The best & worst for customer service..
The customer has returned from exile…. (part 2) ‘The grumpy old man’ view
It is not difficult to recognise the organisations that have changed their strategy – just try ringing them. If this idea has already brought back terrible memories and filled you with dread, then you have tried to contact an organisation that still hasn’t woken up to the recession. All organisations have to tell you that the call may be recorded and monitored for training and quality purposes, although one style of organisation realises that you are paying for the privilege of telephoning them and can stretch this opening message out beyond belief.
Whoever made the wonderful invention of the telephone system that gives you four options, followed by another four options, followed by more options has a lot to answer for. Now, to make matters worse, you can get the computerised voice asking you a series of questions, such as your postcode and name, followed by a series of questions with yes / no options. Not only do I have to listen to this computerised message, I’m now talking to it!
Once you complete all these options, if you still have the will to live, you get told that all of the advisers are busy and that your call will be answered as soon as an adviser is free. Then you get the wonderful music to keep you entertained – whilst you are still paying for the call, considering all of the better things you could be doing with your life and wondering why they don’t employ more advisers. Then, when you do get a response, you quickly realise that the call centre is not based in this country!
Having moved house recently, like everyone else, I had to make a number of these calls. By day three I had decided to change my Internet service provider, one of my energy suppliers and my bank – all because of the abysmal customer service I received.
Well, apparently it doesn’t have to be like this. If you don’t believe me then try telephoning first direct (as you can guess, they weren’t my bank, but are now). I know there are people who will have had a bad experience with them but you get an answer quickly from an actual human being who can understand English and engages with you. They have made the transfer from my old bank as easy as possible and, as a consequence I have already recommended them to a friend.
We all know that ‘word of mouth’ referrals are best and the way to get them is to change the culture of your organisation with a strategy that ensures that the customer is king – long live the king!
England vs Scotland Rugby 21st March 2009
Although I am an ardent England rugby union fan, I am not going to gloat about the final score of 26 – 12, as I believe that the match could have gone either way.
When the match started each team was clearly wary of their opposition and made some silly mistakes and one of England’s resulted in the legendary Scottish player Chris Paterson taking a penalty kick. None of the 80,000 + audience, or the players, were in any doubt that Scotland were about to take the lead, such is the skill and reputation of Paterson.
It made me wonder how many times teams fail to perform to their best when they are not totally confident about their own abilities and are wary of the competition whether in sport or business.
Another thing that became evident was how the changing of a team member impacts on the team’s performance. Although all of these players have trained together (so they are not new members of the team) when substitutions occur it takes certain team members longer than others to settle in.
When any team changes there is normally a drop in performance, whilst the ‘new team’ get used to each other. The quicker that a team reforms the quicker that performance returns. For that reason I was pleased that Ireland won the grand-slam. Their team have been together for some time and certain players like Brian O’Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer have been the mainstay. I’m sure there are going to be some significant changes to their team which means that this may have been the best opportunity these players had to put in their best performance – and they did!
As an end note and returning to Twickenham HRH Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, presented medals to soldiers from 7th Armoured Brigade ‘The Desert Rats’ recognising their recent service in Iraq. These men and women marched around the perimeter of the pitch to the deservedly loud applause of the crowd. No sign of any protest here!
Customer service truths.
The customer has returned from exile…… (part 1)
During the last ten years a number of organisations have focused their performance strategy on maximising profit, often achieved by reducing cost. As soon as such a strategy is developed the performance measurements become quantitative, where ‘the bean counters are king’. This results in finding, by default, the minimum level that the customer will accept, especially as regards levels of service.
In a time of economic stability this strategy makes sense. However, over a period of time this also creates an organisational culture of ‘what gets measured gets done’ and I have worked with a number of organisations recently where the front line delivery staff feel that management have taken their eye off the customer.
History has shown us that during a time of recession the customer returns from exile and becomes king. Initially this is in terms of buying power and retailers attract their customers through the high street sales we have seen during the last few months. Walk down any high street now and nearly every shop is offering the same discounts, so even after such a short time sales do not determine where the customer goes.
Brighter organisations have already realised that the ‘differentiation factor’ is the level of customer service that’s provided. Engaging with customers now and getting their loyalty means that organisations are more likely to survive the recession and will continue to reap the benefits post-recession.
