| Creative, professional leader and manager |
When I started working in the mobile space over five years ago the field was so new that the idea of it was very distant to many. I recall a conversation in a somewhat crowded and, therefore, noisy room I was asked what kind of work I do. I responded “We make software for mobile phones.” The noise in the room was just to the right level and the idea of software for mobile devices was such an unknown that the person inquired “What kind of software do you need for a mobile home?” The idea of software for a mobile home was more reasonable than software for a mobile phone. Jump forward to the iTunes App Store, BlackBerry App World, Android Marketplace, Nokia Ovi store (I know you are wondering what this is so I will provide a link: http://store.ovi.com/), Amazon Appstore (yet to come), Windows Phone Apps Marketplace and the rest; now it is difficult to escape the idea of mobile software and apps.
Companies are trying to jump on the mobile stagecoach so they don't get left behind and they are willing to jump head first into a pool. The problem is that they do not know if the pool has water in it. I have been in discussions with different organizations lately about their mobile application needs and have discovered something surprising. Many companies are trying to decide between apps and mobile web. “Should we do a mobile website or should we make an app?” My response to this question is “Both.” I further elaborate that they should start with the website and then create an app, but not the other way around and, surprisingly, I am finding that many are giving priority to the development of an app over their mobile website. While mobile users spend more time playing with apps (http://www.intomobile.com/2011/02/21/app-usage-is-still-outpacing-mobile-web-according-to-gsma/) than surfing the web, the fact is that if someone wants to find something about your company they are going to turn to the web before searching for your company’s app in their respective app agora.
If you have a great idea for an app that will be engaging, entertaining, or simply addictive then make that app, but do not think of the app as the way to best serve your mobile customers. Mobile web first then create your app.
Posted February 23, 2011 1:05 PM Pacific Time
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Do Mobile Web the Right Way
I recently went through a battery of interviews at Microsoft talking about the strategy and direction of their corporate website for mobile. Some of what I was able to gather about Microsoft's confusion with their website are useful for anyone who has a website.
Many organizations know that their customers are visiting their website using mobile devices and the ones that do not know it are in denial--websites are being visited on mobile devices. Some organizations have decided that they do not need to differentiate their mobile site from their desktop site (more on this later) because mobile browsers are very powerful now. Those organizations are wrong! Mobile users are usually visiting your site for a very different reason than those who are sitting at a desk in front of a computer. Get into the heads of your site visitors. Why would they visit your site on a mobile device rather than from a desktop computer? Start from the mobile side and build up the mobile site; do NOT start from the desktop side and try to shrink the site onto a mobile device.
Mobile browsers are powerful, but when someone visits your site they do not want to, and shouldn't have to, wait for everything to load. Remember the 90s when everyone was concerned about having too much content on their landing page because dial-up connections were unable to load everything quickly? Consider download speeds when developing your site.
Lastly, you need to make your mobile experience different for different handsets--make your site smart. I have a site that I developed for my family to be able to share pictures, thoughts, and videos. It’s our private version of Facebook and we only have about 20 different people in the family who use the site, but the site works on all mobile devices. If someone visits on their iPhone, Android, Blackberry, feature phone, etc. they will be able to watch the videos because I made it so that the videos are converted and formatted as they are uploaded to the site and the site detects the device and serves up the appropriate video. If I can do this with my family’s site then you can go to these same lengths for your organization.
There is not enough time today to provide an exhaustive list of who is doing it wrong, but Apple is. When visiting apple.com on some devices they serve up their full site which is one problem, but the other problem is that their buttons show no text so a user cannot navigate through the site. Why would Apple care how the site looks on something other than an iPhone? If you give any creedence to the adage "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" then Apple needs to work to ensure that their site functions on handsets--even handsets that do not have their stamp of approval. What if someone was visiting their site because they wanted to buy an iPhone, but couldn't buy it because the site doesn't work properly?
Do mobile web right!
