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OPINION
O rganizations are not immune to making design errors that could damage their reputation for a short period, or permanently if no service recovery culture is in place. Since designing our first service manager strategy, we embedded service recovery as one of the key drivers to achieve our vision. Having a service recovery mindset in your projects is essential in order to keep your organization’s sustained competitive advantage. From disgruntled client to raving fan
Leisbel Lam, PE, LC, MBA
Through my experience, I have discovered that service recovery should not be treated any differently than when we are trying to solve a complex problem. As engineers and architects, we have an advantage when it comes to this because our work requires solving multilayered problems every day. A year ago, we received an email from a disgruntled client regarding building users’ complaints with temperature levels in a handful of rooms in a recently remodeled lab space. As engineers, we do not typically receive such complaints, but when we do, we can get nervous because we failed to identify an error. However, when we understand perfection doesn’t exist and we keep service recovery top of mind as part of our service delivery, we can face these calls with a game plan. In this article, I will walk you through a series of
steps we follow called “Reframing” to look at tough problems from a new perspective, so we do not fall in the default trap of jumping into quick – usually ineffective – solutions. The four steps include: 1. Frame storming. On this step, we start with a blank whiteboard, setting aside preconceptions and opening our minds to explore issues as well as their nuances. This step helps the team to identify assumptions and blind spots, lessening the risk of pursuing inadequate or biased solutions. It is also beneficial to invite outside perspectives to be part of this process to look at the issue with a cool head. In this example, we came up with a long list of ideas and potential scenarios of what could be the causes for the complaints.
See LEISBEL LAM , page 8
THE ZWEIG LETTER MAY 27, 2024, ISSUE 1539
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