Rodent Regatta

The IBM customer service stories bring to mind a problem that all companies face. Whose job carries the responsibiliites associated with improving the customer’s experience? Is it the CEO or does he need to focus on building a corporate culture that strives for improvement?

Is it the CIO/CTO? Many of the problems are not solely technology or systems problems. They are problems with The System. Is the customer service department supposed to solve the process problems? How about the sales department? Does each department merely do its own thing trying to improve along the way?

Has quality really become everybody’s job? In most organizations do front-line employees have the know-how and the authority to initiate the kinds of cross-functional improvements that customers seek?

I believe these questions, their answers and the approaches that businesses take to transforming their business processes are essential. The so-called ”rat race” that frustrates so many customers and employees relates directly to the annoyances we have when we simply try to fight through the bureaucracy at our own or other companies.

The absence of any passion and meaning in life stems (only partly) from a life worn down by the endless battles required to accomplish small things. A product return becomes a confrontation. A billiing error continues for months. A one-sided agreement locks you into a cellphone supplier that can’t sustain a phone call for 10 minutes. These things wear us down.

Who can fix them? Who is responsible for fixing them? Does anyone want to learn a methodology for transforming flawed processes into streamlined processes?