Here are your take-aways from today’s lesson:
1. Focus your mobile website for mobile users--don't try to shrink your desktop site for the web
2. Don't give your mobile users everything, only give them what they need
3. Make your site smart enough to work across a majority of devices (even if the devices don't have your logo on them)
Posted February 15, 2011 4:00 PM Pacific Time
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Categorization
I have recently been evaluating/reevaluating my career and I have found difficulty in summing up my skills, knowledge, and talents. In businesses there are individual contributors, producers, managers, VPs, and directors and I feel inclined to fit myself in one of these categories. However, when I start to think about where I fit I cannot determine where to categorize me. With "manager" as part of the two titles I have held at Tarsin I definitely manage, but manager does not paint the entire picture when I think about my role in the company.
I was talking with one of my colleagues, a development manager, about this self-definition conundrum of mine and he suggested "Jack of all trades" which was a beginning for thinking beyond the usual categories. Since that discussion I have talked with a number of colleagues about their roles; most of the people who I have worked closely with are our developers; these people all know what they do--they develop software. Our developers are brilliant and when I look at their code and then back at mine I can see that mine is not as clean as theirs; therefore, I do not think of myself as a developer. The truth is that I have done and do some coding and scripting, and I have done a lot of things beyond coding. Because I do not spend the majority of my day in a single discipline I do not think of myself as fitting into only one category. This got me to realize a little more about where I fit. There are a million things that I am not, and there are a million things that I am. In fact there are so many things that I *am* that I cannot be easily categorized.
A few years ago I received a forwarded email from a member of our executive team and his added comments simply read "Brian, Will you effectuate?" That email was my first memorable encounter with the word effectuate. Effectuate is defined as "to bring about" (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/effectuate). When I think about that email there is a lot that those few words say. If I were to go back through my work emails I realize that there is one overarching theme that will emerge; I am the one who people know they can turn to when they need something done. Production Manager and Technical Support Manager are the titles I have been given, and when speaking with someone outside of our company about what I do usually a different title will come up: Vendor Manager, Account Manager, Technical Account Manager, Producer, Technical Producer, Product Manager, Project Manager, Developer, System Engineer, Telecom Manager. I am not any one of these, I am all of them.
The point is that I am the one who everyone turns to when they need something effectuated (when they need something done).
What do I do? I get things done; I am an Effectuator.
Posted November 18, 2010 3:41 PM Pacific Time
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Who aims, who fires, and who does both?
Many of us spend a lot of time talking about the target and how to get there, but what does it take to really hit the mark? It's one thing if we have a bow, quivver of arrows and a clear line of sight to the target, but if we don't know how to hold the bow, pull back the arrow and release when properly aimed then we aren't going to hit anything. Further, in this analogy, is it possible to do this with a team; one person holding the bow, another the arrow, another pulling back on the string/arrow and yet another controlling the release? How effective is this process going to be in hitting the target? If you are an absolute expert in one of these areas, but does not have the breadth of knowledge to span all of these then it is unlikely that the target will get hit. It is possible to get a team that works so well together that they can coordinate an effort like this, but what is really needed is someone who can pick up all of these tasks and bring them together.
Many companies spend a lot of time narrowing the focus of the tasks and abilities of their employees to the extent that their people are unable to cross over from one task to another. If you are an expert on holding a bow, but don't know how to pull back the bowstring then there is not much of a point in being an expert at holding a bow.
It is great to have people who know how to do one task very well, but at the same time it is critically important to have others with a broad knowledge who are able to perform an array of tasks or we may be creating a team where a team is counter productive.
You are best off to have someone who can do an array of things pretty well than someone who can do only one thing extremely well.
Have you thought about your team lately?
Posted October 26, 2010 12:23 PM Pacific Time
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When someone reaches out for help, what do you do?
About a month ago my wife planned a surprise getaway for the two of us out on the Olympic Peninsula and as we sat in our car in line to get on the ferry I noticed that as the line moved forward people were pulling out and going around a car. When we got up to the car I saw a woman with her children all just sitting in the car. We, too, went around the car, but I told my wife that I wanted to get out and go back to see if I could help so I hopped out of our car and jogged back to the stalled vehicle. It turned out that the battery was dead and the driver couldn't get it to start. She also said that she had been sitting there for over an hour (which means she had missed a couple opportunities to get on the ferry) and was waiting on a tow truck to come give her assistance. I said that I'd be willing to help so she popped the hood and I went through the process of determining that the battery was, indeed, dead (as opposed to a bad connection or blown fuse). As I was talking to the woman, a driver in the right-hand lane had overheard me tell the woman that I didn't have any jumper cables and he said that he had some cables, but that he couldn't get close enough to try to provide a jump because there was a median between us. At that time a van was pulling around the stalled car so I asked the driver if he'd be willing to provide a jump to which he replied that he would be happy to help. His van was completely in the traffic lane and just as we were connecting the jumper cables a police car pulled up and turned on his lights. He checked to see what we were doing and then started directing traffic around us to keep everyone safe. In the end, the battery was too far dead even for a jump, but what struck me about this experience was that the woman and her children sat for over an hour while everyone went around them, but when I stopped to help I was able to rally people together in a matter of minutes.
