What is a CRM — What Does It Do and How Do You Use It?

 

Posted by Scott Lambert

Are your employees struggling with following up with leads promptly? Are you completely out of the loop with your employees on their lead generation and sale closures? Many marketing, sales, and service teams use multiple tools to manage data, making it difficult to meet the growing demands of their organization and customers.

A growing business is exciting, but it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks as you grow. The last thing you want is for those ever-increasing pains to hurt your potential customers. You don’t want to start on the wrong foot or miss an opportunity for a sale — but your growing lead volume means you need better options.

You might also be facing issues as you bring on new people to make sales and manage customer relations. If there’s no way for them to see the history of that contact, they face the impossible task of trying to catch up and keep the relationships moving forward.

The good news is that a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system can solve all of these issues that you and your business may be facing if you use it correctly. So, are you curious about what a CRM is or how you can prevent your customers from falling through the cracks?

Let us show you everything you need to know about how a CRM can help you.

What is a CRM?

CRM is an abbreviation for a Customer Relationship Management system. These systems allow your company to manage all of the relationships and interactions you’re having with current and potential customers. In short, CRMs enable your company to organize every interaction with an individual customer and view reports across every customer in your database so you can see the big picture and the details.

What Does a CRM Do?

A CRM becomes a place where your business can store current and prospective customer data in one central location. You can track customer interactions and share these interactions with other employees.

For example, with a CRM, your customer service team will know if a lead has been interacting with your marketing materials before they contact sales. This system allows you and your employees to see all of the personalized information about that client, including exact details of the web pages they’ve visited and emails they’ve opened.

Not only are calls tracked, but CRMs also allow for scheduling follow-up calls and for your workers to note what next steps need to happen to keep that client on board. In short, it becomes a management system for all data relating to clients to ensure they get the best experience possible, while keeping your employees in the loop about all previous interactions.

4 Key Benefits of Using a CRM

While every CRM can be a little different, there are some fundamental features that most of them offer.

These features include making your customer’s experiences better than ever before, increasing your productivity, increasing collaboration between your employees, and gaining better insight into how your sales force is doing.

1. Customer Experience: Your customers won’t have to re-explain themselves if they’ve called multiple times, and your team will know any vital information about this customer.
2. Productivity: Call logging can be done automatically, which frees up time for your reps to focus on getting sales rather than administrative functions.
3. Collaboration: Managers can see when sales representatives follow up with buyers, and sales representatives can learn from each other’s best practices. All information is stored if the usual representative is out sick or on vacation or has left the company.
4. Insights: You can see in real-time how your sales representatives are doing individually and your team’s group performance.

How Do You Use a CRM?

The CRM serves the fundamental purpose of tracking contacts as they interact with people inside your organization. This means countless people within your company might interact with a CRM daily.

As such, let’s take a look at how each person on your team would use the CRM in their day-to-day job responsibilities.

Sales Teams

Your sales team is responsible for working with a contact to turn them into a customer. The CRM will document each step as they move through the buyer’s journey.

Some of the ways that they might use a CRM include:

• Update the conversation history for contacts. This includes making notes on conversations so they can always remember where they are and what’s been said.
• Track a lead’s progress through the sales funnel and update it as they move along from initial contact to proposals and contracts and all the steps in between.
• Set tasks and reminders to follow up with leads as promised to ensure they don’t fall through the cracks.

Marketing Teams

Your marketing team is responsible for generating leads, and ideally, converting them into customers and revenue for your company.

Here are a few ways the marketing team will benefit from using a CRM:

• Review a full-funnel report of what happens to a lead after they go from the marketing team to the sales team.
• See which marketing activities resulted in the most revenue down to specific social media posts.
• Focus on techniques and marketing campaigns proven to work rather than those that don’t.

Customer Service Teams

Customer service team responsibilities include orienting new clients, service delivery, and ensuring customers remain happy and engaged after the sale.

