The Techie's Dilemma on Customer Service

This article first appeared in Business Journal Africa - Empowering Africa's Entrepreneurs - Issue No 162 of Oct 2013

Picture this scenario and reflect on just how familiar it sounds… Your computer is frustrating you thoroughly, it is behaving in a manner likely to suggest that it will not cooperate with the instructions you are meting out. You are unable to retrieve the application you would like to use or your computer for no apparent reason is just hanging there winking at you, not responding to your commands, brazen with impunity. Had it been a youthful generation Y Kenyan it would have in brush script plastered on the screen ‘Uta Do?’ (So???) In the spirit of not giving up you have made several attempts at rebooting and troubleshooting that have borne no fruit. So you do what you need to do and call up the ICT support person in your organization’s ICT department. And right here begins ‘The Techie’s Dilemma on Customer Service.’

So the gentleman from support comes over( no gender bias intended – for some unfathomable reason, the support chaps are next to always gentlemen), listens to your computer woes, takes one look at you then at the computer, touches one thing and only one thing, clicks on it and voila! everything sorts itself out. And the good gentleman after performing this magical act looks at you like you are a complete dunderhead with regards to ICT matters. Ok yes yes yes you are and if you were not you’d have performed that magical thing that he did right there, but does he have to shoot those looks that spell ‘idiot’?

The thing about customer service which is the main function of an ICT help desk or support desk is that it requires a tricky balance between being a technical person able to diagnose and troubleshoot users’ problems whilst understanding their needs and being a people oriented customer service type person. Would this be an outlier? Is this something completely unexpected, out of the box and too good to be true? The two more often than not most unfortunately do not go together. People with customer service flair are very often found in their line of work, handling customer service portfolios and dealing with people, and people who are highly technical and great at working intimately with gadgets and gizmos are just that – techies.

So what does it take for the techie to be aligned towards talking to people and helping them out even when their queries and needs seem so simplistic and a total waste of precious techie innovation time? How does the techie balance between the need to quickly rectify the situation and have the user back on track and the need to explain to the user what has happened and what they need to do should the situation arise again? Is this an ‘outlying’ quest? Does this sound like something that would be the exception rather than the norm?

Given that most user support departments are very busy and support officers are in high demand in the organizations they serve, precious time that would be taken to explain to a user in completely lay terms to enable them understand the root cause of their ICT problem, what they would need to do to ensure it either doesn’t happen again or if it does how to sort out the problem on their own, is simply not available. The almost classroom nature that this conversation would need to take including a demo and the participant actually carrying out the troubleshooting process would indeed consume a significant amount of time, a luxury the support department does not have.

The key performance indicators for these departments always revolve around logging of support calls and the turnaround time taken to resolve user issues. The more users served in a day and the quicker the support person arrives and leaves behind a sorted out customer, the better the department’s performance against targets.

The million dollar question therefore remains – is the sorted out customer a satisfied customer? Is there truly a way to balance between dispensing of technical duty and providing good customer service? Or is this one of those ‘outlying’ situations, never to be heard of except for once in a green moon? The customer in question is generally the internal customer. Some of whom require the services of the support department to sort out the external customers coming to the organization directly or procuring goods or services from the organisation. So essentially it is important for this internal user to get the best out of the ‘internal service provider’.

So where does this leave the user support techies? First tip would be to have the support personnel adjust the way in which they look at and perceive the internal user. The user should be viewed as a ‘customer’ and not as a colleague. This will serve to have the support personnel’s attitude towards the user shift towards one of providing customer service literally and not support service. And as is said, attitude is everything. Once this switch happens, the values of helpfulness and patience will dock in of their own accord. Does this sound outlandish perhaps?

The support personnel would also need to literally put themselves in their customers’ shoes and imagine what the person’s frustrations are, their lack of technical aptitude to deal with them and the ripple effect of their not being able to perform the tasks at hand on the overall organization’s achievement of goals. Once the bigger picture is in place, sorting out an individual’s issues will be seen in the bigger picture of enabling the organization to achieve corporate objectives and strategy. This vision should have the values of helpfulness and patience once again dock in of their own accord.

