Summer Greetings:

We’ve been knee deep in fun, and at times, hectic summer activities.

We’ve received a bunch of emails and calls asking: “Where is the e-WOW! newsletter?” Thanks for the feedback that someone in addition to my mother is reading the newsletter.

In this month’s edition I’m going to poke fun at modern Technology. Especially when it doesn’t work as promised and makes the life of the customer more challenging.

Also, we’re working on a new book about unleashing genius in the work place. Please take 1 minute and complete our simple survey. You can reach it at: www.wowcoaching.com/genius.

Enjoy the remaining days of summer. I’m off to the beach (the shore, for our eastern readers) and then a round of golf sounds fun!

Keep making a difference,

Mark Rosenberger & The WOW! Team

 

Featured Article

"I Love Modern Technology-Well, Sort Of..."

by Mark Rosenberger, CSP

If the truth were known, I love modern technology—most of the time. I hate modern technology when companies use it in an effort to “improve customer service” and it just makes my life more complicated.

Real World example: I was attempting to set up an account via the phone using a company's new voice activated service. The process was positioned as a new service designed to improve customer satisfaction. Sounded good, so here goes my responses to the requested information so I could obtain my password and begin using the service.

The recorded voice was overly cheery. Like someone had consumed four-quadruple venti lattes from Starbucks before recording the message. Now, I don’t mind cheery. In fact I think a forced smile is better than a sincere frown. Except when folks are being exceptionally cheery while beating the day lights out of me.

The beating began with my last name, Rosenberger. I said my name and the overly cheery recording spelled it back for me. (I thought this was a nice service since I have trouble spelling my own last name.) The caffeine-laden recording enthusiastically spelled: “R-O-S-E-N-V-E-R-G-E-R. I pressed the appropriate button to begin over and re-pronounced my last name. Again, Ms. Caffeine buzz spelled my last name with a “V”. But, I must admit, she was cheery.

After about four attempts with the same resulting “V,” I am getting a bit frustrated. This shouldn’t be hard. After all, I am a paid professional speaker who knows his last name and how to both say and spell it. But with every attempt, I got the same result. I’m thinking perhaps I should use some sort of accent as I say my name. I use my best Spanish, Aussie and even Clark Gable speaking to Ms. Scarlet accents (it’s a pretty good impression.) But to no avail. I’m still a RosenVerger.

“Surely there is an escape button,” I think to myself, so I enthusiastically press 0. The un-phased, hyperventilating phone recording tells me she does recognize that option and responds, “Please Press the button again.”

“This should be interesting,” I comment aloud pressing 0 as instructed. After about 12 attempts at pressing zero with her encouragement to “press the number again,” I lose interest in the game and hang up. The "Press 0" game could have gone on for a week, but I bore easily. 

The Outcome: I’m not doing business with said company. Technology did not make my experience better, it made it much more frustrating. It did not enhance my experience, it only caused me aggravation. In the short term, I’m sure the company is saving by replacing live human beings, or even the “spell your name using the touch tone key pad” gizmos which I loath. But in the long term, they might be losing a significant customer base.

What can we learn from this example? Service rule #1 is: Make it easy for the customer to do business with you. Play the process from the customer's vantage point. Is it really easier or just the latest, almost cool gizmo? I wonder how people with strong accents or really tough last names would fare with this technology?  My friend, Commander Rhonda Schlumpberger might be on the phone for days!

Learning Point 2: Give folk's choices. An escape route would have been the logical answer to this problem. A real person to help would have been awesome but I kept getting the same endless, no win loop. At times, old fashion technology is best.

Learning Point 3: Change your last name to Smith. The voice recording recognized that last name before I hung up. It did not recognize “Bite me.”  I’m sorry, I lost my temper.

Morale of the Story:  If you use "Modern Technology" to impress customers, it better impress them. Otherwise, stick to the less modern technology. 

PS: If you want to have a really fun time playing with technology, call Amtrak and see if they go from your home San Diego to Albuquerque, NM. They use the touch-tone keypad to, “Spell the name of your destination city.” It’s not easy to spell Albuquerque using the touch-tone keypad in the allotted time. Especially when I have dyslexia and I’m a rotten speller to boot. Good luck.

Lessons of the Trapeze

Trapeze Buddy Success Characteristic:
Own Your Words

A winning Trapeze Buddy recognizes that words have power. People can actually build up or breakdown themselves and the people around them with the things that they say. A winning Trapeze Buddy is aware of the intention behind their words and what results they want from a communication. They use words to build, refine, uplift and grow.