Help! I'm Becoming One of "Them"

With an engineering background and information technology industry experience, I have long considered myself to be self-sufficient in personal technologies. Until now.

About two years ago, I became an Apple customer -- after being an "IBM user" since 1984, when the first PC was announced by IBM. I did this to challenge myself (and because my teenage son was an Apple devotee).

Now, I have an iMac at work, an iPod at the gym, and an iPhone in my bag. None of them really came with a user manual. And I just do not find any of it intuitive. Where is the on/off switch for the iPod? How am I supposed to know that Time Machine is a backup tool? And the interface in iTunes makes no sense to me (and I have been syncing for years with a PDA).

Last night, my son and I were helping my mother with her iIssues. She wanted to move her audio book from her iPod to her iPhone. First we had to install iTunes on her new computer. Nope, that was the wrong version -- she needs the 64-bit version (who knew?). Done.

Next we File-Transfer Purchases so that her e-book is on the computer. Done. We synced her iPod. Done.

At this point, the Jets-Patriots game was getting down to the short strokes, so my son was checked out. I eject the iPod, connect the iPhone and click on its audio book tab and tell it to sync. Abort! Abort! Abort! Doing this operation will erase everything on the iPhone. Why? Because I didn't transfer purchases with the iPhone plugged in, so her apps didn't download. Argh.

Anyway, I had created about 80% of a blog with my BlogWriter app last week. It's no longer there. Where did it go? It is not in my blog. It's not in my drafts on the cloud. It's not on my phone. Double argh.

I must be getting old. Or overloaded. The rate of change in technology is faster than my rate of change in learning technology (we were talking about differential Calculus this morning, sorry). I just don't get it.

To Rant or Not to Rant...

... that is the question.

I try to live with a grateful spirit, but lately it seems like I just have one thing after another that really irritates me.

On the customer service front, a light on my street is out. This is a problem for me because I walk my dogs at night, in the dark. Of course, I notice it at 8:30 in the evening, when I cannot do anything about it. Then, just this week, I received the quarterly bill from the county for street light and sewage service (I'm not sure how they service the sewage, but we pay for it). There was a phone number on the bill, so I called it. After wading through the audio response interface, I reached a human voice who told me I had called the wrong number -- and gave me another number to call, which I did. The person who answered that phone was so rude that I think I would have preferred a computer interface -- but I digress. The county does not change the street light bulbs, the electric company does, and she did not have their number. Who knew? My payment goes to the county. Could we not have that information on the bill? Or am I just ignorant in the ways of the world?

Continuing with being ignorant, I am continually challenged by Apple's design paradigm. I should mention that I worked for IBM when they introduced the first PC, and have been a Windows/Intel user ever since. However, I switched to an Apple computer at the office a few months ago (long story). And I received an iPhone for Christmas. So, I love the capabilities of the technology, but it makes me nuts how nothing in the Apple world comes with decent instructions. For example, I added an external hard drive to my iMac. The little pamphlet explained how to plug it in (that I could I figure out). When I plugged it in, a window popped up and I happily formatted the drive. Then I opened the electronic "user's manual," only to find out that it told me how to plug in the drive (a bit of a Catch-22). Nothing about how to run a backup. So I harkened back to my IBM days and thought, "Hmm... it's probably in Utilities." No. Do I drag my files to the drive icon? No. It is in "Time Machine." How intuitive (not)! And my son's iMac is broken, displaying only the "grey pinwheel of death." What about -- just a thought -- an error message? I don't get it.

What really got me started on this rant trajectory, though, was a magazine I picked up. I don't normally read Self, but I grabbed it from the magazine rack where I exercise, to read a feature about someone whom I admire. I could not believe how much of the rest of the issue was dedicated to telling women how incredibly inadequate we are: overweight, haggard, old, unsexy, forgetful, toxic, etc. No wonder so many of the young women I see in the classroom have low self-esteem! I'm pretty sure that the guys don't get those sort of messages. Why do women buy these publications and buy into the ads? I don't get it.

OK, so, trying to restore my grateful spirit, let me say that I am thankful my street light is going to be repaired and that our neighborhood has streetlights. Thinking about Haiti, I should be thankful for electricity and a safe home. I am thankful that I have such great access to technology and that my travails are so insignificant. I am thankful that I am raising a young man with healthy self-esteem.

Whew. No rants next week, I promise.

The Spectrum of Customer Service

Is there anyone that thinks that customer service is not important? There are certainly people and organizations that do not treat customer service as important. Customer service is integral to financial performance, reputation, referrals, and of course, repeat sales.

I have had a range of experiences of customer service this week, ranging from far exceeding expectations to mediocre and beyond.

