Skip to main content

criticism always caustic?


The "social sphere" was blowing up this morning mentioning our WeHelpU service company.  When influential Irene heard the news she was ecstatic; "our efforts are finally paying off"! Irene began to sift through the myriad social channels, skimming the posts and tweets.  It did not take long for her feelings of jubilation to shift to absolute horror as the context of their newfound "viral" popularity had flooded the Internet.  Apparently a customer had started a thread of conversation regarding one of our field workers, for now let's call him dumb-a** Dan. Dan had been hired a couple of months ago and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. However with the new liberation in the state of California, Dan was observed by a customer toking away in the parking lot. Our customer's tweet read "my highly skilled field technician is in the parking lot getting high before working on my facility, wonder how this will turn out"?



So it started, in this age of "pathetic social pile-on" , the news of Dan is spreading faster than the bubbles rising from his crack pipe.  In the past this incident, which was clearly wrong, would have been isolated to a small group of individuals.  Service organizations have always solicited customer feedback and welcomed criticism, all part of the learning process.  Resolution came in the form of hitting the problem head-on, and in most instances provided an opportunity for us to strengthen client relationships.  Irene pondered; in the age of digitally connected distance (see past post "digital distance"), could it be that the reach of this "social wildfire" is controllable?  Is the excuse, "I can't control the social environments" really a cop-out?  Does criticism, at least when it gains exponential momentum, caustic?  



Overwhelmed Oscar, whom heretofore had been hiding under the desk, jumped up and exclaimed; "we can't control what people say; however, we can continue to build strong relationships and trust with our clients". 



-----

Next post:  who's data is it?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

entusiastic about preventative maintenance

Why do I really care if my field technicians are enthusiastic or not? When you look at a person's work output, as directly related to workforce sciences, you come up with three primary ingredients required to achieve your desired results.   These ingredients are; attitudes, attributes, and capabilities and when mixed properly with enabling tools can yield unbelievable outputs. So what does any of this have to do with routine maintenance? If your maintenance routines actually become way too routine then pretty soon performance will be replaced with complacency. In order to keep any piece of equipment running as trouble-free as possible the maintenance performed, and the thoroughness of the inspection and tasks at hand, have a direct impact on the asset's life expectancy.   There are some strategies that help service organizations keep the enthusiasm at all-time highs. Switch techs from time to time :   One of the best ways to ensure maintenance is being performed...
Post a Comment
Read more

It's the little details

As overwhelmed Oscar sits in his office, surrounded by piles of overdue work order tickets to review and material orders to procure, his heart yearns to give the customer anything they want, yet the tools at his disposal make it difficult. On this relatively ordinary day Oscar receives a phone call from a marquee customer. This new customer has multiple locations and has asked for just three pieces of information every time a person visits their sites to perform service or maintenance. Oscar gathers his thoughts as he prepares to discuss this seemingly small challenge with reluctant Ruth, the dispatcher who has been with the organization for decades, Ruth can be a bit of a curmudgeon. Oscar does appreciate the inconvenience of gathering unexpected information both for the field worker as well as the back office.   A seemingly great example of ending up between a rock and a hard place. In a world of perfect harmony where all customers, work orders, and requests are exactly...
Post a Comment
Read more

why transform?

Why do I want to change, who said anything was wrong with my stack of papers and sea of Excel files?   We solve problems, that is a key characteristic of any successful service organization, if it isn't broke why fix it?   Often, when discussing a transformation from paper or cobbled together systems to a cohesive digital approach, folks struggle with the gap between what they currently do and how digital tools can help.   You really need to look at where the pain points are in your organization and how these compare to your business objectives.   Consider writing down these points on the whiteboard in no particular order, spend a few days shuffling and consolidating into a prioritized list.   Once you have the "why" and the "what" identified, the old remaining step is "how".   Some of the most popular observations over the years have been; Slipping through the cracks :   you know, not the major muscle movements, instead those little i...
Post a Comment
Read more