Communication and Customer Service
One of my recent experiences showed me how crucial good and clear communication can be in providing quality customer service.
As the world “goes global”, we find ourselves dealing with call centres outside our own country, with people whose first language may not be our first language, all combined with the bureaucracy that’s part and parcel of large organisations (particularly financial services) in today’s world.
I finally realised something was wrong when email communication with the particular individual resulted in exactly the same email with exactly the same wording coming back to me every time that I thought I had explained and clarified something. Finally, I called the company’s Customer Service Hotline and was able to clarify exactly what the individual was trying to tell me.
Not only did this show me how vital clear communication is in providing service to others, but it also showed me that it will continue to be a problem that we need to understand and to deal with. Despite the best intentions of “the other person”, misunderstandings can and will occur.
The trick is being able to resolve the situation quickly. It did take me a while to realise something was very wrong with the communication between me and “the other guy”. Once I worked it out, I was able to devise a solution and achieve the expected result.
Some may say, “Surely it was up to the company and the company representative to devise the solution for you the customer?” In answer: yes, one could take that attitude but then would it actually, move me further towards the goal I had set myself or would it simply turn into a game of “saving face”?
How can we as “Customer Service” businesses ensure that our communication is as clear as possible and, at the same time, devise processes where there is clearly an issue?
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, Risk
A First Attempt in Learning!
One of the more useful (but frustrating!) learning experiences I’ve had was dealing with someone who just set up their own business producing “environmentally friendly” business cards.
His product was simple: take a company’s business card, transfer it to a credit card-size piece of plastic and embed a chip that held all the details of the business card. Along with this, a QR code was printed on the card which took you to a site giving you the same business card information. Even better, with certain brands of smart phone, just touching the card to the smart phone automatically transferred all business card information onto the smartphone and the user could then save it as a new contact. Brilliant idea. Environmentally friendly. Practical.
The downside was that, whilst the concept was sound, execution was flawed. After three months of working with this business trying to produce a professional card, we finally gave up. It’s not something that comes naturally or easily to businesspeople. The problem was that we could see no end in sight; there was always something wrong in the dummy copies produced. What’s more, we were asked to pay for the cards before they were delivered so we would pay and then receive a card that wasn’t fit for purpose.
Sometime ago, I wrote about knowing when to hold, fold, or walk away. In this instance we decided to walk away. We sent what we considered was a polite message thanking the business for their efforts and making a goodwill payment for the work they had done. The amount of work we had put in designing, proofreading several erroneous print runs and explaining what a business card was used for was far higher than the value of the card.
The other business’ reaction? Not prepared to accept any accountability for their errors. Instead, we got a catalogue of excuses, including the well-worn “No one else has had a problem with this.” Maybe no one had had a problem with this before, but there’s always a first time for everything.
This is a project we’d still like to pursue with the right partner. One day even the business that we walked away from may have perfected its operating model, in which case great. We’d far rather support a growing local small business than deal with a large, faceless corporate entity. The trouble is, they need to have a sound business operating model.
This was also a great learning opportunity for us. We learned the importance of explaining our particular branding, the message behind it and to be able to design artwork suitable for transferring onto a medium other than paper. Yes, we lost a bit of money, but we learnt far more from our mistakes and assumptions and the consequences that arose. We’ll know better how to proceed the next time.
In the meantime, we’ll still have to use “paper” business cards.
Just because something ends in failure or we have to walk away, it can still be a lesson. The trick is to learn from that experience, and not repeat the same mistake. In this case, neither of us were ready for the other.
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, Selling, Teamwork
7 Signs of Great Leaders
We’ve only experienced them: “good” and “bad” leaders. Sometimes we know what it is that makes them a “good” or “bad”. At others we may take more time to identify exactly what it is.
Eric Partaker has managed to distil seven qualities of “good” leader leaders.
1. He starts with the fact that a good leader always gives you credit. Your hard work is noticed, recognised and they make sure everyone knows that you contributed to the team success.
2. Good leaders also welcome other people’s ideas. They create an environment where it’s safe to for their people to give voice to thoughts and suggestions. There’s no paranoia about being “outshone”.
3. Good leaders also encourage and support their staff in developing. Good ones offer opportunities and really push you to be the best you can be.
4. Something that’s (perhaps comparatively) rare is that a good leader cares for their people’s well-being (not trust their work). They check in regularly and make sure you get support when you’re facing difficult times.
5. Even rarer (in some cultures), but following on from 4 above, is that good leaders respect their workers’ personal time. In fact, they encourage them to take time off and really “disconnect” from work.
