Ok, that title probably doesn't do what it's supposed to. I was going for the allusion to the old anti-drug commercials using the egg to illustrate how one's brain would be fried by drugs.
Anyways, I wanted to share another Customer Service Moment of Excellence I experienced last week. I had to book a business trip to Halifax for later this month. Now the departure was more than two weeks, so I was expecting to get a decent rate. I always try to book early to save the company a few bucks.
I called Carlson-Wagonlit, who handles our corporate travel. I'm always very impressed when I work with them. Sean (Shawn? Shaun?) with whom I often deal, is the epitome of a customer service professional. This time I was a bit disappointed to get Paula.
My disappointment vanished quite quickly. Paula displayed all the personality that Sean usually impressed me with. Things proceeded well with her providing a couple of different options. However, I thought things had gone south when the price was almost 50% more than I had expected. I stated that to Paula, and she agreed. Then she won me over completely. She let me know that she would need some time to try out a few other options to see if she could find me a better price. She wanted to be conscious of my time and asked if she could let me go, and email me those options in 20 minutes?
As I'm on vacation at the moment, I was quite pleased to go back to cleaning my office and agreed readily. 20 minutes later there was a perfect option in my email!
Paula thought. She thought about me.
Keep it up Carlson-Wagonlit. You are at the top of my list for customer service!
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Saturday, 8 September 2007
The Mourning
Forgive me, for I have sinned. Today, I killed a poor defenseless coffee. An extra-large Timmie's with double cream, (carelessly placed in harms way by JP) was innocently resting on the bumper of the van when I closed the back hatch. In less than a second it was crushed, coursing it's caffeine goodness on the ground (and making one heck of a mess in the back of the van.)
It will be missed.
It will be missed.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Fire-Fighting isn't Good Business
Now before anyone gets the wrong idea, this is not a post about our noble emergency service workers. I view them with nothing less than awe. These people would risk their lives to save mine, and they don't even know me.
This post is about business in North America. Talking with a number of associates from different industries, and looking at the literature out there I've come to realize that many organizations spend most of their effort in putting out fires. That is to say that they only have time to fix the things that are critically broken. There is never time to build or grow as an organization.
When organizations engage in change efforts, they are often radical change efforts. "We are redefining ourselves." "We are going to shake up the company."
A post by Tom Vander-Well titled The Mantra of Mediocrity got me thinking about this in the context of Call Quality.
I've seen the Fire-Fighting approach to Call Quality:
I've also seen the radical change approach:
The Fire-Fighting approach 'Over-Solves' the immediate symptom and rarely improves actual Call Quality. Unfortunately, most radical change efforts fail as well. The amount of resources and energy to lead a radical change effort are immense and generally not available as they are devoted to fighting fires.
Instead of Fire-Fighting or radical change, we need to consider true continuous improvement. I'm especially enamoured of Jim Collins' Flywheel concept. The idea that we continuously give that flywheel small pushes, speeding up the wheel to incredible speeds and ultimately making that Breakthrough.
This post is about business in North America. Talking with a number of associates from different industries, and looking at the literature out there I've come to realize that many organizations spend most of their effort in putting out fires. That is to say that they only have time to fix the things that are critically broken. There is never time to build or grow as an organization.
When organizations engage in change efforts, they are often radical change efforts. "We are redefining ourselves." "We are going to shake up the company."
A post by Tom Vander-Well titled The Mantra of Mediocrity got me thinking about this in the context of Call Quality.
I've seen the Fire-Fighting approach to Call Quality:
"Agents aren't branding! We must fix this. We'll start doing monitors that only listen to the opening and make sure the agents brand. Anyone who doesn't will receive a Zero Score."
I've also seen the radical change approach:
"Our CSAT has dropped 5 percentage points. We need to completely redesign our Quality Guideline!"
The Fire-Fighting approach 'Over-Solves' the immediate symptom and rarely improves actual Call Quality. Unfortunately, most radical change efforts fail as well. The amount of resources and energy to lead a radical change effort are immense and generally not available as they are devoted to fighting fires.
Instead of Fire-Fighting or radical change, we need to consider true continuous improvement. I'm especially enamoured of Jim Collins' Flywheel concept. The idea that we continuously give that flywheel small pushes, speeding up the wheel to incredible speeds and ultimately making that Breakthrough.
Saturday, 1 September 2007
Numbers
Why do people think numbers have intrinsic meaning. In my work as a Quality Analyst I provide numerical expressions of the state of affairs in customer service. But all too often people look at the numbers as if the actual values were important. 85% is bad where 90% is good?
