Dirty Data, Interference and Fail-work: 3 things that get in the way of delighting your customers.

Hey there,

"OK Kirsten, I've got the data, my business system is stable, but I can see room for improvement. Where do I start?"

Last time I introduced you to moving range graphs. They can show you how fast and how smoothly value flows from your business to your customers once they've bought into your Promise. The idea is that the faster the value flows to the customer the better, for them, because they get what they want sooner; and for you, because it costs you less to do, so you make more profit.

So now you've had a go. You've collected data on 'how long it takes us to give our customers what they really want'. You've got a moving range chart that shows my system is stable, but with wide variation.

It is possible that the variation is due to the totally unique, bespoke needs of each client each of whom gets a unique solution built from scratch. But that is extremely unlikely. After all, I'm pretty sure you're not offering bespoke swimming pools to one client, tailored suits to another and business consultancy to a third.

You almost certainly operate in a single business domain, offering broadly the same thing to each client, customised to suit them. Which means you almost certainly have a process you follow for each client, whether you've documented it or not. And the fact that the values on your chart stay within the upper and lower control limits means that the variation is coming from inside your business system.

So in this newsletter I'm going to go go through:

Where to look for internal sources of variation
What to do about them
How you can pre-empt all this as a small business

But before we start, you need some way of summarising that everything customers want so that you can test whether or not you're actually doing it.

Remember the FedEx sentence from earlier in this newsletter series? That would do the trick. As long is it really is from the customer's perspective.

In fact I'd go as far as to say this is why the original FedEx sentence worked so well: "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight, FedEx it." perfectly encapsulates the Promise the customer wants kept: "I want to be absolutely certain that my parcel will get there tomorrow morning".

Here are a few other examples:

A housing tenant: "I want my home fixed in one visit, at a time that works for me."

A small business: "I want my accounts to be always up to date, always compliant with the rules and a useful help to running my business."

A tourist: "I want a meaningful souvenir of my trip to/affiliation with The North."

A marketing department: "I want my marketing to work. Predictably."

And here's that newsletter again if you haven't already created your own FedEx sentence. https://thedisappearingboss.kit.com/posts/what-would-your-fedex-sentence-be

Where to look for internal sources of variation

Unnecessary work that slows down the process of giving the customer everything they asked for:

Dirty Data

Dirty Data causes work to be done by someone down the line that's only necessary because a job further up the line was neglected. An order gets through to fulfilment with an address missing, or the wrong items on the invoice. Supplies have to be ordered in on expensive overnight delivery because nobody thought to tell anyone we were running out.

Interference

Interference is work you do that's not necessary to Keep a Promise to a customer. Filling in time-sheets, logging KPIs, putting together monthly reports. Also interruptions that get in the way of Keeping a Promise to a customer. Closing a ticket because the deadline is up rather than because the fix has been done. Ending a call because time is up, rather then the customer's issue resolved. Handovers, communication overhead, work that's about work, not about delighting customers.

Dirty Data and Interference lead to:

Fail-work

Fail-work is work you do for customers that's only necessary because you failed to keep your Promise. Handling complaints, fielding chaser calls, making excuses, giving refunds. Dealing with the same request multiple times when once should be enough. Fixing one small problem after another because the real issue hasn't been addressed.

What to do about them

Dirty Data

Make sure you get the information you need when you need it.

Don't allow Dirty Data to get any further through your process - ensure all the information you need for the next activity is present and correct before you move on. But, don't ask for more than you need either.

This kind of problem can be fixed with software systems. But software may not be enough. You may also need to fix incentives. For example: reward sales people from the profit on a sale, not the revenue. That way they have an interest in helping it to go through smoothly, rather than doing as little as possible so they can get to the next prospect.

Interference

Every time you are about to ask a team member to stop serving customers and get put together some information for you instead, ask yourself: "Will this help us Keep our Promises to customers faster or more smoothly?". If the answer's 'no', don't do it.

If you still need the information, ask: "How could I get this without interrupting the work we do for customers?" Find a way to get the information from the system, not the people.

Every time you are about to set up a meeting with your team, ask yourself: "Will this help us Keep our Promises to customers faster or more smoothly?". If the answer's 'no', don't do it.

If you still need to hold the meeting, make sure the purpose of it is clear, the right people are involved, and that you end up with clear actions, responsibilities and deadlines.

