Operational Excellence in Project Management

    Many of you may have heard about Lean which through organizational
 culture and sort of tools helps organizations in everyday life to identify
 waste and continually improve their process, but this you may already
 know ...       
   But what does Kamishibai have to do with it?  
  Or rather what is Kamishibai?         
  This tool came up at Toyota and its main objective is   to encourage company
 managers (and directors..)    to be present on the factory floor, together with other   employees to check at first hand if everything is going   as it should be. 
This technique is historically referenced   to paper theater (originated in the 
12th century in Japan   and it was used to educate children from figures drawn  
 on colored papers, aiming at the simple teaching of some history)  
 This tool makes internal auditing so simple and intuitive that anyone,   
educated or not in business practices is able to analyze whether or   not 
everything is going well; as well as in Japanese paper theater,   which aimed 
to educate children and older people on relevant topics   in the culture and 
politics of the region.      Despite the complicated name, the tool is very simple,
 and it is just   a visual board (it is not a Kanban) , where it is possible to perform   management through audit activity cards within the   manufacturing area.   
   Among the benefits I can name a few:         
- Communication - Many managers do not like to   leave their rooms to 
walk on the factory floor (are often too busy)  . In this way, they stop
 talking directly to those who know   most about the strengths and 
weaknesses of the processes,   the employees. Using kamishibai, each
 manager will have a   day, when they should take a quick tour of the
 production   environment and ask some simple questions for employees, 
  allowing them to see for themselves what needs to be   done in each sector. 
- Facilitates auditing - Simplifies and improves   the audit process so that
 it is better taken into account   and actually improves the required points
 of production.   
- Inserts values into employees - It is not intended   to identify employees
 who are making mistakes, in some   companies there is still a culture of “who 
is to blame”, the   main objective is to train employees to visualize problems  
 and how to solve them. It also requires zero tolerance to   wasteful problems 
in an environment where it is not 'who   is responsible' but 'what is the problem'.
 where the goal   is not to hide but to have a systematic identification and  
 resolution, because problems are considered opportunities   for gain.     

They no longer see factory managers as

strangers and have them as colleagues

who have a common goal, to improve

work processes and techniques.

This post is aimed to provide you a preview about the cultural change behavior we have to execute to provide your Customer Success team a customer success mindset.

I started to worry about this theme about 3 years ago, and what motivated me were some factors like:

• quality of service delivery
• provision of the service in a reactive way
• lack of commercial synchronicity and account strategy with sales staff
• little contact with the customer base by the after sales team

On top of that I would like to eliminate comments very common in our team such as:

• "Ah but the customer did not use my product right"
• "The client did not complete the deployment"
• "He did not change the processes he needed within the company"
• "His analyst was doing soft body"

Our deliveries were never bad. After all, they were in use: best project management practices, ITIL® and an excellent technical team. But something was missing...

For a period of eight months I started to visit about three clients a week and asking these company directors from the aftermarket point of view:

• If the deliveries of the team services were done with quality
  and,
• What is value delivery of services from the perspective of the customer

It was a profound and fundamental experience that changed my view of provision of after-sales services and customer expectations management needing to align with the after-sales-team with sales staff & after-sales service assuming a leading role in the sales process.

I ended up "discovering" this topic in conversations with three colleagues who already practiced it. I wanted to share this experience with you, but before moving on I did a quick internet search on the definition for Customer Success:

Customer Success is is a professional or department actively focused on thinking of solutions that improve the life of the client next to the services offered by the company - Tomás Duarte - Blog Tracksale - 2016

Customer Success is the job of proactively orchestrating the consumer journey toward the solutions he pursues - and that are always evolving - Lincoln Murphy - Endeavor.org - 2017

Customer Success is strategizing thinking about the success of the consumer and working to ensure that they have the best possible experience in your company - Isadora Lopes - Outbond Marketing

Customer Success ensures the best possible experience for your customers through value creation. - Lilian Oliveira - Sambatech

  Customer Success is when your customers achieve the desired result through interactions with your company - Talita Batista - Rock Content

and strong comments as :

I also came across a market indicator that I could not confirm the source of the information where it is 7 times more expensive, between conquering a new customer and retaining an old, according to Gallup customer retention raising rates by only 5% can increase profits by 25-95%, and Gallup says B2B customers with high customer engagement scores achieve 50% more sales revenue and 34% more profitability than other companies.