Another initiative the support department would need to engage in that would add value, would be to document the most frequently asked questions that do not require technical support and can be resolved at user level, and to then develop a user guide with step by step simple pictorials and screen shots that outline how to resolve the issue. A ‘Help Desk 101 for ICT Idiots’ manual of some sort. This can then be sent out to the users to save in an easily accessible place. Once a call is placed through to the support desk and the support team establishes that indeed the problem at hand is one of these, they can refer the user to the guide and only if they are unable to resolve the issue then pay a well deserved visit to their desk. This will provide benefits two fold as the support team would save precious time and the user would feel empowered by the self sufficiency of problem resolution. Mission Impossible? Perhaps not…

In the mean time, whilst business are lining up their front office teams and customer facing teams for customer service and brand alignment training, the support team should be right up there in the budget allocation with the rest of them. Friendly and pleasant user support experiences will duly enhance internal customer service, a key ingredient towards achieving excellent external customer service and delivering on the organization’s brand promise.

Customer Service And Your Doctor

This article first appeared in Pregnant Magazine -Pregnancy & Birth Magazine For Today's Woman and Her Man.. Issue 50

Recently my good friend told me a story about a ‘nightmarish’ paediatrician. Her regular doctor had travelled and had someone else sitting in her place. This new doctor apparently was very brisk and all business like. Spoke only to my friend and did not even once turn to talk to or acknowledge her child. In the space of less than five minutes, this doctor had listened to the symptoms, opened up the child’s clothes, palpated his stomach, locating the pain point only by the child’s anguished cry of pain, prescribed medicine and quickly rushed them out whilst ushering in the next patient.  Needless to say after my friend’s narration, I quickly noted down the doctors name and full details. And although I don’t know her and have never seen her, I am completely certain that I will never visit her clinic under any circumstances. I have also told as many people as I know and care about who have children this same story. Bad news does travel fast.

This story got me thinking about why in the medical fraternity, customer care seems to take a back burner compared to other sectors. A doctor’s practice is indeed a business isn’t it? Would any business owner travel and leave their business in the hands of another practitioner who does not greet the main client or make them feel at home? Who doesn’t listen to them, proceeds to prod and pummel them, give them instructions and quickly send them on their way? How good is this behaviour for business? Does this kind of service guarantee that customers will be overflowing at the doorstep rushing in to patronize business? The answer is indeed rather obvious right?

Most of us feel completely powerless while at the doctor’s office. Whereas during interactions in other areas of life, we may be completely empowered and vocal, at the doctor’s we are quite mum and I often wonder why. Is it because we are still rooted in the concept that the doctor is ‘god’ that was installed in our childhood? Where the doctor was this wonderful being sent down to earth to cure us of all our ailments? That all one had to do was go to the doctor’s office, describe one’s problems and a magic pill would be prescribed that would take it all away?

Or is it the then and still continuing over glorification of doctors? Where the medical profession was and is still deemed to be more superior to other professions? Where one’s parents basked in the glory and elevation of societal praise if their son or daughter was studying medicine and were the subject of admiration and envy?

Much has changed and is still changing and the current patient is more discerning and requires much more from their doctor at a partnership level. No longer is the doctor- patient relationship a ‘superior –inferior’ relationship but has moved on to being a ‘partner-in-the-process-of-my- medical-care’ relationship.

Let’s take for example the waiting room experience. Many patients are not clear about the systems in place and the process to see the doctor. This is often left to the dictates of the personnel at the doctor’s front office. Some doctor’s offices run on an appointment system and some on a walk in basis. Whichever way, very often there are patients snuck into the register in between appointments or who are said to have come earlier( although not physically present) and are ushered in to see the doctor before others  waiting in the queue. The machinations of the front office staff, who manipulate the queue and appointment systems, leave many patients whispering in angry protest in waiting rooms.

It is important to rise above being a victim in such a situation and make a polite request to receive an explanation as to how the booking or queuing system works. The persons administrating the system will be hard put not to respond to a polite request to know how exactly the system works. This way, once you know how it works and they know that you know, it will be quite difficult for them to slip in extra patients and do favours to those who have not booked. If all the customers asked or if there was a request from the customers to have the process put on process map on the notice board or on the wall for all customers to be aware, it would curtail the underhand dealings.

