A change in perspective

This is a Covid story and one that includes a pivot. But it starts by remembering thousands of people lost their lives prematurely. We all heard of famous businesses offering to build high-tech equipment to prevent deaths. But the funeral industry struggled because there weren’t enough coffins.

There are many heroes in the Covid story from front-line workers to those who shopped for a vulnerable neighbour. Most are unsung. I’d like to share the story of Sound Leisure. Not just because they stepped up. Part of my interest in their story is how a change in perception led to a significant productivity improvement and more.

Sound Leisure Ltd manufactures jukeboxes, the classic styled, high-status machines you see in magazines and would love to own. Lockdown closed their factory in 2020. At a recent event, I heard Managing Director, Chris Black , tell the story of what happened next.

His wife read about funeral backlogs and wanted to help. So she approached a coffin maker’s association, and they introduced her to a business that makes coffins. On the face of it, sophisticated electronic equipment and coffins have little in common. But Sound Leisure had the right skills, space and equipment to take on manufacturing and assembly work. And, being Yorkshire based, they accepted the challenge and cracked on.

On the first day, they barely built twenty coffins and were way off their daily target. This was hard and disappointing. But the production team slept on it and started the next day with a meeting. During the meeting, everyone made suggestions, which the whole team discussed. They agreed to try out a few new ideas and just got on with it.

By the end of the week, and after three more meetings, they were smashing their daily target.

Many members of staff have been part of the team since the 1970s, when Chris’s dad established the company. Chris says they know the business better than he does. As you can imagine, the team knows the jukeboxes inside out and how to make them at a consistently high quality.

Yet, when normal production resumed, they sat down and discussed the production process just as they learnt to do with the coffins. Within a couple of weeks, they had knocked a day and a half off production times while maintaining quality.

So, is this a story about productivity? No! When I speak with Chris about these events, I can sense the emotion in his voice. He talks about a team and section that were traditional in many senses of the word. As I see in so many businesses, they had inherited and built rules that once made sense, but by the time of our story constricted how they worked.

Chris says those times were weird. They knew what they were building and why. Ten people rattled around in an 80,000 ft2 building. Their backs were against a wall in terms of the commitment they had made and the contribution they wanted to give.

By coming together as a team and giving everyone a voice, they openly discussed what they needed to do differently. They realised no one was forcing them to work in a given way and grasped the opportunity to try out new things.

This is a story about engagement, empowerment and transformation. Chris speaks of the woodwork section with pride. He acknowledges their journey and how it contributes to the business. With caution, he talks about that challenge as the best thing that ever happened, not just for that team, but for the entire business.

The daily meeting continues, but, almost wistfully, Chris says they are ‘only’ making slight changes. I remind him this is infinitely more than no changes. He now has a team which discusses and tries different things – always looking for what could be better. Making coffins changed habits and the team’s perceptions.

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What does this have to do with Customer Experience Management? Changing perceptions is key to managing customer experience. When we learn to see our business through our customer's eyes, we can understand and meet their needs. Whether your target is greater customer retention or productivity, a change in perception can be the key to unlocking your future.

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