Walking the Walk Before Talking the Talk

Five years ago this month, I discussed a crisis facing Boeing. The “crisis flavor of the month” then was the flaw in the 737 Max 8 which inadvertently caused two crashes. Fast forward, Boeing still faces a slew of crises and mounting scrutiny.

The current situation facing Boeing reminds me of a time a client came to my team with a reliability challenge—though, unlike Boeing, this was not a matter of life and death.

My client at the time was a telecommunications company whose net promotor score (NPS) was less than ideal due to the company’s poor reliability performance in the eyes of consumers. They asked if we could think through a strategic plan for a reliability campaign, to demonstrate how reliable its service is...despite what consumers said.

That’s all well and good except constantly shouting from the rooftops how reliable a service is when there was hard data that said otherwise was majorly misguided. Not to mention, it would likely result in customers being even less satisfied. Similar to the CEO of a major aircraft manufacturer repeating ad nauseam its commitment to safety and quality while there’s endless news suggesting otherwise.

Knowing all the variables that can interfere with a quality internet connection (poor router location, technical limitations of devices), my team and I needed to unearth whether the poor reliability scores were due to user error or the actual service. As such, we advised our client to put a pause on this reliability campaign and rather think through a campaign that divulges helpful steps customers can take to optimize their internet connection.

Therefore, when the next NPS benchmark came around, it would help my team unearth whether the reliability challenge was mostly user error or larger scale. And, we wouldn't irk customers in the process.

Sometimes, an organization cannot communicate its way out of a business challenge. You have to back it up. You literally have to “walk the walk” before you can “talk the talk.” And, it seems that Boeing may finally receive that message. Though, time will tell.