Hi, all,
We’re approaching 1000 posts on Shop Talk, and I’m reflecting on the mission and approach of this blog. I’d like your help.
Please post comments about the blog on any of the following:
There should be more of (fill in the blank).
There should be less of (fill in the blank).
I wish this were discussed: (fill in the blank).
Get rid of: (fill in the blank).
…or anything else that would make the blog more interesting, useful or entertaining to you.
Thanks, John
I recall a number of years ago dialing 411 (Information) and asking the operator for a phone number for a store a few miles away in Boston. In a thick Dorchester accent, she corrected the name of the store for me. “I think you mean this one,” she said, and she was right.
Old school customer service has been in decline for some time now–pushed out by the costcutting allure of self-service, offshoring, IVRs, etc.
Impersonal customer service works in some cases. Shopping for a known commodity like a book, or CD, for example, or putting a vacation stop on your newspaper delivery. But companies have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, because if it’s really important to understand what a customer needs, a trained, empathetic person is the best resource a company can have. These folks, as John Kotter writes in “A Sense of Urgency,” help “bring the outside in”–in other words, they provide insight from a vital outside constituency–customers–into the organization.
I’ve talked before in this blog about how data about customer interactions will be captured and mined for insights about customer perceptions of products, service and the company that provides them. Today, surveys and focus groups attempt to paint this picture. Tomorrow, the real, raw data will be used. Stories from customers, and the stories from the people who serve them directly.
This will provide a new value proposition for customer service. As opposed to a replaceable part hired at the lowest hourly rate possible, front-line staff will be well-paid and well-trained. Their insights will be carefully collected and utilized, and products (and the customers that buy them) will be better off for them.
Shifting customer service to a different location to save $1.00 a call will be unthinkable.
It’s possible that Best Buy’s Geek Squad is an early prototype of this mindset. In an article in today’s New York Times, Matt Richtel depicts a power struggle between computer manufacturers who install application craplets on their PCs, and retailers, who are responding to customers’ desire to buy a PC free of craplets. This section was notable:
Mr. Stephens of Geek Squad says he agrees with H. P. that the future is in allowing computer buyers to choose and download what they want. But he said he believed Best Buy, not H. P., was in the best position to help people choose what works for them because, he argued, the in-store technicians are in closest contact with them.
“Geek Squad agents have one thing over Apple and Microsoft engineers. We spend most of the day talking to people,” he said.
Related posts:
Businesses need “A Sense of Urgency”
Time to start listening to front-line employees
Tags:
narrative, learning, customer relationships, customer service, knowledge
John Kotter is the change guru. His article “Leading Change” from Harvard Business Review is a classic I’ve recommended to a number of people. His newest book, “A Sense of Urgency,” focuses on the one area where companies most often fail the change test–establishing an organization-wide priority to, using Kotter’s words, “move, and win, now.”
It’s a terrifically-written book, with lots of stories of organizations succeeding at or failing the urgency test. Kotter points out (as I’ve experienced) that many organizations in trouble foster a sense of “false urgency”–an inwardly-focused, fearful level of intense activity (wall-to-wall meetings; sound familiar?) that harms the organization, perhaps as much, or more than, old-fashioned complacency.
By contrast, “true urgency” engages employees’ hearts; focuses outwardly on customers, competitors and the industry environment; and is practiced by everyone in the organization, most especially the leaders. It also requires understanding the true priorities of the company and purging activities that are not connected with those priorities, thereby opening up time for reflection, experimentation, and immersion in the world outside the company walls.
Here’s my favorite snippet from “A Sense of Urgency”:
imagineWe call this a thought experiment. Imagine, if you will, an organization where people up and down the hierarchy, and systems throughout the organization, help pull the outside in through
- Sending out people
- Bringing in people
- Bringing in relevant data in an eye-catching manner
- Listening to customer-interface employees
- Creating video about the outside
- Widely sharing what is learned instead of shielding others from possibly troubling news
- Changing the visuals
Nearly everyone in an organization can use these tactics to create more urgency among peers or their bosses. Imagine what would happen to complacency if many people at many levels did so. (p.100)
I can’t think of a better book for today’s business environment, when so many companies are struggling to reinvent themselves, while companies clearly in deep trouble continue to be surprised by the outside reality (example). ” A Sense of Urgency” is a must-read.
