Have you heard of the 1 x 10 x 100 Rule?
It states that:
🌟 Detecting quality problems early in the process is less costly than catching a quality challenge later.
🌟 Finding a mistake in product development costs less than in production.
🌟 Finding an issue in production costs less than post-launch.
𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐧–𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐚 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬–𝐛𝐲 𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝟏𝟎 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.
The rule is from the manufacturing industry, but it applies to customer experience.
It goes like this.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝐗 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞:
A customer has an issue, it looks like a one-off thing and your able to figure it out. Problem-solved, not a big deal.
𝐂𝐗 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭: One customer.
𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: Gratification for job well done.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐒𝐨 𝐖𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠: You’re perceiving the issue as single incident and the best data available for evaluation. It may be, but how do you know?
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟎𝐗 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞:
An issue occasionally happens. You to fix it with a workaround, so no problem. There’s inefficiency in the process, but you ignore it.
𝐂𝐗 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭: Hundreds of customers.
𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: Employees get frustrated with the process inefficiencies and deliver inconsistent poor customer experiences.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐒𝐨 𝐖𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠: You’re STILL perceiving the issue as one-off incidents. Delivering an inconsistent customer experience. Those impacted may be more negative of the interaction, post negative reviews, and share the poor experience with others.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟎𝟎𝐗 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞:
The spread of a problem. Lots of old, worn-out band-aids. But employees don’t even see them anymore. They’re part of the system. Technically only a small percentage of customers actually complain about this. What’s the big deal?
𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭: Thousands of customers.
𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: Acceptance and denial. This is just part of our system. It’s not perfect, but what is?
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐒𝐨 𝐖𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠: It’s become part of your unintended customer experience.
The issue has fallen off your radar entirely because employees and customers are so accustomed to it. They’ve adapted to your issues and accept them.
The rule highlights the importance of root cause analysis. Do you have a process to monitor customer issues, conduct root cause analysis and monitor progress on action plans?
𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫-𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲. 𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬, 𝐥𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤.
