TIPS NewsletterTIPS Newsletter
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 19:49:33 -0800
To: CommonSenseManaging@growthassociates.org
From: Common Sense Managing <bill@growthassociates.org>
Subject: Tip of the Week
Your Common Sense Managing Tip of the Week includes a couple of extra items:
* Mini survey
* Tip of the Week - CONTROLLING
* Humorous, but real tech support examples
MINI SURVEY
If you could fix one thing about your organization it would be to:_____________________
The biggest challenge your department faces this year is to: _________________________
Your answers will be tabulated and included in a future Tip of the Week newsletter. No names or organizations will be identified. The data will be used to determine future Tip subjects.
Common Sense Managing Tip of the Week -- CONTROLLING
Keeping score counts
Keeping score on current processes, procedures, and people provides vital information. Equally important is analyzing the scores of improvement efforts. This enables the manager to answer the first three questions:
* How am I doing?
* How are my people doing?
* How is my organization doing?
Score keeping and analysis provide a passive measurement of what has already happened. They are critical requisite steps toward making something happen - the true purpose of measurement. The data becomes valuable only when it addresses the fourth and most essential question: How can we improve each of the above?
What information do you use to determine how you're doing? Is it accurate? Timely? Congruent with your personal and managerial goals and objectives?
What information do you use to determine how your people are doing? Accurate? Timely? Congruent?
How do you share this information with them? Timely manner?
What kind of scores do you use to determine how your organization is performing? Are these measurements accurate and timely? Do they include current and objective customer satisfaction measurements?
What could you do right now to improve your answers to the above questions?
This tip of the week is from the Controlling section of Common Sense Managing: Simple Ideas That Produce Results. The book is immediately available at http://www.growthassociates.org or amazon.com.
Humorous, but real tech support examples
A reader sent the following examples of customer support
At 3:37 a.m. on a Sunday, I had just looked at the clock to determine my annoyance level, when I received a frantic phone call from a new user of a Macintosh Plus. She got her entire family out of the house and was calling from her neighbor's. She had just received her first system error and interpreted the picture of the bomb on the screen as a warning that the computer was going to blow up.
Tech Support: "I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop."
Customer: "OK."
Tech Support: "Did you get a pop-up menu?"
Customer: "No."
Tech Support: "OK. Right click again. Do you see a pop-up menu?"
Customer: "No."
Tech Support: "OK, sir. Can you tell me what you have done up until this point?"
Customer: "Sure, you told me to write 'click' and I wrote 'click'."
(At this point I had to put the caller on hold to tell the rest of the tech support staff what had happened. I couldn't, however, stop from giggling when I got back to the call.)
Tech Support: "OK, did you type 'click' with the keyboard?"
Customer: "I have done something dumb, right?"
And the best for last!!!!
Customer: "I got this problem. You people sent me this install disk, and now my A: drive won't work."
Tech Support: "Your A drive won't work?"
Customer: "That's what I said. You sent me a bad disk, it got stuck in my drive, now it won't work at all."
Tech Support: "Did it not install properly? What kind of error messages did you get?"
Customer: "I didn't get any error message. The disk got stuck in the drive and wouldn't come out. So I got these pliers and tried to get it out. That didn't work either."
Tech Support: "You did what, sir?"
Customer: "I got these pliers, and tried to get the disk out, but it wouldn't budge. I just ended up cracking the plastic stuff a bit."
Tech Support: "I don't understand sir, did you push the eject button?"
Customer: "No. So then I got a stick of butter and melted it and used a turkey baster and put the butter in the drive, around the disk, and that got it loose. Then I used the pliers and it came out fine. I can't believe you would send me a disk that was broke and defective."
Tech Support: "Let me get this clear. You put melted butter in your A: drive and used pliers to pull the disk out?" At this point, I put the call on the speaker phone and motioned at the other techs to listen in.
Tech Support: "Just so I am absolutely clear on this, can you repeat what you just said?"
Customer: "I said I put butter in my A: drive to get your stupid disk out, then I had to use pliers to pull it out."
Tech Support: "Did you push that little button that was sticking out when the disk was in the drive, you know, the thing called the disk eject button?" Silence.
Tech Support: "Sir?"
Customer: "Yes."
Tech Support: "Sir, did you push the eject button?"
Customer: "No, but you people are going to fix my computer, or I am going to sue you for breaking my computer?"
Tech Support: "Let me get this straight. You are going to sue our company because you put the disk in the A: drive, didn't follow the instructions we sent you, didn't actually seek professional advice, didn't consult your user's manual on how to use your computer properly, instead proceeding to pour butter into the drive and physically rip the disk out?"
Customer: "Ummmm."
Tech Support: "Do you really think you stand a chance, since we do record every call and have it on tape?"
Customer: (now rather humbled) "But you're supposed to help!"
Tech Support: "I am sorry sir, but there is nothing we can do for you. Have a nice day."
If you want to add additional names to our free email newsletter, you can simply email the names and addressed to bill@growthassociates. You may want additional people in leadership positions throughout your organization to receive this newsletter. There is no limit to the number of names you may add. It's free.
As the Technician above says, have a nice day.
Bill Werst
Close window to return to TIPS Newsletter Archive list.
Subscribe to
Common Sense Managing TIPS NewsletterTo receive Tips free via e-mail,
subscribe here!
Your E-mail
- Back to top
The Book - Tips, Articles & Presentations - Interact - Casino - About us - Contact us
© 2000 Growth Associates
802 Mollie Street Drive - Hood River, Oregon 97031
541/386-1117 - Fax 386-9417
e-mail bill@growthassociates.org
Web design by Riverside Graphics
e-mail