Customers are in control and if this does not happen in your industry, it will soon be a reality, so get ready!

How can after sales professionals help this journey to customer success?

Change of Mentality
After-Sales should look for the definition of customer success for the customer and then walk in the same direction. I am not talking about  project business objectives, the relationship goes beyond that... You need to know the market and the segment in which the customer operates.

You need to understand what strategy teams have been thinking about customer success, and work to ensure that it is the best possible experience for your business. There's no point in having a highly qualified Customer Success team if the after-sales team does not respond well when a customer calls!

Leaders should ask the team questions like:

• "What can you do in your daily life that improves customers' vision of the company?"
• "How can you improve your interaction with customers?"
• "What in your work could facilitate a client's journey with the company?"

This change of attitude is fundamental because we need to deliver customer experience and quality during the whole customer life cycle in the company, and it is expected that this will be a longe one.

Customer Activation - This is the time when we are starting to deliver a project or support. This process is often called activation, and it is critical how you engage the customer at this stage. That is, deliver 100% of what was promised or you can lose the customer forever.

Projects

Pay close attention here the first signs of customer loss occur during activation. For example, projects that exaggerate promises of marketing. But also After-Sales can contribute to the loss of the client due to a poorly executed transition of the project team. Or problems can occur when the support team rotates the client to a generic email, such as "support" or "contact."

It may even be that the seller simply disappears after receiving your money.

The client's experience at this stage is fundamental. Design a structured service kick-off with elements such as:

• sharing the business objective
• asking the goal of the client
• demonstrating to the customer where he is within the cycle

Remember to use the best service practices that meet the customer needs, not yours.

Support

Many companies still understand that this phase will continually break and need adjustment. The company should move to be proactive as quick as possible in this segment.
Tips :

• Be proactive
• Search for patterns that may indicate that a customer is having problems. Monitor applications, data, and infrastructure issues that can negatively impact the customer experience
• When there are several calls it can mean that the customer is engaged. But if it is taking too long for the service to be fixed there may be a risk of "churn"
• Sustaining the customer's success vector can help them find priorities in the queue of requests; perhaps a high-value customer who has a positive success vector can wait as long as we focus on the lowest-value customer, but an at-risk customer must be first.

In my research I found some very interesting tools that will help you in this work (https://www.gainsight.com/ https://www.armatic.com and https://www.neoassist.com/) that ooerationalize the customer's life cycle

Happy customers, buy more, pay more, recommend the company to friends, volunteer for case studies, and help you promote new features. A satisfied customer is the best advertisement.

This post is aimed to provide you a preview about the cultural change behavior we have to execute to provide our After Sales team a customer success mindset, 

I started to worry about this theme about 3 years ago, and what motivated me were some factors like:

• quality of service delivery,
• provision of the service in a reactive way,
• lack of commercial synchronism and account strategy with sales staff,
• little contact with the customer base by the after sales team.

On top of that I would like to liminate comments very common in our team such as:

• "Ah but the customer did not use my product right",
• "The client did not complete the deployment",
• "He did not change the processes he needed within the company,"
• "His analyst was doing soft body."

Our deliveries were never bad, after all they were in use: best project management practices, ITIL® and an excellent technical team. But something was missing...

