John Linton
Based on a suggestion from our Exetel Forum ‘Supervisor’ we implemented a ‘suggestion box’ in the User Facilities on Monday. Previously, for over five years, we had relied on a section of our Forum to ask for suggestions as to how we could improve our services and that has been very successful in getting direct customer feedback which has resulted in us implementing over 500 user suggestions that have made every aspect of Exetel’s processes and services better. Over the past 18 months I have also used this blog as a source of new ideas and suggestions and that input has made Exetel a better and stronger company. Virtually the whole of our User Facilities has been developed over the years from customer suggestions and we have even used customer provided code to provide a key function.
'Company Suggestion Boxes' are hardly a new concept - they've been around since I first entered the work force (just after the fall of Rome) and obviously were around for a long time before that. Along with employee suggestion programs they have been of immense value to a huge number of commercial and other enterprises probably since the dawn of human communication. There is only one proviso for the success of such a mechanism as far as I can see and that is that the suggestion has to reach a person who has the authority to 'make it happen' quickly and that the suggestor must receive fast feedback on the result of their suggestion.
In the less than 48 hours since we have instituted the ‘suggestion box’ we have received over 50 'suggestions', 7 of which we have already implemented or put into the process of implementing. There were some suggestions that we couldn't implement and we advised the suggestors by email of our inability to do that very quickly. Using the forum and this blog we have been averaging two - three implementable suggestions a week that we could actually implement in the short term so, even allowing for the 'novelty factor', perhaps Gillian's suggestion box idea will accelerate the development/refinement of Exetel more quickly than in the past.
The suggestions, at least currently, go directly,and only, to Exetel's directors who either pass on the suggestion to the appropriate person within Exetel to implement or respond to the 'suggestor' explaining why it can't be implemented. Currenty our directors continue to work 'at the coal face' of our business and are completely involved in the minutiae of the operations of the company so are able to immediately determine if the suggestion can be implemented or not and can act with the authority that is required to get it implemented in the fastest possible time. So I look forward to an increased rate of improvements to every aspect of Exetel's operations flowing from an increase in suggestions from customers.
One thing that struck me when I reflected on the suggestions I had approved and actioned since midday on Monday was why I hadn't thought of the many very sensible ideas that were being presented or why I had failed to spot the weaknesses, or more obviously errors, that were being pointed out. I have no answer for that question but I found it more than a little worrying that I hadn't been aware of things that needed attention. I then cheered up and was very thankful that the recommendation to set up a customer suggestion box had been made and that a 'gap' in our management processes had been 'plugged'.
There is a problem though. Annette commented as I was replying to a suggestion quite late last night: "and how long do you think you will be able to spend the time reading and replying to these suggestions?" It does take time which is a very scarce commodity in our very busy days and it does take some thinking about. We'll see how it goes but, from my direct observation on two past occasions, I've seen the value of employee suggestion programs destroyed by long delays in processing and acknowledging suggestions and the lack of involvement of the company's key management in reviewing and acting on the suggestions.
Having said that, I do recognise that if the volume of suggestions settles down to a significant daily number it will need to be addressed. I suppose that just means the Directors of Exetel will need to manage their time more productively.