Failure demand is demand on a service organisation caused by the organisation's failure to do something, or to do something right, for a customer. It is distinguished from value demand - the original demand for whatever service the organisation exists to provide. The terms were coined by John Seddon in his 1992 book I Want You To Cheat.[1]
(((TODO: Source this para. What was wrong with the video link SM removed? Watch when I have access to headphones.))) (((TODO: Tweak wording to treat Seddon as less of an infallible authority))) (((TODO: If at all possible cite sources for this para that aren't affiliated with Seddon))) Seddon invented the concept when he discovered that the movement of 'telephone work' from local bank branches to call centres in the 1980s caused an explosion in the volumes of demand – the number of phone calls soared. He found that the rise in call volumes was attributable to the creation of 'failure demand', i.e. customers calling a second time because the bank had failed to solve their problem on the first call. The same phenomenon also occurred in the public sector as local authorities and housing associations moved telephone work into call centres. Demand was much greater than expected or planned for. Seddon argues that increasing demand was not the result of success but of failure. Seddon's work in local government shows that failure demand in such call centres can run as high as 80% of total demand.
(((TODO: rewrite para to remove or reduce focus on Seddon and stop writing about him like he's the ultimate authority on everything))) (((TODO: try to hunt down additional sources about this and add more info))) The concept of failure demand was adopted in 2008 by the UK Cabinet Office as one of 198 national targets for local authorities.[2] The target was known as NI14 or 'avoidable contact'. The announcement that the indicator would be scrapped came on April 1, 2010. The intention of the target was to cut costs by reducing avoidable contact between local government and its customers. John Seddon was critical,[3] arguing that turning the concept of failure demand into a target would not motivate local authorities to do anything about it. Instead, he said, it would motivate them to under report the amount of failure demand.[4]
(((TODO: review, and maybe add sections citing, https://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2224-78902021000200003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJHCQA-08-2017-0159/full/html https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09540962.2021.1978163#abstract
and maybe (though yucky sources):
https://productivityknowhow.com/tasks/failure-demand/ https://www.govmetric.com/post/the-astonishing-cost-of-failure-demand-why-fixing-it-should-be-your-next-priority )))
References
edit- ^ "Failure Demand". Vanguard Consulting Ltd. Retrieved 16 October 2024.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-08-03. Retrieved 2011-07-05.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-22. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-03-24. Retrieved 2011-07-05.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
