When AI CEOs Say This, It’s Time to Worry
We’ve seen reports that the heads of the world’s big AI developers have called for a slowdown in pace of development until they have time to work out the full implications of what they’re doing.
That’s a warning gun.
Whatever one thinks, if the “experts” recommend a course of action, one would be wise to listen. If our doctor recommends a course of treatment, do we ignore them? We can ask for a second opinion, but if that’s in agreement with the first, then we need to do something.
Needless to say, a world leader who shall -not-be-named immediately commented that the risks they foresee “will never happen”. Then they did…. Ask the Australian government.
I’ve already expressed my darts in at least one previous article on AI and it now appears that those weren’t altogether unfounded. Like anything else, AI is a tool and needs to be used correctly. Like any other tool, it can be used for good or evil purposes. Simple example: a Kitchen knife that can be purchased at any supermarket can be used for cutting vegetables or stabbing someone.
There are plenty of benefits to AI, just as there are with the Internet but as we move forward in this field, we need to understand the full implications of what can happen. I know of at least two examples where an AI product “hacked” another company’s database because it simply didn’t know that doing so was “wrong”.
By all means, let’s exploit AI for the not inconsiderable benefits it offers. It’s going to be part of our lives just like cars, trains and airplanes.
Let’s make sure that we use it correctly, responsibly and ethically, though.
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, Regulation, Risk
Have Scam Callers Created More Security Headaches for Banks?
At times banks or your credit card company needs to call to check information, usually if you’ve initiated a transaction that they think may be “suspicious”.
This arises from their fear that an unauthorised party may have obtained your security credentials and be using them.
Up till now, we’ve been happy to accept that the person on the other end of the phone claiming to be calling from Bank X or credit card company Y is indeed calling from that institution.
My question: how do we actually know this? The banks have several security questions that they can ask genuine customers to verify the customer's bona fides, but customers have nothing with which to verify that the caller claiming to be calling from their bank/credit card company initiates the call is indeed calling from that institution.
I’ve actually brought conversations to a quick halt when asking the caller, “How do I know you’re calling from (name of institution)?”
The short answer is, they can’t convince you and this is my point. There are so many potential scammers out there that people receiving genuine calls from their bank or card company may well be suspicious.
To get round this, we get emails from the institutions saying that they'll never ask us for our security code or other “personally identifiable data” but if we’re to be honest, there should be a system that works just as well on the customer’s side as on the institution’s for verifying caller identities.
Some have now started to get around this by using a smart phone app or system. As long as the customer is within range of Wi-Fi or is on 4G Internet, then things should still work. If they aren’t, there’s a problem.
Thanks to scammers, we're facing more fraud than ever and customers are rightly becoming more suspicious even where genuine calls are concerned.
I don’t see any easy way around this other than to continue examining how smart phone apps can be leveraged to reduce potential problems.
Thanks to scammers, the “direct call” from the bank will, I suspect, become a thing of the past.
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
Are Websites “Out of Fashion”?
I find myself asking this a lot in the market in which I work.
To explain: the population of the country in which I’m living and working is around 460,000. There are very few “large enterprises” employing 50 people or more.
Most businesses are in the MSME (Micro/Small/Medium Enterprise) category.
Designing and maintaining a website cost money. I’ve designed one myself using a provider that offered templates, etc, so that all I needed to do was produce the text and pictures, set the order in which I wanted pages to appear and then load them up for public view. I still had to pay an annual fee to keep it online...
Every month, I diarised to update certain pages with news, events, whatever I felt important or noteworthy.
This was for a one-person business. Now apply that to a large organisation with 100+ employees actively promoting different lines of business, events, newsworthy activities and so on and you find you need to employ at least one person to make sure the website stays up to date.
Add to that the increasing legal and regulatory demands on businesses that handle personal data belonging to their customers and you may need legal and specialised technical expertise to ensure that everything “as it should be”.
Small wonder than that many small businesses living “hand to mouth” don’t do it. It’s uneconomical and demands time perhaps better spent selling product.
Instead, they use Facebook, Instagram and any of the other instant messaging services to promote themselves. These may well appeal to the younger generation who are far more tech-savvy and tend to use this type of service far more than the “traditional” internet.
The constraint with such services is that they offer much less flexibility on how you promote yourself. Whilst a website allows you to have any number of pages you like (provided you pay for them!), many of the social media services limit you to posting photos. I’ve had quite a few problems checking to see if a business provided certain products and have been faced with a “wall” of pictures of different products, forcing me to “doom scroll” to see if they have what I need. I usually look elsewhere as a result.