The right CRM benefits your customer service team in many ways. Some of these include:

• Expanding your team's capacity and capabilities through automation and self-service.
• Reducing time spent on data entry, giving you more time to build better relationships.
• Prioritizing critical issues through ticket routing and automation.
• Delivering self-help options to customers by converting FAQs to a searchable library.
• Automatically routing website visitors to the right service team member.
• Assisting customers on your website through context-specific conversations in real time.

Management Teams

Managers have a vital role in your company. That’s to ensure that your people and budgetary resources generate the most revenue possible for your business.

A CRM gives every layer of management the ability to see in real-time what is working and what isn’t. Imagine if your managers can see:

• Which members of the sales team are performing the best.
• Where potential customers are getting stuck in the pipeline.
• What marketing efforts are performing the best.
• All data in one location.
• Which opportunities improve and enhance customer experiences.
• How to strengthen collaboration by unifying your teams and channels.

With up-to-date access to the entire revenue cycle, your management teams can make decisions quickly to improve profits and customer satisfaction.

Setting Up a CRM Properly is Crucial

Considering all of the steps a contact takes in their lifecycle, you want to make sure you’re getting the full picture of exactly how they’re interacting with you. You need your data in the right places and your records up to date. To do that, though, you need a highly-capable system to get you going.

This requires someone with the expertise to help you find the right CRM for your needs and guide you through the CRM implementation. Most importantly, your team must be trained to use it properly.

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The 6 Steps to Making the Perfect Apology, According to Science

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Saying sorry just isn't enough.

BY CHRIS MATYSZCZYK, OWNER, HOWARD RAUCOUS LLC@CHRISMATYSZCZYK


Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.

Knowing how to apologize is an art.

It's inevitable, then, that scientists thought they'd try to define it.

Researchers at Ohio State University came up with six elements that you should include to ensure that your apology is satisfying.

To the person you've wronged, you understand.

I'm sorry, but I do struggle with some of these elements.

1. Expression of Regret.

This is something that trips up Donald Trump so often. He never apologizes, he says. So expressions of regret are, for him, but signs of weakness. The researchers, though, claim this is an important step. You have to at least pretend that you're sorry.

2. Explanation Of What Went Wrong.

Naturally, this would an entail an understanding of what went wrong. Which some find very hard to grasp. In essence, if you've hurt someone's feelings by tossing them under a passenger-filled vehicle -- symbolically, I mean -- nothing went wrong at all. All you're doing is trying to make the person you scythed feel a touch better about themselves.

3. Acknowledgment Of Responsibility.

I'm familiar with this one. It's often referred to by its more modern form: You have to own it. Ownership, though, isn't necessarily onerous. You can tell someone that you feel responsible, but again that's to make them feel better. Because you've behaved appallingly, might they be of a mind not to believe a word you say? The researchers, however, claim that this is the most important step of all.

4. Declaration Of Repentance.

Perhaps you need a scroll with you in order to present your declaration in written form. Wait, your lawyer will never allow that. This is where the "I am so, so sorry" comes in, perhaps. Wait, didn't that already come in the regret section?

5. Offer Of Repair.

This, the researchers say, is the second most important element. Here is where you offer to give the person you tossed beneath the bus half of the raise you got as a result of tossing them beneath the bus. What could be more enticing? What could be more just? What could be more unlikely? The point about some slights -- perhaps even many slights -- is that they're impossible to repair. The thought, however, is both charming and bracing. "Hey, have my Ferrari for the weekend. The one I got thanks to the work I made you do and then didn't give you a bonus for it."

6. Request For Forgiveness.

Seriously? Having gone through five phases of highly questionable maneuvering, you now have the gall to ask for what you really, really want -- for the person you wronged to make you feel better? "That's the one you can leave out if you have to," Professor Roy Lewicki said in Ohio State's press release. You don't say, professor. Is there anything more vacuous that someone who has, as some Brits say, done you up like a kipper asking for you to forgive them? Sorry, but that one's truly unforgivable.

All these elements might sound scientifically satisfying. At heart, the only apology that works is the one that's truly sincere. And how many are? The hurt party has to judge not merely the performance of the hurter, but then monitor their subsequent behavior. The first place to look is into the apologizer's eyes. Look very carefully indeed.

