A Rave Against Miserable Customer Service, Lousy Leaders and Protectionist Policies
Filed under: Current Affairs, Customer Service, Leadership, Organizational Transformation, Performance, Quality Systems Management, Social Commentary, Surviving Lousy Leaders, voice of the customer
One of my favorite, provocative business thinkers, Gary Hamel, says what we’ve all been thinking about in his Wall Street Journal blog post, “Too Many Industries Suffering from Detroititis.”
While the term “Detroititis” is not yet in common use, it isn’t hard to intuit the meaning. A mix of myopic thinking, short-term management approaches and a damn the consumer mentality, all jump to my mind.
Hamel appropriately skewers the U.S. airline industry for suffering from a chronic case of this newly named malady. He also chastises the U.S. government for propping up this industry with a “blatantly protectionist policy” that bars foreign ownership of U.S. air carriers.
Note from Art: this protectionist policy and the adverse implications for consumers and for society speak to the heart of my post: If Ayn Rand Could See Us Now.
The U.S. airlines are easy and deserving targets. It is nearly impossible to find any customer satisfaction, much less enjoyment flying with these broken-down flying bus companies. (Apologies to any bus companies that I’ve insulted.)
More often than not, you deal with ridiculous lines, grumpy attendants and flight personnel that visibly hate their jobs. Most of the customer service practices recently put into place are shortsighted and designed with the carrier in mind, not the customer.
In the vernacular of one of my favorite recent books, Tuned-In, the carriers truly do create remarkable customer experiences. Unfortunately, they missed the memo on making these experiences positive ones.
The contrast between the customer experience on a U.S. Air Carrier and an overseas carrier is stark. Fly Singapore Airlines or JAL and you’ll spend most of your trip in shock over how nice the experience can be. Something will feel very different and out of place. The poor treatment is gone, replaced by great service provided by people that seem to enjoy creating nice experiences for customers.
Other than the cathartic exercise of criticizing the U.S. carriers (of which I have over 1 million miles on), there are a few reminders for all of us in our businesses as we work to immunize our thinking against the deadly disease of “Detroititis.”
- Keep the government out of the business of artificially protecting under performing industries and companies. Hamel is right. If Singapore Airlines wants to compete for routes in the U.S., they should have that option.
- Evaluate what your customers truly think about their experience with your firm and DO SOMETHING to improve the experience. The airlines employ legions of marketing people to fly around the globe and evaluating customer experiences…but nothing seems to come out from this effort other than dumb policies and new fees.
- Fight for the customer like you livelihood depends upon it. It does.
- As a leader, work unceasingly to instill a sense of pride and commitment to customers in your workplace. If your business is a high-contact customer business, every person that touches a customer must strive to create a positive experience. Working a ticket counter at terminal B at O’Hare may involve dealing with thousands of people per day who are stressed and frustrated. Take away a little of their stress and frustration, treat them like humans and show them that you care! Send thousands of people home everyday with an improved experience, and maybe your business will improve. Go figure.
- No one ever wants to talk to someone that they cannot understand and that they cannot hear on the telephone. Stop subjecting us to these horrendous phone experiences. If you are in charge of this area of your customer experience, what the blank are you thinking?
The Bottom-Line for Now:
The people that I don’t get are the managers and leaders responsible for managing and leading the customer service representatives in organizations that clearly have lousy customer service. Fire yourself, please.
The customer experience at Gate C14 starts at the top of the organization. The same goes for your firm. Unfortunately, we can all learn a lot about what not to do from the auto companies and air carriers in the U.S.
Now quit reading and find something that you can do to improve the experience for your customers!
If Ayn Rand Could See Us Now
Filed under: Crisis Leadership, Current Affairs, Social Commentary
Author’s Note: Politics, government and our economic policies play profound roles in our ability to foster growth, pursue innovation and prosper as a society, as organizations and as entrepreneurs. While some may not agree that a blog dedicated to management excellence should take on topics that reek of politics and philosophy, I respectfully disagree.
The subject of this post (Ayn Rand and her writings) is polarizing. There tend to be two types of responses to anything about Rand’s philosophy. One response looks and sounds a lot like visceral hatred and contempt. The other comes off as a zealot-like devotion to the core principles outlined in her work. There is no middle ground when it comes to Ayn Rand. (Oh, and her name rhymes with “Mine.” Quit call her “Ann.”)