Going back to the point I made about increasing regulation: how do you handle this on social media? The very fact that you might have a “Broadcast List” on WhatsApp, for example, means that you have personal data stored on a device that can be lost, stolen or otherwise tampered with.
The same could apply to a website. We’ve heard before of “Distributed Denial of Service” (DDS) attacks on organisations who have managed to displease some group or other as well as the “hacking“ of mainframes that contain customer information.
Technology provides a degree of flexibility and increased ability to reach out to a larger potential customer base but comes with its risks.
Back to the question of are websites “going out of fashion?” I’d say that, for large organisations with thousands of customers and a heavier regulatory load to bear, they’ll remain. Interestingly though, the younger generation tend not to think of checking to see if a website exists but rather goes straight to social media. In this sense, maybe they are going “out of fashion” but they still provide a comprehensive guide to a business, its values and service.
In short, a website does have its place and can add more value. The question is now: Will people think to look for one?
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
Answering Matters
These days, we’re under more pressure than ever and I suspect that the advent of AI is only going to make things worse!
Most workers, particularly in the “knowledge” industry are under pressure to do more in the same amount of time thanks to so-called “labour saving” methods that are constantly being introduced.
Unfortunately, you can’t pour more into a glass than that glass will hold.
One thing that I’ve noticed is the increasing number of complaints from applicants for jobs, customers emailing suppliers/service providers and others that they aren’t getting responses, let alone in a “timely” manner.
As I said above, people are under more pressure than ever before. In this case, what “gives” is their ability to respond to messages in a “timely” manner (if at all). It’s very possible that a message from one person may quickly get “buried” under the messages that come in after it.
The person handling those messages has only 24 hours in a day to handle those messages. In those same 24 hours, they have to do their “day job” as well, eat, sleep, attend meetings, help children with homework, support elderly relatives - the list is endless.
That said, what’s the solution to the “no answer issue”? Most of the time, my questions, queries and requests aren’t what I’d call “time – sensitive”, meaning that they don’t require an instant response. I don’t need (or want to) make a call every time something pops up. It’s unnecessary, maybe expensive as well if I’m calling overseas, and like as not I’ll get an automated response mechanism or an AI “chatbot” that’s incapable of making the intuitive leaps that are needed when dealing with humans.
How do we feel when we don’t get a response? Basically, that we “don’t matter” or “aren’t important enough” to deserve one.
We remain at the impasse of no response from what are probably “overloaded” workers. Just as the client waiting for a response feels “unimportant”, no doubt the workers tasked with responding feel “pressured”, “undervalued”, “misunderstood”, “unappreciated”.
Statistically speaking, the more a business grows, the more it can expect questions and queries from its customers. Dedicated phone lines and AI chatbots, however, can’t handle the volumes and yet employing “real humans” to deal with them increases costs…
This problem isn’t going to go away soon. We do need to be aware of its potential for reputational damage and lots of business, though, if we are to continue keeping our customers happy and, therefore, coming back for more.
We can start by asking questions such as:
- What are the typical queries we get?
- RR processes set up to handle them in a timely manner?
- What are the obstacles preventing a timely response from going out?
- Are we losing business as a result?
- What are Customer Services and surveys telling us?
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, Strategy, Teamwork
“The Wand Chooses the Wizard”
Those of you who’ve seen the “Harry Potter” films may remember this phrase from “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” – the first film in the series - when Harry visits Olivander’s to choose his first wand.
What struck me in both the book and film about this scene was how Mr. Olivander patiently allowed and even made Harry try out different wands to find out which would be most suited to him. Olivander was clearly a master of his craft and well understood the importance of “getting it right first time”.
Some years ago, I decided it was time to ditch the faithful Gillette Mach 3 razor I’d been using for over 10 years in favour of something that looked and felt “nicer”. There was nothing wrong with the Gillette handle, it was “just time” …
I ended up visiting a well-known London barber’s just off Jermyn Street. It has a quaint, “old-fashioned” front and one enters through a door inset to the right. Their wares are laid out on what look like mahogany shelves and under the glass-topped counter. The whole place reeks of “atmosphere” and the light aroma of men’s cologne. To the side is the barber shop.
