Teach you Customer Services rep to help your product succeed

Triiiiiiiiiing Triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing... "Hello, Good Evening. I am XXXX speaking from YYY, How may I help you?- From the other end

"I am Sameer, and I am calling to enquire about the letter I received from your company about the added bonus for my holiday package, that I have to confirm...

blah blah blah... several questions later.. a simple answer "I am very sorry Sir... we are not informed about this package or bonuses, I will check with my Senior and get back to you in a few days"

I said OK. 3 days later.. I make another call... A different CS rep, but the same answer... the system however shows that I have made a enquiry and am awaiting a reply... today morning I make another desperate call and this time after speaking to 3 levels of CS I am still un-answered... as the CS reps and their seniors are not aware of the product they have launched and the several features around it.... I was a happy customer a few weeks ago, now I am seriously thinking if I am in SAFE HANDS or I am using the RIGHT PRODUCT or not.

Is this the same experience you get when you get in touch with a Customer Service representative? Well maybe yes.. So what's the deal about CS representatives not able to detail features of the product, explain or answer your queries around the feature? The answer is really simple.... While various companies are using SOCIAL MEDIA to improvise the customer services experience for their customers a major set of products and companies still choose to go with the traditional mode of handling customers... The CS still relies on a user manual, a support call, an online help.. many times they are there on the hot line just to SOLVE CUSTOMER problems. But can they solve customer issues if they themselves are not aware of the product?

Well the answer is NO... Your customer services dept needs to know, How to use the product, what it is made for, and provide tips and tricks to the customers when they need it. It's very important that the CS knows the in's and out's of the product and is more or less as close to the development and Product teams as the computers are close to Geeks. So how does one really get their CS to know what's and how's of their product?

1. Discuss requirements with them, pre development phase

2. Involve them in early stage demo's, right when the product are in the design phase, even wire frame phase

3. Have a development stream for the issues they face.. A set of developers that work only on problems that they face as hot calls. These are not bugs.

4. Free them up from regular hot line's, Ask them to explore the product. A weekly session where a product wire is discussed with product Management, CS and Development teams is the ideal way to help explore to correct details.

5. Ask them to write user manuals, online help

6. Ask them to conduct demo's for the customers..

7. Plan 2-3 product demo's for the customers... so as many customers and end users get trained on your product

8. Wire them with super roles, so they can learn to get around.

9. Ask them to write a FAQ of issues and resolutions.. half of the CS time can be saved and knowledge shared if the CS teams shares the data of problems and resolutions.

10. Swirl the CS Teams on project set ups, so they know and document how and what customers use it....

Well these are very few but individual ways of getting your CS Teams to know the best of your product... so the next time they receive a call from an angry customer... he keeps the call, just to open his mailbox and write back to say..."We love your product"...

I thought of putting a few case studies of some successful models, where end users were very happy about the products they use, and I am sure the CS plays a very important role here...

1. Amazon : Amazon has a very aggressive development model, they begin writing a release note. Of course the release notes are not key here, what is key here is that the documents attached with the release notes of the product feature is definitely a part of the CS Training material. So if your CS is writing the user manuals, online help, training material even before the product is ready.. your CS is surely an empowered Product Team.

2. Oracle - Autovue : I have always received emails about webinars conducted by Oracle's Autovue team.. many times these webinars feature very specific training to end users on how to use certain features of the product. I realised in one of the webinars that one of the CS Team members I was dealing with earlier was a part of such webinar.. Amazing isnt it?

So does your CS Team know your product well? Can they also sell Happiness to your customers? Can they convince the customer that they can quickly solve their issues and even if not.. they dont let them go unanswered? Well if the answer to any of your question is NO... You need to work on a strategy to make your CS aware of your product... Go rush, cause you are very late. After all they are the face of your company....

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Where is your Chief Happiness Officer?

I started my day today answering a phone call from an old time friend, who was pretty unhappy about his current job and was re-locating in search of a great new job to another city. I was forced to think about the general unhappiness that gets created in the day to day cycle at any organization... some people unhappy about work, some about roles, some about compensations, some about environments, some about everything and some about nothing... with me recently having the performance appraisal reviews with most of the Team members, I understand how for certain member a small piece of unpleasantness leads to unhappiness...Then it forced me to review my role into the Team and company.... I see that every company has

CEO - To Manage the Executive actions

CFO - to Manage the Finance piece

CTO - To Manage the Technology piece

COO - To Manage the Operations piece...