Effective Listening to Voice of Customer (VoC)

Once you have established that customer service is paramount to successfully running your service business, the obvious next step is to devise systems and procedures that can help you effectively learn, combat and manage customer grievances and any shortfalls in service levels from customer expectations.

This is a complex process, though not overly so, and can be succinctly summarised in the following points:

Being concerned

The very first step is to view each customer as a potential detractor, and thus being concerned about any untoward reviews from them. Studies have shown that a single negative review can offset 12 positive reviews. This puts an ever greater pressure on management and support staff to be actively involved with each and every customer, so that no customer leaves disgruntled. The caveat here is that being concerned alone won’t solve the problem, unless supplemented with the following actions.

Installing effective feedback tools

An effective listening to voice of customers would work only when effective tools to collect feedback are in place. While the definition of ‘efficiency’ in the context of feedback collection tools may be subjective, there are three things that any feedback collection mechanism must provide for it to be deemed worthy of consideration:

• Ability to capture vast amount of data – Only an innovative and unconventional feedback collection method will excite customers to leave their feedback.
• Ability to manage all collected data – A massive amount of data is meaningless if not stored in a format conducive to drawing business insights and trends of customer behaviour.

Ability to allow immediate addressal of customer grievances

As important as it is to store and record trends of customer behaviour, it is equally essential to solve service-related issues that customers may have, while they are still on-premises as this can eliminate the possibility of a customer venting their dissatisfaction online. A study has gone so far as to report that 82% of customers say that the most important factor leading to a great customer experience is having their issues resolved quickly.

Given that a manager’s focus is on effectively listening to his customers, a logical conclusion would be the installation of a strong and reliable feedback collection procedure.

Understanding your customers and their complaints

This is basically a continuation of the definition of an effective feedback collection system, but merits a separate mention. Immediate addressal of customer complaints becomes feasible only with a thorough knowledge of what the exact issue is and where the grievance has arisen from. Gaps in service quality can be plugged in only with an in-depth understanding of why and how the lapse in service occurred in the first place. Complete data capturing of customers can help in a more robust loyalty module allowing personalized service to regular patrons.

This points to the development of a process that naturally tends towards a “systematic listening” and address of customer grievances.

Empowering customer-concerned employees

With the installation of a sound feedback collection system, comes the added responsibility of delegating responsibilities appropriately to the front-line, customer facing staff members. Doing so will ensure that all customer grievances are handled in a timely and accurate fashion.

An effective feedback collection tool, should, therefore, provide a means for assigning tasks to staff members, particularly the customer-centric staff. It would be even better if this mechanism could work in real-time, thereby resolving customer complaints quickly and ensuring cent per cent customer satisfaction.

Overall monitoring of customer’s behaviour

With on-premise resolution of customer grievances taken care of, the real value of a customer feedback system can be extracted from its ability to track trends in customer satisfaction and behaviour over time.

Customers rate a business over several parameters – pricing, service quality, attitude of staff while interacting with customers to name a few. Their overall satisfaction of interacting with the business will then, not be limited to just the quality of service provided but will depend on a delicate balance of these parameters, based on what weight they assign to each of them. An important thing to note is that these preferences may change over time and vary across customer segments. In an effort to keep all customers equally satisfied over time, these changes must be carefully measured and appropriate actions taken.

An effective feedback system will allow business managers to understand their customers changing preferences and make business decisions in accordance with those changes. This will truly include the customer’s voice in implementing business strategies.

Getting involved personally

Last but certainly not the least, nothing makes a customer’s day more than the pleasure of having his issue resolved instantly, and that too with the knowledge that their servers took a “personal” interest in their service. Establishing a personal connection with customers is becoming a vitally important aspect of service-oriented businesses.

Therefore, merely assigning customer complaints to staff members may no longer help the business acquire and retain customers, but taking a “personal” interest in the resolution of their customer’s issues will. Since this personal connection will help the customers achieve a sense of belongingness with the business and there will then be a higher likelihood of them returning again and again.

