Page 92 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Never a Customer, Always a Guest 73

The team was given responsibility for reengineering the customer service pro-
cess, specifically for figuring out how to cut the time that callers were kept on
hold. At Mead Johnson, mothers might call in because their children are sick
and they have questions about the baby formula they are using. No mother with
a sick child has the time or the patience to hang on the phone; she needs and
often demands immediate assistance.
A surprising statistic that surfaced from the team’s work was that a majority
of the calls came during the lunch hour. It was obvious that employee lunch
hours needed to be staggered, with some taking an earlier lunch, others going
later. This simple solution considerably cut the time callers had to spend
on hold.
Clearly, innovation in process is alive and well in some organizations. As
Dr. William Cross, retired vice president at Mead Johnson, says,

We have tried very hard to find out how we are meeting our custom-
ers’ needs and where we need to improve. Putting all the emphasis
on the customer’s needs and continually improving how we meet
those needs—that’s how we have been able to eliminate waste from
our systems.

Another of our clients, a builder of prefab houses, has found an unusual
way to bring his customers into the process. From the initial step of signing
the agreement and on through the entire construction process, photographs
are taken to record events. Furthermore, a photograph of the family is
attached to the work order. As construction proceeds, from digging the foun-
dation to hanging the front door, the camera is present to shoot pictures for
and with the family. Besides making the home seem real to the buyers, it also
helps to personalize the project for the workers. They are not just building
Work Order No. 48, they are building a home for a family they have come
to know. Such face-to-face interaction motivates the workers to do a good
job and to take pride in their efforts.
In our experience, large manufacturing companies often rank customer
problem solving far down on their list of priorities. Senior management, in
many instances, believes that middle managers should devote all their ener-
gies to strategy, systems, and training issues. Most plant managers seem to be
trapped in a world of direct supervision and paperwork.
Besides allotting scant time to customer interaction, plant managers also
have little time for determining misalignments between short-term objectives