Changing Workforce
The reality is that the workforce is changing. As of the last update in 2022, there were ongoing shifts in the workforce dynamics due to retirement and the entry of younger generations. However, specific statistics regarding the complete replacement of the aging workforce by a younger generation might vary across industries and regions. Here are some trends and general statistics that are available:
Retirement of Baby Boomers: Baby Boomers, a significant portion of the workforce, have reached retirement age, leading to a substantial exit from the workforce.
Entry of Millennials and Generation Z: Millennials and Generation Z are progressively entering the job market, comprising a growing percentage of the workforce.
Skills Gap and Knowledge Transfer: One challenge observed is the potential skills gap resulting from the retirement of experienced workers. Efforts are being made to transfer knowledge and expertise to younger employees to mitigate this gap.
Technological Adaptation: Younger generations are often more adept at using technology, leading to shifts in workplace practices and tools to accommodate their preferences.
Changes in Work Culture: The entry of younger generations often bring about changes in workplace culture, emphasizing flexibility, technology integration, and different leadership styles.
Regardless of the fact that the workforce landscape is in flux, in this transformative phase, it is vital to maintain a steadfast focus on the customer and their experience!
Let’s Start with Who is the Customer?
Seems like a basic question, right? The real answer is Any Individual who Receives the Output of Your Work. You see…in any transaction, there are many customer interactions, and each has a different requirement:
- The person placing the actual order wants an easy efficient process, they are not focused on the results associated with the end product.
- The warehouse person dealing with the delivery truck driver has different needs and a different view of customer satisfaction.
- The engineer calling for product specifications and data has different needs.
- The farmer, using the irrigation product or the dealer purchasing it from the company.
It’s not about the end product always!
Each interaction is a customer / vendor interface, and each should be assessed to improve the overall customer experience. Customer requirements are never static, will become more diverse, and needs and wants will evolve. One of the best quotes I have seen comes from Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon – “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better”. Cheers to you Mr. Bezos!
So, how do we know what is important to our customers? We have to ask the right questions. We have to seek customer feedback. Some more quotes…this time from Peter Drucker, Austrian American management consultant, educator, and author.
“You cannot arrive at the right definition of results without significant input from your customers” and “The danger is in acting on what you believe satisfies the customer. You will inevitably make wrong assumptions”
I learned the importance of the second quote first hand early on in my career. I was on a Customer Order Intake kaizen team. One of the project sponsors as a matter of fact. I proposed to the team what I thought would be an amazing advancement for the company. “Let’s have a virtual assistant on our website to direct customers to the product they are interested in or to an individual who specializes in that product category. I’ve experienced it myself online many times”. I thought this would bring our group into the modern times of order entry and perhaps even help us to surpass our sales targets!
It was then that a very influential person in my career suggested that we reach out to the customer base to get their opinion. We put together a survey and casted it out to a broad audience of customers. We even offerred some company swag to intice the customers to take the survey. We achieved a 28% response rate (which is actually really good for a customer survey). To my dismay, almost all of the respondents identified that they would not appreciate the suggestion of a virtual assistant, and would likely call in through their back channels. “We like to be able to call and talk to a human being, not an automated prompting system” they said.
I was humbled, but oh so grateful that we didn’t go done the path that my suggestion would have taken us. Can you imagine?
One more quote from a person I truly admire, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric at the 1997 Annual Meeting:
“The best six sigma projects begin not inside the business but outside it, focused on answering the questions: How can we make the customer more competitive? What is critical to the customer’s success? Learning the answers to these questions and then learning how to provide the solution is the only focus we need”.
The Voice of the Customer (VOC)
- The VOC defines the customer expectations:
- VOC is the needs expressed by all customer groups
- Confirming the VOC is a critical step in a successful relationships
- Lean is all about meeting customer needs
- Many transactions/interactions fail, or encounter rework at the end, because the VOC is not correctly captured or confirmed
- Identify the customers
- Confirm customer requirements
- Prioritize customer requirements
- Quantify customer requirements
- Analyze VOC The process
Step 1 – Identify the Customers
Are the customers:
External Customers
Outside of your company
Outside of your work area
Internal Customers
Receive the output of your process
Are responsible for delivering measurable results based upon their output
Direct Customers
Clients/Customers that directly receive your product or service
Secondary/Tertiary Customers
Customers that receive your product in its original or modified form through another party
Indirect Customers
Regulatory and policy setting agencies that speak on behalf of the customer (OSHA, ASME, Highway Safety, EPA)
Stakeholders
Affected by any changes – may or may not be direct, secondary/tertiary, or indirect customers
Step 2 – Confirm CustomerRrequirements
Customer requirements are “what” the customer wants. To do this effectively, we must ask the customer we are interfacing with:
- “What problems do you have with our product and/or service?”
- “What would you like to have that you are not getting?”
- “What do you currently like about our product and/or service?”
In confimring customer requirements, we need to ensure they pass the RUMBA test as it is worse to commit to something that is not possible:
R – Reasonable (don’t break laws, policies)
U – Understandable (can we put them into an agreement?)
M – Measurable (can we measure to ensure we are successful?)
B – Believalbe (do we have the capability/capacity?)
A – Achievable (do we have the resources?)
The KANO Model is a powerful tool that helps businesses analyze cutomer needs. It helps to understand the customer’s basic, performance, and excitement needs.
Step 3 – Rank Customer Requirements
Rank the importance of requirements based on importance and not difficulty. Additionally, always keep in mind, it is your customer’s perspective…that is what is most important to your customer!
Determine rank based on customer interviews.
Use a 1-5 scale
5 = extremely important or critical to customer
1 = not very important to customer
Step 4 – Quantify Customer Requirements
Translate all customer requirements (“WHATs”) into quantitative measures (“HOW WELL”). Some requirements may already be in quantitative form. Each customer requirement should be matched to one or more quantitative measures. You should be able to show a link between these quantitative measures and your primary metrics.
Step 5 – Analyze VOC
After collecting, ranking, and quantifying your customers requirements, the information should be analyzed to:
- Ensure product or service is aligned with VOC
- Determine the impact of the requirements on the specification limits for your primary metric
- Determine key customers and stakeholders if a specification limit may be impacted by your product
- Determine how well you are currently performing against the customer’s requirements utilizing KPIs
- Determine if the requirements are related – does an improvement in one cause a change to one of the other requirements
In summary, the Voice of the Customer (VOC) represents the heartbeat of a customer-centric organization. It forms the bedrock upon which customer expectations are built. Coupled with Lean principles emphasizing meeting these needs, the VOC becomes the guiding light in crafting products and services.
Failure to grasp or validate the VOC often spells trouble—a recipe for transactional or interactional failures. These missteps underscore the critical importance of continually realigning offerings with the ever-evolving demands of customers.
A truly customer-centric organization doesn’t merely acknowledge the VOC; it ingrains it into the fabric of its operations. From the first identification of diverse customer segments to the meticulous quantification and analysis of their requirements, every step resonates with the pursuit of understanding and fulfilling these needs.
The failure to heed the VOC isn’t just a missed opportunity; it’s a potential hazard—a divergence from the core of serving and satisfying customers. Ultimately, the success and longevity of any enterprise hinge on its ability to stay attuned to the VOC, adapt swiftly, and consistently deliver what the customers seek, even as their demands evolve.