What would you do?
Posted October 15, 2010 3:15 PM Pacific Time
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Helpful People
There are two kinds of people who are attracted to working in technical support groups:
1) Highly technically minded people
2) People who like to help others
There is a problem with each of these types; the people in group #1 usually do not excel at communicating and working with customers and the people in group #2 usually do not possess the knowledge to provide highly technical support.
What technical support teams need are people from group #2 where their favorite thing to do is help others and the team needs people from group #1 in order to back up group #2.
It is rare that an organization finds individuals who are a strong mix of both groups #1 and #2, but it has been demonstrated in many organizations that if you have the right people from group #2, they will become those cross-over people who you need.
Posted October 12, 2010 4:39 PM Pacific Time
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Who Are Your Sales People?
For ten-plus years I have worked in various capacities in relation to technical support and before that I worked as a bicycle mechanic in a retail setting. It may appear to be a dramatic leap from bicycle mechanic to technical support, but the more that I think about the differences in these roles, the more I realize that they are very much alike. Both roles require skills in discovery and repair of issues, are generally relegated to the back room, and most importantly are possibly the most critical sales asset of a company.
Uncovering and repairing issues is a known factor in both of these roles, but the sales significance is not often noticed. When working in the bicycle store I spent a lot of time tucked away in an attic work area or in a back room where it was me, a bunch of bicycles in need of attention, and some specific tools. Likewise, in my support roles I have been crammed into a corner room with a number of other support technicians, given an "office" (formerly known as the janitorial closet), or tucked away in a cubicle with a few specialized tools. We often think of the people in these roles as people who are not facing customers; we think of them as working behind the scenes and not having much of an impact on the customer and customer purchasing decisions, but I argue that these roles are critical sales tools that are being overlooked by a majority of companies.
In the bicycle store there were times when a customer would return to the store to pick up his/her bicycle after it had been repaired. I would wheel the bike out to them, explain what I did to fix the issue, and at that time I was often afforded the opportunity to suggest that the customer purchase something more. If a bicycle was brought in for the repair of a flat tire I could suggest the purchase of a couple extra inner tubes and a patch kit. Some people may then need some tire levers to remove the tire from the rim, then we would realize that they need an air pump and maybe two so that they have one that mounts on the bicycle for on-the-road repairs and another floor-pump to leave at home. In the end, a $15 invoice for an inner-tube replacement quickly turns into a $100+ sale. Maybe I noticed from the dirt on the bicycle or the type of repair required that the rider is in need of a new accessory, helmet or even an upgraded bicycle--something more befitting their riding style and amount of time spent on the bicycle. This could go from a $35 tune-up to a $2000.00 bicycle. While the sales people were attempting to somewhat blindly sell bicycles to people who entered the store, I had insight into how and where customers were riding as well as the type of abuses that the customers dished out--I was the most informed person about what a customer needed. (In fact, there was a one-month period in which the six-store chain where I worked actually tracked the sales of each person throughout the company. I worked in a relatively small store and I still had the highest sales numbers out of everyone in all of the stores.)
In technical support I have been able to see what aspects are working for customers, what are broken, and what is missing. Technical support personnel are in the position to obtain the greatest insight into customer needs. If we are a software company I can suggest an add-on package that will give the customer the tools that they need in order to perform what they are trying to accomplish with their system. If we are a hardware company then I can suggest a new piece of hardware to replace something that is not performing up to the customer’s needs.
