I shouldn’t but I do love this.
Looks like they need a communications coordinator real bad!
I’ve changed the name of the recruiter to protect the guilty.
Attention to detail … and when in serious doubt use spellchecker.
Tag Archives: Constant improvement
Anger = no training
14 Jan
This is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the protagonists …
Just recently, while staying at a friends house while they travelled, I had to wait for a new pool pump to be installed (the old one had broken down under warranty.)
Days went by and there was no communication from the company involved.
Meanwhile the pool was getting greener and the weather hotter.
My 12 year old son was waiting to have a swim but couldn’t because of the state of the pool.
I rang the company and spoke to the owner. She seemed quite cranky when i asked her what was happening to the pump.
After much to and fro-ing, the guy finally arrived to install the new (replacement) pump. As the guy was fitting it, he discovered another problem with a valve. He told me that he would ensure the owner of the business would call me re fitting the extra valve. By 11.00 am the following morning there had been no call so I rang them.
When I expressed my frustration, the owner lost her temper.
I told he that I wrote training packages on customer service, but she kept right on talking.
I said ‘but I’m the customer!’
She didn’t hear me but finished up by saying “we’ve gone out of our way for you.” She clearly hadn’t. She then hung the phone up and I was left feeling a little bit (not a lot) unhappy. Because I train in these areas I thought about how she must have felt. Stressed, unappreciated and just plain angry.
Dealing with difficult customers is something all business people need to do with the one aim of keeping the customer happy, because every angry customer tells another 10 people and so on.
Try this:
Depersonalise and strategise
Listen
Come up with solutions
Make a friend of an enemy …
and they will tell 10 people how great you are.
The issue is that many people in business don’t have any training in these areas.
They do take things personally.
Things go wrong. That’s natural.
But if you handle the situation calmly and strategically you make many friends.
Meet Dr NO
12 Dec
When my son was a toddler my dear mother in law happened to mention that it was sad that little kids heard the word NO a lot of the time.
NO you can’t do that.
NO don’t be naughty.
NO. NO. NO.
Workplaces can be like that too.
Have you worked with a Dr NO? I know I have.
NO, too different.
NO, you can’t do that.
NO, NO, NO.
What makes a Dr NO?
Fear of change
Insecurity
Resentment
Risk aversion
All of the above. The only problem is that the world is changing. Industries are disappearing. Just this week our iconic car, the Holden, announced they were ceasing manufacturing here. Horror. All those people losing their jobs.
What will they do?
They’ll do something else.
Creativity is the enemy of Dr NO
Change is like Ju Jitsu … when you are attacked you step aside and push your attacker past. Going with the flow.
Scary but ultimately satisfying.
Hello SILO … you’d better be flexible!
3 Dec
I work on many projects with many different organisations. Corporations, authorities, not for profits and small to medium businesses and I often find that I’m cast adrift between mountains of giant silos.
Silos form when the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
I’m not casting aspersions (or aspidistras) at all the hard working people I interact with. I’m just making an observation. Silos form when people are rushing to meet change.
Change happens rapidly these days. Policies change, then procedures or ways of doing things. Regulations and laws change when governments change or government policy changes. Change happens when businesses are growing exponentially and new people are brought on board.
Silos also form when there’s a lack of communication across organisations, strategic business units (SBU’s) and teams.
Silos can also form when people don’t share.
Silos affect content developers too. We can be working away using some accepted template, or creating content in a suggested way and then … it’s not quite right.
Can this be a problem? Yes and no.
Clever consultants can pick a silo a milo off (sorry, it rhymed.)
Clever consultants communicate widely.
Clever consultants are flexible and don’t go into spasms of disappointment and take things personally regarding their work.
My mum told me that a truly sane person has an ingrained ability to change their minds!
I tell my kid all the time, life is full of paradoxes … be flexible and open minded.
And smile a lot : )
I just want to be a useful little engine
22 Nov
I do love being a dad. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had. I especially used to love watching the kids shows with my son when he was a bit younger. He’s on his way to becoming a teenager so we’ll see … but he’s still my boy.
We used to watch a lot of shows together like Fireman Sam, Postman Pat and of course Thomas the Tank Engine. What I really enjoyed was the cosy atmosphere of the small villages where these shows are set. Some are in Wales and feature the beautiful lilting Welsh accent (it’s not a burr is it?) Tight knit communities where everyone seemed to be looking after each other. The characters are warm and friendly and … sweet.
Which brings me to Thomas and his oft heard catch cry “I just want to be a useful little engine!” Sometimes the Fat Controller gave Thomas a real job to do and off he’d go with his smile beaming.
There are lots of people in businesses and organisations everywhere that just want the same thing. They do their job and put something extra in and sometimes, even often, they are overlooked. Why? Because some other engines aren’t so humble. They roar around and make sure they’re seen.
I work with a Thomas. It’s a she actually. She’s a front line customer service/technical support for a medical business and she does a great job. You only have to hear her on the phone to notice the goodwill she spreads. Nothing is a problem and she not only sells, but advises and counsels. It’s all part of the job for this lady.
