In retrospect it was easy to see that the strategic planning process for new products was flawed. What began as a simple customer-service escalation due to product quality issues for Strategic Network and Broadband Co. (SNB) exposed a major corporate process problem that affected revenue and customer loyalty.

The sales teams were promising product enhancements to customers for older products instead of selling the new offerings. Finding and fixing the root cause of the problem challenged the company in unexpected ways.

Customer complaints

Doug, vice president of customer service, was having an ongoing problem with the install base. Customer complaints were trending up, and there was no clear reason or a clear solution.

 …