Twelve years ago I was sitting in a boardroom with the companies C suite, getting ready to review our customer service scores. This conversation is very common in the hospitality industry, so this wasn't my first rodeo. One of the EVP's walked us through the entire report and we discovered that one of our top issues was, "Rude Service." Armed with this vital information, the group started to discuss the possible solutions. My role in the organization at the time was the Director of Training, however, I'd also had a great deal of experience in hospitality operations, this was an advantage as it helped me with a more balanced perspective.
In a matter of minutes the group had decided that the solution to this problem was simple, we need to retrain the service staff, there was agreement all across the board. When asked what I thought, I responded, I'm not certain that I clearly understand the issue. The CEO responded by asking what didn't I understand, which, my response was, what is meant by rude service, there was no explanation. I then proceeded to ask the group what they thought rude service meant, oddly enough there were multiple responses.
In the end, after convincing the group to do some more digging, we realized that customers that walked into the restaurant and weren't greeted within a few minutes, felt we were being rude. Had we not taken the time to understand the specifics, we would have retrained our employees, wasted a lot of money and possibly still ended up with the same result.
This of course is a very simple example of why we shouldn't go from problem to solution without being clear on what's causing the problem. How many times have you watched a group develop a solution that addresses the symptom, implement the solution and then realize that the problem still exists.
Like the importance of understanding context, poor root cause analysis has destroyed many organizations. Imagine if the medical professions approach to business was to prescribe without diagnosing, the outcome wouldn't be great.
Smartrend Manufacturing Group (SMG) Winnipeg, Manitoba
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