Steve Downton, Downton Service Management Consultants Ltd, Noventum Group
A number of key trends have emerged from 2009, not least of which has been the emergence of a serious lack of relevant operational measurements. Coming out of the recession has highlighted for many that the availability of reliable external data on customer needs and how to deliver to them is very limited. With a secondary challenge on how appropriate are measures carried over from the pre-recession era.
Senior executives are well aware of the impact of a measurement system on employees and managers. If a business wants to improve the way it is viewed by its customers, a strong focus on measuring what those customers care about most, would seem to be a good idea. Most companies, however, measure what is easy to measure, or what is important for them to measure, regardless of its impact on customers.
A lack of focus on the customer is compounded when many businesses discover, the hard way, that existing measurement systems struggle to accurately measure their operation. They find their existing measures have often become ineffective, and do not supply the information required to set up systems to accurately control the business. The overwhelming evidence shows that control of the operation is necessary to survive in the rapidly changing and very demanding environment that is field service today.
A business operating without measurement systems is in real danger that problems will go unnoticed, because the basic systems in place are not relevant or precise and will apparently indicate little or no problem, giving a false sense of security until it is too late for progressive action, rather like a fire alarm without batteries. The measures may also not accurately record all the information, which may result in an understatement of true costs, an issue becoming increasingly relevant to the service environment as the pressure on margins increases. In some cases the measures become misrepresented and give a false impression of continual improvement, which will only come to light over time. Finally, inappropriate measurement systems will not accurately capture the pertinent measurements that customers consider important and that then can be used to measure their satisfaction.
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