Did you know up to 40% of service demand is failure demand?

Work that should never have been created in the first place.

“Failure Demand” is the demand on resources caused by a failure to do something right for the customer or colleague.

We have all experienced it.

It is a particular challenge for large-scale service delivery organisations such as Global Business Services (GBS), IT/Digital, and Customer Service.

The customer, colleague, or supplier enters an “infinite spiral” of requests for help, tickets, escalations, and status updates – unnecessarily consuming resources because a service was ineffective, incomplete, or early assistance was overlooked.

The cost is obvious, but the bigger risk is harder to see: lost trust, broken momentum, and wasted investments in automation.

We explored “Failure Demand,” its root causes, the impact, and most importantly, what can be done to reduce friction, enhance customer experience, and eliminate waste before it spreads.

We often assume automation is the cure. But without fixing the foundations first, automation just scales the mess.

We were joined by Isabella Kosch, Strategic Advisor on Service Experience & Digital Transformation and former Head of GBS Service Management at SWAROVSKI.

In case you missed it, or just loved it so much you want to hear it again, you can access the recording below . . . .