For a period of eight months I started to visit about three clients a week and asking these directors of companies from the aftermarket point of view:

• If the deliveries of the team services were done with quality and,
• What is value delivery of services from the perspective of the customer

It was a profound and fundamental experience that changed my view of: provision of after-sales services, customer expectations management alignment of after sales team with sales staff after-sales service assuming a leading role in the sales process I ended up "discovering" this topic in conversations with three colleagues who already practiced it. I wanted to share this experience with you, but before moving on I did a quick internet search on the definition for Customer Success:

It is a professional or department actively focused on thinking of solutions that improve the life of the client next to the services offered by the company - Tomás Duarte - Blog Tracksale - 2016

It is the job of proactively orchestrating the consumer journey toward the solutions he pursues - and that are always evolving - Lincoln Murphy - Endeavor.org - 2017

It is strategizing thinking about the success of the consumer and working to ensure that they have the best possible experience in your company - Isadora Lopes - Outbond Marketing

Ensure the best possible experience for your customers through value creation. - Lilian Oliveira - Sambatech

  When your customers achieve the desired result through interactions with your company - Talita Batista - Rock Content

and strong comments as :

I also came across a market indicator that I could not confirm the source of the information where it is 7 times more expensive, between conquering a new customer and retaining an old, acording to Gallup customer retention raising rates by only 5% can increase profits by 25-95%, and Gallup says B2B customers with high customer engagement scores achieve 50% more sales revenue and 34% more profitability than other companies.

Customers are in control and if this does not happen in your industry, it will soon be a reality, so get ready!

How can after sales professionals help this journey to customer success?

Change of mentality

After-Sales should look for the definition of customer success for this customer and they will need  to walk in the same direction. I am not talking about  project business objective , the relationship goes beyond om that, you need know the market and the segment in which the customer operates.

You need to understand what strategy teams have been thinking about customer success, and work to ensure that it is the best possible experience for your business. There's no point in a highly qualified Customer Success team if the after-sales team does not respond well when a customer calls!

Leaders should ask the team questions like:

• "What can you do in your daily life that improves customers' vision of the company?",
• "How can you improve your interaction with customers?",
• "What in your work could facilitate a client's journey with the company?"

This change of attitude is fundamental because we need to deliver customer experience and quality during all customer life cycle in the company and it is expected that this will be a longer one.

Customer Activation -It is the time when we are starting to deliver a project or support, this process is often called activation, and it is critical whether you engage the customer at this stage, that is, deliver 100% of what was promised or you can the customer lose it forever.

Projects

Pay close attention here the first signs of customer loss occur during activation. Projects As for example in the exaggerated promises of marketing, or during the sales cycle, but also after sales can contribute to the loss of the client due to a poorly executed transition of the project team or,  the support team that during an occurrence rotate the client for a generic email, such as "support" or "contact."

It may even be that the seller simply disappears after receiving your money.

The client's experience at this stage is fundamental. It can be done through a well-designed and structured service kick-off of elements such as:

• business objective,
• goal of the client,
• demonstrate to the customer where he is within the cycle journey of offers (sales will love),
• pitch elevator of the project manager or services, among others.
• remember to use the best service practices that meet the customer needs not yours.

Support

Many companies still understand that this phase is break and fix, which is, reactive, I affirm that the company should move to be proactive as quick as possible in this segment, some tips :

• Search for patterns that may indicate that a customer is having problems, monitoring applications, data, and infrastructure issues that can negatively impact the customer experience are all ways to become proactive.
• When there are several calls it can mean that the customer is engaged, now if it is taking too long for the service to be fixed there may be a risk of "churn" or not be an evangelizador client that recommends your company,
• Do not confuse with SLA, we want the success of client.
• Sustaining the customer's success vector can help them to find priorities in the queue of requests; perhaps a high-value customer who has a positive success vector can wait as long as we focus on the lowest-value customer, but an at-risk customer must be first.

In my research I found some very interesting tools that will help you in this work (https://www.gainsight.com/ and https://www.neoassist.com/) that operationalize the customer's life cycle

Happy customers, buy more, pay more, recommend the company to friends, volunteer for case studies, and help you promote new fetures. Satisfied customer is the best advertisement.

This is a series of 3 posts that I've been writing, in the next two post I will address customer success from the perspective of project management and subsequently recurring services