Communication is also another area that is besieged with obvious lack and leaves a lot to be desired. What kind of communication does a patient deserve? What questions should you ask your doctor and when? Every patient needs to continuously ask questions. No question should be deemed too silly where your health or the health of your little one is concerned. Ask Ask Ask. We should take a cue from little children going through the ‘why’ phase who usually ask why? why? why? to every question, driving their parents insane as they think up reasonable and rational answers to the innocent questions. The same principle should apply. You should ask the doctor why why why until you have understood exactly what is happening, the reason for the choices being made and why a particular course of treatment or prescription is being recommended.

At no point should one be rushed into a procedure or coerced into doing anything. Seek to understand and be relentless in your quest for information. Conduct research and look up information from a wide variety of sources. Nowadays there’s tons of information online and there are many groups resourceful in providing answers. A word of caution though, is that one should not blindly follow lay advice from peers, but take the proffered advice and bounce it off your doctor for clarification. Do not hesitate to seek a second, third or even fourth opinion. It doesn’t hurt and will only serve to confirm the wisdom of your proposed choice or otherwise. Go with your gut feel. No matter how inexperienced or green you may be in the health matter you are dealing with, respect your instinct and your gut feel and ask for more information until you feel comfortable. You need not reach a point in your life where you say ‘I wish I listened’ Listen in advance. And should your doctor not be willing to answer your questions and provide you the information you seek, look for another doctor who will. Immediately.

And finally, have you ever wondered why there are some doctor’s waiting rooms completely full to capacity, where patients are willing to wait four or five hours to see the doctor? Where patients come ready to wait armed with their novels, tablets, toys to keep their children busy, office work to get on with, files and papers to read? Very busy and upward moving patients from all walks of life willing to wait out their turns patiently? What is it that sustains this phenomenon?

It is the doctor. You will find that once the patient is in the doctor’s room, their experience there is worth the long wait.  Every patient needs to be listened to, to be heard and to feel like they are indeed important. That everything they say however idiotic it may sound, matters and is addressed with the concern it deserves. What is the critical factor that should make one choose one doctor over another?  

A good doctor will handle each patient differently and address their unique and individual needs. A good doctor will remember what is important to you and seek to fulfill their promises. A good doctor will listen to complaints, however trivial they may seem and will take note of suggestions for improvement. Little things will be taken seriously. A good doctor will be available, respond to your telephone calls and texts, apologise should they be late and respect your time. A good doctor will take time to explain their course of action with regards to your treatment and ensure you are fully aware of your condition. They will be quick to let you know the repercussions, dangers and side effects of procedures and ensure you give informed consent. A good doctor will not feel that you are challenging them should you have new or contradictory information to what they have advised. A good doctor will not hesitate to let you know should they not have the answer to your question and need to consult their colleagues to provide you accurate information. A good doctor is your partner and friend who is as willing to learn from you as you are to learn from them. Does this describe your doctor?

Take a good look at the doctor in whose hands you are placing your life and the life of your little one and ask yourself this question – If this doctor made a mistake would they be willing to let me know? If the answer is yes, you are in good hands, if the answer is no, I invite you to take a good look around and find a doctor  whom you trust wholeheartedly – in the literal sense – ‘with all your heart’

Enhanced Customer Response Mechanisms for Manufactured Goods

This article first appeared in Commerce and Industry Magazine Vol 2 No 008 August 2013

When we conjure up images of well blended bone soup with the marrow and herbs all fused into a great tasting broth, the elements that make the sum total of the whole evoke a very warm feeling. When we list the terms customer service and the manufacturing industry side by side in pot, there seems to be some incongruence. No warm feeling emanates and the two are not seen to fit together like hand and glove as is the case with companies dealing directly with customers like those in the hospitality industry, banking, insurance or other retail sectors.

 

What comes to mind when we think of ‘manufacturing’ is lines, conveyor belts, machines, processors and power; all hard, cold, mechanical and functional elements. But giving it serious thought, we actually need to reconsider the fundamental role customer service plays in this industry. And as remote as it sounds with regards to the subject, customer service should in reality form the pivot around which manufacturing spins.

