It’s a well known fact: More companies focus on customer service effectiveness during a downturn than when sales are buoyant and the economy is on the boil. The approach is right. Customer retention becomes a key focus area during a downturn, as it is 10 times more expensive to create a totally new customer than selling some more of your existing product portfolio to existing customers. Most companies lose some 20-25% of their customer base annually for a variety of reasons. An effective retention strategy will in fact be able to squeeze growth out of arresting attrition! Many companies will also take the approach that the existing customer base is an asset worth protecting and what better way to keep customers than by providing exceptional customer service! Lean-Six Sigma may conjure up visions of a complex production / logistics based initiatives designed to improve industrial processes and drive costs out. Little is in fact known about lean-Six Sigma applied to the customer service environment. In this paper we will explore some approaches and find some pretty good arguments why lean-six sigma based programs are particularly effective in the customer service environment.

1. Your company
has a large Customer Retention
investment in the
existing customer
A Top Priority in a Down
base. In fact it is Economy
your company’s
biggest asset.
How well are you
doing in terms of A Lean-Six Sigma Approach to
serving existing
Customer Service Excellence
customers as
means of
protecting this
asset ? Werner Hess
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Lean Six Sigma Customer Service

2. Introduction
Newcomers to the sales environment may perceive the sales
It’s a well known fact: More companies focus on customer service effectiveness during a
downturn than when sales are buoyant and the economy is on the boil. The approach is
right. Customer retention becomes a key focus area during a downturn, as it is 10 times
more expensive to create a totally new customer than selling some more of your existing
product portfolio to existing customers. Most companies lose some 20-25% of their
customer base annually for a variety of reasons. An effective retention strategy will in fact
be able to squeeze growth out of arresting attrition! Many companies will also take the
approach that the existing customer base is an asset worth protecting and what better way
to keep customers than by providing exceptional customer service!
Lean-Six Sigma may conjure up visions of a complex production / logistics based initiatives
designed to improve industrial processes and drive costs out. Little is in fact known about
lean-Six Sigma applied to the customer service environment. In this paper we will explore
some approaches and find some pretty good arguments why lean-six sigma based programs
are particularly effective in the customer service environment.
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Lean Six Sigma Customer Service

3. Key-Concepts
The customer service environment is perhaps one of the most challenging to get to grips
with in the organisation. The challenge is of course linked to the fact that one tries to
manage processes that are largely not directly under the company’s control. The further
challenge is that costs will always an issue, while customer service effectiveness will need to
reach internal and external service level agreements. It is all about
managing the paradox. Costs DOWN & service and customer
experience UP. It is a perpetual struggle to get the balance right.
Delivering continuously improving customer experiences at an ever
Managing the
reducing cost per unit of customer service delivered. paradox:
What does Lean and Six Sigma have to do with effective customer
service? Service UP
Lets firstly examine the concepts;
Costs DOWN
Lean is a systematic approach of eliminating process waste so that
every step adds value to the customer. Employee
Six sigma is a process improvement methodology that strives to Satisfaction
achieve levels of process accuracy and consistency in order to reduce
errors to a level of only 3 errors per million opportunities! UP
Together, the concepts of Lean and Six Sigma can go a long way in
terms of clarifying what needs to done in the customer service
Churn DOWN
environment, to what standards and how to deliver exactly to customer
expectations.
CTQ or CCTQ are two concepts that clarify what it is that the customer wants. C=critical T=to
and Q= quality. CCTQ = Critical to customer quality. These definitions, when effectively
applied, create the opportunity for the service centre to deliver to known customer
expectations.
FCR refers to first call resolution in the case of contact centre operations and ties in very
closely with the objectives of lean, “Right First Time”. The implication here is that customer
service should be able to resolve all customer issues the first time they are encountered.
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Lean Six Sigma Customer Service

4. Merging Right Brain customer centricity with Left Brain Process
compliance
One concept that adds to the paradoxical nature of effective customer service delivery is the
balance that needs to be there between a process centred approach to delivering the right
quality of customer service and the “people” element. After all; this about people dealing
with people. You want to be able to take control of the customers issues and resolve them
immediately, while not losing the essential human touch, or what is referred to as the
“relationship” in customer relationship management. Seems quite a challenge; Balancing
hard process focused, doing it right first time actions, with the necessary addition of human
empathy and understanding in order to create the right level of positive customer
experience.
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Lean Six Sigma Customer Service