The strange thing that we see in business is that many companies keep a very distinct distance/barrier between sales and support. Sales people are one face of the company that the customer sees a time or two, but support personnel are the people who the customers continue to see. Since support people are continually interacting with customers why is it that businesses assume that customers will continue to make future decisions to buy from them based on the one or two interactions with the sales force rather than their multiple (and sometimes daily) interactions with support? Why do so many companies not give their support staff the tools and license to provide sales suggestions and close deals? I argue that there needs to be less delineation and more integration between sales and support. Don’t just send sales people out to complete a deal, send out a Sales & Support Representative. It is also important to remember that if support teams are consistently shoved into the back room and that they are not given the recognition that they deserve/desire that they can also dramatically and negatively impact your business. If you think that your support staff are, in fact, hurting your business maybe it is time that you take a new look at the position of support people in your company because it might be through them that you can foster new growth for your company.
Posted October 7, 2010 12:05 PM Pacific Time
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Reading the Right Books
Over the past few months I have been consuming business-related books and have found many great ideas and thoughts about how businesses can perform better and things that we (businesses, individual contributors, etc.) can do to be more effective. There are numerous books aimed at C-level leaders as well as those who want to become leaders (Seth Godin's book Tribes is a great insight into leadership).
I have been inspired by what I have read recently in A Whole New Mind, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, and in the slideshow on FastCompany about Rework (I am yet to read the book as it just came out). These books contain a wealth of information and all get me excited with the possibilities they spark in my mind. I have tried to inject several of the teachings from these books into the company I work for, but I find that the injection never takes.
I look forward to the time when someone writes a book that gives lower-level employees the tools, knowledge, and/or experiences that can be used to inspire upper-level employees to read these types of books and to adopt some of the solutions therefrom.
Posted March 9, 2010 11:00 AM Pacific Time
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Customer Service: Rapidity and Completeness, Part 2
In contrast to the customer service (or lack thereof) I recently "received" from the local organization, I had an interesting and fulfilling result with a different organization.
I recently used Amazon Fresh to order my groceries and the entire shopping, purchase, and delivery was without issue and completely refreshing as a combined grocery shopping and online buying experience. Last evening I was doing a little shopping and was looking for an energy bar when I came across the Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif Bar where the ingredients were listed as:
Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Clifpro (Soy Rice Crisps [Soy Protein Isolate, Rice Flour, Malt Extract], Organic Roasted Soybeans, Organic Soy Flour), Organic Rolled Oats, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Peanut Butter (Organic Peanuts, Salt), Peanut Flour, Clifcrunch (Apple Fiber, Organic Oat Fiber, Organic Milled Flaxseed, Chicory Extract, Psyllium), Organic Pig Paste, Peanuts, Natural Flavors, Sea Salt. Vitamins and Minerals: Dicalcium Phosphate, Magnesium Oxide, Ascorbic Acid (Vit. C), Tocopheryl Acetate (Vit. E), Ferric Orthophosphate (Iron), Beta Carotene (Vit. A), Zinc Citrate, Phytonadione (Vit. K1), Biotin, Niacinamide (Vit. B3), Calcium Pantothenate (Vit. B5), Potassium Iodide, Manganese Gluconate, Copper Gluconate, Sodium Selenite, Thiamin (Vit. B1), Chromium Chloride, Cyanocobalamin (Vit. B12), Sodium Molybdate, Folic Acid (Vit. B9), Riboflavin (Vit. B2), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vit. B6).
Note the ingredient in bold above. What is "Organic Pig Paste?" I posed this question on Twitter which brought a few responses on Facebook and I then submitted the question to Amazon Fresh via their "Contact Us." About 20 minutes after submitting the query I received the following email:
Hello Brian Mills,
Thank you for informing us about this typo. You're right, "Organic Pig Paste" doesn't sound like a very appealing ingredient! It is very important we have accurate and complete information on every single product we offer and we appreciate the time you took bring this issue to our attention.
We'll see that this is corrected as soon as possible.
Strong customer feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the selection and service we provide. Thank you for shopping at AmazonFresh.
Best regards,
Lauren K.
