It’s easier to achieve goal in a process when you know in details how the whole thing looks like. Think about discussion or negotiations. You know how the other side plays, but often you don’t know why they do it that way. You don’t know the process of making a decision and choosing a strategy by your adversaries. If someone wants to jump from a roof of a building it’s easy to predict how he can act, but unless you know the process, which brought him to the edge of the roof, it’ll be hard to persuade him to change his mind.
Of course, it’s extreme example but the rule is general. When I call my bank’s support center I’m privileged. No, I’m not a gold customer or something. I just know how the support center works – we sell contact center software so that’s my duty I suppose. I’m privileged simply because I know the process.
I know that those nice ladies from support line have very limited range of actions they can perform (e.g. they’re not allowed to switch me to any back office colleagues). I know that average job seniority in call centers is about three months, so there is quite a big chance that I talk with complete beginner. I know how their system works and which information they can or can’t see. I know when they have to ask a supervisor what to do. I even know that an agent who helped me much in one situation did wrong (when looking at her bonus money) – she talked with an expert and a back office guy, consulted with a supervisor during a single contact (it took almost an hour). And yes, she really helped me finding an answer I wanted to get. And yes, I still think she would have earned more if she’d proposed me to fill a “disposition” after 5 minutes of talking. I suppose she was a newbie and she didn’t know how to get rid of me quickly, so she didn’t even try (like her colleagues). I just know the process. That makes me privileged.
If you know how things happen you can easily point the places where you can fight and places where any discussion is completely meaningless. You can spend your energy on knocking on the right doors. Knowing the process makes your effort more effective. It works everywhere.
• Selling process. That’s obvious – if you know how the decision is made it helps you to exploit your advantages and to hide your weaknesses.
• Managing service issues. Do you really know what is the most important issue for the customer? Maybe it’s constant issue submitting process just to avoid the payment? Impossible? I’ve seen a couple of them.
• Contact with the customer. What’s the most important thing for the customer? I know some for whom being interested in their problems is something that matters. Surprisingly they don’t really care if they have completely reliable software as long as they know you’d help them.
• Resolving different issues. Do you really know where the problem is or you rather pass it to one of your people? Do you find some time to dig around, to talk with support team and developers? If you do, ask yourself how many times this knowledge helped you to take option different than you’d take without digging.
• Team management. How much easier it is to manage people if you know their purpose? How much easier it is when you know their decision making process at least a bit? Will a rise change mind of guy who doesn’t want to worn in computers any more? Or maybe you should better let him leave?
The list could be enhanced endlessly. Take some time not to judge current situation, but to think why it is so. Think about the process which has brought you to the place where you are. The better you understand it the better decision you’ll make.
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