Real Customer Example

(VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION):

Hi, Blair here with MXM and we’ve been talking about VUCA, Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity, I’m going to give you a real example here. One of our customers that was using the Shutdown Feedback System, took the main themes and made lots of changes around those themes. They were closed just a little over two months. They were able to execute a lot of changes at multiple locations. And when they reopened they ran the Reopen Feedback System. Ok, lets say they weren’t getting any feedback at all, does that even make sense? I mean if you talk about uncertainty and ambiguity and not knowing what the member thinks and then suddenly you have crystal clear hard edges on what the member is thinking and the areas or dimensions on which you need to improve your operations, it's pretty hard not to improve.

So that takes away a lot of uncertainty and ambiguity. You get crystal clear. It’s not that they are perhaps unpleased with something…you actually get crystal clear on what they are not please about. Those fixes are then put in place and then they reopen and run the Reopen Feedback System. Right away everything looks great but then, all of a sudden, one of the scores starts to erode. And I mean like, within the first 7 – 10 days it started to erode and that was “ease to clean and sanitize equipment”. So, now, what if you weren’t getting that, you didn’t see that coming and didn’t know it? Luckily they could actually see it eroding before it eroded too far. They can look at that data and turn uncertainty into clarity.

They had also done a great job of putting out cleaning stations and kept them well stocked but there were still some problems with that, people would actually have to walk over to the cleaning stations. But there was another issue that happened. So, if I’m on the 5^th treadmill in in a row of 10 or 15 treadmills and I get off that treadmill and I take my phone and I go over to that cleaning station and grab stuff, often times people come back and say, ok…which treadmill was I actually using? Which elliptical was I on? So suddenly it’s not so easy to clean and sanitize the equipment you use. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that they should put stations out behind every piece? I don't know, maybe they do need more stations. Maybe you could put a big bright number on every piece of equipment so that when somebody gets on there, they know that they are on, say treadmill #2. In other words, there are ways to start thinking about things differently and to be agile.

So, we were talking about the two things you really need to address Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity...which is, better information and better technology, and the ability to really see way upstream. You have to have those things. Now what I would challenge everyone to do is to let data guide you. But you still have to understand the voice, the feelings of the customer, the thoughts of the customer and that means reading what they actually say, getting down into the molecules of customer experience and reading what they say. Sometimes I hear, “it was just one person, is that really statistically relevant?”, I don’t know….go look! Just go look. If somebody says, “I walked in and couldn’t figure out what treadmill I was on", here is what I would do. I’d go plant my ass down there and watch and see how many people were doing walk arounds. Boom, soon as you see the work around, you have something that you can innovate on to improve.

Don’t move forward from here without really understanding voice of customer. We have a free Shutdown Feedback System and a free Reopen Feedback System.

Until the next one…I hope your reopen kills it and lets redefine this fitness industry so that if this happens again we’re at the top of the pack and not last to be thought of in this.