An effective methodology to listen to customer’s voice, then, remains incomplete without a mechanism to getting involved personally with the customers.

Managing a business that does not sell tangible goods but intangible service can be tricky, but a task that can be accomplished if the basics are done right – listen to what the customers are saying, respond effectively and analyse their feedback to make sure things don’t go wrong again.

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3 Ways Customer Listening Powers Marketing Effectiveness

Ernan Roman

Today customers can make sure that their voice is heard like never before. And, if marketers don’t have measures in place to listen, they are turning a deaf ear to potentially significant problems and missing out on essential insights for improving their customer experience.

Following are 3 ways to leverage customer listening and examples of how companies are putting these strategies into action.

1. Realize that Customer Listening (and Responding) is a 360-Degree Commitment.

Engagement with customers includes business partners who are also the face of your brand. So, how every aspect of your brand listens to the voice of your customer and responds is key.

For example, NASCAR made the decision to revamp its marketing and listening in five key areas. But that’s not where it ended. NASCAR also encouraged its business partners and drivers to do the same.

“We developed an industry action plan,” stated Steve Phelps NASCAR CMO, “… A plan for digital and social, a plan for driver star power–and within each plan, [we came up with] a number of different action items … [In an] effort to be thought leaders who provide the best available experience to our fans. We strongly encourage those across the entire landscape of the sport to embrace digital and social media — from drivers and teams to tracks and corporate partners.”

2. Customers are More Than Numbers, They are People, Talk to Them … (And listen.) 
Data gives you a good view of what customers are doing. However, it is not going to tell you why or give you theemotional factors like a conversation. Personal interactions can be more valuable than all the big data you will ever collect. 

Starting in October, Flow and Columbus Business Solutions, a telecommunications company serving the Caribbean, asked customers to tell them how they felt. Michele English, Columbus’ executive vice president and chief customer officer noted, “Our plan is to significantly enhance our customer ‘listening’ systems and ensure that feedback is integrated into our daily decisions and connected to our customers’ experiences across the organization… we have to design and implement [operational processes] to ensure that every customer touch point in the organization can support our customers’ needs efficiently and effectively… We now look forward to more customer feedback. “ 

The Company designed an easy to use online customer survey and sent communications to customers to encourage them to complete the survey and tell the company what matters. 

3. Make Conversation (and Listening) Easy with Social Communities 
Online communities enable the exchange of ideas in discussion forums, polls and social media. They provide brand information, mitigate problems and provide opportunities for a collaborative two-way conversation.

Southwest Airlines launched a Listening Center to monitor its online communities using a keyword-based listening tool that pulls in mentions from social platforms. The Listening Center monitors insights in real time to quickly identify issues and immediate engagement opportunities. Customers can connect their Twitter handles to their Rapid Rewards frequent flier numbers to get personalized services. Southwest Airlines also leverages the Listening Centers to send apology letters for delays, find new opportunities for engagement and implement company-wide customer care. 

Alice Wilson, social business advisor for Southwest’s marketing organization notes that sharing the information collected is the key to listening success. “The customer feedback means something different to each [department] and can inform each group in a different way…From a social care standpoint, [employees] want to help assist and resolve. But somebody from the marketing team may be looking at that [data and ask], how do we alter communications to help these future situations?…The point is not to keep it as a silo.”

Keys to Effectively Listening to the Voice of Your Customer:

• Listening should be at the heart of your marketing strategy.
  Listening lets you understand the “why” of what your customers are doing and experiencing so that operational issues, communication, and experience can be overhauled for a more positive overall brand impression.
• Learnings from Listening Needs to be Shared with Every Part of your Business.
  Having data without acting on the implications does nothing for your business. Set standards for how the insights from your listening programs are regularly integrated and shared with all departments so that changes and actions are put in motion to respond to customer needs and comments.
• Meaningful Dialogue Based on Listening.
  Develop authentic, honest and direct conversations based on listening, which lead to meaningful connections and two-way dialogue.
• Use Listening to Develop Strategies.
  Once you launch programs to listen, develop means for incorporating these learnings into new strategies that address the issues identified in customer conversations. Put in motion ongoing review of the data collected through listening programs so that you have a clear roadmap that delineates what customers are expecting, their pain points and their current/future demands.
• Listening Objectives Must be Established.
  If you don’t know how you are going to listen, you will not be able to hear what your customers are trying to tell you. Whether you have the means to set up a full scale listening center, a social monitoring program, a survey, or a call center monitoring program, know what you are implementing and how you will regularly harvest and utilize the insights.

