Leader vs. Loser

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Comment by Anne R. Urbanski on January 5, 2012 at 11:22am

Speaking of excellent customer service, I saw some last night in the "mockumentary" comedy, BEST IN SHOW, about a national dog show. A couple comes from Florida with their Norwich terrier and they've got a reservation at a really nice hotel in downtown Philadelphia. When they check in, the hotel manager (played by an unflappable Ed Begley Jr.) discovers that their credit card is maxed out because the wife didn't pay the minimum for 2 months in a row. Rather than sending them out to find a fleabag motel (they also had little cash and no travelers checks), he does the best he can and finds them some space inside the hotel. Okay, it's in the utility room, but he promises to provide cots ("and you're right next to the kitchen, so room service will be no problem".) The hotel was otherwise full due to the dog show, and the manager IMO did the best he could in a situation that was really the customers' fault.

Comment by Tim Buchanan on January 4, 2012 at 4:21pm

Great article.....brings to mind one of my favorite "people" manuals.....Dale Carnegie's "How To win Friends and Influence People". Keep up the good work!

Comment by Nateria Dickey on January 4, 2012 at 2:39pm

Great article! Jania, I worked for a company once that did "secret shoppers" as well. You would never knew who they were or when they would come. They would write up a review on their experience and it was hung on this honors wall if they received excellent service. I can remember how proud everyone was when the customer had a good experience. It kept employees on their toes and really made you want to give the best experience to every customer. I like creative incentives that keep people motivated. I never found out what happened when a person got a bad review from a secret shopper, but I am sure it wasn't good. Encourage great customer service, practice what you preach from the top down, hold people responsible for their actions and reward excellence in a fun creative way like a honors wall. It's all in the culture you create! GREAT ARTICLE.

Comment by Jorge Aponte on January 3, 2012 at 7:16pm

Great post! In my summarization words: I am the servant, everyone else is a customer.

Comment by Anne R. Urbanski on January 3, 2012 at 5:07pm

Thanks, Robert! I'll check out your books. Also, I like to think of Rosenberg's stuff as "compassionate communication." I know he means non-violent in the same sense as Gandhi did, but I like the idea of communicating with compassion. I've been using it with my teenager (trying to get my husband to use it to) recently and it seems to be helping:)

Comment by Robert Bacal on January 3, 2012 at 4:50pm

Anne, I'm familiar with Rosenberg's work. Also recommended Suzette Haden-Elgin (verbal self defense series) and Tongue-Fu by Sam (cant' recall the last name).

And, my own books, Defusing Hostile Customers Workbook For the Public Sector, and Conflict Prevention In The Workplace - Using Cooperative Communicat...

Comment by Mike Hemker on January 3, 2012 at 3:42pm

Great Article. Thanks for sharing!

 

Comment by Anne R. Urbanski on January 3, 2012 at 2:31pm

I recently read a book called Non-Violent Communication, by Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D., which contains many principles that could be applied in many types of communications. The main principle is to listen carefully to discern what the other person is feeling. Sometimes all a customer needs is to know someone is listening. I sometimes get phone calls from citizens who mostly want someone to listen (especially once I've explained to them that their complaint actually needs to be handled by a different level of government - and I do my best to point them to the correct person or at least department). I've listened to some people for half an hour or more simply because I know that they feel/believe that no one else has listened to their concerns.

Comment by Dannielle Blumenthal on January 3, 2012 at 2:05pm

Wow. The CEO sat at the reception desk? And in govt. some of us at the staff level complain about having to rotate!

Here is a hypothesis, see what you think:

1) Economic survival dictates organizational culture.

2) Organizational culture dictates expected team behaviors.

3) Expected team behaviors dictate individual behavior.

4) The behaviors we carry out dictate our beliefs about what is right and wrong.

5) And then the feedback loop - we process what they tell us to do, then spit back a modified cultural model as we become leaders ourselves.

In the case of private industry, where competition rules, pleasing the customer is #1 because customers can go anywhere to fulfill their needs.

(In the "leader vs. loser" scenario here, both were private industry but the "loser" worked in a place where they had a virtual monopoly, vs. the "leader" worked in the place where the customer had lots of choice.)

What seems to be happening in the government now is an increasing realization that we no longer have a monopoly over the services we provide. Rather we are in competition and can be put out of business by other parties who may work faster, better, cheaper. So it is in our economic best interest to become more customer-centric.

The hypothesis would then apply to government 2.0 like this:

1) Economic survival dictates organizational culture - and so in the future we will increasingly seek to do a better job of pleasing the customer, who has choices and can find alternative means of obtaining what we provide.

2) Organizational culture dictates expected team behaviors - customer-centric government will mean that no matter what the policy is, if it's not working to serve the customer then it must be questioned, modified, deleted.

3) Expected team behaviors dictate individual behavior - the more we form teams, committees, task forces, and departments that question policies on the basis of customer-centricity, the more individual staffers will do the same.

4) The behaviors we carry out dictate our beliefs about what is right and wrong - in the not too distant future it will become axiomatic that the customer (whoever that may be) comes first. It will be like, "Of course!" rather than "Oh no, that would be too difficult/costly."

5) And then the feedback loop - we process what they tell us to do, then spit back a modified cultural model as we become leaders ourselves. - Each successive generation will interpret the dictum of economic survival for itself; create a culture accordingly; and the cycle will continue.

But the key difference between Gov 1.0 and Gov 2.0 and successive iterations is that transition from being a monopoly to being a brand among other brands, and trying to distinguish ourselves as the best possible brand among many choices.

This whole thing reminds me of what Henry Ford said about his Model T: "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black." Only worked when the competition was horses. (Image & quote: Wikipedia)

Comment by Janina Rey Echols Harrison on January 3, 2012 at 1:33pm

I worked for First Interstate years ago and they had "secret shoppers" who would call or wander into your area and ask for help.  The rule was that you never passed that person on to someone else.  You made phone calls to find out who they needed to contact, walked them to the person responsible.  If it was a call, you took their info, made all the calls until you found the correct contact, gave the customer the info and the contact the customer info, then you followed up and called the customer the following day to make sure someone helped them.  We also had awards for internal customer service.  Our CEO would answer phones or sit at the reception desk and greet customers (his office was just through the door by reception, if his secretary was out, he stepped up.) That is leadership and customer service from top management down.  He expected everyone to step in wherever needed.

And yes, you can get into trouble for trying in some jobs.

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