Last Friday was an eventful day.
In a morning meeting with my manager I learned that yet again, a systematic mailing created by one of our service providers had been completed very carelessly.
My reaction: What's their phone number? And I called. I left instructions to call my manager because I was unlikely to be available.
I was unlikely to be available because another item on our meeting's agenda was another d-r-a-g-g-i-n-g situation with a service provider.
Status: After 2 weeks, speaking with 3 different people the job still hadn't been done.
Question: How long will this take? 3-5 days. Ok. Proceed.
Later: When can we expect this? On Monday (this was Thursday). Ok.
Next: It's being done today!
Now: My manager told me: I'm waiting for a call from the Supervisor.
What??????
My reaction: What's their phone number?
So while I was on the phone waiting to speak with a Supervisor in came a call, which I wouldn't normally take but frustratedly sitting on hold, for some reason I did. It was careless service provider #1, above, unable to follow the instructions in the voice message I left. I didn't even get into it. I simply said: I'm on hold on an urgent matter. Thanks for calling for my manager.
I get back to Service Provider #2 and eventually the CSR (customer service rep) comes back on the line. As I express my frustration for holding so long after waiting nearly 3 weeks, she offers me 1 month of service for free.
WTF!?!?!
No, one-month free of something you can't even provide isn't a suave for my frustration!
I want to speak with a Supervisor without waiting any longer.
Eventually ... I explained to the supervisor how my business would be dealing with the situation and it caused me to wonder ...
How would my clients and my readers handle this situation?
This company had not only dropped the ball, but twice again.
Now, after their customer (me) had:
- paid a considerable amount of money to a manager for our discussions about the matter, making all these phone calls, sitting on hold with a call centre numerous times, etc.
- experienced the frustration of having to continually discuss the same topic and be without the promised tool; and
- experienced the inconvenience of being without the tool during this period; this supervisor was saying she would see what she could do, "unable" to promise anything.
My request was that they simply find a provider of this tool in the city where I would be that afternoon, arrange with that provider to provide me with what they were neglecting to send to me, and let us know that it had all been taken care of within 2 hours.
Simple as that!
An added suggestion I made was for the 3 employees who did not follow through (ie. do their job) share in paying for the company's loss.
And that gave me a lot of food for thought for a lot of companies ... my clients' companies and your company, too.
Until there is responsibility for the consequences of our behaviour, our behaviour is unlikely to change.
How do you encourage and empower your employees to step up to the plate and take responsibility for improving their performance; for, quite frankly, giving a damn?
Thank you for sharing with me because I'm always looking for options for all of us as business owners.
(What was the tool? My cell phone ... which I left in Vegas the 1st weekend in April. You know: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I did, finally, get a replacement Monday.)
Promising you, too,
MORE PROFIT
TONS MORE FUN
RETIREMENT ... on your terms!
'Cause that's what it's all about.
P S: A great big "Welcome!" to all the new readers who joined our FUN - PROFIT - RETIREMENT-PRACTICING Community since last week!
You're going to love the resources you'll find here to help you GET THE FUN BACK into your business, causing your PROFITS to TRIPLE themselves, while practicing RETIREMENT by taking LOTS of TIME OFF for FUN ACTIVITIES. Enjoy!
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