News from the attic: Staple yourself to an order

This was the exhortation from authors Shapiro et al in the July-August 1992 edition of Harvard Business Review. They claimed that “Most companies rarely view the order management cycle as a whole system, especially because each step may require a bewildering overlap of functional responsibilities.”

It was around the time of this article that business process reengineering became popular, which attempted to address this problem. Although BPR may now not be so in favour, there is much to be said for looking at processes from the point of view of the customer. In the services industry we don’t think about stapling ourselves to an order, but it is well worthwhile considering the “customer journey” that your clients experience.

One of the techniques we suggest to our clients is the idea of “core story” – what you would like your customers to say or think about you as a result of engaging with your business. It’s a useful exercise to define what you would like your core story to be and then examine all the stages of the customer journey to see if your customers’ experience matches these aspirations!

News from the attic: Staple yourself to an order

Calvert Markham