AmazonFresh Customer Service
http://fresh.amazon.com
============================
Wow! What a quick response, although the response was not truly complete--no resolution was posed. This morning I received the following email:
Hi Brian,
Our Customer Service Team forwarded me your email about the ingredients listed for Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif Bars. You’re absolutely right—the ingredients on the site are definitely incorrect! Here are the correct ingredients below:
Organic Brown Rice Syrup, ClifPro® (Soy Rice Crisps [Soy Protein Isolate, Rice Flour, Barley Malt Extract], Organic Roasted Soybeans, Organic Soy Flour), Organic Rolled Oats, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Peanut Butter (Organic Peanuts, Salt), Peanut Flour, Peanuts, ClifCrunch® (Apple Fiber, Organic Oat Fiber, Organic Milled Flaxseed, Inulin [Chicory Extract], Psyllium), Organic Date Paste, Natural Flavors, Sea Salt.
The updated ingredients should show on our site by tomorrow morning. Thanks so much for calling this out.
If you have any other comments, questions or suggestions, please feel free to send them to customer service or to feedback@amazon.com.
Best Regards,
Chelsea
The AmazonFresh Team
============================
So last night I got a quick response noting that there was an issue thus fulfilling the "Rapidity" requirement for good customer service and then this morning I received a "Complete" response with resolution.
Hopefully Amazon Fresh will grow in such a way that it can hold on to such incredible customer service.
Posted February 24, 2010 11:09 AM Pacific Time
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Customer Service: Rapidity and Completeness
I recently ran into issues in using the website of a local organization and ultimately had to call them for assistance. I left several messages both on voicemail and with a live human. The person I spoke with told me that I would get a call back within 2 hours. The voicemail system gave no promises of response. From the message I left with the human I got a call back more than 4 hours later (rather than the 2 I had been promised). It took the organization (which is open 7 days a week) more than 2 full days to call me back from the voicemail messages.
The sad part is that no one who called me back could actually fix the issues I had encountered and could not rectify the negative experiences I'd had. The organization either seems to believe that they are not responsible for my happiness with them or they seem to think that they have enough business that I am inconsequential--or so it seems to me.
This experience has given me time to reflect on customer service I have received from different organizations as well as the customer service that I have provided.
Over time I have spent a lot of time in customer support type functions or near customer support. With the amount of work that I have done in customer service and what I have done to assist customers I have found that there are a couple things that I have come to expect out of customer service when I have been on the receiving side.
1. Short response time
2. Complete responses
When it is possible, it is important to provide a thorough response in as little time as possible. If a response cannot be quickly provided it is beneficial to take a moment to write a response to a waiting customer/client to let them know the status of their inquiry.
When responding to your user provide as much information about what you have found even if it goes a little beyond what they asked--this empowers the user and, proverbially, is teaching a man to fish. I have never had anyone complain that I have provided them with more information than they had requested.
Posted February 22, 2010 5:03 PM Pacific Time
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Stream of Consciousness Emails
In the early days of email I would receive and read a message then often ponder the response--often getting distracted by another task and getting up from the computer only to be given more time away from the computer and message to consider what to say in my response. With the popularity of laptops, WiFi/MiFi, and (perhaps more significant) mobile devices we do not spend as much time away from our email and we will often respond sooner and faster than we would have previously. In addition, in my experience, mobile users are more prone to typos than desktop or laptop users. With a number of people who I communicate electronically with (and let's be honest, there are few who I communicate with through other means) I have found that their emails are beginning to make less and less sense--especially the ones coming from their mobile devices.
In composing an email I often spend time writing an email then re-reading it and then I send it. In my Outlook settings I even have it so that there is about a 10 minute delay between the time that I click on send and the time that the message is actually sent from my computer; this is in the case that after hitting send I remember that I was supposed to attach something or that I notice a newer message in my inbox pertaining to the same subject and providing greater insight into my response. I think that in this time of ever increasing speeds with which we communicate that the effectiveness of our communication must be considered with greater attention.
Posted January 14, 2010 11:28 AM Pacific Time
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Getting Passed By A Leaf
There is a hill near my home that I like to ride up just to prove to myself that I'm able to do it. This particular section is only a mile long, but it has an average grade of 12% so it is a grueling one mile. The weather is turning now and it is windy out; as I was pedaling a leaf slid along the ground and passed me going up the hill. How terrible to be passed by a leaf!