6. They lead by example. In other words, good leaders “walk the walk” (and talk). They’ll also hold their workers to high standards and hold them accountable for maintaining them (and show them the consequences of failing to do so). They’ll train them in these standards, but they won’t micromanage them; if they do, it means they aren’t willing to make them accountable.
7. Finally (and the trickiest feature for some) is that good leaders think about how their decision decisions affect others. They’ll explain their decisions and help their people overcome any changes that these bring about. They’ll also do what’s best for everyone’s and the organisation’s long-term future.
In short, as one of my friends said, “leadership is about legwork” - walking the talk, checking in with people, asking for ideas and showing the way.
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: Career, Leadership, Teamwork
What If…?
At the beginning of August 2024, I read an article about how everyday tasks considered “simple” suddenly became time-intensive and needed considerable effort.
What happened? Answer: the Internet went down. What were some of the consequences?
One of the first was that paying utility bills required users to go to the relevant utility provider’s office with cash.
Another was that digital and online banking payments were no longer available. Cash became inaccessible and everyday life became an issue.
People couldn’t pay their credit cards online and they couldn’t recharge their mobile phone accounts.
Streaming and other entertainment services ceased to be. Instead, people had to revert to terrestrial TV or radio (that is, assuming that they had “old-fashioned” radios that could pick up air bands, rather than a radio that relied on an internet signal).
People couldn’t book transport, flights, trains, hotels, or other travel and hospitality. Communications on a corporate and operational level were completely overthrown.
Ride hailing and food delivery apps were no longer available.
Before you ask, this wasn’t in the UK, US or other “developed” country but a “developing” one…
The result: many people had to look at how they lived their lives with fresh eyes. Should they keep a spare stock of cash at home? For those who didn’t have “landlines” should they install a telephone landline for at least the basic communication needs of their household? What about an “old-fashioned radio”?
All this shows how dependent modern society is on internet services and their continuing and reliable supply. Modern life is, thanks to this phenomenon, more “fragile” and leaves us more dependent on the internet than in the past.
One of the good things, though, to come out of this was that people spent more time together, renewing friendships as opposed to staring at a screen. Some discovered former long forgotten pastimes and hobbies.
People were given a hard lesson in taking the internet for granted and making sure that in future, should it go down, they were not left as vulnerable as on this recent occasion.
There’s a reason that broadband internet is now known as “the fourth utility”. It has become as necessary to daily life as water, electricity and gas.
How can we as business leaders ensure that not only our businesses, but also our workers and families are best equipped to deal with an internet outage? It’s almost like preparing for another pandemic that forces us to stay at home (hopefully with the convenience of internet!).
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: Crisis Management, Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Risk, Strategy
“Foreign Influence”
From time to time I read with great amusement comments by various statesman or other influential people about the need to “purge foreign influences“ or “not succumb to foreign influences“.
At times it may be understandable: people don’t want to lose their national identity. Some comments suggest more these people are living on a different planet. Let’s see: they wake up in the morning thanks to an alarm set on their “foreign” smart phone. If they are still of the type who wish to use an actual alarm clock, it will probably won’t be made in their country.
After getting up, they (one hopes) shower using shower products made in any number of other countries, after which they dry themselves on a towel again made (most likely) in China.
They then dress in clothes made overseas (in India, Bangladesh, China or if they can afford it, Parris, Milan, Savile Row).
They then have a cup of coffee for which they boil the water in their Chinese or Korean kettle. After that, they leave the house and, if they drive themselves to work, most do so in a car made in China, Japan, Korea, Germany, the UK, or the USA.
On arriving at work (at the local subsidiary of, say, an overseas bank) they go to their desk and switch on a computer made in China, Korea, the USA. Their desk and office chair may well have been manufactured in a different country as well.
For lunch, they may well decide with their colleagues to go out for foreign food. After leaving work and driving home in their foreign car, they change and relax in front of their Japanese, Korean or European TV.
Dinner may be a simple affair: a microwaved meal, cooked in their Korean microwave. Afterwards they load the dirty dishes and cutlery into a Korean or German dishwasher. Following a relaxing cold drink from the Korean made fridge, they head upstairs to bed before beginning the whole process the next day again.
The lust to “purge foreign influences” seems characteristic of national populists and those trying to carry favour with a minority of the population.
Unless we go and live in a remote cave, “foreign influences” can no more be purged from our lives than can our hearts or lungs. Like the latter, they are an integral part. Were we to genuinely “purge” them, we’d be left stark naked, with no (or very few) possessions and probably little gainful employment.
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: Leadership, Leisure, Social
When "IT" Goes "OUT"
The July 2024 IT “outage” caused by a flaw in a Content Validator Component sent out by a cyber security company caused a degree of chaos throughout the world.