Just think about your own purchasing habits. The chances are that whether it’s a car, a television or a holiday most companies can offer you a competitive price. So the choice of who you go with probably depends upon who can offer you the best quality of service, together with the best after-sales service.
Leadership With Integrity
Should Sir Fred Goodwin surrender some of his pension to appease the government and the public? Whilst it is an emotive subject I have an alternative view that Sir Fred’s contract was known about by the government at the outset of the troubles and they have played both sides of the fence in an attempt to look good in the eyes of both the banking community and the electorate. When their flawed strategy backfired they have tried to make Sir Fred the ‘bad person’, whereas the government leaders may want to look more inwardly.
For me the question is not whether Sir Fred Goodwin should surrender some of his pension. The question is whether Sir Fred Goodwin should rescue the poor leadership displayed by the government at his own expense. Instead he has highlighted the failings of these individuals and I think he is going to enjoy his retirement whilst watching the fallout.
Leadership with integrity?
I have written before about the importance of senior leaders displaying leadership with integrity. I have also acknowledged the difficulty of this kind of leadership, as human beings are involved together with all of their failings. Unfortunately, it becomes all too apparent when ingenuous leadership is shown, especially in times of difficulty and as an example of this I am going to look at the way the government has dealt with the financial bailout of one of the major banks, together with the fallout from one of the Chief executives.
The brief facts are that in October last year it became apparent that the government would have to inject £37 billion of taxpayers’ money to support the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds TSB and Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). £5 billion of this was going to RBS.
On 8th October 2008 it was announced that the Chief Executive, Sir Fred Goodwin, and Chairman, Sir Tom McKillop, were to leave the bank and be replaced by Stephen Hester and Sir Philip Hampton, respectively. Within weeks the amount of money being pumped into RBS had risen to £33 billion.
In February 2009 there was public condemnation of Sir Fred Goodwin for taking an enormous pension, reportedly in excess of £650,000 per annum. The government asked him to reduce the amount, in light of the amount of public money put into RBS and Sir Fred refused. In March the Prime Minister said that he was going to look in to whether the government could make a legal challenge to this pension.
Now let me look at the ingenuous leadership shown by senior members of the government, where a number of ‘clichés’ become relevant. The first is that a leader cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. Clearly the government had to make a difficult decision to use public money to support the banks and this decision was never going to be popular with the public. Neither was it going to be popular with the boards and Chief Executives of the banks, who would have to acknowledge the failures of the banking system. So, there were tough words from Gordon Brown about how the government would make sure that the taxpayers got their money back, to appease the mass electorate (the hounds) and conciliatory discussions with the banking bosses (the hare) by the Treasury.
Treasury Minister, Lord Myners oversaw this bank bailout and seems to have forgotten the next cliché that he who pays the piper calls the tune. On 8th October 2008, at the same time that it was announced that Sir Fred would be leaving RBS it was reported that, “as part of the deal with Government, there will be a future cap on executive pay and shareholder dividends.” Lord Myners could have quite legitimately discussed the contracts of these executives with them, although whether he could have lawfully amended them would depend on the terms of the bailout. He could have acknowledged that you cannot please all of the people all of the time, been honest and, if the contracts of these executives were watertight, he could have said so.
Later, when the amount of Sir Fred’s pension became known, Lord Myners asked him to return some of it, reportedly saying, “that the scale of his pension was something which people would find extraordinary in the circumstances of a company that had just reported such losses.” After Sir Fred had declined Lord Myners allegedly put in a letter that this refusal was unfortunate and unacceptable. Has anyone considered who leaked the amount of Sir Fred’s pension to the media and why they leaked it? It’s not something that he is likely to have publicised personally.
Lord Myners has now put himself into a more difficult position. If Lord Myners did not look into the contracts of these executives then he appears incompetent and if he did know about them, then asking Sir Fred for some of it back, to save face, doesn’t seem to be fair. It is no good crying over spilt milk. This raises a question of whether Gordon Brown’s tough talk is a way of covering the fact that he didn’t know what his Treasury Minister was doing or whether he was complicit in the decisions too. Sir Fred Goodwin is not rushing to their aide and why should he?
Isn’t it noticeable how, during the good times, the government were happy to ally themselves to this banking system but were very quick to criticise it when things took a downturn. Never once has any member of government accepted any of the responsibility, through poor leadership. What they are doing now is displaying leadership that questions their integrity.
Daily Telegraph 8th October 2008
Wall Street Journal 28th February 2009