Related post:
Time to start listening to front-line employees
We have a bike rack on our 12-year-old Isuzu Trooper that fits into the trailer hitch. I mentioned to my wife the other day that perhaps next year we should add a hitch to our 6-year-old Acura MDX, so we can use the bike rack on the MDX after the Trooper gives out.
She laughed. “What if the Acura dies first?” she said.
My wife holds the perception very firmly that the Isuzu is a highly-reliable, trouble-free car, and that the Acura is a fragile thing, constantly in need of expensive maintenance.
Statistics say otherwise. JD Power gives Acura four stars for reliability (out of five), and Izusu only two stars–tied for the worst rating.
But looking beyond statistics, at the stories, the Trooper has a bunch of ardent fans. Some people have had terrible problems and hate the car, yet many others, a larger number, love it. (See this group of epinions posts for an example.)
And the MDX’s reliability has some detractors as well (see reviews from Edmunds.com), with many complaints about transmission problems (writer crosses fingers).
What’s most amazing is the firmness with which the reviewers–positive and negative–hold their opinions. It demonstrates the “tyranny of the mean,” in which a lot is lost by averaging ratings together. A car is an emotion-laden product–expensive, used daily, inconvenience-causing when broken. Opinions then vary dramatically based on personal experience. The stories are arguably more important than the statistics when evaluating this type of product. And product managers, as well, should be especially attuned to the stories customers are telling about their products.
The lesson here is that “anecdotal evidence” should not so easily be dismissed, and that statistics can be useful but, just as when buying a car, you should look under the hood for yourself.
It might help you figure out why your wife thinks the old Izusu kicks the newer Acura’s butt.
narrative, product management, learning, Mistake Bank, customer relationships
From The Mistake Bank.
This happened to me some years ago, but the unpleasantness of the encounter still is fresh today. And aren’t all great lessons like that?
You can download the podcast here (5 minutes).
Please consider rating and reviewing The Mistake Bank for the Forrester Groundswell awards by following this link.
narrative, mistakes, meetings, Mistake Bank, customer relationships, conflict, preparation
I’ve entered The Mistake Bank in the Groundswell awards for social media. Please visit if you have a moment and rate the site or write a review. I’m sure there will be lots of great contenders, but the M-Bank has proven to be a very nice learning experience for me and hopefully for others. If you feel the same way, please visit the awards site here and weigh in. Thanks.
For men (this one anyway), sports stories are incredibly resonant. Just saw this Visa advertisement about the Derek Redmond story from the 1992 Olympics. I remember seeing that live. It still made me cry sixteen years later.
Stories engage the heart, essays engage the mind. See how two minutes of moment-to-moment narrative can inspire hours of conversation:
Tags:
narrative, storytelling
I always felt being smart was one of my major advantages in business–and there’s no doubt that being well-informed and full (perhaps over-full?) of ideas helped in getting promotions, raises, etc.
What I’ve learned in the past couple of years has shaken that belief to the core. In particular, the writings of Dan Gilbert, Malhotra & Bazerman on negotiations, and Dave Snowden et. al. on complexity in management and business, have had a particular impact in revising this viewpoint, to the point that I won’t take an important decision without reviewing it, at minimum, with the Vice President of Common Sense.
Central to this thinking is the idea that cognitive biases can cause us to overestimate our ability to make sound decisions, routinize complex situations, fail to see threats and weaknesses in our reasoning, and personalize conflicts. All leading to poor decisions, and sometimes decisionmaking disasters.
The way to overcome these dangers is to work with others, to consult, carefully listen (especially to dissenting viewpoints). In short, to shelve one’s own learning and accept others’ input with an open mind and heart. And in something that goes against my nature, to slow down and be patient.
For me, serving on a nonprofit’s board of directors the past two years or so has been a signal lesson in the benefits of humility and collective thinking. Sharing monthly meetings with people possessing important skills that I lack utterly–knowledge of fundraising, city politics, risk management and others–but yet being able to contribute nonetheless through listening and inquiring has been revelatory. I am still learning, as you might guess, to listen hard to the “non-experts” on our board on subjects I know something about.
(Photo by Max Brown via stock.xchng)
Related posts:
Gilbert
Malhotra & Bazerman
Snowden
Senior Leadership Teams
Tags:
learning, management, psychology, humility, decisionmaking, irrationality, cognitive bias
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