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Other people's experiences

Not everyone learns from their own mistakes, but the best people do.

Organisations which review any incidents and near misses are able to learn from their own experiences. However, the very best organisations are also keen to learn from other people's experiences, not just their own.

The sad story of 10-year-old Sam Boulding, who died of asthma when his parents were unable to call an ambulance on their faulty telephone, offers your organisation an opportunity to learn from other people's experiences.

Telstra had not technically breached its customer service standards. But community expectations of the information and service which should have been provided to Sam's home were higher, with the Communications Minister Richard Alston describing as "pretty slack" Telstra's system of dealing with priority needs customers.

Following the widespread criticism of its telephone fault repair processes and its handling of priority connections, Telstra is now facing rigorous new licensing conditions and reviewing operating policies, systems and processes to ensure such an incident does not happen again.

Do any of your customers have special or critical conditions which might cause them to rely in some way on your products or services? Would you even know? If you do know, is the information available to all the people in your organisation who might need it?

Do you have the right operating policies, systems and processes in place to fulfil all reasonable expectations? (And given that community expectations of what is reasonable can change quickly, maybe even some which might seem a bit unreasonable?)

Quote of Note

"Yesterday's miracle is today's intolerable condition."

Lewis D Eigen

© Kerrie Mullins-Gunst
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