Some years ago I wrote a book about making our lives easier, and I am glad to see that a lot of the ideas in there are now appearing as apps on the iPhone. Then when I worked for BMC I wrote a popular blog, which urged people to adopt a Service Mentality, and things seemed to be getting better round the world (not entirely due to me - my timing was just good!). Unfortunately we then entered a nasty recession and things have gone severely downhill as companies strive to save money and hence cut down on service.
I live in the UK, a country which appears to be run by a group of greedy incompetent people, and that means that we probably will probably de drowned by melting polar ice caps before we come out of recession. So I was not at all surprised to see an article in one of our Daily newspapers (Daily Mail) asking:
Infuriating call centres, feeble excuses - who gets YOUR wooden spoon for rotten service?
The categories where they have asked for nominations are:
IMHO there is little point in spending lots of money on IT systems if you treat your customers like dirt, which is why I have always said that BSM is not a set of products or systems - it's a mindset.
I live in the UK, a country which appears to be run by a group of greedy incompetent people, and that means that we probably will probably de drowned by melting polar ice caps before we come out of recession. So I was not at all surprised to see an article in one of our Daily newspapers (Daily Mail) asking:
Infuriating call centres, feeble excuses - who gets YOUR wooden spoon for rotten service?
The categories where they have asked for nominations are:
- Overall worst customer service
- Most irritating call centre
- Longest time to solve a simple problem
- Biggest incorrect bill
- Most pathetic excuse for failing to solve a problem
IMHO there is little point in spending lots of money on IT systems if you treat your customers like dirt, which is why I have always said that BSM is not a set of products or systems - it's a mindset.
Just saw the following relevant tweet from Chris Dancy:
"I want to see EMOTIONAL pain put into every ROI and TCO study on #ITSM #ITIL going forward"
Israel
Can there be a more obvious disconnect between the business value of IT and the frustation of the end users in dealing with first line IT support? I've found that it is not just the people answering the phone causing the problem ...but the whole IT organization behind that support desk that create this kind of disconnect.
I agree with Peter about BSM being a "mindset" instead of technology products and services ...that mindset being that everything in IT (application development, HR performance reviews, management objectives, procurement processes, metrics, service level agreements, etc.) is focused on satisfying the business customer ...with the business customer engaging in an effective two-way communcation process. Such a mindset is so basic to the success of the enterprise, it's seems too elementary to call it out ...yet Peter's comments highlight the frequent lack of that basic.
Bill
You're right - the day I don't have to write entries like this pointing out the bleeding obvious will hopefully come soon!!
Treating your customers like dirt is a close cousin of treating your employees like dirt. Deming's teachings on the subject are crystal clear:
90% of all defects are caused by the System:
They are not caused by individuals.
System problems are management problems.
Provide leadership to change the System.
I would actually suggest that customers and employees are largely indivisible - the way you treat your employees is likely to manifest itself in the way you treat your customers, and vice vera.
Israel
Spot on Israel - treat your employees badly and the customers will immediately suffer.
Also - based on UK government as an example - if the leaders set a bad example, don't expect the employees or customers to be happy.
As a young paratrooper in the Israeli army, I was taught to lead from the front. Over the years I learned to lead from within...
Israel