It was 1982 - my mother was a floor supervisor at Woolco and called to tell me that a return of a computer has been made and if I was interested in it - it would be $40 cheaper because it was a return but it was in perfect shape. It was a popular Commodore Vic-20.
Being a paperboy on paperboy salary, the thought of owning my own computer was mind-blowing. My family, being of lower income meant I would have to come up with the funds myself to purchase it. The cost? $115. A huge sum for a paper boy who's weekly income was roughly $7-10 per week but I couldn't ignore the savings. I estimated it would take at least 10 weeks to pay off. And at the time, when credit was in short supply for 12 year olds - lay-away was a good choice that a lot people back then used.
I asked my mother to lay it away and I would have 10 weeks to pay it off - near the maximum at the time for layaway at Woolco. And I planned for the next 10 weeks to work harder than ever to make sure my paper route customers were happy with my service with the hope of maintaining my tips. I made sure the papers didn't get wet on rainy days, and i made sure they were all delivered as soon as i had them, especially the Saturday issue. Furthermore, I was careful not to rip or tear the papers placing them inside the storm doors or mailboxes.
And to my surprise, within just 6 weeks I had accumulated enough to purchase it.
But I didn't only learned that hard work was key to saving money, but how increasing my client satisfaction resulted in better financial gains! Good service meant happy clients which meant when I collected the paper money at the end of the week, to my surprise my portion was larger by significant amounts. Delivering late papers, or letting them get wet was not earning me favors with clients. Or doing the bare minimum without getting fired wasn't doing the job - it was doing a job. The inherent difference in all client services is to ensure not only that you're doing the job well, but if the client sees you're putting a lot of effort into it, the work becomes appreciated and rewarded.
That in turn increases profits, customer retention, and client satisfaction.
And if a simple paperboy can figure that out, why do so many IT service providers just do a job but not THE job of client service. Why do so may do just the bare minimum? Why cheat the SLA'S? Hire the cheapest staff and give them the bare minimum and cheapest benefits -> all towards Maximizing the profits (and let me add, not great profits either). Why can't they just take the good-ole paperboy approach? Do great service. Be proactive. Hire the right people for the right roles. Be looking for ways to improve your service. Be good to your customers and they'll be good to you. And does that not in turn save money because you're saving money not fixing symptoms of poor client services? Just Be!
If you approach the entire service delivery model with the good paperboy approach, will you not have to focus less time (and time is money) fixing symptoms of poor customer service like lost revenue from dropped contracts and high turnover from unhappy staff?
Why is that so hard to see from the IT service provider perspective? I mean, what are they thinking when it comes to this approach to their service delivery model?
Is the answer is simple or complex? Is it a Swiss-cheese effect? Is it a lack of proper procedures and processes? Is it not understanding the client needs? A changing demographic or landscape of client/service interactions? Generational?
My answer is quiet simple. As the friendly giant once said... Look up. Waaaaay up. Client Service begins at the very top. Why at the top? well, lets ask some basic and fundamental questions on leadership. Who sets the tone and culture of an organization? Who teaches others how we interact with one another? Determines the overall service delivery model, the values, the mission, the goals of any company? And then when we answer that.. we start to see how the very top of an organization and all the way down through truly helps shape the delivery of services to any organization. And it's not because people don't want to do a good job, but because they're taught how to treat their customers in how the management treats them as staff.
And it begs to ask...what kind of paperboy are they?
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