Why do organizations not have the CHO? The Chief Happiness Officer? The Executive who can make strategic decisions to keep the employees Happy... Yes.. a role strong enough to do things that would work towards improvising the behaviours, attitudes and help support the employees be Happy... Some argued that the Human Resources should take of this... I strongly disagree.... Human Resources is purely designed to handle recruitment, resource policies etc a few of the tasks that Human resources do, keep them so busy with these tasks that issues related to people and their happiness is not even close to get attended... Smaller companies can afford to have their Sr. Managers take care of Happiness and HR things... but for bigger organizations... a must have is a role that will strive to create Happiness against all odds in the Team.

So then what is this role going to do? Lets define the responsibilities of the Chief Happiness Officer :

1. Responsible to ensure Team delight.

2. Should be organizing a chart and a plan for Team events, including Lunches and Dinners and Parties and outings and workshops

3. Should ensure work place and work culture is kept pleasant

4. co-ordinate effort to organize cross location and Team integrations

5. Primary responsibility is to bring smile on faces in the company

6. Organize sessions for Team building and delight spreads...

Want to add more? Now do you find anyone in your Team who does that? Well you dont need to Hire a new person right away for this.... but if you want to work the way great companies work... its important that you keep your people Happy..... and compensation, benefits, perks and goodies are not the only way to keep people Happy.... Go make one of your team members who is passionate about spreading happiness.. and make him your CHIEF HAPPINESS OFFICER... if you dont have one.... BE ONE

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Build to the end and decide when to Release....

Attended the iDilute meeting last weekend, a meeting with some 6-7 odd highly energetic and intellignet brainstormers... One of the topic of discussion was around the success of various startups and products in todays competitive markets. While brainstorming products , methodologies , product management and development teams.. we discussed the best approaches that work for each of them. One of them i couldnt just stop myself from wiring over here... A topic that gets you in the war zones... How to decide your release dates...

Release dates Huh?, I believe a very instrumental element in the success of Product Management and ofcourse development teams.. So how do most of the products or companies define what they are releasing and when? Simple... They analyse the market, they find the feature that their customers like / need / want , They define the spec, they estimate , they plan a release date, they create a WBS , they scope and descope the features and wants and must haves, they start working on it and on the scheduled release date they release it[Most times this is a changed date]. In the middle a lot of things change... sometimes requirements, some times markets, sometimes products and sometimes visionaries... most of the time its time that changes, its customers demands that changes... a major killer in this approach is that the expectation changes... I realise when we started working in August '09 on the product we launched this year.. the expectation was to have a JUST new UI, when it reached towards its mid-phase the expectation changed to a MOST POWERFUL UI, when the delivery date neared the expectation was we are building THE MIRACLE PRODUCT. In the end satisfaction when compared with expectations is always 1: 1 milion , and you know which way it goes.... So then how do companies like Facebook work? How do they keep up to the expectations of their customers? How do they bring great features consistently and effectively... This meeting enlightened me of a smarter way they work... One of the attendees who also happens to be an ex-employee of #FB explained the approach of "Build to the end and release" i.e. Work on your product/module till it has neared the completion and then decide when to release it.

Smart, isnt it? pull a roadmap, punch an estimate for every feature [As a project] start working with the plan, be as much agile as you can, define requirements , evolve and once it is ready.. go ahead and say it is going to be ready in XXX days... then let the product team plan the communication and the release date.. Well so much of headache's it avoids for strong , disciplined agile teams...where features are built by what they are meant to do and not by how much we can fit in to the neck of development time available... The quorum debated over this, almost half of the attendees been the traditional managers for whom the only way to complete the thing was to plan it to th end... yet.. I found some real good points in this approach...

1. We all know that our poject costs overshoot the budgets - If you tell me you have always managed within budgets, I have to say you are lying.

2. We all know requirements change - Even if your spec writer is your own customer who wants what he writes.

3. We all know that we like to change and tweak , sometime reform what we built - Even if we say that there exists a CR procedure

4. We all know that we change scope, time or cost to achieve what we planned - Even if we say we did it right.

5. We all know that there are a bunch of angry , unhappy customers sitting there - Even if we write testimonials on our websites.

6. We all know we are atleast 10 years late - Even if we claim we are the first to reach there

When we know we do all of this...then isnt build until you done and then fix expectations a better approach? I remember how much i cursed this approach when one of the Product contact we use was not telling us the release date for the third party viewer software we were using for the Version 20 of their release... I wondered how they managed millions of users and hundreds of big clients... only to learn this year, that if you have to give out quality, you have to accept facts of development attitudes.

