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All For One, And One For All August 26, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Random Musings.
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I’ve been having a semi-regular delivery issue with a certain national daily publication.  Every now and then, it does not arrive in my driveway.  I dutifully go to their web site and note this oversight.  The next day, I get two copies: the current issue and the previous day.  Needless to say, getting a daily publication a day late is of limited value.

When this happened last week, I tweeted about it, and included the publication’s Twitter account in the tweet, along with two columnists who also happen to be on Twitter.  It was a bit of an experiment, I’ll admit, but it was also a request for help.  Would the power of Twitter help solve my problem?

Well, no.  What I did get was a direct message from a columnist with the number of the customer service department, along with an explanation that the columnists have nothing to do with delivery.

I know that.  I knew that when I included the columnists on the tweet.  But they work for the publication, just like the delivery people.  And in the end, they should be just as concerned that I get my paper as they are about writing their columns.  When the delivery person makes a mistake, the columnist looks bad.  When the columnists wrote a lousy column, the delivery people lose a bit of stature.  They are all in this together.

This is just as true in our own companies.  How often have you seen a group breathe a sigh of relief when they discover that “some other department” made a customer-visible error?  I hate to burst their bubble, but they get painted by the broad brush of customer dissatisfaction right along with the group that made the mistake.  The outside world does not know, or care, that some mistake occurred in a specific department.  They only know that the whole group has caused them a problem.

When you make a mistake, you hurt the reputation of every single person who works with you, whether they are involved or not.  That’s why mistakes are so expensive: not only did you inconvenience a customer, you damaged the standing of all of your co-workers.  Did they deserve that?  Did you think about that before doing your best to do a good job?

Fortunately, this works the other way as well.  When you make someone happy, everyone in your team benefits whether they were involved or not.  By making a customer feel good about your company (or department, or whatever), you improve the reputation of every person in that group.  What a great way to help every person you work with, every day!  Help a customer and make everyone look good!

The columnist dissociated themselves from the group that made a mistake, thinking that I would do the same.  But like most customers, I view the Journal as a single entity.  When my paper is late, they all decline a bit in my mind.  But if the columnist had gone out of their way to help fix my problem, they all would have gone up in my book, from the deliver person to the editorial board.

We’re all in this together, all for one and one for all.  Remember that when someone makes a mistake, and leverage it when you decide to do something good.

Paper Withdrawal May 4, 2009

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Technology.
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Loyal readers know that I periodically lament the loss of paper media.  While I certainly appreciate the advances we’ve made in digital stuff, the entire paper experience has been refined over centuries and should not be cast aside too lightly.

Nonetheless, I am a Cutting Edge Guy.  I like to experiment with new technology and understand the full user experience.  I believe that those of us in IT should experience new things before we inflict them on our unsuspecting customers.  To that end, I used last week as my grand experiment in being completely paperless.

Those who follow my Twitter stream know that I was in Seattle attending the Microsoft CIO Summit.  It was the perfect opportunity to disconnect from all my normal paper sources and rely on digital content everywhere.  Could I go a whole week and literally use no paper?

For my paperless week, I carried this digital toolkit:

  • Dell Mini 10 – Instead of my normal Dell Latitude D630 laptop, I use the light, nifty Mini 10.  It weighs less than three pounds, has a tiny wall charger, and is perfect for email, web browsing, and accessing work resources while on the road.  To make life even more interesting, I was running a beta copy of Windows 7 on it.
  • iPod Touch – I keep all my music on my Touch.  I’ve also installed Amazon’s Kindle app on it, which I used to read books while on the trip.  I also used the Wall Street Journal app, replacing my normal morning newspaper experience.
  • Samsung Epix – I use this for real-time email access as well as twittering.  In a pinch, the Epix can become  a tiny WiFi access point, allowing the Mini and the Touch to get online as needed. It also lets me make the occasional phone call.

How did this all work out?  For the most part, quite well:

  • My briefcase was easily five pounds lighter, making travel so much easier.
  • Using my laptop on the plane was much easier, since the Mini fits so well on a seatback tray.  It certainly diminished the need to battle the passenger in front of me in a seatback war.
  • The Mini with Windows 7 was a delight to use.  As I roamed from network to network, it seamlessly connected and performed. Windows 7 is a huge advance over Vista or XP, and the light weight of the Mini made it easy to grab it and go to various breakout sessions during the Summit.
  • The Kindle app on my iPod is awesome.  The reading experience is excellent.  I had feared that it would tire my eyes, but even hours of reading on the plane was easy and comfortable.
  • Creating a quick WiFi cloud with the Epix was handy.  I used this all the time for quick internet access from all my devices. For example, while waiting for a flight, I created the cloud, logged onto Amazon with my Mini, bought a book, and downloaded it to my iPod.
  • Even on a five hour flight, all my various batteries lasted for the whole trip. The Mini will go about 2.5 hours; the iPod lasted six or so.

There were some negative things:

  • The touchpad on the Mini is a nightmare.  I used a USB mouse instead.  This touchpad really detracts from an otherwise outstanding device.
  • Taking quick notes was a distraction.  I didn’t even have a pen with me, so I would open the Mini and take notes in Word or Outlook.  Were I not in a strict experimental mode, I would have jotted those notes on a slip of paper, making it easier to lose them later.
  • Old habits die hard: I had picked up the free Wall Street Journal before I remembered my experiment and reluctantly put it down.  Fortunately, the WSJ app on my Touch is a good, but not perfect, replacement for the morning paper.

The positives clearly outweigh the negatives, and I will probably remain paperless for all my future travel.  As much as I relish a paper reading experience, the paper-free convenience is hard to ignore. Is it for everyone? Probably not, but it is certainly worth trying on your next trip.

Customer Service! July 3, 2008

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
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I had a startling customer service experience this week that is worth sharing.

I am a long-time reader of the Wall Street Journal.  I think the Journal is the last great newspaper in America, with an editorial viewpoint that resonates with my own political leanings.  It comes as no surprise to me that a paper run by conservatives is successful and profitable, in contrast to a certain other high-profile New York paper that positions itself slightly to the left of Karl Marx.

I have been distressed recently to see an uptick in spelling and grammar errors in the Journal.  Loyal readers know my feelings on such things, and I was not happy to see the Journal slipping to a level of quality normally associated with USA Today and its ilk.  I reached the end of my rope when earlier this week a Journal article referred to the owner of a Toyota dealership as “Mr. Yaris,” replacing the real name with the name of a Toyota model.

Knowing that they await my feedback on a regular basis, I dashed off an email to the editors.  You can imagine the consternation in the Journal offices when word got out that I had written; I can only presume they brought the whole operation to a grinding halt while my thoughts were shared across the organization.

Well, something like that must have happened, because in less than two hours, I received a personal response from the author of the article, apologizing for the error, thanking me for my concern, and assuring me that the Journal worked very hard to keep such things from happening.

Wow!  A real response to a (mildly) disgruntled customer!  Imagine an organization that reads their email so quickly, routes it to the responsible party, and ensures that a response occurs so quickly!  I was impressed, and wrote back to say just that.  Later, I found that they even listed the error in the next day’s corrections.

Does your organization handle customer feedback that well?  Are your people taking personal responsibility for their errors with their customers in such a professional manner?  If not, why not?

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