In summary, customers have a lot to say and they want you to listen. The good news is that customers generally have valid concerns and smart advice to offer. Marketers and customers will both benefit if the marketer creates multichannel ways of listening to customers and processes for acting quickly on their input.

Customer Happiness Shouldn’t Be a Novelty

Any longtime customer service champion knows their job isn’t just about resolving problems; it’s about making customers happy.

We’ve all heard the one-off stories of legendary customer service: the time a Morton’s employee brought a steak to a customer at the airport, or when Sainsbury’s renamed a product at a young customer’s suggestion. But how do you make these unforgettable moments the norm rather than the exception?

Inspiring your customers to fall in love with your company requires more than grand gestures. It takes an ongoing investment of consistently great service. This can feel daunting, especially if you’re a small business with limited staff, but by incorporating a few core principles into your business model, customer happiness can be integrated into everything you do.

10 ways to make customers fall in love with your business

Here are some creative ideas from the most customer-centric companies on the planet — adapt them to your own customers for happy results!

1. Be human

Customers want to interact with human beings who are warm, friendly and helpful. In every aspect of your company — from email marketing to your help desk — approach people like you would approach neighbors (warmly but respectfully). By creating a human experience, you can spark meaningful relationships with current and future customers.

2. Always listen

Listening is an underrated skill. After all, don’t you hate being interrupted? There are a lot of ways to listen to customers, but the most important thing is to make sure they know you hear them.

During all interactions, mirror back the experiences of customers with understanding. Combined with social listening tools and feedback analysis, this empathetic approach can set off fireworks between you and your community.

3. Be transparent about changes, setbacks and breakthroughs

Every organization is going to hit blips and bumps that disrupt business. Whether it’s a snow day or a data leak, you’re more likely to recover if you get out in front of the problem. Always practice transparency. Share the problem and your concerns, along with any steps you’re taking to resolve the issue.

Don’t forget: Your community wants to hear about awesome breakthroughs, too. Exercise good judgment, and lean into these opportunities to build exciting relationships with a growing community.

4. Treat every customer like a VIP

Being a VIP has some real perks. More than any specific benefit, VIP status offers the warm-and-fuzzy that someone values and appreciates you. The good news is that you can give that to every customer, regardless of their budget or needs.

“Getting service right is more than just a nice to do; it’s a must do. American consumers are willing to spend more with companies that provide outstanding service — ultimately, great service can drive sales and customer loyalty.”

— Jim Bush, EVP American Express

Start by offering every customer your undivided attention, and personalize content so they’re always hearing a voice made just for them. You’ll create VIPs who will not only buy more, they’ll give you referral after referral.

5. Value consistency above all else

In the service industry, you’re only as good as the last meal you serve — and that’s true of any customer service business. It actually takes 12 positive experiences to offset one not-so-great interaction.

To hit the mark every time, companies need to empower employees with cohesive values, standards and guidelines for interacting with customers. The trick is to provide consistency in the level of service while still enabling team members to play to their strengths.

6. Love your employees

The quickest way to make customers fall head-over-heels for your company is to appreciate your employees. (Yes, you read that right!) Rodd Wagner shares this perfect formula in Forbes:

Happy employees = longer tenure = consistent training = employee expertise = happy customers

Employee happiness has a big impact on the long-term performance of a company. After all, no loyal customer wants to learn that their favorite employee had to leave for higher pay.

7. Trust your customers and clients

I learned working in retail that trust is always reciprocal. When customers didn’t meet the credit card minimum at the shop, the owner would let them take their purchase and come back with cash later. People were so struck with gratitude that they came back with the money — and then some! If you give your customers the benefit of the doubt, they’ll extend the same courtesy to you.

