Do you suffer from 'Green Report Syndrome'?
Isn’t it interesting how many organisations are still wrestling with the concept of Outcome Testing?
Often believing it to be too complex or somehow dependent upon knowing a mystical ‘dark art’. Let’s be honest, endless scientific conversations around sampling methodology.... it’s enough to send even the most seasoned compliance person running for the sandpit to bury their heads….
However, surely the desire to self-diagnose issues affecting customer outcomes and provide meaningful insight to your peers would win the day? Think again.
Very often it is one of these issues that prevent businesses from building an effective Outcome Testing function:
1. Fear of not doing it correctly, so end up doing nothing at all
2. Limiting the scope of Outcome Testing to the extent that it is unable to consider the true end-to-end experience
or
3. Simply rebranding the Quality Control (QC) function under the banner of Outcome Testing (same people with the same scope) and hoping that nobody notices.....
Whether it’s 1, 2 or 3 (or a mixture of all three) they can all be unpicked by one simple question:
“who is empowered to tell you whether a customer has received a poor customer outcome even though your business has correctly followed your own policy and procedures?”
And in that question, we have the crux of the issue....
In my experience, the FCA is not looking for perfection, it is looking for reality and for businesses to evidence that they have a mechanism to engage with your customers reality. Simply adhering to your own policies is not the same as measuring outcomes. It’s about whether your business is able to self-diagnose and then manage ‘outcome challenges’ to resolution.
Outcome Testing should always serve as the ultimate antidote to what I call ‘Green Report Syndrome’. When truly ingrained within your culture, it should feed an appetite for insight, not endless green reports.
How many times have we all seen a culture of not wanting to see anything other than green reports?
And how often have we seen the areas with consistently green reports ultimately turn out to be the ones with the greatest risk.
This type of culture prevents us from engaging with real issues. It kills the debate. Identifying and engaging with real issues is an enormously important process for all of us. Unfortunately, businesses who don’t embrace this culture tend to build enormous legacy problems for the future… (I will always remember during one particular Root Cause Analysis project, going back and reading all the historic Compliance Reports of one large UK Bank - during the periods when PPI was being sold with an extremely high penetration rate - those reports were always all green!!)
Much like the old relationship analogy, "If you aren't having the occasional heated argument, then you probably aren't talking to each other at all"
If the colour of the report has become taboo (“no reds please!”) then why not change the style of the report and your 'measures of success'? Identifying opportunities to discuss and resolve issues affecting customer outcomes must become a true measure of success.
Above all, these things should be encouraged. Debate. Openness. Honesty. Your business will not regret designing your Outcome Testing function with the objective of:
providing insight
informing its audience to the material issues
fuelling the debate
educating on the customers reality
empowering key decision makers with that real insight to make meaningful decisions
evidencing to the FCA a tangible culture of improving outcomes for customers
When a risk function is empowered and fuelled by Outcome Testing it can:
Drive strategic business improvement
Keep your organisation safe from building up material legacy issues
Drive innovative people and process enhancements in the areas where they are most effective
Don’t get too caught up on the how (as this can always be refined and improved). Do get caught up on the why.
Embrace impartiality, new thinking and insight. Outcome Testing can be rendered extremely diluted (meaningless!) if conducted with a blanket acceptance of the status quo. Potentially ‘poor’ outcomes can be reassigned as ‘fair’ on the basis that “well, that’s how we do things around here!”.
This is why fresh thinking across a broader experience of the industry is critical in achieving effective Outcome Testing. That ‘right’ piece of subject matter expertise in the right place can fundamentally transform a business. It's applicable to every aspect of your business, particularly:
BAU Complaint Handling
Remediation Complaint Handling
Product Sales
Customer Service / Contact Centres
Any other area where Customer experience and Customer outcomes are prevalent
There is no more valuable lens for a business than understanding the outcomes it produces for its customers and there is nothing more empowering for business culture than the process of Outcome Testing.
If you have wrestled with the concept of Outcome Testing, realise that you lack independence and/or thought innovation in your organisation, then I would be very happy to discuss this further with you.
For over 6 years, Sam Tattersall designed, implemented and ran the UK’s largest Regulatory Outcome Testing project for a large U.K Bank.
Contact samtattersall@sygnia-group.com for more information on how SYGNIA can help design, implement and lead effective Outcome Testing projects within your organisation.
www.sygnia-group.com
Real world articles based on experience (no reposting or copy and paste)