In my previous blog we talked about experience, and how it can really shape our habits and actions. So onwards to Step 3, I promise there are not 12 steps, but a little encouragement might help!
Service Delivery, and not the big red ITIL book either (sorry purists!)
Lets start out with a definition : The mechanisms and controls that enable and ensure the service is available to those entitled to use it when and where they require it. It all sounds a bit mechanical and far removed from the conversations we regularly have about Service Delivery! I am not sure I have ever heard this spoken, but when you break it down to its most basic form it comes down to making sure it does what it should or as advertised.
Often times the focus tends to be more in favor of the service provider, and the frustrations that they may encounter in delivering yet another request for services. I often think that my experience with any product or service starts from the second I hit the 'Order' button. Both in the consumer and non-consumer environment, this is the first real affirmative touchpoint a service provider has with an end user wanting their goods and services. Prior to this activity, its window shopping or browsing, as easily as I browse I can switch to another service provider. Once the order is placed, its 'Go-Time' for the provider. Show we what you do, how you do it, deliver an amazing end-to-end experience that makes me want more. Never a more false word was said about a service provider.
We get caught up in resource constraints, a lack of capacity and anticipation of demands. I meet with many service providers and all are consumed with doing more with less, the need to innovate, stay relevant and automate as much as they can. Too often these things get in the way of ensuring the users who want the services are taken care of. I honestly don't care if you have automated the process end-to-end, if it still takes too long to get what I asked for or not within the agreed service levels. Automating a poor process only makes it worse, often failing faster and in a more transparent way. Keeping the end user informed, managing expectations and communication go a very long way in building up trust and credibility for a service provider. In speaking with customers who do this well, 9 times out of 10, they don't have the fastest fulfillment times, they don't have every service automated, but what they do is provide an appropriate service to their end users, but do it very very well. Ensuring the right services are available for their needs, are available when they need them, but are also responsive to new demands, often agreeing to modify and change services to ensure a better outcome for the end users. Its rare for sure, and to think that IT doesn't know it all is a real shocker. Or is it? Is this why the likes of Amazon, Uber, AirBNB and so on are so successful, by thinking they know all there is to know about the services they provide…I think not.
In providing insight into the process of service delivery, a huge weight can be lifted from the shoulders of the delivery organization. It becomes easier to cope with escalations or process break downs. Too often we are quick to highlight the fact that we are 96% of some metric in delivering services. Thats fine, but lets figure out the 4% of why we are not. What went wrong in those cases? In 4% of the requests handle, the service provider has dropped the ball and the resulting dissatisfaction of the end user needs to be managed. How is the root cause found, ensuring that it doesn't happen again? So many resources are involved in the delivery of services, many times we are so focused on our own issues and to close to the problems, we lose sight of the end result and reason we are there…to deliver meaningful services to end users.
Up next in Blog 4 we talk about Assurance, and what it means to deliver on the experience you promised at the outset....