8. Apologize — and make it right

Saying sorry is always essential, but sorry isn’t always enough. Companies need to put that sentiment into action to make customers fall in love. First, fix the actual issue. Next, make up for the fact that there was a problem at all.

Empower happy customer service teams with the flexibility (and resources) to “wow” customers. With the right resources, they can make up for the problem with a meaningful gesture that more than matches the enormity of the mistake or hassle.

9. Offer regular rewards

“If you’re competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering."

— Jeff Bezos, Founder, Amazon

Companies like Southwest Airlines, Patagonia and Nordstrom have distilled customer loyalty to an art form, creating real value with their offerings. They know that one-time incentives are fun, but you need to sustain that momentum over time to have a real impact. Invest in regular rewards, incentives or sales that people look forward to — and add in one or two extra for a fun surprise.

10. Say ‘thank you’ again, and again, and again

Gratitude is a powerful emotion. Expressing it to customers builds positive feelings while humanizing your company in the eyes of the world.

So don’t sell yourself short — say thank you in every email and every interaction. Expressing gratitude this way also makes it more likely that someone (even a customer) will help you in the future. You’ll fall in love, too

These ten ways to make customers fall in love with your business are also fun for you. When you embrace happy customer service, you create the ideal environment for you and your team. What’s not to love?

ELIZABETH WELLINGTON

The 10 Biggest Quality Mistakes

One of the most effective ways to improve is to learn from other people’s mistakes. Experience has taught me that there are plenty of mistakes out there to learn from. The trick is to recognize them and understand what to do instead. Unfortunately, I keep seeing the same mistakes over and over. They aren’t mistakes because they violate a standard such as ISO 9001; they’re mistakes because they violate good sense. Let’s examine the 10 most common quality mistakes and see how they can be corrected.

1. Limiting quality objectives to traditional quality topics

The term “quality objective” is an unfortunate one. It introduces subjectivity (i.e., quality) into a subject that should be quite clear (objectives). A much better term would simply be “measurable objectives” because that requires less interpretation. The word “quality” clouds the issue and makes many people want to narrow the focus of what a quality objective can be.

The truth is that quality is reflected in everything an organization does, and a quality objective can be anything measurable that relates to the organization’s success. A quality objective might relate to finances, customer feedback, safety, efficiency, speed or innovation. All these attributes relate to quality in one way or another. When selecting quality objectives, organizations should examine what matters most to their success. Whether the resulting measure is tied to traditional quality control or quality assurance is irrelevant.

2. Holding infrequent management reviews

Management review is the process used by top management to analyze data, make decisions and take action. Ideally, it’s a preventive process because data should indicate threats before they blossom into full-blown problems. If top managers are unable to analyze data proactively and prevent problems, then they’re not doing their jobs. Holding management reviews once or twice a year ensures that actions taken won’t be preventive. Only through timely and frequent data review can actions be preventive. Once or twice a year won’t cut it.
Many people argue that their organizations already review data on a weekly and monthly basis. This means that management review is still after the fact; the decisions have already been made. Management review must be included in existing meetings. Instead of a twice-yearly dog-and-pony show, cover the inputs and outputs of management review as they occur naturally during existing meetings. After a month or two, you’ll have addressed all the required inputs and outputs. Using this approach, you’ll have information that’s timely and resulting actions that are preventive. Another advantage is that you dispense with the need for long, laborious management reviews. They happen in a smooth and effective manner that’s much more likely to drive improvements.

3. Sending out long, complex customer surveys 

The days of the long and complicated customer survey are over. People don’t have time to complete them. Even when organizations design shorter surveys, the questions are often confusing and fraught with interpretation problems. The scales that accompany the questions are often unbalanced and illogical. As a result, organizations end up with a small amount of valid data. Better to have no data at all than data that could lead you in the wrong direction.

