Hannes redraws processes

Hannes' company has once again undergone a major reorganization. Officially, the talk is of "reorientation and adaptation to new market needs", "making the company fit for the future" and "repositioning the company to play an even faster role in an increasingly complex market".

According to internal readings, due to the miserable cost structure, subdivisions are being dismantled and the range of services is being restricted. As has already happened several times in recent years.

This time, however, the change is reaching deeper into the structures. Verticalization and interface optimization means nothing other than that everything is to become more efficient and effective. The service areas "Customer Service", "Sales" and "Personnel Development" are being abolished, and the product areas are being split up into separate business units. From "customer service" to "personnel development", everything will now take place there in some way. The purpose: Everything becomes more controllable and costs can be allocated more clearly. As a by-product, customers will have only one contact person per division - at least officially.

The new matrix should help
The "reversal of the matrix organisation", which basically does not eliminate a single interface, but merely allows the functional lines to cross at other locations, does, however, mean that the processes have to be restructured. The "process responsibility" function is now the responsibility of Hannes' production management.

He sits down and starts with the simple. He draws the course of a complaint. However, the word "complaint" is no longer used. It is now called "constructive customer response". This emphasises the positive and breathes new life into the sentence from the mission statement "Complaints are opportunities".

Hannes re-downloads the software to draw the processes. "Customer calls". This is where the first hurdle lurks, as there is no longer a central customer service department. Each department now handles constructive customer responses itself. After all, each customer should only have one contact person. The person who sold the product should also be responsible if it doesn't work.

The complaint becomes a test case
Again from the beginning: "Customer calls". The hurdle is overcome in accordance with dynamic practices with a waiting loop triage. The customer receives the announcement "please-hold-the-line - the call can be recorded for quality purposes" and then the invitation "for a constructive customer reaction to product A dial 1, to B dial 2" and so on. In order not to discriminate against anyone, one must finally do justice to the diversity of languages "with the additional number 7 for German, 8 for English, 9 for other languages".

That fits. Hannes does a buffering. After this triage, the customer requests now end up with the product division. But to whom? The four positions from the discontinued customer service were divided among the six divisions. This means that the lines are only manned six hours a day. Therefore, a ring call has to be switched on, the deputy regulation has to be organized and mapped in the process diagram.

"That makes sense," Hannes tells himself with satisfaction. After all, it allows us to react quickly to market needs. Every customer should end up in the right area - when they arrive.

He continues to design. In order to increase cost transparency (all of which somehow benefits the customer - Hannes just doesn't know how yet), the average waiting time in the areas is to be concentrated. This means that customers will wait in the area queues if they already have to wait. The customer experience is therefore designed in such a way that after he has made his way through the product and language selection - he arrives in the definitive waiting loop.

The customer will be pleased
This requires a next announcement, which Hannes notes in the process diagram: "Thank you very much for your constructive customer reaction. We appreciate your openness. Unfortunately, all of our customer advisors are busy at the moment and cannot accept your constructive customer response." However, in order not to give the impression that the company has too many such reactions, the next standard is immediately placed in the voice box "Your feedback pleases us and helps us further".

Hannes is proud. This sentence suggests: "The longer you wait, the more progress will be made next". This is the key to being closer to the market. Once again, Hannes realizes that paper exercises and organizational chart shifting projects do have customer relevance. Hannes saves the diagram "constructive customer reaction" and sets to work on the process
"win back lost customers".