The Power of Public Accountability

One of the most rewarding accountability forums is the customer room, which has four goals:

1. Drive continuous learning about the impact the company has on customers
2. Assign accountability and import urgency for improvements
3. Execute ongoing modifications and improvements
4. Create awareness and manage the customer profitability pipeline

In the customer room, the walls are covered with the priority metrics you have identified to track and manage customer relationships and profitability.  At regular intervals, all the operational leaders and the president meet in the room.

The group moves around the room, which has been set up to traverse the customer experience.

Wall #1 – depicts metrics on overall outcome: the flow of customers and other guerrilla metrics.

Wall #2 – posts the volume, flow, and nature of customer issues.

Wall #3 – identifies operational accountability and performance in executing the customer experience at priority contact points.

At each section of the room, the leaders are asked:

• Why is this like this?
• When will it get better?
• How will you improve it?

This level of public accountability is potent. The reason this works is that people know the accountability meeting will regularly occur, they know they will be held accountable, and they know that good results will be rewarded.

When leaders focus regular accountability and reward on performing for customers, the gain is traction and that leads to progress.

Wherever it was possible, we stack ranked performance for each of these items: guerilla metrics, accountability metrics for the operations and other metrics in the accountability chain. In addition to the outcome metrics, which were enlarged visually and posted on the walls, we listed customer quotes, reproduced letters, and set out regional and departmental rankings where applicable.

The customer room brought the concept of the guerrilla metrics alive and pushed them from concept to accountability that people could manage.

It is simple and it is clear. Most important, it is public and in front of peers.