Many businesses experience this same sort of thing; they have been working hard on a new product or in capturing the business of a new client when they see some little guy come scooting along and that business gets snatched away. We, as employees/executives/investors, may become discouraged by this loss of business, but we need to consider what has happened compared to the greater goal of our company and capacity. We have seen with the semi-recent changes in the US economy that businesses have given up and in many cases it could very well be that they were only watching that leaf blow by and that they were not considering the possibilities of what is around the next bend.
Yes, I got passed by a leaf at one point in my ride, but it was moving in the direction the wind blew and once it got to the corner it got caught in a pile of leaves and road-side debris and I turned with the road and kept on pedaling. In fact, that leaf only blew past me for a few feet compared to the twenty-five miles I rode as I turned with the roads and went up and down hills. We need to remember to look beyond those times when we get passed by a leaf and keep our minds and businesses moving in many directions.
The Hill
Posted October 2, 2009 1:00 PM Pacific Time
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Where's the Forest?
The Burke-Gilman trail is a paved bicycle/walking trail that at one point runs around the north shore of Lake Washington. I live a few miles from the trail and often find myself riding the trail on my lunchtime bicycle rides. Often I ride quickly along the trail trying to log as many miles as possible in the time that I have available (which is never as much as I would like it to be). There are many large houses on the shore of the lake and they are between the trail and the lake so there are only a few places where you can get a good view of the lake from the BGT. I often glance at the houses as I ride by and think about life behind those large doors and windows.
Recently as I was riding the trail I was looking to my side at the houses with the flashes of lake between and then there was a larger opening where I looked clear across the lake to the other side where I saw St. Edwards state park and it hit me how beautiful that view is–the lake and the tree-filled forest on the other side–and I immediately slowed and tried to catch more glimpses of the view that had just taken my breath away with its beauty.
My experience in the mobile industry has been such that it seems that we are always looking at those grandiose houses and dreaming about life within them and that we have forgotten the beauty of the mobile realm. The next big app is what will help deliver us into those big houses so we can live like the others who have made their millions (or billions) from developing the next big thing. We keep thinking about this new app, what it is going to be, how we are going to deliver it and how it will be adopted, but we are thinking of these apps in the same way that people thought of internet applications in the early days of the internet. We are chasing these apps like people pursue getting into those grand houses. What we need to remember is that there is a beautiful view of a lake and forest beyond this house (app) we are aiming for and we are only looking at the short goal rather than the far-off goal that is much more beautiful and full of greater possibilities.
The software world is changing drastically and there are many adoption pathways that need to be developed and they need to be developed quickly.
Adobe now offers photoshop.com for editing and storing your photos online when you pay for a subscription–you are not purchasing the software; you are paying for a subscription to use the service. Microsoft is offering Zune Pass music subscriptions rather than buying individual MP3s from Amazon or music files from the iTunes store. Software and applications has been known traditionally as something that is bundled and that individuals purchase, but with the cloud there needs to be greater support for subscriptions and greater flexibility offered to the software providers.
Here we are on the verge of Mobile 2.0 and a shift is required now; we are missing the forest on the other shore because we're only looking at the houses in front of us.
Posted October 1, 2009 12:15 PM Pacific Time
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Wrongness
I had a recent experience with a customer service representative that enraged me and got me thinking about admitting to being wrong. Lately I have found myself admitting that I am wrong more often than I recall doing so in my life before; maybe it is because of this that I want others to admit to being wrong, but I think it is imperative that businesses consider this and consider who is representing their brand.
Recently Seth Godin wrote a blog entry that was in line with what I have been thinking about in this regard. I agree with most points that Godin makes, and wish to make a couple extra comments.
In my recent experience I was at the mercy of the service provider because they have total control over my account and they do not give me access to see what might be set incorrectly so I have to go along with what they say. After being transferred to three different representatives the third one was so bad I asked if the issue could be escalated to another group. He said that there was no one higher and asked who I thought we should escalate it to so I suggested that we see if his supervisor could offer insight. A couple minutes later his supervisor was on the phone and was even worse than the rep had been. If the supervisor does it, it's no wonder that his underlings would think that it is acceptable.