I met the redoubtable Luis who patiently guided me through choosing the appropriate razor handle (that could take a Mach 3 razor cartridge!), shaving cream, shaving brush and shaving stand to hold brush and razor when not in use. Luis’ knowledge of the shaving products there was encyclopaedic, to say the least. His patience as I held and waved different razor handles around can only be described as “exemplary” and he was always willing to explain something in more detail, or to offer an honest opinion (rather than what he thought I wanted to hear!) as to the suitability or not of a product.
In the end, I walked out of the store somewhat poorer financially, but far richer in knowledge, a newly acquired shaving set and a desire to return to that store in the future (which I have, on several occasions). I’ve also sent my sone there and he was just as impressed by Luis.
In a world of fast everything, here was peace and calm, patience and understanding of the decision being taken. Here they not only sold you a product (or products), but they also sold trust and an experience. I now look forward to my morning shave and feel guilty if I “rush it”.
How many of us as business leaders strive to create that bond of knowledge and trust with our clients? How many of those “come back for more”?
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, Selling
Not Everyone Has Access…
… all of the time!
I’m talking about being able to access the internet, whether through a 5G connection or Wi-Fi.
Has anyone else noticed how many organisations now development apps that rely on A 24/7 internet connection?
It’s great whilst it works but, as the “automation paradox” tells us, the more we rely on technology, the more we struggle when it fails.
Another problem is that some of the mobile banking apps that I’ve encountered require authentication through a phone call to the user’s mobile. When that user is travelling and using a different country’s SIM for service in that country, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be available on the phone number linked to their “home SIM”. Unfortunately, some developers don’t seem to consider this a possibility…
There’s no doubt that the internet has significantly changed and improved our lives. We can access information, services, financial transactions all with the press of a button or the tap of an icon. What I find myself wondering, though, is whether the developers consider that there may be instances where internet won’t be available either because of blackouts, poor mobile service or other conditions.
It’s not going to stop developers developing apps that take advantage of the power of the internet. Hopefully, though, they’ve worked out that if anyone has a smart phone on which they can download the app, they will have internet access at least some of the time.
Where we as businesses rely on an “app” or internet connection to service our customers, should we be considering what happens when they can’t access our services? If so, what can we do in those (hopefully rare) cases?
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
“Decluttering”
Have you ever stopped to ask how much “clutter” we carry daily?
By this, I don’t mean mental clutter but rather the bits and pieces that we think are vital to our day-to-day existence.
The problem is, we may need different things at different times, in different place or for different purposes in our lives. For example, if I commute from home by train to my place of work, I might need different things for a train trip than for a 10-minute car journey.
Equally, going out shopping at the weekend again needs different stuff.
Personal experience tells me that I need to declutter at least once a year. This means taking a good hard look at everything in the messenger bag I take to work every day and asking myself, “is this still necessary for my daily needs, or am I just packing it for something that’s unlikely to happen?”
I’ve watched countless “EDC” videos on YouTube where different presenters show the different stuff they carry as part of their Everyday Carry (hence the initials “EDC”). I’ve no doubt that some of these are genuinely necessary, but if we all went down the proverbial “YouTube rabbit hole”, we’d end up spending huge amounts of money on stuff that we might never actually have a use for but is there “Just in case”.
So, back to basics: I need to constantly ask myself, “Does this have a place in my bag or pocket?” Remember: the more you think you need, the more space you need to carry it, the more weight you’re carrying and the larger the bag/pack you need.
At present, there are only two items I like to have in my pocket at any time and in any place (my iPhone and a Swiss Army knife, if you must know). These respond to 98% (if not 99%) of my day-to-day, minute to minute needs.
If I step out of the house, I’ll add my sunglasses, money clip with “minimal” cash, house and car keys. I have a “MagSafe” wallet attached to my iPhone in which I keep my debit, credit and identity cards, so that’s always with my iPhone.
That’s it. Whether I’m at home or stepping out quickly, 90% of my needs are covered. My life is simple because I live in an urbanised area where stores, restaurants and other conveniences are usually close to hand and I don’t need supplies of snacks or liquids to keep going.
If, however, I lived in an extremely rural setting and the nearest town was 5 miles away, from the items mentioned above, I might well need to take water, snacks, perhaps a lighter and even extra clothing to cope with changes in the weather when going out, particularly if I was going far from any other habitation. In this case, it makes sense to take more.
The point is, depending on the situation, what we really need is going to change. There’s no point in continuing to carry something if it’s no longer needed 90% of the time we’re out.
What could you get rid of to make your life simpler, lighter (and perhaps less expensive)?
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
