Did you know that customer research is a substantial element of Six Sigma? Getting to the crux of what really matters to your customers isn’t easy. We know that even at the best of times, customer research can be inconclusive. We want to know which product is best, which design is best or which improvement people prefer. Statistically, the answers may suggest no clear winner but they also may be inaccurate and the wrong decision to invest is made. So, read more on Six Sigma research and neuroscience to find what matters to customers.
Six Sigma and transformation
Six Sigma was invented by Motorola in the 1980s as a way to compete with overseas competitors. The improvement measurements were called ‘Six Sigma’ and benefitted Motorola’s customers by reducing the deviation or variation in processes. Customers are the main recipients of the outputs of business processes so it makes sense to pursue competitive advantage based on what is important to your customers.
Most people think of Lean or Six Sigma when process transformation comes up and for good reason. Everything from the Toyota Production System (TPS) to today’s Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) involves trying to improve value for the customer. The former is focused on reducing waste and reducing time taken and the latter organising complex delivery quickly to where there is value.
However, Six Sigma in particular focuses on what the customer views as important to quality and is focused on the customer.
Six Sigma research and neuroscience
We already know that 78% of transformation programmes are unsuccessful and that around 1 in 3 employees don’t understand why change is happening. Though we don’t have a statistic for how many customers don’t understand why change is happening, we guess that this is also high. Additionally, we know that traditional forms of customer research are subject to bias. That means that the very foundation on which our Six Sigma project is based could be wrong. Yes, that’s right. When we tried to establish our CTQs (Critical to Quality) measures to increase the satisfiers and delighters for customers, it was based on incorrect or misleading information.
Ultimately, this process-oriented methodology is still based on the tried-and-tested approach of the humble survey, focus group or interview. All of these are subject to bias to varying degrees. In fact, the way in which they are conducted, the organisers, the participants, the questions, the context, the sample size, the order of the study, the motivators, the repeatability and the reproducibility all impact the accuracy of results.
Since we are asking what customers value, what is important to them (individually) and what is critical to success, this is largely driven by emotion. Furthermore, we know that the majority of emotions are expressed physically which opens up the research to neuroscientific techniques.
Research to find what matters to customers
Thankfully, armed with neuroscientific tools from Implicit Association Tests (IAT) to studies through mobile devices, we can identify bias and measure emotional response. This represents a powerful and more accurate way to assess how customers feel about what is truly important. Even more important is that as part of the control and evaluation of your improvements, we also need to ‘temperature check’ customers to validate the impact. This gives further opportunity to boost the accuracy of the feedback through a reduction in bias.
While it is possible to reduce the bias in surveys, focus groups and interviews, the success varies dramatically. Here at Think Beyond, we sometimes conduct small-scale neuroscience interviews with senior leaders. These are designed, conducted and recorded by our neuroscientists and the results and recommendations presented back to you.
Six Sigma, customers and marketing
It is a well-known fact that Six Sigma Marketing (SSM) focuses on value to customers. Additionally, since both sales and marketing are involved in the process – two departments that focus on and interact with customers – finding out what matters to customers is crucial. After all, operations teams are focused on process and are sometimes one step removed from customers. Sales teams wish to remove barriers to selling. Marketing teams wish to make customers more aware of the value the proposition(s) create.
In summary, getting to the bottom of CTQs and measuring how much improvement the customer ‘feels’ is fundamental. Increasing the accuracy of your data collection process is also important to realise the full benefits of the project. Perhaps using neuroscience to research what customers value could reduce that 78%.
Six Sigma research and neuroscience by Think Beyond
We offer Six Sigma and SSM as part of our portfolio of change solutions. We also offer neuroscience techniques as part of our suite of research solutions. So, the next time you think of process improvement using Six Sigma, we can help improve your chances of success.
If you would like to arrange a free initial discussion, simply call us on 01565 632206.
Alternatively, why not input a few details into our form or email us at sales@think-beyond.co.uk.
Finally, why not read a little about how we help businesses to think differently.