Instead of a survey, why not simply ask your customers what they like and dislike? Don’t limit their responses to survey topics. Let your customers dictate the content of their feedback in response to open-ended questions. Few are more powerful than the following: What do you like? What don’t you like? What would you like to see different in the future? Open-ended feedback is also much easier to understand and take action on. A customer- satisfaction index of 3.8 is hard to interpret. On the other hand, seven out of 10 customers telling you that your Web site is confusing is very easy to interpret.

4. Assuming everyone knows what “nonconforming” looks like

When I visit organizations, one of my favorite questions is, “Where do you put the nonconforming products?” Control of nonconforming products is one of the most basic kinds of controls, and it speaks volumes about the rest of the controls embraced by the organization. Unfortunately, where I often find nonconforming products is wherever someone decided to leave them. They’re not uniquely identified, either. In other words, nonconforming products are treated no differently than any other products. When I ask why this is happening, the most common answer I get is, “Because everyone knows that’s nonconforming.” No, they don’t. No matter how nonconforming a product is, there will be someone who won’t recognize it as such. The stories of bent, broken and blown-up products that somehow got used anyway aren’t urban legends. They’re true.

Smart organizations positively identify all nonconforming products, and really smart organizations segregate them to remove all chance of accidental use. Error-proof your control of the nonconforming product process so that nobody has to assume anything.

5. Failing to use the corrective action process

Corrective action is the systematic way to investigate problems, identify their causes and keep the problems from happening again. Nobody wants problems, but it’s essential to have a way of dealing with them when they come up. The more the corrective action process is used, the better the organization gets at addressing its risks and problems. That’s why I’m astounded when I hear about organizations that avoid using their corrective action processes. Of course, I always ask why they’re doing this, and I often get one of these answers:
• Corrective action isn’t effective for large problems.
• Corrective action isn’t effective for small problems.
• Nobody understands root cause.
• Our problem-solving tools are confusing.
• Our procedure requires too much paperwork.
• Corrective action takes too long.
• I hate our corrective action form.
• Top management frowns on corrective action because it means that someone screwed up.

These aren’t corrective action problems but problems with the organization’s approach to corrective action. An effective corrective action process is typically seamless, simple and intuitive. The whole point is to add a little structure to problem solving, not to create additional bureaucracy.

Here are some hints to make your corrective action process more user friendly and effective:
• Strip it down to the essentials. A corrective action must clearly describe the problem, how it’s caused, actions taken to remove the causes, results of actions taken and how the actions were effective. Only include additional elements when you can prove that they add value.
• Remove all jargon from the process. Strange words only discourage people from using the process.
• Don’t insist on a raft of signatures . It’s not necessary for half the management staff to sign off on every corrective action.
• Remove paper from the process as much as possible. Use electronic media to track corrective actions.
• Communicate corrective actions widely. When people see that corrective actions accomplish something, they’re much more likely to participate in the process.
• Provide problem-solving tools, but give people some discretion in their use . If your procedure requires a failure mode and effects analysis to be completed for every corrective action, it will probably discourage people from starting corrective actions.
• Use teams for corrective actions whenever possible. This gives people experience in the process and also increases the effectiveness of most solutions.

6. Applying document control only to official documents

Most organizations do a decent job of controlling “official” documents, the procedures and work instructions that form the core of the quality management system (QMS). These are often written, approved and issued according to very specific guidelines. What organizations don’t do very well is control unofficial documents, many of which are more important than the official ones. What am I talking about? Here are some examples that are often found in production areas:
• Post-it notes with special requirements written on them
• Memos that include procedural steps
• E-mails with customer specifications
• Photographs showing what a product should look like
• Drawings indicating how product components fit together
• Samples of product showing defect limits

These informal resources become documents when they’re shared for people to
use, and they’re some of the most important documents within an organization. They’re distributed and posted in a hurry--usually without control--because the information they communicate is considered critical. Nobody can quibble with the speed of distribution, but the lack of control guarantees problems later. I’ve seen 10-year-old memos posted in organizations that exhorted personnel to perform obsolete job steps. When documents aren’t controlled, mistakes and nonconformities are inevitable. Apply document control to all documents, and scrutinize your document control process to keep it streamlined and effective.

