Process or Purpose?

(Fed-Ex doesn’t know the difference.)

The title notes a situation that seems all too common these days.? While it seems self-evident that process is different than purpose, it also seems that a good deal of “confuzzlement” exists that causes the two concepts to be mixed with both ultimately being mismanaged.

I was scheduled to take an international flight and purchased some currency local to the country that I would be visiting.? As my timeline was a bit tight, I paid extra for Fed-Ex to activate it’s famous “Next-Day Delivery”.? It’s a good slogan and service, something along the lines of the shipping industry’s analog to the food industry’s “freakishly fast” transport of your favorite sandwich.

The currency was supposed to be delivered today.? I was home all morning.? When I took the pooch out for his 2nd stroll of the day, I noticed a Fed-Ex note on the door.? Apparently, the driver had stopped pressed the door-bell (which apparently wasn’t working), stuck the note on the door and left.? There was no knock.? There was no verbal call.? The inner door was open and the outer door had an open window.? We would have heard either.?

I called Fed-Ex Customer Service and explained what had happened and was told that an attempt would be made the next day to deliver.? I explained that my schedule was such that I really needed the item today.? The failure to receive the package necessitated that I adjust several things in my schedule and trip.? I even offered to drive down to the Fed-Ex Center and pick the package up.? That was not allowed.

I received several apologies from the customer service representatives, but no one did anything other than that.? There was no “customer service” in the customer service.? I asked for the contact number for the manager at the Fed-Ex site.? Not allowed.? The only people in the company that could speak with me were the ones apparently tasked with telling me how sorry they were that I got so poorly treated by their company but were in no way empowered to actually assist me with resolving the problem.

One of the customer service agents actually said “I have done my job”.? I responded that I disagreed as he had done nothing to help with my problem.? He said (and I paraphrase a bit), I have followed my procedures, therefore my job is done.? His supervisor reiterated the same thing in different terms.

This seems to be a recurring issue with many US corporations.? Workers are trained to “follow procedure” as opposed to actually serving the customer (the supposed “purpose” of customer service).? If the procedures don’t serve to manifest the purpose for those procedures, they are, at best, worthless.

Fed-Ex very clearly demonstrated that the individual customer means little to nothing to them.? But why should we?? None of us, individually, spend enough on shipping to make a dent in the fiftieth decimal point of Fed-Ex revenue.? Their bottom line is, effectively, untouched.? They showed no concern at all for any of my problems caused by their failure to contact me and deliver my package.? But they followed their procedures with all of the fervor and attention to detail of a fundamentalist attending a tent revival service to hear a Billy Sunday sermon.? They seem to have lost the understanding of the difference between process and purpose.

I don’t assess that the future money that I will spend on shipping items with their competitors will be in any way noticed or missed by Fed-Ex.? But if customers don’t start pushing back on these mega-corporations, life may become even more frustrating than it already is in this country.