How I first learned about optimizing three variables

When I first became a Vice President of Manufacturing for a start-up in the 1970s, I faced many challenges getting electronic parts and components. Those were the days of a rapid explosion of electronics manufacturing and a relatively immature supply chain.

As I thought about the situation, the light bulb turned on over my head. I had an epiphany; I played with three variables – low price, reliable delivery, and high quality. No matter what I tried, I could only get two out of three. I usually opted for delivery and quality and paid the price because I could deliver a quality product to our customers.

The situation also led to fraud and abuse. For example, I once had a burn-in vendor tell me.

“If you give me the parts on Monday morning, I can return them by Friday afternoon, with the full 168 hour burn-in.”

This was magic since 168 hours is seven full days, and he would do it in less than five!

As time passed, the manufacturing community discovered lean, six-sigma, Kazan, and things steadily improved until getting three out of three became the norm. And then, I moved to Customer Service.

Customer Service is different from Manufacturing, and that impacts the three variables.

With Manufacturing, all the work happens behind closed doors and away from the customer. Processes can be refined, redesigned, enhanced, or even eliminated without the customer knowing about them.

In Service, the work performed is in front of the customer in person or by telephone, chat, or other communication systems. And if the Service is being performed remotely, the agent may be in a different country from the customer or working in isolation from a home office. This means that the agent is responding in real time to feedback from the customer and does not have the opportunity to experiment, redesign a process, or even consult with other employees. And that is why this sign describes the regular Service operational situation and offers an interesting definition of the three variables:

three variables for a diner

Today, two of three choices are becoming history due to digitization, improved hardware and software, and enlightened management.

Sound Service (one of the three variables)

Products are designed to collect and share information about operational performance and environmental conditions. This allows Service and support to proactively identify and correct potential problems without causing significant downtime. My favorite example is the Apple iPhone. According to TechWorm:

Apple has been awarded patent technology for the iPhone that detects when you’re not using it and automatically cleans or fixes itself.  The patent was filed in July 2014.  The Automated Maintenance of an Electronic Device patent describes a number of different ways that an iPhone could keep itself running.  This means that future versions of the iPhone will be able to self-heal, perform maintenance, repair and recalibrate functions’ while you are sleeping, including fixing deal pixels on the screen.

In the future, the Internet of Things will also contribute significantly to improved Service. This proactive model is helping to create a generation of bored Maytag repair people slowly.

Fast Service (the second of the three variables)

Since support people have access to more and better information in a handy format, all Service is becoming faster. Consider a call center. Since software companies introduced Enterprise Search products 11 years ago, call centers can search all the company’s computer systems to identify previously reported (and solved) problems that a current customer issues. The agents can immediately determine workarounds, patches, and upgrades that have been proven successful with other customers.

Related article: How Should an OEM Organize Technical Support to Provide Memorable Experiences

Cheap Service (the third of the three variables)

Good Service will never be cheap but should provide good value for the money spent. Fixing a computer problem should not cost hundreds of dollars to be told to restart a system! But if it costs $25 or $50 for that advice, which works, then that is not a lot to pay for a lifelong lesson for each of us.

On the other hand, our service and support community has to learn how to include the cost of customer downtime in the discussion about cost vs. value. Suppose someone complains about having to pay to be told to restart a system. In that case, we should feel comfortable telling her that the advice allowed her to continue working without negatively impacting their schedule.

Conclusion

Good Service will become great whenever the employees are 1) fully engaged in helping customers and 2) empowered to do whatever they believe is the right thing to solve a customer’s problems.

With engaged and empowered employees using proactive reports and readily available information, our customers will never again have to choose between optimizing three variables –  good, fast, or cheap Service. And that will be a beautiful thing!

About Middlesex Consulting

Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals with the primary goal of helping capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. Middlesex Consulting continues to provide superior solutions to meet the needs of its clients by focusing on our strengths in Services, Manufacturing,  Customer Experience, and Engineering. If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization optimize customer outcomes, please contact us or check out some of our free articles and white papers here