Short post time to set out a concept that I frequently talk about…

When a client chooses to contact a service system (#inbound) there is a good chance that they have prepared themselves for this moment¹, such that they have:

• A degree of time to talk, and the mindset to want to explore/ resolve/ move things forward;

• secured themselves a suitable/ conducive environment in which to do this (e.g. a room with privacy); and

• gathered (what they believe are) the necessary supporting information/ documents…or may have ready access to them.

Conversely, when a service system attempts to contact a client (#outbound), it is highly likely that we may find it difficult to get hold of them…and, if we are lucky enough to achieve a connection, very few (if any²) of the above conditions may be in place!

So what?

When a client chooses to connect³ with a service system, this is (what I refer to as) a Golden Moment. We should recognise the potential within and harvest it for every bit of (client) value that we can.

…which would include:

• understanding the initial need (why the client is making contact);
• discovering what’s going on (at a deeper level)
• reflecting on what’s fundamentally needed, and what is/isn’t working
• doing what’s required, including pivoting to alternative and/or additional paths in order to achieve the purpose of the service system.

It doesn’t matter if the contact takes a long time if value (as defined by the client) is being derived.

Just think of all the waste that is being avoided…

Such a philosophy will likely build trust between the client and those helping them – a hugely valuable state for a relationship to attain.

A common scenario

A client chooses to contact a service…and the system’s response⁴ is for a front-line worker to take down some information, and pass this on to somewhere else (via queues) …for another worker to then attempt to make contact with the client!!!

I often marvel at a ‘front office’ that can take a contact but can’t help and a ‘back office’ that can’t take a contact but could have helped! (ref. Front office – Back office)

Madness!

A likely riposte

“But Steve, we’d love to be able to take the time with inbound contacts, but we are just too busy to do so!”

…which leads to the question: ‘busy doing what?’

Perhaps, you are:

• busy asking the client standardised questions and collecting (squeezing?) information into a form to pass on to somewhere else via a ‘task’ (#refer)
• …busy managing those queues of tasks (ref. work prioritisation and allocation)
• …busy ‘picking up a task’ and trying to understand what has been captured in that form – what it means, what is missing/ confusing, what needs clarifying
• …busy trying to repeatedly contact those clients – including rescheduling the next attempt (#trythreetimes)
• …(if you do connect), busy repeating the same conversation as at the start (only the situation has probably changed by now – and potentially got worse)
• …(if you don’t connect) busy ‘closing off tasks’ as ‘unable to make contact’ (even though the need is highly likely to remain)
• …busy adding copious notes throughout this stream of tasks (ref. Spaghetti notes phenomenon).

 

In short: Recognise and harvest every Golden Moment…which requires you to design your system to be able to do this.

Footnotes

0. I’ve chosen to use the word ‘client’ throughout this post, when I could have written the more generic ‘customer’, or more specific words like ‘patient’ etc. I made this choice because:

• of what the word ‘client’ means (See footnote 1 on this previous post: Thou Shalt Care for Thy Customer); and
• the above message applies even more deeply to clients of people-centred services (defined within this post: Autonomy – Autonomy Support – Autonomy Enabling)

1. I know that I do. In fact, I’ve never chosen to attempt contact with a service without having some level of preparedness to make my attempt worthwhile!

2. Think of the client:

• • being at work, or driving a vehicle/ on public transport
  • with their children or caring for someone else
  • juggling various aspects of their life (cooking the family meal, doing the shopping, out walking the dog….)
  • …and on and on

All readers of this post will likely be able to recall when someone attempts to contact them and it’s very often highly inconvenient…and the contactor responds with “okay, so when shall I try again?”…and we think “er, I don’t know…’life’ is happening to me!”

3. This connection could be a call or face-to-face. Further, if we’ve provided them with an online front end (e.g. website or app), this could include enabling a 2-way interaction within (e.g. ‘choose to talk to a person’).

4. This response isn’t a case of ‘bad workers’ – it’s by design! (ref. the conventional thinking of centralise, specialise, and standardise).