In recent lectures and prior blog posts I’ve occasionally referenced the fact that I feel like I’m living through a movie that I’ve seen before. The movie that I am referencing is the one that we are all playing bit roles in as our government works to restructure our industries and our economy.
I saw this movie for the first time in 1979 when my senior literature teacher asked for my opinion on a book called Atlas Shrugged. He gave me my first copy of this book one week before graduation, and given the 1,000 plus page heft of this work, we never did have our discussion. I finished the book for the first time over the 4th of July weekend that year. Given Rand’s firsthand experience with Soviet oppression and her core belief in what America could and should become, my timing for finishing this book on Independence Day was appropriate.
Stephen Moore, an economics writer for the Wall Street Journal does a masterful job in his January 9th Opinion piece, “Atlas Shrugged, From Fact to Fiction in 52 Years,” articulating what I’ve been sensing as our government has moved quickly in the past few months to assert control. The examples in Atlas and the parallels to what is happening today should send chills up the spine of any thinking being.
Before you decide to skewer me for my unflappable devotion to the philosophy and logic of Ayn Rand, read Moore’s article. Better yet, invest in yourself and read the book. Armed with proper context, you’ll be ready to argue why she’s evil personified or the embodiment of all that is good in man. Like I said, there’s no middle ground here.
OK, back to the movie unfolding in real time. My own perspective is that every one of us should be inherently uncomfortable about the opportunity for massive missteps in the government’s response to our economic challenges. These steps will define our economic lives for decades to come.
Now is not a time to stay silent as companies and industries are bailed out and effectively nationalized in the process. Now is not the time to reach for another handful of popcorn as regulations are foisted upon us in the name of national interest. Now is not the time to let people in Washington begin to define what is good for us and to act as our parent and protector.
Do you honestly believe that the government has any clue or any business running the auto industry? The banking industry? Any industry? Heck, they/we don’t even run the government effectively.
Some important questions that we should all be asking and answering:
- What are the criteria for “Too Big to Fail” and who is making these calls?
- Is it right to have our government gaining a stake in the future profits of formerly private enterprises and industries?
- Have we suddenly reached a level of enlightenment that politics and greed have been placed on hold in the halls of government, as people structure responses to the abuses of politics and greed?
- Why is it that government support and protection is now good for the free market?
- We’ve been preaching that it is a global world. Why are U.S. industries suddenly so deserving of protection and support?
- Are you confident that the auto unions (or any unions) are looking out for the best interests of the country?
…And so on.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
This is a good time to be asking yourselves and asking your elected officials the tough questions outlined above and many more. Whether the debate is over Rand and her philosophy of man and capitalism or it’s a debate over foundational philosophies of government…Jeffersonian versus Hamiltonian, there must be a debate.
Human instinct is to look for protection in a storm. Right or wrong, many of us look to our government for that protection. Government has now moved into your home, your job and your future. Is this right?
Ironically, the end of eight years that many decry as a time when our civil liberties were compromised and stolen, may usher in the greatest reduction in our civil liberties in our history. Do you really want government dictating how you will work and survive?
After two decades since her death, Ayn Rand is relevant. And while I’ve seen this movie before, we still have a chance to write our own ending. Get involved. Otherwise, just shrug your shoulders and ask, “Who is John Galt?”
The Counterintuitive Nature of Management Excellence
Filed under: Crisis Leadership, Current Affairs, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Leading Change, Life and Business, Marketing, Organizational Transformation, Product Management, Project Management
I suspect that most readers will agree that examples of management excellence, high performance and great leadership are not the topics dominating the news in this emerging “we’ve never seen anything like this before” economy. Instead, we are fed a constant stream of downward revisions, requests for bailout and examples of management failure of “someone should go to jail” Whole sectors are crashing, great old brands are on the brink of fading into the history books and recently great businesses are floundering.
Contrast this current phase with the other extreme of recent memory, the dotcom bubble of the late 90’s, when the laws of physics were upturned, profits didn’t count, and it was all about clicks and eyeballs. Everyone knew someone that was a gazillionaire and massive amounts of paper wealth came into existence overnight. And then disappeared. A few firms like Amazon, eBay and Google ultimately emerged from the carnage following the bust, to play major roles in a changed world. Ironically, this changed world looked more like what we knew than what had been professed by temporary pundits feasting on the momentary gullibility of the masses.
