Our Services

Our services are all based around business change.  No organisation can afford to stay still – in practice there is either concerted steady progress or there is a gradual decline in performance. 

We help people at all levels of an organisation to spot opportunities for improvement, think through the implications, design changes to processes, organisation structures, policies or technology, implement them and then fine tune them over time.   

We believe that an organisation’s own people can dramatically improve every area of the business.  All they need is good leadership, objectives that are consistent over time, a good method and some time dedicated to the work of improvement. 

Organisations should not wait for external events or crises to trigger action but should always be looking for improvements that will fine tune what they do and create a better place to work. 

Sometimes these improvements can be rapid with big leaps in performance and at other times the changes are smaller or materialise more slowly.  Both approaches have their place in the drive to improve performance, which we can help to happen on a continuous and sustained basis:  

 

 

 

 Think Systems, Understand Psychology, Manage Variation, Build Knowledge

 

Firstly it is important to address each of the parts of your organisation in sync (this is a feature of Systems Thinking).  In practice, business processes typically weave through many team structures over a period of time before delivering a service to the end customer.  It is vital to see the big picture before focusing on what needs to change.  Failing to do so can result in an immediate improvement, but all too often new problems occur elsewhere and no lasting benefit is realised. 

Secondly it is vital to engage, enthuse and develop your people.  They are the key to service delivery, continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.  Ideally each and every person should be involved in the business of change.  They will need a little time set aside to assess team performance, solve problems and design solutions. They must also have space to make the occasional mistake as they experiment and test suggested improvements.   Over time they can achieve far more than anyone thought possible. 

Thirdly an understanding of Variation will allow you to focus your management information, speed up your processes, improve consistency and raise quality.  Statistical techniques such as SPC and Six Sigma provide straight forward but robust methods to analyse performance, distinguish 'noise from signals' and determine the appropriate management action. 

Finally a systematic approach to experimentation and learning increases your rate of change and improvement.  Unfortunately there is no shortage of organisations that fail to transform, despite much exhortation, time or money being spent on reorganisations, shared services and projects.  Vision, leadership and drive are key but one of the most frequently missing elements is a sound framework within which the tools and techniques of change can be employed.

Within this framework, we make use of pragmatic methods such as Lean Thinking, Process Re-engineering, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), structured Project Management, Continuous Improvement/Kaizen, Quality Management/TQM, the EFQM Excellence Model, and many others.  

As an example, a customer service operation may suffer an varying number of customer complaints.  The correct analysis will determine whether there is a new trend developing and hence a specific reason for this or whether it is the cumulation of many typical issues in the business.  The root cause may not be where the complaint was registered but may be in service planning, service delivery, technology, admin, or because of something your suppliers or even partners did.  The common responses of resourcing up the complaints team or alternatively squeezing the call centre budget are not usually the right solutions.  Another common response of setting a target for complaint reduction often causes gaming.  Instead, the organisation should develop an open and honest culture where problems can be aired and discussed.  Then it should take the time to do a root cause analysis, identify the most significant causes of complaints and address these head on.  This approach requires a little more effort up front but it pays huge dividends in the future. It is a vital part of the Touchpoint Change approach to managing change and improvement.  

You will find our approach and our people stimulating, insightful, straightforward and refreshing.  Ultimately we work closely with you to deliver change with your people rather than to them, and they notice that subtle difference.  After all, they are the ones who will help develop real workable solutions, and deliver the service to clients - long after the project has ended or any consultants have moved on.    

Contact us to talk about your organisation and we will let you know what we offer and, more importantly, who we can offer to work with you.

 

Business Change Management, Customer Service, Contact Centres, Lean Thinking

© Touchpoint Change Ltd, 2009.