I went through the entire issue with each of these customer service reps and while the first two admitted that we had exceeded their knowledge of their systems the third person said that there was nothing more that could be done and his supervisor said the same thing as well. I went back over the issue in detail with this supervisor showing him how the issue is definitely on their side and that is outside of my control; his response was that there was nothing more that he could do. I asked if we could escalate the issue and he said, "We can, but they will just come back to me and tell me that there is nothing more that can be done."If there is nothing more that he can do and there is no one else above him who can fix the issue then I just have to live with things not working properly? Should I just move my business over to another service provider? Is this how you would want your brand to be represented?
If this supervisor would have simply said that we had exhausted everything within his power and if he had just moved into the part where we escalate it and I sit around waiting I would have been happier with them than I am.
This correlates with my idea that I use often in the sports I enjoy (cycling, rock climbing, skiing) and the idea is that if you never fall then you are not trying anything new. Admitting to being wrong or to having one's knowledge exceeded is equivalent to falling down. It is at these times when we are challenged that we will be able to grow and provide better service to our customers. I have a tendency to become a strong advocate for the businesses that I work for and I hate to admit that we (me/the company) have any limitations, but there comes a time when we must either admit limitations or we will lose our customers.
There is nothing inherently damning with being wrong or confessing that there are system limitations unless we are unwilling to admit it.
Posted September 23, 2009 7:25 AM Pacific Time
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Bicycle-Business Analogy--Your chain is squeaking so loudly that you cannot hear another cyclist coming from behind
As I rode past a couple cyclists yesterday I noticed surprise from them that I was passing. It's not as if I snuck up on them because I have a bell on my bike (yes, like kids have) and I ring it two to three times as a come up behind another rider because I don't want to startle them. In spite of ringing my bell these riders were surprised as I passed. This got me thinking about business and two different aspects of what we need to do to remain competitive.
1. Watch and listen for competition
2. Take some time to keep our machine (business) tuned and functioning at peak levels
We forget that there is, in fact, real-life competition out there (no matter how bleeding-edge we think we are). If we are not careful we will get caught up in the noise from within our company and only pay attention to what we are doing without noting the other guys who may be sneaking in to take away our competitive edge or to slip away with our prospective clients.
If we make the mistake of not paying attention there is really only one way to recover and it is to pick up the pace and get moving. The issue is that if we have been caught up in our own world moving along at our own pace for too long it will be too difficult to switch gears or stand up and pedal hard.
Many people I have worked with work long days which is great in the short term because they are able to complete a lot of work, but the problem is that they are not rested and when the time comes that the entire company needs to buckle down and work these individuals have put so much time, energy, and effort into the company that they cannot give any more. The problem is exacerbated when others in the company have not been pushing themselves mentally and keeping their mental perspicacity up and they burn out too quickly. With either of these issues it can lead to the end of the company.
How do we prepare?
Balance.
Balance in how many people are putting in the extra hours versus those who are putting in only a few and balance the amount of time that we spend with an existing client with how much time we spend with prospective ones.
Posted September 22, 2009 10:45 AM Pacific Time
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A Culture of Quitting
I have been thinking of this article a friend sent to me the other day (Up or Out: Solving the IT Turnover Crisis).
There are many ideas in this article that got me thinking about my current position and company and past jobs and companies. I was starting to think that perhaps there was something wrong with me that every few years I felt an urge to move into a different position or to a different company. I hear people saying that you should stick with a job for five years and then move on if so inclined, but I am yet to see that there is a lot more to be learned after a couple years unless the company you are working for is extremely progressive.
My current position consists of me doing the jobs that would be done by several individuals in other companies. My position has evolved after several years of never turning down an assignment or task that someone has asked me to complete. I like the work just fine, but I get the feeling that I have now hit the ceiling of learning in my current company and I have come to a crossroads. I must now decide if I want to grow and learn more or if I want to remain in a position that allows for another fulfillment mentioned in the article about how "family provides much more self actualization than a career, and choose not to work those sixty hour weeks." Can I not do both? I would argue that I have been doing both for the last couple years and I even believe, perhaps naively, that my wife would agree with me. I know how to work, but I also know how to play and am able to relax as well as many.
I am not sure that I will ever be able to determine conclusively which aspects of this article best pertain to me and my life, but in time I am sure I will be able to look back and see with clarity which path I decide to proceed down is the right one. That comes with an ability to make a decision and be content with wherever that decision takes me.
Posted May 6, 2008 9:31 AM Pacific Time
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