good customer experience? Of course not!

Is it too complex to think that the store could be organised so that a small quantity of light globes (a few of each brand) could be placed next to the applicable light fittings? Wouldn’t that provide a better customer experience whilst saving the store money on staff costs due to continual customer enquiries?

And in the event a customer needs to ask a question, is it a good experience that they have to wander around looking for staff? Is it so hard to have a button to press to get help, or for the store to be monitored by cameras where customers looking for help to be spotted and quickly assisted?

It’s not that hard. But when it seems too hard, you know what to do: take your business elsewhere.

- TPN

Planes, Pains & Automobiles

I recently flew to Perth on Holiday and I was surprised how poorly both Virgin Blue and Sydney Airport performed. After all these years of aviation, why do we still follow the same process of checking in and bag handling that we have done for decades? Little has evolved since I flew on my first flight as an excited 3 year old in 1976.

First let’s talk about Sydney Airport: Firstly it’s a pain to get to from just about anywhere. From where I live (only 15ks from the CBD) it’s too expensive by taxi, too inconvenient by train and shuttle buses don’t take kids under 4. That leaves me the only option of parking in long term parking for $140 a week. So I have to drive 40 mins to the airport, dump the wife and kids at the front of the terminal, drive to long term parking and take the bus back. All in all, about 15-20 minutes. Not family friendly, in fact not anybody friendly.

Then there is Virgin Blue: of course being a process guy I have already checked in online. My thoughts of dropping my bag down a big chute and speeding off onto the plane are dealt a mammoth blow when I see that the queue for the “bag drop” is triple the queue for check-in. When I do finally get through to the desk after a 15 min wait we are told that we are late and that we can’t take the baby buggy to the gate. We have to drag it across the terminal to the oversized baggage drop before we struggle with 3 kids and 3 pieces of hand luggage down to the gate where we get on the plane just in time.

But we do get to Perth, quickly collect our bags and set off for the AVIS car hire desk. The empty desk that is. We have to use a phone on the desk to call AVIS who ask us to trek over to the other side of the terminal because they only have one staff member on (not my bloody problem!). So the Reid entourage sets off again looking like something out of the Beverly Hillbillies – our trolley stacked up to head height with small children hanging off of it with the occasional suitcase flapping onto the floor like a fat man doing a bellyflop into a swimming pool. So eventually we make it over to AVIS, get things processed quickly and go off and collect our car. However, they fail to spot a dent on the car which I have to have rectified with the rep who has to call back to the desk and have the paperwork changed. Other than that the process is very efficient.

On the way back from Perth we drop off the hire car (again, very fast and efficient). Neither Perth airport or AVIS have thought that people dropping off cars may actually need trolleys to get luggage to check-in but we fossick around and eventually find one.

Our check-in process is as equally painful as the first time. The “Bag drop” process seems to be identical to check-in so I fail to see what time or cost savings it provides to either Virgin Blue or the customer (unless you don’t have any bags to check-in). The bag drop people stand in the queue huffing and puffing and shaking their heads wondering why they didn’t go into the much shorter check-in queue. Again we are unable to take the buggy to the gate (as we were told we could by the Virgin Blue call centre).

We eventually make our flight and arrive at the hellhole that is Sydney Airport on a Sat night. After again battling to get trolleys and bags I go off to collect the car from long term parking. I wait for the bus to arrive. And wait. And wait. So do about 200 other people. After about 20 minutes the bus finally arrives. It leaves looking like the train to New Delhi – about 10 people per square metre. Heads wedged in armpits – you know how it is. I finally pick up the car, pay, head back to the airport (almost getting lost on the way as there are no signs from the parking to the airport) – and try to pick up my wife and kids. Funnily enough even though I am allowed to drop them off outside the airport I am not allowed to pick them up outside the airport (do terrorists only bomb arrivals?) so I am funnelled into a 10 min free parking area where thankfully my little entourage are waiting for me.

However I have to take a taxi home so I queue up to be able to take a taxi home at a higher price than I would have paid getting one anywhere else in Sydney.

So my reflections:

- After 30 years of incredible technology improvements, why does going to the airport seem like going back in time?
- Why is it so difficult to get to the airport, and so costly?
- Why can’t I pick up my wife and kids at the door?
- Why do I have to pay more for a cab at the airport?
- Why should I bother checking in online when it’s quicker to check in at the airport than it is to drop a bag?

