Have you considered whether customers continue to search for and demand your products or not? Does your product have the same value, or can you make changes that will make your customers even happier? The organizations that forget to go through their processes will meet new exciting competitors on the market who have already understood “The New Normal” even better. And they are way ahead of you. For example, who does not expect the online stores to take advantage of all the new customers who were “suddenly” completely comfortable shopping online? Their job now is to hold on to these new customers. Do you think online stores are planning to do just that? So they can keep the customers they have won over this crisis? At LSV group we are expecting that! SO: Do you have your plan ready to win your customers back? Do you think your old processes can get your customers back? And do you think your customers expect the same things as they did before Covid-19?

And what about your processes during the purchase and delivery phase? Do you change your processes to ensure greater security for the customer during the purchase? Should your process now be able to differentiate between different types of customers? Should the delivery method, speed or price be challenged? And what about the use phase? Has your complaint process been updated with “The New Normal”? Is it described how your employees must deal with questions and queries they have never experienced before? Or do you think customers will have the same questions and requirements as before Covid-19?

Our point is that we must all review and update our processes! Not only is it a bad thing, it is also an opportunity to trim, develop, collaborate and create amazing and valuable processes that customers will love us for.

In all major crises, history has shown that we will rise again, grow bigger, stronger and better. A side note is that the weakest companies die in a crisis. But we assume that if you read this, you have decided that you are not going to be among them. We are now in the amazing situation that we learn and receive great and important knowledge and input. It’s not always fun to be challenged. In fact, we often think that it is ok to be challenged when we want it ourselves. But occasionally we must face the “devil” and look him in the eyes. Right now, he is an ugly round thing with spikes and is called Covid-19. But he could look completely different … In fact, we must be ready when his cousin comes, because we know that it will happen at some point! So how do we face the “devil”! We do this by seeing this as a great opportunity to review, adapt and improve our core processes. We have to accept that if we believe in our current processes, we are naive and don’t face the facts.

What is your job and your responsibility? You will need to challenge your processes with the new knowledge. You can start by updating and developing your FMEA (Failure Mode Effect Analysis) while ensuring that your processes create value for your customers. Don’t forget that using data to support your postulates is a must in such a review. What do you know? And not: What do you feel?

The crisis itself is a good expression of how the use of data enriches dialogue and ensures consensus. When politicians discuss without data (or don’t show each other their data), we will get constant disagreement. When data is presented, it is difficult to say: “I think something different”. So, remember to support your hypotheses with data.

If you are thinking that all of the above will happen “completely by itself”, then we will have to tell you that it will never happen like that. It is your responsibility to ensure that process owners review, trim and optimize processes. You must put the responsible people in charge of whether the process is capable and in control. You are responsible for ensuring that good storytelling and strong anecdotes will not cover the responsibilities of a true professional process owner. Of course companies that have already implemented BPM (Business Process Management) have a clear advantage. But if you haven’t, now is the time to start. Is it clear who’s in charge? Will they be held accountable etc.

There is no doubt that 2020 will be an incredibly tough year for many of us. But also let this also be the year when we in the companies challenged our processes. At all levels in companies and organizations, one should now understand the importance of the processes delivering the desired quality to the customer, with the least possible cost to the company, and with the highest possible employee satisfaction. We are in this together, although at a distance, and we now need to go through the processes of our company and our organizations, create value and get stronger and stronger out of this crisis.

New times require new processes! We are in new times now! So now we must ensure that the new times, also will be the better times.

Let the process review begin.