If Only…
I had a memorable episode which showed me the importance of “covering all the bases".
For some time, I’ve been looking for one of those adjustable desks that moves up and down at the touch of a button. I don’t like to bend over a computer if I only have a quick bit of work to do but equally if I have a lot, then I prefer to sit at a desk.
I finally found my “dream desk” in one of our local stores. It looked good, had the correct electronics, a wire holder under the desk for holding things like power strips and a hook for holding a pair of headphones.
So, what went wrong? I asked the salesperson to show me the desk “in action” (i.e. make it go up and down on its electric motor). The desk wasn’t plugged in to an electric socket, as the nearest one was about 3 m away. Luckily, the store had an extension cable which it was easy to plug into that distant socket and then move closer to the desk. We plugged in the desk, but nothing happened. We looked for the instruction manual and here was the second problem: it was all in Chinese characters and no one could read it.
Where I live and work, three languages are spoken, one of which is Chinese. Unfortunately, they couldn’t put their hands on manuals in the other languages. So, there we were needing a “troubleshooting guide” and not being able to do anything about it…
I was more disappointed than annoyed. After all the desk looked right, had everything I needed and if they had had one that worked and/or a troubleshooting guide, they could have made a sale. Unfortunately, it looked like they now simply had a desk.
We need to make sure we get the details right. There’s no point in putting something on display if you can’t sell it (how many times have we said we wanted to buy a particular item in a store only to be told “Sorry, that’s just a display model.”) If it’s a display model, and you have no other stock, then take it off the display.
Equally if something is on display and stock is available, sales staff need to know how to make it work, where to find the manual and the manual needs to be in the appropriate language.
In retrospect, all of this seems “common sense”. However, it’s surprising how often we encounter cases where the “sense” isn’t so “common”.
What can we as business leaders do to make sure we cover as many of these little details that could lose our business as possible?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email.
Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Teamwork
The “Funnel Effect”
I received an email from a client at he beginning of this year announcing new legislation in their country. It contained one short sentence: “Please find attached letter regarding XXX reforms that will now come into effect in February 2025“.
I got it some three weeks before the “reforms” were due to come into effect. Not much time to react…
Attached to the email was a “Supplier Letter” containing links to various websites.
Instead of explaining the changes this might require for our relationship, the sender left all recipients to work things out for themselves. They deal with multiple small suppliers in different countries. Not all of these speak good English and have little time to decode the complexities of (in this case) UK legislation.
This is a great example of “funnel management” in action. The organisation concerned thought, no doubt, that they had done their job by sending this letter but I suspect that many of their counterparties won’t read it and will wait until they are told what action to take. I wrote back thanking them for the letter and asking them to explain the impact it would have on our relationship. I still haven’t received a response half way through the year.
We’re all busy, I know. However, I suspect that this particular organisation will find that it’s potentially storing up more problems for itself than it solves in the long run.
It’s within our gift to make things work by being as clear as possible. Our colleagues, customers and counter parties will thank us for it. Letting others work things out for themselves may be a recipe for more problems further down the line.
How do we as leaders ensure that our people and counter parties get timely information in a form that is easy to understand and act on?
How often are we guilty of the same error as the counterparty in this story?
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Risk
Do We Assume Too Much?
“Assume makes an ass out of you and me.”
As technology improves and people are educated in different ways and at different speeds, are we falling into the trap of assuming everybody has a certain “basic level of knowledge” when writing operating instructions, etc, for them?
If we’re operating in our “home market” then we might be justified in this assumption. After all, most people should have been educated and “brought up” the same way as us.
Not everyone has the same background, understanding and educational level in particular subject areas as everyone else. One only has to look at instruction manuals for technological gadgets to see this in action.
As I found through experience, this is the case when living and working overseas. Different cultures view things very differently and the same applies more and more even in our “home market” where immigration has resulted in diversification of cultures, societal norms, attitudes and needs.
If we’re going to service customers effectively in the future, we need to be aware of these differences. I can think of one example in which “cultural norms” have been overturned: the concept of postal deliveries. Where I live in work, mail is delivered to a PO Box at a local post office. The only delivery to one’s home address is certain government documents. Contrast this with, say, the UK where post is delivered direct to one’s doorstep. As a result of this, some people have difficulty understanding why I have a PO Box mailing address as they’ve never experienced an environment where this was necessary.
We need to educate both our children and our employees to understand that things are different in other countries and cultures and that there’s no “right” way of doing things.
I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.
Labels: Customer Care, Leadership, Strategy
