Standard Obsolete Processes
Ranjit Satyanath
Retail | Hospitality | Digital Transformation | CIO | CTO with Startup experience | Ex Croma, Shoppers Stop, ICICI Bank
I engaged a web based personal services startup to deep clean my rental. They charged a few bucks extra for the "safety equipment". The booking process & arrival time of personnel were flawless. The workers took a selfie with the mask on. Another one with the gloves followed. I was informed that this was a new process to attain customer confidence keeping the COVID situation in mind. So far so good. He then took out a scratched face shield and put it on. Selfie duly taken, the shield immediately found its way back into the bag. Amused I asked him what that was about. His sheepish response was that while it was a company mandate, it was not practical to see through a scratched face shield especially when you had to clean grime and ensure a spotless surface.
I could not help but agree. The scratched face shields that our airlines hand out sprang to mind. The reuse of these "disposable" face shields is evident from the fact that the latest face shields are much more scratched than the earlier ones. It gave me a headache even on a two hour flight.
So my point is - some of the processes we lay out are an eye wash. Little data is available on how it is implemented or how it affects the people who have to implement it. Neither are quick reviews done nor customer feedback sought. For example I am not sure how many people care about the body temperature of the people cooking food on your fav aggregator app. Sure it says that there is a process. But whether precautions are consistently taken is anybody's guess. Employees sooner or later find ways around tasks that don't add value to them or the customers they serve. Simple processes work best. But then simplicity is the most difficult goal to attain, ain't it?
#startup #retail #operations #sop #process #customer #NPS #frontline
Cyber Security| Enterprise IT & OT Security | Exposure Management | Public Speaking enthusiast | Yoga Disciple
4 年Was smiling while reading this. Recall having this conversation with the guy who came home to fix my sofa from a similar App company! Just show that the toe the line, they fleet on ground have figured ways to game the process. Hence ended immediately ordering my set of thermometers and oxymeter for my home.
Business Strategy | P&L Management | Retail Operations | Corporate Finance | Fund Raising | Hippo Stores | Dalmia Bharat Group | Career Launcher | HSBC | IIM L | SRCC
4 年Completely agree, depending upon the need of time processes are created but no one revisits them to improve or remove them!!! Hopefully we will do a better job :)
Product & Business Strategy | SaaS Evangelist | CRM | SCM | Analytics|
4 年Simplicity is the most difficult goal to achieve - completely agree! In most of the organisations, individuals can't resist themselves from an urge to do "value addition" and no one has heart to question such ideas..results into such value-deductive processes. Would love to hear how this deep-clean start-up responded to your feedback.
Entrepreneur - from bootstrapped to successful exits | Marketer loved deeply madly by Sales | Publisher (???????) of Books in Indian Languages | Career multiplier guide One Life Do More. This is where I come in.
4 年Do read about mule allowance and how railways wanted to keep this obsolete field in the computer system even though the Britishers left in 1947 (they used to pay extra to a passenger for taking along a mule in the same compartment). We are easily the best nation for making new processes. But breaking them or following them is purely a personal subjective choice.
Head - Organisation and Talent Development | Talent Management
4 年Lovely read! People/organisations are obsessed with creating and implementing processes without thinking about the relevance, longevity and impacts!