Focus on measuring the desired outcome, not activities. Remove or re-design activities that slow down the process of giving the customer everything they asked for. For example:

Does 'Answer within 3 rings' mean calls with customers get interrupted? Then increase your phone answering capacity (not by making customers wait though).
Does 'Resolve within 3 days' mean the same problem keeps popping up in multiple tickets? Find a way to resolve anything in one go. That usually means having expertise on the front line, rather than hiding behind it.
Do handovers slow things down for the customer? Don't do them. Let your people run processes from start to finish - ideally from Package Promise, through Share promise to Keep Promise, but at least from one end of Package, Share or Keep to the other.

Fail-work

Dirty Data and Interference are major causes of Fail-work, so addressing them will reduce the amount of time your team spend Fail-working.

But they aren't the only sources.

So, whenever you spot Fail-work, look for ways to prevent it happening again - by changing how you do things.

A change might be as small as sending products out a day earlier or changing your courier, to ensure products are delivered on time.

It could be as big as analysing past repair requests to see which are mostly likely to be needed and when, so you can keep repair vans stocked accordingly.

It might mean changing your approach completely, to prevention rather than cure, scheduling regular visits from a handy-person to keep on top of things.

How to pre-empt all this.

It may be that you've learned at business school that managing 'by the numbers' is the only way to do things.

Or maybe you've worked in corporates where Fail-work, Dirty Data and Interference are rife.

Perhaps you've never done either of these things, but just feel there must be a better way to grow your business than most of the advice you get is telling you - build departments or functions, hire managers, set targets, monitor everything.

There is a better way. You're already doing it. It's successful. You just need to write it down.

While you're small enough, nimble enough and profitable enough to do it without massive disruption, document your unique system for making and keeping promises so that everyone else in your team can run that system as well as you, maybe even instead of you.

Then enable everyone to monitor how the system as a whole - and maybe some key parts of it - using moving range graphs, so you and your team can spot where Dirty Data, Interference are trying to sneak in, and act accordingly.

Don't wait until Dirty Data, Interference and Fail-work show up in in your business to make sure it always works to serve your customers.

The Disappearing Boss exists to help you do that. Book a discovery call https://www.thedisappearingboss.com/get-in-touch if you'd like to know more.

Finally, do remember that the point of all this isn't merely to increase speed.

It's to increase the speed at which the client gets everything they wanted.

'Everything they asked for' might include time, attention and personal presence. It's definition is all part of your Promise of Value. So simply going faster might impact on the quality of what you deliver (you'll see if it does, in your moving range graph, and because customers will tell you, by complaining, or leaving).

That’s it.

Here’s what you learned today:

The work that matters in your business is the work that gives your clients everything they asked for. Which you hopefully have defined in your Promise of Value, summed up in your FedEx sentence.
2 key sources of Fail-work are Dirty Data and Interference.
If you can, design your business to deliver 'everything the customer asked for' as fast as is appropriate for your Promise of Value while you're still small, as you document your processes for the first time. It'll save you a lot of grief later. It'll also save you from 'going corporate'.

That's the end of this little series on monitoring the health of your business - whether you're doing it from the beach or from your desk.

I'd love to know what you thought of it. Why not hit 'reply' and tell me?

Here are all the resources again:

The Cashflow Map: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HBC_58x9PgVAcu6c-vvUMYwYGotOZrpoImpT3Z2Twrg/edit? By the way we're close to completion on a cloud-based tool to do this that connects to Xero. Let me know if that's of interest.

Moving Range Graph Tool to get started with: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F0OPgyN8araBb9j6c9obkDQVgGM5JHkW/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100927838995416067829&rtpof=true&sd=true

FedEx Sentence Newsletter: https://thedisappearingboss.kit.com/posts/what-would-your-fedex-sentence-be

How to articulate your Promise of Value: https://thedisappearingboss.kit.com/posts/what-a-business-really-is

As always, thanks for reading!

The Disappearing Boss

I’m Kirsten, enabling customer‑focused small‑business owners to turn their successful companies into self‑managing promise systems —no silos, no supervisors—where people can run light-definition, flexible, end‑to‑end processes with real‑time feedback to keep customer value flowing, and The Boss can take breaks without breaking the business.

If you want a business that can grow with less stress, delivers consistently great customer experiences, and gives you the freedom to take time out, recharge, or scale, The Disappearing Boss can help you do it