As an operations professional we are accountable for delivering service to the end customers based on the terms of sale and at the same time keep costs within control. Often we get service requests that are way too complex or costly to execute. How we react to these requests is one way to demonstrate our good intent towards customers as well as the company.
Let us take a concrete example to discuss the approach. You are the head of logistics of a corporate gifting company and you get a request to deliver a gift at a very remote location. Let us say you have a target of 4% of order value as the cost for logistics and the value of this gift order is not very high so shipping it will not only affect the unit economics but also increase the overall logistics operations cost. Since this is a very remote location, your team will have to locate a service provider who can take the gift to that location which is an added practical complexity.
What would be your normal response? How would your team respond to such a request?
The easy option is to deliver the order without asking any question, which will set a precedent and you will be flooded with many more such orders leading to logistics cost going over the budgeted 4%. So, you should never accept such exceptions without raising some questions.
The other obvious approach is to respond with the cost factor and refuse to deliver the order, but you will lose an opportunity to test and extend the capability of your team.
The ideal motto of a good operations team should be “anything can be done for the right price”
Hence, my approach would be to list multiple options for making the delivery along with costs and timeline for each option. Usually the business teams will choose the right option and even get approvals for the cost. Sometimes the business teams would even cancel the request if they find that none of the options suit their requirement. In this case the options could be
- A slower mode of delivery that cost only marginally higher than regular route
- A faster mode of delivery that costs significantly higher than a regular route
If the timelines of both the options do not suit the timeline of the business teams, in which case they might either choose one of the options or even cancel the request.
As an operations team, we should never say never and always strive to provide options along with cost. It will help the business teams who face the customer take decisions that best suit the needs of the customer. They might even get the customer to pick part of the costs or pick it from a nearby town etc..
People always appreciate options, however inferior they may be, instead of a refusal of their request. Instead of a plain no, the willingness to find alternates will be appreciated by the business teams. You and your team will be seen as problem solvers.
There will always be requests that are impossible to deliver, if you have been following the above approach, the business teams will accept your no when the request is impossible to deliver.
Have you faced such situations in your operations? How did you handle it?