If I tell a company that their customer satisfaction is 85%, do they need to improve, or are they doing too much? The number is meaningless out of context, but so many people look at it as if it mattered.
A few years back I designed a quality assessment program for customer service where a baseline score was 60%. Managers were absolutely terrified when they saw Quality Scores of 70% being reported. They knew that quality was bad unless the score said 90%.
If I tell a company that their customer satisfaction is 85%, do they need to improve, or are they doing too much? The number is meaningless out of context, but so many people look at it as if it mattered.
A few years back I designed a quality assessment program for customer service where a baseline score was 60%. Managers were absolutely terrified when they saw Quality Scores of 70% being reported. They knew that quality was bad unless the score said 90%.
Saturday, 25 August 2007
Vulgarity in the Workplace
Linguistic propriety has gone out the window in the workplace. Walk into any retail establishment and I'm sure you won't have to wait long to hear a clerk use some sort of profanity. Wander the halls of any large corporation and you will hear vulgarity used as every part of speech by senior management (yes every part of speech - there are those who use swear words as prepositions).
What a sad state of affairs.
What a sad state of affairs.
Friday, 24 August 2007
I'm The Problem
One incredibly common theme in many of the organizations I know (either directly through my own involvement, or indirectly through associates and friends) is an unwillingness to take responsibility. The ability some people have to deflect is absolutely astounding.
The line blames management. The management blames the support groups. The support groups blame the senior leadership. Senior leadership blames the line. No one is willing to say: "This is my responsibility. What I'm doing isn't achieving the results the organization needs. I need to change what I'm doing."
In my own organization, I've decided to approach each challenge from the point of view that "I'm the problem." Every challenge that I'm facing must first be met with an assumption that there is something I could do differently to overcome that challenge. I think I've generally approached things that way, but I've never formalized it quite like this before.
It will be interesting to see if it has an impact.
Development Group: "It's not our fault. The Database Group didn't design the database properly!"
Database Group: "It's not our fault. The Development Group didn't give us the correct specs."
The line blames management. The management blames the support groups. The support groups blame the senior leadership. Senior leadership blames the line. No one is willing to say: "This is my responsibility. What I'm doing isn't achieving the results the organization needs. I need to change what I'm doing."
In my own organization, I've decided to approach each challenge from the point of view that "I'm the problem." Every challenge that I'm facing must first be met with an assumption that there is something I could do differently to overcome that challenge. I think I've generally approached things that way, but I've never formalized it quite like this before.
It will be interesting to see if it has an impact.
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
Language
Those of you who know me, know that I have a bit of an ongoing fascination with English. I'm often overly excited by a particularly well turned phrase. I greatly enjoy both conversation and reading. If you've ever chatted with me using an Instant Messenger, you'll know that, in a medium with a brutal disdain for grammar, I tend to fully structure sentences and use punctuation.
I'm not sure where this particular fascination came from. Is my reading habit a cause, or an effect? Regardless, I realized this evening, as I was reading Robert Service's poem Call of the Wild that sometimes, the power of language truly transcends it's content. There are a number of poems that affect me that way:
I think we underestimate the power that effectiveness in our spoken and written language has over others. I can't speak to the impact in other languages, but so many of us are judged by the ability we demonstrate in English. People think I'm particularly intelligent, not for the content of my thinking, but for the manner in which I communicate it. Boy do I have them fooled.
Cultivate language. It has a power to impact. It can influence in a manner that transcends the power of the content. I do not advocate style over substance, but rather advocate that substance must be presented with style, or be lost in the endless sea of banality.
I'm not sure where this particular fascination came from. Is my reading habit a cause, or an effect? Regardless, I realized this evening, as I was reading Robert Service's poem Call of the Wild that sometimes, the power of language truly transcends it's content. There are a number of poems that affect me that way:
- Kipling's If
- Masefield's Sea Fever
- Clough's Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth
- Rossetti's Remember
I think we underestimate the power that effectiveness in our spoken and written language has over others. I can't speak to the impact in other languages, but so many of us are judged by the ability we demonstrate in English. People think I'm particularly intelligent, not for the content of my thinking, but for the manner in which I communicate it. Boy do I have them fooled.
Cultivate language. It has a power to impact. It can influence in a manner that transcends the power of the content. I do not advocate style over substance, but rather advocate that substance must be presented with style, or be lost in the endless sea of banality.
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