Customer Conversation by Valeria Maltoni

08:18 am | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

Do You Have a Minute?

“What is this in regards to?” I ask after answering the phone.

“I’m a third party researcher and am conducting a customer survey for our newly merged company,” says the lady at the other end of the phone.

“Well, in that case,” I respond, “I don’t have a minute. But I’m willing to give you 15 if you’ll have a conversation with me in addition to going through your questions.”

That seemed unusual, but she quickly agreed. Maybe she was timing her calls and needed to keep things going. In a very pleasant and rehearsed tone, she then proceeded to go through a list of questions representative of areas in which my vendor operates as part of our contract. The answers ranged from degrees of “agree” to degrees of “disagree”.

As negotiated ahead of time, I would reply to the question her way, and then begin a conversation on specific points to address. For example: when we got to the administrative and accounting parts of my experience with that vendor, I expressed my thoughts on ways to improve. I made sure I added specific suggestions and desired timelines for the company to amend their ways in those areas.

And so we went. The nice researcher asking her questions, no doubt agreed upon in advance with the company in review, and I kept adding my two cents whenever I felt the survey was not capturing the information and feedback my vendor needed to improve the quality of their service to me. There was even a courteous recap at the end.

Well, I thought: if nothing else, this is going to be a good use of my time. At least now I know the reasons why I’d like to listen to the numerous pitches I receive from other providers, should things continue the way they are now. Then I went back to my projects without giving that phone call another thought.

To be fair, the account representative from that vendor is the reason why I have kept my business with the company. He is attentive, pleasant to deal with, and always looking for ways to go above and beyond expectations. Except for the back office was not supporting him properly. The company was getting bogged down in its own procedures and regulations so my bills were often late, coded improperly, and sometimes even redundant.

On the administrative side they have an online system for our sales team to shop for marketing materials, promotional items, and literature, yet the inventory was often out of date and my indications and corrections were not implemented fast enough. I was starting to doubt that one person alone could continue to support our workload, including managing to supervise multiple mailings per week to separate markets and regions.

I didn’t know it at the time of my phone conversation with the third party researcher, but by choosing to provide candid and personalized feedback, I was saving my company the headache of having to move our whole warehousing and printing business yet again. In fact, my comments and suggestions made their way directly into the executive suite and an urgent meeting was called.

All my rep needed was ammunition from me to lobby for the level of support he had been requesting for months already. I learned about it when he showed up with some digital print proofs one day and a big smile on his face. It said: finally we’re getting somewhere.

Things are not perfect now; they rarely are when dealing with the kind of volume and diversity of projects we deal with every day. Yet, I can tell that there has been a remarkable improvement in a short period -- bills come on time and are often correct, and the online ordering system… that’s a work in progress and our field team can call a live person to take an order when on the road.

I could have continued to get frustrated with my account representative, or asked to speak with his manager and complain, knowing that the company at that level may or may not decide to fix its problems as it had not done so far. I could have decided that no, I did not have a minute to talk on the phone, or I could have chosen to take the path of least resistance and just answer the questions.

Instead, I decided to take a little longer to utilize the channel chosen by my vendor to receive feedback, hoping that our conversation presented to the new company owners by a third party might actually make a difference in supporting the account rep and ultimately my company. I chose to trust that those wheels set in motion would work -- and to provide my own modifier in the guise of actual people talk.

Try it next time, it worked for me.

Valeria Maltoni • Conversation Agent • Philadelphia, PA • ConversationAgent@gmail.com • www.conversationagent.com

12:01 pm | 0 recommendations | 3 comments

From 0 to 60 at the Speed of Liking

It was early in the year 2000. Our computers had not shut us out and there was still an atmosphere of cautious optimism in the air about commerce, especially of the new economy type; the focus of my favorite magazine, Fast Company. Everything was going well, except that my company was being bought and my job eliminated.

Wait a moment, you might say; this is a story about customer service, isn’t it? Indeed it is exactly that.

For someone working in corporate America with a deep love of learning and passion for making things happen for people, this magazine had been a lifesaver. Packed with ideas, stories from the place where products and services meet needs and wants, and interesting new products reviews, my monthly subscription sat dog-eared and utterly used up a few days after it hit my mailbox.

I had many connections through professional associations, networking groups, and work-related projects. Many of the experiences at those events left me with a sense of disconnect; while people remained business-like and most kind, I was getting nowhere fast. So to take my career to the next level, I turned to the only place I considered smart enough to get it: Fast Company.

Many of you may be familiar with the readers’ network, Company of Friends (CoF), a group founded by individuals who defined themselves like-minded leaders whose thinking resonated with the themes and stories of the magazine. I was in luck; a CoF group already existed in Philadelphia, my hometown.

The group had been in its third incarnation, but was sitting unattended. A perfect opportunity to make the stories chronicled in the pages of the magazine come alive and experiment with ideas in new ways. With the help of Heath Row at Fast Company, I soon became the “go to” person for all CoF matters in the region and began building a brand experience for the network in Philadelphia.

You read that correctly: I, a customer, was given space on the magazine’s Web site to build an online community of readers, or not, as has been the case. There is a proliferation of talk today about social media and consumer-empowering technologies; go into any bookstore and scan the business titles. This magazine gave that kind of access to its readers, for free, in the fall of 1997, two short years after the debut issue.

