Cycle of Failure

1. What if you are in such a “cycle of failure”, how do you break it?

In order to break a cycle of failure, I would examine each step in the Cycle of Employee – Customer Satisfaction to identify the breakpoint.

Employee satisfaction: If employee satisfaction is the issue, I would look to find engaging opportunities that help uncover and resolve the root issue. Perks, scheduling flexibility, and bonuses are a few things that I’d expect to be problems impacting employee satisfaction.

Employee training: If employee satisfaction is the issue, I would question the training model and continuing education activities. Management teams would likely be huge contributors here.

Employee Selection: If employee selection is the issue, the focus should be on hiring and sourcing practices. Where are finding candidates, how are we connecting with them, and what expectations are influencing applicant decisions are the questions I would look to answer.

Customer Loyalty: If customer loyalty is the issue, I’d want to determine if our product/service welcomes repeat business and referrals. Supply chain, product availability, and price are all on the table for discussion.

Customer satisfaction: If customer loyalty is the issue, I’d be very interested in hearing verbatims from the customer to identify root cause.

Good customer service: If customer loyalty is the issue, I would want to ensure that the root cause is identified by reviewing each step in the cycle. Ultimately, the issue would be address by resolving some other action within the cycle.

2. Imagine you are the Chief Marketing Officer for a chain of department stores whose reputation for service is very poor. How do you intervene? Do you start paying