7. Focusing audits on petty, nonstrategic details

Auditing is the process of comparing actual operations against commitments the organization has made. It’s a simple, fact-driven process that can generate huge improvements. However, these can occur only if auditors focus on the right things. Too often, internal auditors become preoccupied with petty details and neglect the big issues. They’re uncomfortable examining the big, strategic issues. It’s much easier just to nitpick. Organizations rarely provide enough training and skill-building to their internal auditors, so it’s no wonder that they aren’t prepared to carry out their duties to the fullest.

A robust internal auditing process examines make-or-break issues. Here are just a few of the items that internal auditors should probe in detail:
• Customer satisfaction. Is the organization capturing and analyzing customer satisfaction data? How is it acting on the data? Do trends show improvements in customer satisfaction?
• Management review. Does management review happen as planned? Does the necessary information and data get reviewed? What actions result?
• Corrective action. Is corrective action applied to existing nonconformities? Is it timely? Does evidence indicate that causes are removed to prevent recurrence?
• Preventive action. Does the organization take preventive action based on data and information? Is it effective?
• Internal audits. Are audits scheduled and carried out based on status, importance and prior audit results? Do audit nonconformities become corrective actions? Is the entire scope of the management system audited?
• Objectives. Are objectives established and communicated? Do employees understand them?
• Control of nonconforming products. Are all nonconformities positively identified? Are dispositions carried out as required? Are trends analyzed for improvement?

There are, of course, many other important issues an audit process could examine. The point is that internal auditors should go after the items that really affect the organization’s success. Focusing on petty details serves no purpose but to confuse everyone about the purpose of audits.

8. Training some personnel, but not all

Most organizations provide significant training to hourly production personnel. Salaried and managerial personnel are often neglected, however. Why? Because there’s a perception that salaried workers don’t affect product conformity. This is a serious error.

All personnel must be included in the training process. Salaried and managerial personnel need more--not less--training because their decisions and actions have more lasting effects. When an hourly employee makes a mistake, it could cost money. When a top manager makes a mistake, it could put you out of business. Doesn’t it make sense to train these people? Do it early and often.

9. Doing anything just because an external auditor told you to

External auditors wield great influence. Their statements and judgments can have a lasting effect on the way an organization conducts business. This can be good or bad. Usually, it’s bad. Most external auditors working for a registrar are removed from the realities of running a business. They travel from organization to organization, gradually collecting paradigms about the way a QMS should be implemented, maintained and improved. These paradigms are sometimes reflected back to the organization in the form of recommendations or nonconformities.

In my travels to companies, I often ask people why they’re carrying out a process the way they are. I always raise this question when the process seems unwieldy or illogical. In a surprising number of cases, the answer will be, “Because the external auditor said we should do it that way.” What a waste. Do a reality check on the auditor’s recommendations. Never do anything just because an auditor would like it done that way. A certificate on the wall isn’t worth it.

10. Employing someone who only oversees the QMS

Having a person who does nothing but oversee the ISO 9001 (or any other) QMS is one of the worst ideas in the history of quality. Why? Because it guarantees two things:
First, the QMS coordinator will become isolated from the rest of the organization. Because the person does nothing but serve the QMS, he or she loses touch with why the organization exists in the first place. The system becomes paramount over the organization’s business concerns. Second, the QMS will become bloated and bureaucratic because it must expand to completely fill someone’s time. Procedures become more complicated, methods more cumbersome and the benefits more ambiguous.

A QMS is nothing more than a guiding structure of methods, and it shouldn’t take a huge dedication of time and effort to maintain. Yes, someone should keep the system on track, but that person should have other responsibilities as well. Pair the ISO 9001 coordinator job with other responsibilities that focus on understanding what the organization does, especially responsibilities related to the product, customers and improvement. If the QMS is so bureaucratic that it requires the time of an entire person (or, heaven forbid, an entire staff), then the system needs to be streamlined. An effective QMS should make an organization more competitive, not weigh it down.