What motivated me, and many others who volunteered with me locally and around the world? I was motivated by the sheer opportunity to learn not about the publishing business, which is the business the magazine is in, but about how to work better, spread ideas, share knowledge, mix it up in great teams, and design a life that works. That last one was the magazine’s first tagline.

It also gave us a sense of identity, of belonging to a group of people who shared ideas and ideals, opinion leaders, disruptors, instigators, tech geeks, you name it. We were all in it together; and with the staff at Fast Company, from the founders on throughout the organization. That ladies and gentlemen is my story of a deeply meaningful, personal, and enriching customer conversation. And I now was in control of my career.

In the next few days, we will be welcoming a new managing editor, Robert Safian, who succeeds Mark Vamos as the magazine’s editor. I said “we” because I still see myself as part of the Fast Company family. Even though I never worked at the magazine, I shared in the conversation with its staff over the years.

I am still the curator of the local CoF group—and I have stepped back my presence to allow others to emerge within the community and find opportunities to create projects of their own, I have continued to be a steward of the knowledge and to protect the environment of trust and mutual respect we created. My former CEO, business mentor, and dear friend taught me a long time ago that if you really like someone, chances are that they also like you.

What I learned through my experience and conversations with the magazine was instrumental in my ability to continue working in corporate America and teaching my colleagues how to think and learn together so we are able to have intelligent conversations with customers. We use the valuable information we gather as a springboard and opportunity to grow our mindset and our business. I look forward to sharing those stories and other observations on customer conversations with you.

Conversation Agent • Philadelphia, PA • ConversationAgent@gmail.com • www.conversationagent.com

08:17 pm | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

Are You a Karaoke Leader?

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing oneself." -- Leo Tolstoy

Change is about learning.

In Karaoke Capitalism: Daring to be Different in a Copycat World, Jonas Ridderstråle and Kjell A Nordström lay out the 10 commandments of karaoke leadership:

The first secret of karaoke leadership is that it comes accompanied by minimal ego -- it is a balance of self-confidence and self-awareness.

Leadership is no longer a position but a process -- it answers the questions: why you are changing; where do you want to go; how fast you want to go; when you want to go; how far you want to go and persuading other people to come along.

Successful leaders are not in business solely for the money -- value can be the very foundation of success.

Strong values nurture a strong culture. The job of the CEO is to keep the culture and values of the company on track.

Karaoke leaders are people people. Some of their key tasks are: selecting people; expectation defining and communicating goals and objectives; motivating employees and partner organization; amplifying making individuals grow. Successful leaders are persistent and powerful communicators internally as well as externally.

The best leaders intimately understand the needs, aspirations and behavior of customers.

Leaders minimize the rules -- corporate politics kills communication. Rules stifle.

Effective leaders reward and recognize behaviors they wish to encourage. They acknowledge great work.

Karaoke leaders never, ever rest of their laurels, no matter how impressive their laurels may be. They have an appetite for change. They never sit still.

Highly successful leaders quit when they are ahead.

Any karaoke leaders out there?

01:39 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Good Decision-Making is a Science

In Harvard Management Update, Harvard Business School professor emeritus Michael C. Jensen explains that there are four steps to ensure that the right people make the right decisions.

How a company distributed decision-making authority can have great repercussions on its business. In fact, "allocating decision rights in ways that maximize organizational performance is an extraordinarily difficult and controversial management task," says Jensen.

To overcome the hurdles of finding the spot in the organization where decision costs are minimal and trust the personal motivation of those imbued with decision authority aligns with the goals of the organization, he suggests these four steps:

1. Routinely review and update how decision authority is distributed - because change is a constant
2. Avoid too much centralizations – and too much democracy
3. Assign decisions unequivocally - to avoid misunderstandings
4. Don’t confuse a particular outcome with the process itself - good decisions sometimes produce bad outcomes

How are decisions made in your organization? Is authority distributed in such a way that you can maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace?

01:32 pm | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

Simplicity in Marketing and Sales

Leigh Duncan in getting smart about managing marketing burnout talks about marketers needing superhuman skills, having to be available any time/any channel and to be able to leap tall silos in a single bound.

Success, says Leigh, hinges on good, smart leadership. I agree, smart leaders need to sift through ideas and choose which to execute; they need to create structures that help individuals and teams succeed in going to market faster; and build capacity within their organizations so they run efficiently to capitalize on that new idea fast.

Simple enough? So why is this so complicated to achieve?

09:29 am | 0 recommendations | 2 comments

Women in Business

We've all read countless articles explaining reasons why women do not reach top jobs in companies -- one of them being that they take time off to rear children. The Economist just published a report (premium content, subscription required) that cites re-entry after a maternity leave as the true challenge for women to overcome -- ahead of the popular myth of them dropping out because the approach to higher rungs requires greater political skill and sharp elbows.

In conjunction with the need to take time off in mid-career, the report highlights "up or out" cultures in managing-consulting businesses, exclusion from informal networks, pervasive stereotyping of women's capacity for leadership and type of work as powerful factors in pushing women away.

Yet, countless research argues many of the strengths that make women superior in business, such as the ability to multi-task, teambuilding and communicating have become the essential skills for running a 21st century corporation.

If it's true, as researchers like Ilene Lang, president of Catalyst say, that given the chance, many women would be just as ambitious to do top jobs as men, why aren't they represented in greater numbers at the top? Why aren't women chosen to join the ranks of executive directors?

Most curiously, what happens to those women who choose not to rear children and focus on their careers?