Missing the Menu
A friend sent me a funny video of an elderly person who went to his local pub for a pint and a pie and, instead of ordering at the bar as he was accustomed to do, was told to “scan the QR code”.
The story’s narrated as a song and proceeds to detail the problems that this gentleman had: an old Nokia “dumb phone” and no ability to log on via QR code. In the end he gives up in disgust and goes home for dinner instead.
Why he chose to go and eat at his local pub instead of with his wife is neither here nor there, but what it does highlight is the trend amongst restaurants to ask patrons to scan a QR code rather than providing a menu. I realise that this may well be okay for the younger “tech savvy’ generations but some of us (me included!) still prefer a “traditional” menu as it’s easier to read than it is on a “smartphone”.
The “traditional” menu allows us to scan multiple dishes at a time and pick the combination that suits best. The downside with many menus viewed on a smart phone is that one may see only one or, at most, two choices at a time.
Result: it takes longer to order and there’s a risk that people may make a mistake or duplicate a dish due to clumsy fingers or other factors.
Some say that the QR process makes things “more efficient”. My question is: “For whom?” For those of us who pay to go out to eat, efficiency is about serving staff who know the menu, can provide advice, repeat one’s order back and can be summoned if things are slow to come or there’s something wrong with the meal. Generally, restaurant staff are still available, but part of the dining experience is interacting with others and this is now being taken away in the interests of “efficiency”.
One has two choices: either accept the inevitability of “technological progress” in what has been until now a social interaction or to patronise only restaurants that offer a “physical” menu, provide working experience to young people whilst teaching them customer service and other life skills.
Another option for restaurants might be to have boards on which favourite or best-selling dishes are displayed for those who don’t want to use technology. Not only would it retain business, but it would also help shift popular dishes or even “low-moving” ones if the restaurant so wished!
Question: is going out to eat a social experience for diners and restaurant staff or is it becoming a “commodity” where diners go in, eat, and leave in the shortest possible time?
Are we, in our efforts to make our businesses or staff more “efficient”, driving our best customers away?
I deliver change in markets ranging 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, Productivity, Selling, Social
Stop the Scripts?
It seems increasingly that the operators in Help or Call Centres are being obliged to follow a set script when dealing with customers.
This may be to ensure that they don’t say anything that might compromise their employer; hence no deviation from the “approved wording”.
The flip side is that this makes customer interactions longer than necessary. For customers whose time may be limited, the process of allowing the “conversation” to run its course can be frustrating and result (as it has for me!) in loss of patience as some poor operator is obliged to read out pages of legalese, statutory warnings or cautions.
It’s not their fault. If they don’t do it, they could land their employer in trouble. The world is becoming more regulated and proscriptive (no pun intended) at the expense of satisfactory customer experiences.
Some businesses may have no choice (particularly in the financial services sector where a slip could cost an institution millions). There must come a time, however, when the customer’s needs matter more than potential corporate liability.
Equally, if the problem in question doesn’t fall under the “standard script”, operators are often left not knowing what to do. This is especially the case where there seems to be no escalation procedure for them to hand the customer over to a more experienced colleague (although in some cases I believe this is improving).
What’s the solution? First of all, if we can, hire staff with the right “qualifications”. Yes, they may be more expensive, but in the long run if there’s increased customer satisfaction when dealing with our businesses, isn’t that worth it?
Another solution might be to provide proper training on call handling rather than simply putting them at a desk with a phone. I suspect this does happen, but that the training simply involves using the “approved scripts”.
I’m sure some people will suggest that AI is the way to go. In the future, it may well be but at present my experience of AI “chatbot” is uniformly poor. The AI needs to be trained a lot more before it can successfully handle a customer interaction, especially in cases where escalation is needed.
I deliver change in markets ranging 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, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
I Dumped the Games
Since I got my first Apple device (an iPod Touch) in 2011, I’ve always had some kind of game or games on my iPhone and tablet.
These were normally the more cerebral or strategy games, not Mario Kart, Candy Crush Saga, Grand Theft Auto, etc and I enjoyed playing them. From time to time, I tried out new games (Sudoku and different variations of Solitaire) but I found that I grew tired of them at an increasingly rapid pace.
So, this year, without making any New Year’s Resolution, I ditched my games. The result was interesting to say the least. I suddenly found that I had more time on my hands. My ToDo list began to shrink. I actually started to plan a lot more and in a lot more detail. I read.
I come from “that generation” who didn’t grow up with smart devices as the current Gen. Z, Alphas and now Betas are. I didn’t have to undergo the “withdrawal symptoms” that teenagers in some countries are feeling now as their governments ban social media accounts for under 16s or under 13s as they deem appropriate.
When my generation wanted diversion, we read books (paper ones), went outside and played with our siblings or friends if we lived in a neighbourhood (of course, it was safer at that time). We drew things, we played with that wonderful toy Lego, inventing aeroplanes, space ships and anything else that caught our imagination.
We developed the ability to think and create. There’s now some concern that technology (especially with the advent of AI) is destroying the human creative genius. Whether that’s the case or not, I don’t know. However, if Hollywood’s anything to go by, there are fewer “original” films being produced and what we’re seeing now are mostly “reboots” of films produced in the 70s and 80s before CGI became as advanced as it is.
Back to what I was saying: I don’t miss the games. They’re still sitting there on my iPhone and iPad, but if I make it through to the end of this year without touching them, I’m deleting them altogether. I think this’ll probably make me a more thoughtful and productive person (at least I hope so!)
I deliver change in markets ranging 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: Leisure, Productivity
A Retinal Retrospective
In 2023 I received what for me could be called a major “reality check”.
Whilst having dinner with friends and trying to dislodge a piece of food stuck between my teeth with a toothpick, I suffered a detached retina. For anyone who doesn’t know, this is when the layer of cells responsible for your sight literally “peels off” the back of the eyeball, releasing blood into the liquid inside the eyeball. For me, it was like somebody had poured treacle into my eyeball and my vision became blurry.
One month later I finally managed to get an appointment with an eye specialist who took one look at me and immediately called their colleagues at the local hospital to schedule a full checkup and surgery. Apparently, I was on the point of losing sight in my right eye!
The next day I was examined at the hospital, taken straight up to a ward and operated on early the following morning. The surgery was a success but they did warn me that at my age, it was highly likely that a cataract would form. This, however, could be treated with a standard lens replacement operation.
True to their word, the cataract did form and for me it was like looking through a heavily frosted glass window if I looked out of my right eye only. After the surgery, the vision in my right eye was just short of “perfect”!
The reason I describe this as a “wake up call” was that it showed me how dependent I was on having good eyesight. I drive, enjoy reading and watching films and I’m what people might call a “visual” person. It terrified me to think that all this could have disappeared if the doctors hadn’t seen me in time. Yes, it was only one eye, but losing the site in that eye (which was my “dominant” one) would have been a serious inconvenience for me.
However, the ending was a happy one, I can see almost perfectly and even now, three years after the operation for the detached retina and two years after the one for the cataract, I still sometimes forget to put on my glasses when I leave the house. This just shows the incredible skill of the surgeons who operated on me.
Yes, I’m more or less back to “normal”, but I now take my eyesight and hearing a lot more seriously and attend “religiously” all scheduled health checkups and appointments that my age requires.
Question: what would you do if you were deprived of one of your senses? How would it impact your life, family and business? Are you making sure it doesn’t happen? More to the point, apply this to your team: is there that “vital” person with whom you can’t do without? What about buyers? If you lost business from one, would that bring down your business?
I deliver change in markets ranging 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: Crisis Management, Customer Care, Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