Here we have a situation where it seems like every effort is made to make the customer experience worse! Because we have no other choice in airport we have to accept what we are given! Of course we have a choice to choose airlines, so pay attention Mr Branson!

The disappointing part in all of this is the inability to embrace change and to think of new ways of doing things. Airports have been doing things the same way for so long they can’t think of any other way of doing it. We need to challenge this thinking by approaching it from the customer experience and by not accepting that it is good enough.

- TPN

Will Twitter Embrace Process or will it become "The New Spam"?

Twitter - love it or hate it, it's the big thing at the moment. I use it myself, but only as much as I can stand to and only for business purposes.

But recently I've noticed that all I'm getting through these days is what I call "twitter spam" - "followers" whose only updates are the same as those crappy spam e-mails we're all now so used to. Twitter is in danger of becoming the new spam. And what about cybersitting? At the moment I can (and as a test I have) registered twitter names of major corporations that don't quite get it yet (shame on them!) - how long before someone invents a little piece of software that starts registering thousands of twitter names and then puts them up for sale?

I see twitter as being like one of those kids who grew up in a commune like River Phoenix or something - a brilliant genius, but not quite living in the real world - full of innovation and creative spleandor, but not able to live with normal society. Twitter's free and easy lifestyle is about to end, I fear. With innovation comes responsibility- twitter has triumphed, but now some rules have to be put in place to protect it's users and to protect it's end goal.

Dare I say it, it's time for process.

- TPN

Are you creating a monster? Repeatability & Scalability in Process

I'm working with a team at the moment who has a product that they sell to clients. As part of the ongoing managed service to this client they have 9 key services that they provide. Basic stuff really - service requests.

Think about this:

• They have 9 process maps for each service request type

• They have procedures for each service request type

• They are all "client specific"

So what happens when they bring on a new client? Yes, they create a new set of processes and procedures for that client.

And what happens if a change is required to a process - yes they have to change the process across all the clients!

Just think about the administrative overhead of all that and the potential confusion caused by 9 processes times X number of clients. Essentially what they have done is to create a process monster. We're now going through the process (ahem) of stripping back the client specific information to create 1 process and set of procedures that can be used across all clients. This reduces the admin overhead, reduces the margin for error and allows us to go to market quickly and implement rapidly if a potential client comes along.

So the message is, when you create or modify process remember:

• Repeatability - make it easily repeatable, don't re-invent the wheel each time
• Scalability - make it adaptable to growth

Don't create a monster.

TPN

How (and how not) to throw money down the drain with process

You'd think that in the midst of the "GFC" companies would be looking at ways to make their processes more efficient, yet there are still many companies out there that like to throw money away hand over fist.

One of these companies is a furniture chain called Fantastic Furniture ("The package deal kings"). I like fantastic furniture. I don't like all their products, but I get what they are trying to do. They are the budget furniture company and they've pretty much got hold of their target market by the short and curlies. Now this isn't a story about customer service - it's a story of internal process. I'm not going to whinge about them from a personal point of view as when you buy something  cheap you often get cheap service - I can live with that if the price is right. But what I find amazing is when a company like theirs wastes money. OK, here's the story...

I looked online at their website and found a bed and cabinets that I wanted to buy. Actually I'd already seen it in the store. I would have loved to have bought online, but alas, no online store.

Mistake no 1: no online store.

So I call my local store and ask if it's in stock. Yes the bed is in stock he tells me but the cabinets will take longer. OK, says I, can I buy the bed now and collect the cabinets later? Yes, says he. All I need to do is pay a deposit over the phone go to the store, pay for the bed and then go and collect it at the warehouse?

Excuse me? says I. Can't I just pay for it over the phone and collect it from the warehouse? No says the man.

Mistake no 2: Poor process design fed by bureaucracy.

So I go to the store they look me up in the computer and alas I'm not there. We spend 10 minutes wrestling with the system and several calls to a mystery voice of god that tells them that that particular till doesn't work. They then find me and I actually get to pay for my bed.

Mistake no 3: Poor communication & IT support processes.

They then tell me that my items are all in stock - but wait didn't they tell me that my bedside cabinets were out of stock only 2 days ago?

Mistake no 4: Poor stock control and inventory processes

So I finally complete my transaction. Or at least I think so. The staff then take a manual docket pad and write out my receipt. Let me repeat that - THEY WRITE OUT MY RECEIPT. What on earth does their system do if it can't track stock and it can't print a receipt?

