Every team hits its KPI. The customer is still waiting for the parcel.

Who benefits when every department gets faster?

I describe what can happen when production aims to make as many bottles per hour as possible. That is an understandable measure for someone responsible for manufacturing. But the customer also cares how the bottle works, whether the cap fits properly and whether the parcel arrives as it should.

Marketing can similarly focus on selling more without seeing the full capacity of production and logistics. An improvement in the ad account can then be followed by a much less pleasant experience after purchase.

Keep the measures for each part, but also follow what the improvement does to the rest of the flow. More bottles produced do not help a customer if the cap leaks or the parcel sits waiting.

The customer’s purchase passes through several teams.

By a cross-functional approach, I mean having the different parts represented in the same dialogue. Customer service, marketing, e-commerce, production, logistics and supply chain need to discuss what happens to the customer experience.

What the conversation centres on matters. Starting with the customer makes it easier to see that the problem does not follow the organisation chart. The person answering a complaint may see something the forecaster or advertiser needs to know.

Each team then needs to take the work forward within its responsibility. They need access to each other’s reality before deciding what to improve. Otherwise you can become excellent at solving your small part while leaving the next person a bigger problem.

A shared metric needs a reason to exist.

We discuss a North Star Metric: a shared direction for what the team wants to improve. Different businesses may need to follow different behaviours. A well-known technology company using a measure is no reason to choose it yourself.

For Västerbottenssåpa, I describe customer satisfaction as an important starting point. The idea is that satisfied customers and a good experience should help the business over time. Reviews, service conversations and social media comments then become interesting to follow together.

Describe what customer satisfaction means in the work: which signals do we track, who reads them, and how do we choose what to change? Otherwise the words can sit at the top of a report while every department carries on as before.

Customer service can show where the business is struggling.

Fredrik asks how information from many sources should be gathered and presented so people can make decisions. It is a good question. Having a lot of customer data is not the same as understanding what it says.

I describe the difference between emails about late deliveries and questions from people deciding which product to choose. Those are very different conversations, even if both appear as cases in the same inbox. The first may show something failing after purchase. The second may reveal a need for better information before it.

Looking only at the number of emails risks missing that distinction. Reading the content can give us a more specific task. Which question keeps returning? Where does frustration arise? What do production, logistics or marketing need to understand from what the customer says?

A solution on paper needs to survive daily operations.

I describe the thinking behind a logistics hub in Morgongåva: getting closer to a large share of customers and creating a different delivery arrangement. I also say implementation had been harder than I first expected.

That deserves attention. Operations do not simply move from one box in a presentation to another. Goods need to be in the right place, information needs to be correct and the system needs to work when something sells out too.

A new arrangement therefore needs following where it meets the customer. If customers still wait, the team needs to understand why, even if the solution itself was well motivated. I want to retain that honesty: a good idea may need more work before it functions as intended.

Start with a problem several parts need to solve.

Take a recurring problem after purchase. Put the customer’s description alongside what the ad promised, what the site said and what actually happened in delivery. Let people from the relevant areas work together to understand the gap.

Decide who makes the change and how you will see whether it helps. Fewer complaints of that particular kind or a clearer delivery update gives you something to follow. That gives the test a place in daily work.