Always a pleasure, but also a challenge
Just back from a hectic series of sessions with a delegation from Jordan. Working with people from other nations and cultures is always a pleasure; you can learn so much, often through just having to rethink what you want to communicate so as to say it in words that your audience can truly understand and put into a context that works for them. So also a challenge on several levels.
I also have a huge admiration for those who are working in a second language. I’ve done it myself in France and Germany in particular and understand just how mentally draining it can be, so my hat is off to my new friends for their stamina over the 3 days of the training course that we helped put on for them at the British Council.
Healthcare Indeed!
I’ve just had the interesting experience of a very near head on collision with a vehicle operated by the healthcare division of a major insurer, their vehicle having been driven the wrong way round a one way system.
Now wouldn’t that have made an interesting claim? I bet that there would have been something in their small print to have made it my fault.
Oh well. I managed to miss her and I’m home safe. I hope that she gets home safe too, then we can all have a great weekend.
Happy Motoring.
Doesn’t Time Fly?
Can it really be a week since I last wrote something here? Things have been a little hectic, partially due to efforts to earn a living, but also due to putting a lot of time into pro bono work.
I try to put about 100 days a year into doing voluntary things; my community service as Fay puts it. At the moment one of those projects is taking up a lot of time; much more than I had anticipated. What was it that someone said about life being what happens while you are making plans? I have an inkling that may have been John Lennon, but no doubt someone will tell me.
That’s it for now. I have a web site upgrade to finish off. More another day.
Why is it so hard to buy from some companies?
I understand that you need to have a set of processes to enable your company to run, and some of these will be around ordering, pick, pack, despatch and customer enquiries. This is a particular area of my own expertise, but why do you inflict this stuff on the customer?
Buying on line shows up the worst of this for me. Some examples:
• Crude product search engines that give you almost the entire inventory regardless of what you ask for.
• Page links that don’t work.
• Where you view the product, select a quantity to buy, get through a convoluted checkout process and only then get told that it is out of stock.
• Convoluted checkout process.
• Contact Us links that don’t work.
• Drop down lists in the Contact Us section that never seem to cover the query type that I have.
• Comment boxes that only allow too few characters for your query
Some company web sites are great; Amazon for example, but others are dreadful. Amazon relieve me of a lot of my disposable cash because they make it easy for me to spend with them and the overall customer experience is great.
On the other hand there are at least two or three companies a month that fail to extract funds from me because I can’t be bothered to go through all the hassle. Do people at these companies ever consider the customer experience? Do they ever try to buy from themselves? Somehow I doubt it.
And it isn’t just web sites. A lot of face to face experiences are no better. Two big gripes here; firstly the assistant who has to finish talking to their colleague when you’ve obviously arrived, and are waiting, to ask a question, and those places where you can’t enjoy looking without assistant after assistant walking up and asking if you need help.
Come on people. Things may be tight but there is money out there to be spent. Make it easy for folks to spend it with you.
News from Gulfhaven
At Gulfhaven we’ve always been market led. Everything we do for our clients is around focusing on simple service solutions that will help them to have their customers come back time after time and be happy to spend their hard earned money.
From time to time these solutions don’t always have an obvious customer benefit, but they are always about enabling everyone at the client to understand how what they do for their business supports their customers.
One of our projects at the moment is looking at how a client is managing their overheads. Overheads can be messy. They distract people from the main task and, if not well run, are a drain on profit, both of which impact on customer service.
That has led us in turn to look at ways in which we can help people with various aspects of their utilities, and we are setting up a separate focus of our business, combining expertise from the Facilities Management and Procurement areas of our business.
The new web site page is in production and will be live soon. Meanwhile we are ready, willing and able to help clients old and new in looking at their electricity, water, gas, telecoms and broadband requirements.
Random Rants & Soapbox Favourites
Random Rants
These are any basic rants that I feel the need to get off my chest. Some will be the sort of issues that one of my bosses used to call my soap box moments: Those topics that make want to stand on a box on the street corner and preach about. Others will be more general observations on life that I feel the urge to write about.
In many cases these rants will be slightly tongue in cheek – I try not to take myself too seriously, even if I am making a serious point. I mean to cause no offence, but if I do, then at least I have made someone think. Feel free to respond.
Bowen’s 1st Law of Public Transport
If the service before the one you are now waiting for had been as late running as the one you are waiting for is, you’d be on your way by now.
This is an old adage, coined 30 odd years ago when I used to travel by bus a lot. This blog entry was prompted when I had a trip by train to London. Knowing that there were 3 trains at about 10 minute intervals at that time of the morning I headed for the station. The first train had just hove into view as I locked my car, but pulled out bang on time as I walked up the steps to the platform. The next train was shown as 25 minutes late and that had pushed the one behind back as well. If the first one had been just 1 minute late I would have been on it. Such is life.
BIFM South West Region 2009 Golf Qualifier
http://www.bifm.org.uk/bifm/groups/regions/southw/events/1406
Entries are welcome from companies and individuals for this year’s South West Region qualifying competition to be held at Orchardleigh GC on Tuesday 14th July. We will be looking to find the top four Individual BIFM Members and the top Corporate Members team to go on to represent the Region at this year’s National Finals on 24th September in Derby.
The format for the day will be a morning 9 hole Texas Scramble followed by an 18 hole Stableford competition. Refreshments include coffee and bacon rolls on arrival, buffet lunch and high tea prior to the prize-giving. Cost for a team of four players is £160 and £40 for individuals.
To enter a team or as an individual please email Gareth Andrews on gareth.andrews@monteray.co.uk
Sponsorship opportunities are available at a very reasonable rate – Please contact Gareth Andrews on above email or Vince Parker on vince@c22.co.uk
Technology, or Not Having Fun
OK, so I’ve been around for years. My first logistics job was loading this boat. The despatch notes were on tablets of stone and we had a hell of a job getting all those pairs of animals on board in that storm.
Technology came along though, and I’ve enthusiastically embraced things as they’ve hit the market, but when it lets you down….
Take today. Yesterday I set up two new web addresses for a project. I got the log in confirmations last night and the holding pages were in place. It was late though, so I didn’t upload the sites. I’ve learned not to do some things when I’m tired.
This morning both addresses have vanished, or are at least unavailable for access. So, having got up early to load the sites and set up the email services etc, I’m writing this.
The worst part is the lack of information; why are the sites unavailable? When will they be back? What do I tell my client?
So, at the moment, I’m not having my daily fun. It’s raining outside, the cat is bored and wants to walk all over the laptop and I haven’t had my breakfast. At least I can do something about the latter; a bowl of bitesize Shredded Wheat is very low tech, so that’s where I’m going now.
Having Fun
I claim to have been having fun for 25 years whilst making things happen. I’ll explain more in future posts here, but having fun at work is essential. If you’re not enjoying it you won’t be giving the job what it needs or deserves, so you are letting down your customers, your co-workers, your boss and everyone else around you including yourself.
These are hard times for finding a new job, so maybe you just have to stick it out. I’ve been there and it is hard, but it was in those exact circumstances 25 years ago that I had the revelation about having fun, and I haven’t looked back.
For me it was learning not to take myself so seriously. Yes the job was important, but you can be more serious about your job if you lighten up personally. I learned to laugh at myself and not be such a pompous ****. As people laughed with me the office became somewhere I started to look forward to being at.
So make today the day you find something to laugh at, and remember, it’s better to make fun of yourself than someone else. Life is short – enjoy it.
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