Functionally separated organizations have one thing in common . . . they don’t have a clue.
Each function absorbs the demands placed upon them from some IT application and off they go to work. The unfortunate workers that have to interact with customers that encounter such work design bear the burden of brutal backlash when the service delivered is pathetic. Such is the life of workers on the front-line.
Management meantime is busy in their respective offices pouring over the latest scorecards that can’t help them manage. Both worker and manager are frustrated that the other just doesn’t get it.
Does it really matter?
The pointing of fingers does little but create a divide and some kind of organizational class warfare. both sides so sanctimonious in their debate that each side is deaf to the real problem. And we think the US political system is a mess, this is – by operational definition – deadlock.
The deadlock can be broken in service organizations. Customers represent the tie-breaker and focus of to break the deadlock. If functionally separated organizations cannot agree on anything, they can agree the importance of the customer. This is true even with the clouded glasses in which they view customers. Especially, when they see the same thing at the same time.
Debate ensues when we see things together, but can ultimately be resolved by what matters to customers. It is a process of discovery that bridges the gaps and refocuses our aim.
Tripp Babbitt is a speaker, blogger and consultant to service industry (private and public). His organization helps executives find a better way to make the work work. Read his articles at Quality Digest and his column for CustomermanagementIQ.com. Learn more about the The 95 Method for service organizations. Reach him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TriBabbittor LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/trippbabbitt.
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