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Annette Franz
I recently came across the Japanese terms genchi genbutsu and gemba; they’re both key principles of the Toyota Production System, which comprises Toyota’s management philosophy and best practices. Although they’re (lean) management principles and concepts, they apply not only to the employee…
Ryan E. Day
Sponsored Content
In today's hyper-competitive, fast-paced manufacturing world, there is rarely anything like a "routine" day at the office—especially when you're a tier-one supplier for some of the largest aerospace companies in the world. To make the grade and satisfy this kind of demanding…
Chad Kymal
In 2014, the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) reported that the automotive industry wouldn’t upgrade the ISO/TS 16949 standard to ISO 9001:2015, much to the dismay of Tier One suppliers. In a survey that same year, Tier One suppliers related their desire to update their management…
Ruth P. Stevens
A
s the document and imaging industry evolves, imaging workflows become more sophisticated, and products increase in complexity. But with innovation, the industry has faced a new problem: customer confusion. Workflow management now involves both traditional end users in the office as well as IT…
The Un-Comfort Zone With Robert Wilson
I carefully filled the cake cone from the frozen custard machine, pushing it up at just the right moment to create a perfect ball. Then as I shut off the machine, I pulled the cone away with a circular motion to give it the company’s signature curl on top. It was beautiful, and I was proud of the…
Day in, day out, business leaders are reminded that digital disruption is coming for their customers, for their talent, and for their bottom lines. CEOs of traditional companies consistently rate digital upstarts disrupting their business models as their No. 1 concern.
And it’s no wonder. We’re…
ISO
The global food industry has never faced more challenges. From tainted dairy products to contaminated beef, high-profile cases crop up regularly to dent consumer confidence, while leading companies work hard to reclaim lost faith. So how trustworthy is your food?
Food safety is something we tend…
Knowledge at Wharton
I t wasn’t that long ago that GM ran commercials advertising that its Oldsmobile division didn’t just produce cars for your grandfather, but also for everyone else. It was an attempt to reinvent the brand’s staid image—and it didn’t work.
Now, the Oldsmobile division and its iconic vehicles are…
Annette Franz
A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post about emotionally unavailable customers. Hat tip to James Lawther for inspiring me to actually flip the tables here and think about emotionally challenged employees, instead.
The question I posed in response to his comment on that post was: Why do we transform…
William A. Levinson
ISO 9001:2015, Clause 4.2—“Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties” requires the organization to determine the “requirements of these interested parties that are relevant to the quality management system.” When customers block an organization’s content, it is a sure sign…
Annette Franz
Ihave written and talked about journey mapping so much this year, even suggesting back in January that we make it the year of the journey map. I think customer experience professionals have made great progress toward this goal so far in 2016! I hear so many people talking about mapping, and many…
Ruth P. Stevens
As the initial wild enthusiasm for customer relationship management (CRM) begins to plateau, and companies become increasingly skeptical of inflated claims for success, it’s time to take a hard look at how CRM projects should be measured. What is “successful” CRM, anyway? How will you know it when…
Annette Franz
Do you know the 12 Laws of karma? And did you know they can be applied daily to your customer experience (CX) efforts? If not, no worries, just read on. I’ll define them for you and tie them to this CX world we live in.
I came across these recently and thought they made sense—for life and for…
Barbara A. Cleary
Trivia question of the day: What do toilet paper, sugar, coffee, cheese, ice cream, and sugar have in common? Two things, actually. Their prices are up, and their packaging units are down.
A can of coffee is now likely to be only 11 ounces, diminished from a full pound several years ago. Likewise…
Hubert Gatignon
There can be little argument that consumers are growing more suspicious of business. They question its motives, and increasingly, its marketing, which recently has been said to be manipulative. Consumers are ever more aware of the Internet pop-ups and exaggerated claims they receive in a targeted…
Taran March @ Quality Digest
They sound like words and have a mysterious dignity rolling off the tongue. Their meanings seem both apparent and elusive. If an alien delegation landed on Earth, words like these might feature in their formal greetings. They are the most expensively researched neologisms in use around the globe.…
Ryan E. Day
Ihave never been accused of being an early adopter of cutting-edge technology. On the other hand, I don’t dance the Luddite jig, either. True to my own type, I hung on to my old M-1A tank, aka a Motorola flip phone, for as long as I could, but was pleased as punch when circumstances led me to…
Norman A. Paradis
The last few months have witnessed the unraveling of the remarkable life sciences company Theranos, culminating in the news that federal regulators may ban Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes from the blood-testing industry for at least two years. The company is also facing a federal criminal…
Annette Franz
I have written many times about the importance of the employee experience, both on its own in terms of retention and performance, and with regard to the effect of the employee experience on the customer experience.
Sadly, many companies still aren’t focusing on the employee experience. IDC’s 2015…
John Nolan
The ultimate aim of ISO 9001:2015 is to enable businesses to satisfy their customers effectively. You could say that all the standard’s clauses help to provide your customer with a consistent and rewarding experience from your goods or services, but ISO 9001:2015 actually deals with “customer…
J.D. Power and Associates
According to the recently released J.D. Power 2016 Member Health Plan Study, critical factors of health plan member satisfaction are highest in areas of the country that have more competition between different health plans.
On a nationwide basis, member satisfaction with their health plans has…
Hilke Plassmann
The holy grail of marketing—a universal predictor of customer behavior—may be closer than ever, thanks to recent advances in the field of neuromarketing.
Even at its best, traditional market research has built-in limitations. First of all, consumers may be biased or unwilling to reveal their true…
Arun Hariharan
The other day, I visited a retail outlet of a wireless services provider to get information about its international roaming packages. The company has a few thousand outlets nationwide; they’re called “relationship centers” staffed with half a dozen employees who try to up-sell products and…
Knowledge at Wharton
Today, design has a seat at the table. With the success of products like the iPod and the iPhone, businesses have realized that a good user experience is key for improving the bottom line. Yet even with this determined focus on design, most digital experiences fall short of user expectations.
Of…
Annette Franz
When I go to customer experience conferences, B2B companies are underrepresented, both in attendees and speakers. When clients look for benchmark data, B2B reports are few and far between.
These are just two examples of why I want to revisit a question I posed in a post I wrote two years ago: If…