Businesses in industries ranging from aviation to finance to medical care using Microsoft operating systems were affected. Fixing the problem took time with, apparently, any device affected having to be restarted up to 15 times before it could work.
Flights around the world were cancelled and airports saw chaotic scenes with some passengers being presented handwritten boarding passes. Hospital appointments systems failed to function.
Whilst technology is, in theory, making lives easier, episodes such as this show how heavily reliant we are on interconnected systems. As with the global financial crisis of 2008 - 2012, where interlinked banks had to be bailed out by taxpayers or left to fail, so a wide variety of institutions and organisations were affected by this episode.
Although we’re told that the cause was a “defective update”, no one knows whether this will happen again. Even if security companies improve their processes to ensure that critical updates are “bug-free”, there’s still room for error.
This isn’t the first “once in a blue moon” episode of a defective program being released. We’ve already had plenty of examples of malicious “hacking” of government and industrial systems designed to spread chaos. This case seems to have been due to human error.
I’m lucky. I use a Mac! My business (which uses Microsoft) also wasn’t impacted. But how many of our partners might have been? What of the class action suits and cases for damages that will now be brought? Does the company concerned have a future?
It got me thinking: whilst IT’s designed to benefit us in the long run, there are still plenty of potential hazards that can impact global business. Is there anything we can do to mitigate this? There’s no way we can avoid future occurrences. Not many companies, unless they’re global multinationals, will be in a position to insert penalty clauses into agreements with security software companies which say that, if the client suffers loss as a direct result of errors or omissions by that company, the security company will compensate them. In these cases, security companies would most likely go out of business very fast, leaving the world potentially a more vulnerable place.
What can we as business leaders do to minimise the impact of such an event? We need to examine our processes and determine how many are reliant on functioning IT. Once that’s been done, is there a “manual workaround” that can be used? Can our counterparties, particularly our “vital suppliers” do the same? What would happen if their systems suffered a similar occurrence? Could they still continue to supply us with the goods or services needed for our business?
Each and every business and its leaders will need to develop their own solutions in order to reduce potential impacts the next time (and there will be a next time) this happens.
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: Crisis Management, Customer Care, Leadership, Productivity, Risk, Strategy, Teamwork
Cash - “So Last Century”?
With the proliferation of non-cash payment services, should we be surprised if we start hearing that cash is “so last century”?
Before COVID, we were accustomed to using credit cards for in-store shopping and to pay for goods and services purchased online. COVID accelerated significantly the speed of non-cash service development as people did their best to avoid contact with any surface that might carry germs. I remember vividly the first time I travelled back to the UK as the COVID crisis drew to a close and, on landing, when I offered cash in payment for something, was asked if I had a debit card. Of course, I did and was able to use this, but the surprise was still there.
Not only can we make payments by simply swiping a card close to a card reader, but we can also make them direct from our smart phone or even our watch!
The humble cheque, so beloved of our parents and the “check guarantee card” that went with it (at least in the UK) has completely disappeared with the advent of direct online transfers. It won’t be long before cash becomes a thing of the past in some markets.
For cash to disappear entirely, every store and online merchant will need appropriate systems in place. Inevitably, these cost money. For the small corner store in a remote village in the Himalayas, cash will remain king. If non-cash payments are to truly become the norm, then the cost of processing them for merchants must decline to almost zer0 or at least to the level where it becomes more profitable for them to use cashless payments than cash.
The flipside of this is that, in the same remote village, people paying for goods and services will also need the tools to do so, that is, a debit card (or smartwatch!)
Interestingly, one bank in the UK at least has stopped issuing debit cards on its customers’ accounts. Why they’ve done this, I can only guess, but it appears to be because they don’t wish their accounts to be used for “small” purchases (and, perhaps, because the cost of producing the cards for their target customers compared with the number of times they’re used simply isn’t justified). Their risk is that customers will simply transfer balances kept with that bank to one that still does offer a card.
Added to this, the likes of Apple Pay require users to have at least one credit (if not debit) card to use their service. Whilst cash may disappear or become a rare commodity (no doubt to the delight of central banks and governments worldwide!), cards will now be the rule.
Cards themselves bring other risks. We hear countless anecdotes of cards being “scammed” or “cloned”. There are now scanners that can read the information on one’s credit card from distances under one metre. Cash at least provided some security against this, although not against muggings.
Our payments horizon is changing. Cheques have disappeared, cards are the norm, cash is common still. Frankly, I didn’t see it becoming “last century” any time soon, at least not until the global payments system becomes sufficiently cost effective for even small kiosk-type traders to use.
Our business still doesn’t take payments by debit or credit card - yet, but I suspect it’ll be only a matter of time before we bow to the inevitable.
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, Financial, Strategy
