The first piece of the series looked at the issue of people within the business and how they impact service of delivery. As the adage goes, a business is as good as its people, and it’s weak as its weakest! And talking of links, this brings us to the next of the three Ps – the processes. Almost everything in life and in nature at large is in one or another under a process. Dictionary.com defines process as ‘a systematic series of actions directed to some end’. In other words, some steps that one must fulfil in order to achieve a desired end. In this case, steps that a business must undertake in order to fulfil a customer’s need.
Assume you want to visit an office on the twentieth floor of a building. One can either take a flight of stairs or the lift, and even the speed of the lift plays a role in taking you to the desired destination. Another example could be the restaurant where a patron asked the person serving if they source their fresh cuts from an abattoir every time one makes an order – well, the point being the delays in delivering the order within an expected period of time. However, the above can also be narrowed to tasks, which as we will see later are different from processes (or part of)
The processes in place at any point in the service delivery channel have an impact on the outcome, which mainly include:
- Speed – The processes in place affect the the rate at which one delivers services to the customers – either within the business or external customers.
- Quality – the cut on a diamond depends on the process in place. That makes a huge difference in the value of the end product. The better the cutting process, the higher the quality.
- The volume of service – This is largely the number of transactions completed at the end of any given period. This marks the difference when one service offers a service within five days, yet another can offer similar service within three days. It all depends largely on the processes in place. For instance, this is an area that differentiates restaurants which have a similar offering but end up with one having a higher turnover / profits.
There is a lot of literature on business processes – from development, to process evaluation, improvements and (re)-engineering. In service delivery, processes call for clear understanding of how every step affects the customers. This applies to both the back and front office operations. Unlike a manufacturing outfit (and with all due respect), service processes are more intricate as they need to also have an element of flexibility. A customer service officer in an insurance company may have five customers who all require a given insurance cover but all have different concerns. Hence, the officer needs to ‘customise’ the process to meet customer’s needs.
How can service providers enhance their processes? There is a need to visualise the processes and understand every step of the way. This implies having a clear understanding of the start, the stages within till the last step in delivering a given service to the customer. Such visualisation helps in all cases, where a linear service delivery process or a non-linear one. Linear processes are somewhat straightforward to follow through as the steps in delivery are sequential. Automation has therefore taken the place of most linear processes. For instance, withdrawing money from a bank, or much of the teller services are being redefined by the automatic teller machines. As technology continues to play a significant role, we expect the list of menu of those machines to expand!
One may argue that most business processes are linear …hhhm! Not really! Significant roles and processes are non-linear and are important. The importance lies in the sense they require a human element to play a role. No amount of spread sheet and algorithms replace a customer negotiating a contract with a service provider. The human interface plays a key role, to either enhance the process or be a barrier in the service delivery process. Such process visualisation should include other elements such as cost, time for delivery and the staff requirements. The output should be part of the service offer to the customer. This is what enables a service provider alert the customer that the service offered will be available after so many days. Lack of this visualisation leads to over promising – for instance, utility providers advising their customers of their (re)connection after 24hours, only to find 4 days after, there is still no connection. The above visualisation differs from a flow chart, which is task specific.
Hence, service providers must constantly keep reviewing their processes to ensure optimal delivery of services.
Join me next time as we look at the third P – Policies.
For details, contact:
pauline@episodesresearch.com
www.episodesresearch.com