The point. It’s easy to ride with the herd in boom and bust periods. It takes no management skill whatsoever to spend a fortune building up clicks and it definitely takes no skill to slash budgets, cut headcount, freeze programs and hunker down and wait out the storm.
It does take remarkable management courage and skill to run against the crowd and conventional wisdom by investing in strategic initiatives and talent during tough times and resisting the temptation to chase mythical fortunes during boom times. Leveraging adversity to stimulate creativity and rethink business models, refocus on customers and look everywhere for innovation that will create value is counter-intuitive to the “flight” response that so many firms are exhibiting. This counter-intuitive nature is also the hallmark of great management and great managers.
Deming dared to call U.S. manufacturing on the carpet and predict their ultimate suicide if they ignored quality during a time when quality got in the way of volume and profits. Drucker spent a lifetime teaching managers the rules of management excellence. Based on recent news, most of us forgot to listen.
You face the choice everyday to stay with the herd or dare to do something different in pursuit of management excellence. In case you are looking for some thought-starters on counter-intuitive ideas, consider these:
- Resist the temptation during tough times to make all of the “hard calls” by yourself. Talk with and involve your employees in decision-making and idea generation. They are just as concerned as you are about their survival and they want to help.
- Don’t shred your strategic plan because “everything has changed.” It’s great to challenge your assumptions or as Ayn Rand often said, “Check your premises.” There may be new or more opportunity than you imagined, and the plan may need revision, but don’t scuttle it based on fear.
- Invest in your talent now. While you may be culling the herd of poor performers, you should also be investing in building the leadership and strategic thinking skills of your workforce. If this ends, they will propel you to new heights, and if this economic environment lingers, they will save your skin. Either way, you need to invest.
- Your customers are as perplexed and worried as you. It’s time to seek nontraditional relationships with key customers and partners. These relationships include joint-strategic planning, joint brainstorming and true partnering solutions that transcend the traditional press-release relationship.
- Take a sledgehammer to internal silo walls. The dysfunction inherent in most sales and marketing or marketing and engineering relationships is significant enough to sink your ship.
The bottom-line for now:
It’s an outstanding time for great leaders to stand up and be heard, and it is an outstanding time to focus on excellence in management. It starts by checking your conventional wisdom at the door. Go visit a customer, ask questions and listen. Do the same with your employees. And then do something that creates value versus something that reduces your chances of creating value. Your actions may just start a revolution.
Great Things Happen When Confidence and Capitalism Collide
In this time of bad financial news, high energy costs, record deficits and global turmoil, it’s exciting to meet people that see opportunities in the headlines. I had the great fortune to meet someone recently that has the right attitude about making lemonade out of the bumper crop of lemons we are experiencing this year.
This individual has a self-stated mission of seeing the U.S. energy independent from foreign oil producers, and has the confidence, resources and conviction needed to just possibly pull it off (or at least make a big difference). He’s investing heavily in all-things renewable, and he has no qualms about the fact that he will make a lot of money along the way to helping us become energy independent. Mission, vision and a tidy profit all at the same time. Ayn Rand would be proud.
There are more than a few leadership lessons that I take away from meeting and listening to someone very confidently talking about knocking down regulatory walls at the same time he is helping solve huge engineering and infrastructure challenges. What might appear as insurmountable barriers to many are just problems to be solved and opportunities waiting to be realized. It would be easy to listen to this type of talk and think of the top 100 reasons that come to mind why it will never work. The hard job is to jump over to his side of the fence and see the only logical outcome: success!
Corporate offices are filled with Devil’s Advocates, Naysayers and Professional Critics. These are the people that take someone’s seed of a vision and work hard to ensure that it is crushed into oblivion to serve as more grist for the big corporate mill. Some of the best-educated, smartest people you will ever meet fill these roles. They are so smart, that they easily see everything that can go wrong in pursuit of a vision. My advice: do yourself a favor and fire these people and replace them with individuals that are excited by the vision and singularly focused on helping realize it. You’ll be happy you did.
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