Mistake 4: Manual processes due to poor system functionality

So I take my hand written docket and drive to the warehouse. They give me an inaccurate map which gets me lost before I eventually find it. I get there and give my receipt to the chap at the warehouse. He looks at it and asks why I don't have a green slip. I tell him that's all they gave me. He grumbles that as they didn't write it out fully it will take longer to find the stock. He then proceeds to look up the computer and...write out another receipt. Did you get that HE WRITES OUT ANOTHER RECEIPT and gives that to me.

Mistake 5: lack of quality controls to ensure processes are followed

I eventually get all my stuff. It only took me 1.5 hours. But what did it cost Fantastic?

• Phone call - 5 mins
• Staff computer error - 5 mins
• Writing Docket - 2 mins
• Looking up system & re-writing docket - 5 mins

Total "lost" time = 17mins FOR ONE CUSTOMER AND ONE TRANSACTION!!!!

If you think about this in terms of the cost for 17 minutes of staff time multiplied by thousands of transactions you can envisage the amount of money fantastic are throwing away. Of course they could have avoided this entire 17 minute cost if they had an online system. But even if they didn't all they need is to update their system to be able to track stock in real-time and to eliminate the inefficient paper based system that they have become accustomed to. This would allow online tracking, reduce admin costs, control stock flow more efficiently and reduce customer touch time to allow their staff to concentrate on selling rather than performing laborious admin.

Fantastic, the Ninja has spoken. Please stop throwing your money away.

A Tale of Two (Sales) Processes - Why You Must Adapt or Die

I'd like to share with you a couple of examples of sales processes. One that works, another that doesn't. Together they beautifully demonstrate the gap that can be bridged by solid process.

First let's talk about the broken process...

Grosby are an Australian based manufacturer of shoes and slippers (owned by the evil pacific brands empire). I love their slippers having had a lovely pair of leather slippers that I bought last year. However a rather tragic washing machine incident ended the life of my beloved slippers. So, thinks I, I will simply go to the website, buy another pair and in a few days I will be reunited with my beloved slippers. But alas, the Grosby website has no option to buy online. Instead of investing in the technology to sell direct, they choose simply to sell via retailers and make less money. Go figure. Maybe this is one of the reasons they are making bugger all money.

So anyway, my next step is to look on their website to find a retailer, which I do and I trek off down Pitt St to get them. Three shops later (one of which is a women's footwear store), I find that none of them actually stock any Grosby slippers so I return to the office empty handed. In desperation I use the "contact us" option on their website and send them a long e-mail, pouring out my unbridled love for their rare, sacred slippers. I just want to buy their product!

In the midst of the global financial crisis Grosby must be doing amazingly well! Not only do they not care that the information on their website doesn't actually lead you to their product but that they are doing so well that they don't even need to respond to a poor consumer desperately wanting to give them his money!  

Now let's talk about a process that works...

When I went to buy a new pair of glasses the other week I looked at a lot of retail stores. After realising that I'd have to sell a kidney to afford anything other than a giant pair of blue plastic glasses that would make me look like a children's TV presenter from 1984 I decided to look online.

After a bit of googling for glasses I found a website called "Clearly Contacts". Turns out that they are a global company, but very cleverly they have a web prescence in every country. They have also had the smarts to market themselves online as selling multiple products. So on I go, order my glasses online and I'm done in a few minutes. Well actually I'm not because the advertising on the website gets me thinking and before I know it I've bought a 6 month supply of contact lenses too! So I complete my transaction and am happy before I realise that I have not put in the code to get a 10% first time customer discount and free fedex shipping (for orders over $200). So I e-mail their customer service who refund my 10% and upgrade my shipping within a couple of hours - no questions asked.

So what's the message here?

• Look at your sales processes - are you going the whole way?
• Cherish every customer inquiry as an opportunity to make money
• Use automation - why sell in a store when you can make more money selling online?
• If you have a website, for god's sake make sure it is accurate
• If you don't respond quickly to customers, there is a competitor who will

But the bottom line is that YOU MUST invest time and effort (and gosh, maybe even some money) to keep your processes and systems competitive. Maybe a website with information was enough in 1999, but in today's environment no-one can afford to be complacent - there is always a hungry upstart snapping at your heels.

Heed my words people - adapt or die.

TPN