Let’s for starters take a look at the definition of manufacturing from various sources. ‘Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to make things for use or sale’, ‘To make or process raw material into a finished product’ and ‘To make or process goods, especially in large quantities by means of industrial machines’. All these definitions have once common denominator – end product. And naturally therefore, we ask the leading question about who this end product is ‘produced’ or ‘manufactured’ for. Yes - The Customer.

Why then is the end customer not given due recognition by the industry? To further explore this subject, I conducted a small poll amongst a sample group from my friends, colleagues and family and asked what they’d do if they found one of the manufactured products they’d bought had a problem. Many were not sure if they’d return the item to the supermarket or store where they bought it from or if they’d try and contact the manufacturer. What was clear however was that the procedure for complaint was definitely unclear.  Not one single person knew firmly what action to take in event of a product defect. When we juxtapose this with the service industry, it pales in comparison as there, aggrieved parties are very quick to escalate service failure to the supervisor or manager in charge.

I was inspired by these interesting results to further carry out an inspection exercise of the various manufactured goods on our super market shelves, to discern if the existing communication advises customers of what to do in event they encounter a product issue.  My scrutiny included a wide range of products including food products, a host of detergents, pet food, spices, toilet paper, beauty products and household goods. Much to my consternation, the products all have insufficient information on this subject.

 Most products had only the address and telephone contacts of the manufacturer under a title ‘Manufactured by’ or ‘Produced and packaged by’. Some had gone a little further to label the telephone lines ‘customer care’ lines and the closest to being remotely advisory, was on a box of cereal that read “in event of a problem with this product please return it with the label indicating the sell by date to our customer service department”. It didn't have specifics of their physical location or the location of the said customer service department. Three items had a toll free 0800 number that I called and didn't get through in two cases and in one case the number went unanswered.  These unstructured findings of my dipstick poll had me seriously consider preparing a proposal to interest our vibrant research firms to conduct a proper survey on the customer response mechanisms for our manufactured goods.

That all said, the question that still baffles, is how the manufacturing industry is driving change and innovating for the customer. There exists a concerted effort to check on quality control for products with in situ quality control departments, but what actually informs the initiatives in place to repackage, re-invent and revive products? How do they tap into customers’ direct feedback to assess the uptake of products and what needs to be done to tweak them to serve the emerging needs?  How does the industry innovate? It is said that innovative thinking is looking at the customer's routine outside the company’s existing products and then innovating to add value. How then should the manufacturing industry look at the customer and hear them first hand?

Having explicit information on product packaging on how to report a defect, complete with legit contact details should be the first and mandatory step. This packaging should also encourage other regular feedback to institute direct communication that enables the manufacturer hear straight from the ‘horse’s mouth’. This initiative would also have the added spin off of easier identification and reporting that would boost the government’s effort to curb the influx of sub-standard, counterfeit and contra-band good, as customers would be the first to call in to report fake products.

And although players in the manufacturing industry often view their main customers as the distributors and seek to streamline their orders, logistics and supply issues, the heartbeat remains unchecked. The 2011 study from Deloitte on Global Manufacturing Industry Practice says “The business model of global manufacturers is under attack due to changing customer demands. Confronted by competitors, escalating complexity of supply chains and ever-increasing customer demands, manufacturers ignoring the needs of the service business do so at their peril”.  The customer indeed needs to be at the centre of it all.

Given these observations and projections, the manufacturing industry in Kenya needs to rethink their service delivery strategy and build in communication streams that directly flow from the customer. Where applicable, a mechanism to channel back feedback provided to distributors in the supply chain should be built in.

With Kenya’s current economic lift off, manufacturing is among the key productive sectors identified for economic growth and development. This is attributed to its centrality to creation of economic stimulus, and the anticipated jobs for the youth in the counties countrywide, to alleviate poverty. It is therefore both our individual and collective responsibility to add value to the sector as an area that spurs growth towards the country’s achievement of Vision 2030 goals with specific reference to the economic vision in chapter 4 section 4.4 that challenges the nation to manufacture for the entire region.

So to all manufacturer s out there – I challenge you to ‘talk’ to your consumers and to all consumers out there – agitate to ‘talk’ to your manufacturers.