| Bicycles | Product/Project Manager |
Art |
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 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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