She’s a useful little engine!
Where would we be without them?
Take time to notice all the useful little engines at your workplace. Get them to train up or mentor other little engines. make it best practice and … reward them!
Love makes the business world go round.
Still life with customer service
19 Nov
I love art. What else is there in life? It ranks up there with love. Our reason for living.
But what’s art go to do with customer service? A lot really, especially when it’s a still life.
Let’s look at the terminology: Customer service is not really correct. It’s neat but limiting. Great customer service is pre, present and post service.
Still life studies in customer service abound. Pop into a retail establishment and the CS person is on the phone; or writing a first draft of the novel on the computer, or better still, updating Facebook. The point is that they aren’t busy. Yes they greet you with great warmth but there’s as much life in that place as there is in a cemetery. Beautiful surroundings and very calm.
I like to think I was trained by the best of them.
My family was in retail for over 70 years. One of my first jobs was working in a bookstore with an old hand at book retailing.
These people taught me to be busy! Do things. Rearrange the stock. Change the promotions around. Take care of the displays (visual merchandising in today speak.)
Once at the bookstore, this man, who was well into his 60’s was out the front moving the remaindered discount books around. I asked him what he was doing. He replied with just a touch of failed Shakespearean actor:
‘People are sticky beaks. They love to see what’s going on!”
What he meant was that action breeds action.
When people start buying there’s an energy in the room. It’s palpable. Everybody’s up. It’s the makings of a shark feeding frenzy.
Product knowledge is great, but boredom shows.
Don’t have your customer service as a still life work of art.
Percy Bysshe Shelley … Ode to a Control Freak
3 Nov
I had an amusing english teacher at High School. He had a loud voice and a pompous manner. He liked to peer at the more rebellious among us and proclaim quite stentoriously ‘shut up son or I’ll belt you!’ And back then, he did and they could. Under this man’s iron fisted rule I learned about certain poets and poetry. The only poem that I can still recite is Ozymandius:
‘I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert…’
The poet was that great pioneer of pop star literati poet loser Percy Shelley. He also wrote Ode to a Grecian Urn amongst other treasures. But Ozymandius has always fascinated me. A monumental king of kings > all gone, boom! Just a pile of dust.
Which brings me back to the blog. Control freaks. I kind of love them.
Just recently I was involved at a workplace. The minute I arrived and set up, a person was there, next to me.
Not to be at all sexist here, but it was a lady. A women. You know, the other sex.
She fixed me with her glaring gaze and started to let me know how things were done ‘around here.’ I nodded and smiled and occasionally muttered a phrase of complete understanding like ‘yeah sure.’ But I could see that she (who could have easily been a he) was lost somewhere. Maybe she was in the desert looking at the gigantic monument and trying to make out the visage. All I know is that she was on her own planet and i was only docking for a while.
Now, I’m experienced. I’ve been around the block a few times.
To be honest, I could have been a waiter at the last supper.
I’m skilled and reliable and people relate to me. When I teach they might not learn everything, but they have a good time, which makes for good learning. I use humour a lot to bring people back into the room and off their Iphones. It works for me. I get great feedback. All you have to do is tell me where and when, the topic/subject, any materials and leave me to it.
But this person, lets call them Ozzie had to control me. Why?
Well I thought about it later. What drives a control freak? Insecurity? A need for power? Recognition? Panic? Fear?
All of the above.
Control freaks should read some Shelley and start with Ozymandius.
‘I met a traveller from an antique land who said …’
What gets you up in the morning?
27 Oct
A good friend of mine and my former boss applied for a position with a company the other day. He was contacted by phone and one of the questions he was asked in a semi formal telephone interview was ‘What gets you up in the morning?’
I thought about that. Why he was asked that question when he was obviously a highly qualified and experienced candidate with a huge background and lots of runs on the board?
How do you answer that?
What’s the question driving at?
Some answers might be:
“I love my work. I’m lucky!”
“My kids school fees.”
“Life gets me up.”
“The smell of the coffee brewing.”
“The alarm clock.”
Sometimes it seems that HR people want to hear responses so that they won’t hire great people.
I know there must be some deep psychology behind that question, I just don’t know what it is, and I’m not criticising the HR person here. I’m sure they know why?
I get up for all the aforementioned reasons.
And I’m lucky … I do love my work. I don’t care what anyone else thinks.
Doing the absolute best that I can is just something that was hardwired in me by parents and circumstances.
But the barriers are put up. The hurdles to jump over.
People don’t score well in interviews for many reasons. Possibly the same reasons why different kids get bullied at school. They are different, unique, smart, sometimes odd, and … they don’t run with any pack.
As we all know, a lot of those kids went on to start up global phenomenons in the fields of art, business, music.
Let’s try and let the sometimes awkward ones in and lead them well. Stop putting up the hurdles.
Give them the confidence to do what they do best.
Do better things differently.
Revolutionise.
I believe it’s called constant improvement.
I just noticed that the clock is set to wake me at 8.02 PM. Better change that.