Looking at processes through the eyes of your customers

Processes have their proper their place, but why do companies stick so rigidly to their internal procedures that they fail to take seriously what the customer is telling them? A recent trip to the dry cleaners illustrates - although I also recollect similarly exasperating experiences with my computer, bank, telco and electricity suppliers where I’ve just wished someone would apply a bit of common sense to the process. Recently, I went to pick up a skirt from the dry-cleaners (just before it closed for the day), handed over the ticket and watched as the assistant searched along the pristine ranks, searching not once, but twice. Shake of the head, “Sorry, its not here”. He had his hand on what looked like the right item. “That’s it,” I said, recognising the shape and colour of my skirt. But looking up at the ticket said: “No, sorry, it’s definitely not here”. Driven by desperation, I managed to get him to allow me the other side of the counter to look, went straight to the item I recognised as mine. Indeed, it was mine, but the numbers didn’t match the one on the ticket I had given him. Turns out his colleague had given me the wrong ticket. (Well, that’s not surprising because he was chatting on the phone when he served me, but that’s another blog!) But if the assistant had listened, we’d have been done in double quick time - and then he wouldn’t have missed his usual train home - for which he blamed his customer!