You waddle, we waddle...
A few weeks before the aidil fitri break, we were invited to send in our proposal to a company that prides itself as leading its industry in terms of Customer Service. I know the company very well, having spent the most part of my work life interacting with them. And yes, back then I know this company focused heavily on be the leader in providing excellent service to its customers.
It was refreshing to hear from the senior personnel that we met, their acknowledgement that their service delivery has now faltered somewhat. They identified the key areas they admitted needed revamping or enhancement, one being Customer focused and the other, their frontliners command of the English language. The latter had led them to fall behind in business at some of their branches.
So we were asked to hurriedly work on the proposal since the management plans to roll this out in the following month. Wow, such earnestness, such enthusiasm. I applaud them their passion to go back to basics and revitalise service as their core serving, in my opinion. Because this is what the program is all about. In the quest to lead the industry, somehow the company became High tech, Sales focused and lost their High touch!
So we worked on as detailed a proposal as we can - we can't tell all, for reasons of this project suddenly not becoming a reality where our company is concerned; but yes, the proposal we sent in was very clear in the objectives, the methodology and the measurements of success.
There were some issues of their e-mail inbox reaching its maximum capacity, hence a re-sent of our proposal was needed. Other than that technical glitch, the proposal went through. We were immediately informed by a return e-mail that they will revert to us the following week, since it was already a Friday then. Okay, great.
The following week came, but not their response. A follow-up e-mail from us did not get any reply. A phone call no answer. And neither did a sms. Hmmm...okayyy, never mind. Maybe they didn't get our follow-up e-mail so a second follow-up was sent a few days after. Still nothing. Same responses to our phone calls both to the mobile and office numbers, and to our sms. Yoik, this is something else!
This is now following the following week, and still dead silence from them. Did I read them wrong then? Were they serious about revamping their frontliners service attitude or was it just a flavor of the month because they have just gone through a patch of changes in management?
And, can I then fault their frontliners their service attitude if this is the management leading them now? I am still hopeful...but not expecting much.
It was refreshing to hear from the senior personnel that we met, their acknowledgement that their service delivery has now faltered somewhat. They identified the key areas they admitted needed revamping or enhancement, one being Customer focused and the other, their frontliners command of the English language. The latter had led them to fall behind in business at some of their branches.
So we were asked to hurriedly work on the proposal since the management plans to roll this out in the following month. Wow, such earnestness, such enthusiasm. I applaud them their passion to go back to basics and revitalise service as their core serving, in my opinion. Because this is what the program is all about. In the quest to lead the industry, somehow the company became High tech, Sales focused and lost their High touch!
So we worked on as detailed a proposal as we can - we can't tell all, for reasons of this project suddenly not becoming a reality where our company is concerned; but yes, the proposal we sent in was very clear in the objectives, the methodology and the measurements of success.
There were some issues of their e-mail inbox reaching its maximum capacity, hence a re-sent of our proposal was needed. Other than that technical glitch, the proposal went through. We were immediately informed by a return e-mail that they will revert to us the following week, since it was already a Friday then. Okay, great.
The following week came, but not their response. A follow-up e-mail from us did not get any reply. A phone call no answer. And neither did a sms. Hmmm...okayyy, never mind. Maybe they didn't get our follow-up e-mail so a second follow-up was sent a few days after. Still nothing. Same responses to our phone calls both to the mobile and office numbers, and to our sms. Yoik, this is something else!
This is now following the following week, and still dead silence from them. Did I read them wrong then? Were they serious about revamping their frontliners service attitude or was it just a flavor of the month because they have just gone through a patch of changes in management?
And, can I then fault their frontliners their service attitude if this is the management leading them now? I am still hopeful...but not expecting much.
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