Now.. back to reality? Will this approach be adapted by smaller companies? By companies who has a shouting customer who will not renew their contract if X thing is not delivered by Y date? Well the decision is not on can this be done... the decision is Do we want quality....

I wish to trigger this some day, maybe not today... tomorrow definitely.

Thanks to the iDilute forum.

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Romancing Confusion!!!

To enlighten your souls, I had to confuse you by putting such title... Indeed you are confused now on why you landed up on this blog, and are reading it... when all you were expecting is either a porn star giving a blow job video or some Management Guru giving some Gyaan (Knowledge) on Project Management...

BTW its not bad to be confused... for those who think been confused is a sign of being an IDIOT, or Unprofessional.. I want to tell you that IT ISN'T. Confusion is a state of mind where evaluation of creativity or decisions begin. It is one thing that lets you explore good and bad things of your decision or action.

A girl after been proposed by her boyfriend is confused whether she should marry or not.. makes her creative juices in mind think of several things and help her make a decision with which her mind is ready to accept it. A confused state of mind is that state of mind where you dont know what is the answer to a problem, issue or a situation.. This is the situation when you think more creatively on the solutions.. The confused stage is a situation of mind like the duck travelling over a pond... one set of mind is telling you that you are confused and the other set of mind running miles and paddling hard to find a solution...

There would have been no great Inventions if the Newtons and Einsteins were not in a confused state of mind.. If Columbus was not confused on the way to discover the world he would have never reached a coast.. Confusion brings the creativity within you out to be recognized by a smarter solution...

So if you are confused about your new product feature or Idea, Romance this confusion.. let it remain for a while so that it lets you think creatively and take a wise decision.

If you have a confused brain in your meeting room, be it.. because maybe he is thinking smartly and is the next Evan Williams..

Of course don't let confusion take over everything.. because if you do that You are going to be tagged all over your life as an IDIOT...

Romance your confusion and try to make love to the solutions of your problems... Confusion is a state that will show you the right path.

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Clear Ownership

So much depends on this one element called Ownership. When one takes up the ownership he defines himself to a spectrum and to ensure that the ownership results in an output that fulfils and extends the organizational goals. When the same ownership is enforced, it results in a potential and disastrous failure.

When you are working with the products, there has to thus clear definitions of Ownership. The Product Owner for business requirements, The developer for Quality of the code and product, A project manager for the Project Management and the entire Team for the USP and success of the Product. Empowered teams are more prone to take stronger ownerships... they are the ones you would find doing more than what is expected at the cost of there own times, they are the one who you would find fighting for the betterment of the product.

Cultures that have tried to entrust empowerment of Teams have resulted in better results at the same time cultures that have taken the path of control have failed mid-term. Next time you work with a Team.. remember....

Empowerment brings the sense of Ownership. Clear Ownership is a result of Trust and effort put behind the empowered Teams....

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The 25th hour

Do you ever feel that you have 1 hour less in the day? and that if you have had 1 hour more you could have done much much better?

Do you think that the 25th hour is what keeps you away from doing and getting things done?

Do you think that if you get extra hours you would get would help you complete all your pending items?

Do you think that stealing such an extra hour from your schedules is what will make you an effective time organizer?

Well if the answer to any or all of the above questions is YES.. then you are thinking like ME and believe me YOU ARE COMPLETELY WRONG... Of the last few months I have realised that there is no EXTRA hour which is the 25th hour in the day which will help you complete your tasks. This 25th hour comes at the cost of :

1. Your family time

2. Your rest time

3. Your sleep

4. Your exercise time or your leisure time

And in an attempt to make those extra hours available you sacrifice and disorganize yourself so much that the 24 hours become too less.. Anyways to conclude.. if you want to be a better time planner... make sure you do not depend on the extra hour.

However there is a 25th hour in every day. Many of us dont realise this, many of us dont care or bother about it. Many of us dont want to benefit from it. This 25th hour is that part of the hour where you are at your best in whatever you do.

I get this 25th hour every day.. and this is the time when I am at the best of my spirits. I use this hour to pray, read , learn , write and prepare myself for the next day which is going to bring a big bunch of challenges to me. This is that part of your day where you do things that can be finished in days and hours and months and years.. in minutes..

Well for you guys who find it challenging to manage your hours for your hobbies and passion, there is never an extra hour for you, but you look it with the right attitude and keep patience there is always that 25th hour waiting for you.. All you need to do is FIND IT...

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