5. The 4 components of great customer service
While customer service delivery can be regarded as a process (which it is), it is just as
important to inject the right balance of empathy and compliance into the mix. The actual
service delivery doesn’t just happen by itself. It needs to be designed.
Providing a framework for customer service agents is an essential to do for most companies,
so that the assurance is there, that every customer interaction is
optimised from a business process delivery and customer experience
point of view. The “4 Components” framework goes a long way to
Design the create customer friendly and highly efficient customer service
processes.
right delivery
platform based Task
on: Task very simply refers to the process side of customer service
delivery. The concept of process efficiency and doing it right first time
• Task creates process and task readiness, so that the customer requirement
can be dealt with effectively and efficiently.
• Treatment
• Tangibles
Treatment
• Education
Imagine an environment where customer treatment is pre-defined.
The instance where the customer deals with the organisation is
defined, so that every one of your customer interactions is executed
at the same level of rigour throughout all of your customer touch
points and interactions. Treatment can be defined along the lines of response and
responsiveness, ownership and accountability, and achieves goals for both the customer
and the company.
Tangibles
Tangibles can also be referred to as “measurables.” In other words it refers to how
accurately we deliver the customer service from the customer, as well as the company’s
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Lean Six Sigma Customer Service

6. point of view. Accuracy translates to “first call resolution” and a high level of customer
satisfaction.
Education
Education enables the customer service agent to own the customer experience by
continuously educating the customer in terms of process steps that the customer should
follow, to make the experience a pleasant one.
How can a Lean – Six Sigma customer service effectiveness program
improve your customer service delivery?
• Lean process definition creates an opportunity for you to not only understand the
key customer delivery processes, it also drives waste from your process. It is
inevitable for waste and duplication to have infiltrated your process environment
over time, impacting process effectiveness negatively.
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Lean Six Sigma Customer Service

7. • Six Sigma process optimisation ensures that your processes are laid out to align
with the VOC, (voice of the customer) achieving a level of customer centricity at
the outset. Customer calls become predictable and enables your customer service
agents to respond to customer requests effectively.
• Lean skills provide frame works for customer service delivery and implements a
“right brain – left brain” culture in your customer service agents. This level of
mental dexterity enables you to deliver so called “delightful customer experience”
alongside effective delivery.
Carpedia use six sigma strength, assessment tools to analyse opportunities for process,
service level and customer experience improvement. Our analysts normally spend a week
in your customer service environment and can provide you with very accurate
assessments of how you will be able to drive up the effectiveness of your customer service
environment. Should opportunities for improvement be present, Carpedia can help you
design and deliver a lean-six sigma program that will improve effectiveness by 20-35% ,
sustainably!
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Lean Six Sigma Customer Service

8. About Carpedia Consulting…
Carpedia Consulting is an internationally relevant management consultancy firm, dedicated
to assisting clients to improve sales and profits through the implementation of improvement
programs. Our approach is what makes us unique. The way we design, develop and execute
our programs is hands-on, solutions-based and excellence driven.
Our programs are customized to the needs of your organisation and are designed to ensure
significant and sustainable improvements are made both internally and externally – by the
sales team, for the customer.
www.carpedia.co.za
About Werner Hess…
Werner Hess has spent 20 years of his career in various sales, marketing and leadership positions
with Bayer, Triad Electronics, GE and GE Plastics before serving as managing director of GE Plastics
and Polymerland. Werner’s first experience in the world of consulting came about when he joined
Proudfoot Consulting as Director of Business Development, which included several international
assignments in Europe and the USA, leading sales effectiveness projects for global clients. Werner’s
current company, Carpedia Consulting is a specialist niche consultancy focused on sales and profit
improvement.
Werner’s latest book, The Science of Selling has just been published and reveals approaches,
systems and processes that can be implemented to create a successful sales platform.
Werner can be reached on: whess@carpedia.co.za
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Lean Six Sigma Customer Service

9. Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd
PO Box 1701
GALLO Manor
2052
Building 2
Country Club Estates
Woodlands Drive
Woodmead
Sandton
South Africa
Tel: 27-11 – 258-8813
Fax: 27-11- 258-8511
Mob: 27-82-888-0228
Email: info@carpedia.co.za
www.carpedia.co.za
Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Lean Six Sigma Customer Service