On the outstanding end, is Nordstrom's. Now, they generally have a great reputation for customer service -- but let me tell you MY story. I bought a pair of Brighton slip-on loafers at Nordstrom's some time (i.e., several years) ago. I don't wear them frequently, but they are fantastic for cold, wet weather because of the rubber sole and chunky heel. Recently, I put them on and noticed that the microfiber fabric that covered part of the shoe was fraying. I no longer live in a town with a Nordstrom's (much to my chagrin and my husband's relief), so I packed up the shoes in the box (with the Nordstrom sticker, but no receipt) and a letter and sent them to the nearest store. In the letter, I asked for replacements or store credit. You could see the rest of the shoes were in great condition, but that the fabric was irreparable.

Well, let me tell you, I received a call within the week. It was a voicemail, asking me to call. I girded myself for a conflict, only to find out that they were crediting MY CREDIT CARD for the FULL AMOUNT. Do you think that makes me a loyal customer? You bet! In fact, I drove all the way to that store location and spent an equivalent amount at the store, just because I was so grateful.

On the other end of the spectrum, I needed a halogen light bulb for my desk lamp. I visited several stores, but none of them stocked the particular size I needed. I ended up going to a distributor in town who caters to contractors. I ordered the part, paid for it, and was going to get a call when it was in next week. That was last November. After several visits and calls on my part, I have asked for a refund. Oh, by the way, it was Lowe Electronic Supply Company.

I have a measure for the spectrum of customer service, based on the glass half full/half empty premise. If you think about having a glass of water in a restaurant, on one end you have someone topping off your water within seconds of you having a sip. On the other end, you can't find the waiter to ask to refill your empty glass.

So, instead of stars, I rate customer service from full glass, half full, half empty, or empty.

Bottoms up!

A Tough Decision

One of the hardest things for organizations -- and often, individuals -- to do is to stop doing something. Examples that come to mind are canceling a project, breaking a tradition, and changing a process.

There are many explanations for this phenomenon. On an individual level, a person might be loathe to stop doing something for fear of disappointing other people. Organizationally, it might be impolitic to acknowledge that something is failing and should be stopped. It can also be problematic when no one feels ownership of the issue. And then there is always the challenge of inertia -- an object in motion stays in motion.

Successful people and organizations challenge the status quo mindset and step up to the tough decisions required to stop doing something. To continue doing it wastes resources and complicates operations.

My church's leadership is trying to become a "Simple Church" (Rainer and Geiger, 2006, The Simple Church, B & H Publishing), to reduce the complications and increase the focus of the staff and congregation on discipleship. Many organizations are working on becoming "lean," i.e., reducing wasted effort by following the "Toyota Way" (Liker, 2003, The Toyota Way, McGraw-Hill). Both types of initiatives require the courage to stop doing things that have been done before.

What brought this all to mind is the change to Eastern Standard Time. I do not like it, and think it is an outdated tradition. The idea is credited to Ben Franklin and certainly made sense in an agrarian, un-electrified country. As I understand it, different regions would adjust in different ways, not necessarily in one-hour increments. The time changes became standardized because of the trans-continental railroad's need for a sensible timetable. Some states, e.g., Indiana and Arizona, no longer follow this tradition.

Think about how much time is wasted... changing clocks!

What were THEY thinking?

This week, I read that the Georgia Supreme Court deemed a motor vehicle law "unconstitutional," largely on the basis that the wording was vague and confusing. The law? Making a left turn into the near lane, when turning onto a multiple lane road. WHAT is confusing about that?

You want to talk about confusing? Why can't drivers turn their (power) steering wheels well enough to aim for the correct lane? Are they lazy? Inconsiderate? After all, this allows the oncoming traffic to go "right on red," safely. Or is that law too confusing, too?

Come to think of it, red lights DO seem to be confusing for Georgia drivers. The way I was taught to drive, a yellow traffic light meant "caution, the light is about to turn red." That meant I should continue through the intersection, if I was close enough, WITHOUT ACCELERATING. Around here, it seems to mean, "hurry up, so the next two vehicles behind you can make it through the red light before the people in the cross traffic notice." (Of course, those people are probably talking on their cell phones, so it will take them some time to notice.)

While we are on the subject of turning, I have to wonder why most people do not use their turn indicators around here. Are they lazy? Inconsiderate? Too busy talking on their cell phones?

Beyond my frustration with sloppy driving, there is a public health hazard. Ignoring laws that regulate the flow of traffic causes accidents. This is common sense -- and is validated by my personal experience. Both my husband and I -- in separate cars at separate times in separate places -- have been victims of accidents caused by someone running a red light. Note that, both times, our cars were stopped, and we were still hit! Thankfully, we (and our toddler child) were not hurt. We did, however, have the gross inconvenience of insurance claims and extensive car repairs.

How does this rant relate to a topic of management interest? Think about traffic flow as a process. If the process is not followed properly, what happens? At best, you have slower throughput in the process. In the case of the lazy left turns, instead of two people turning, one left and one right, only one can turn because the right turner cannot be sure of an open lane. The same is true when people don't use their signals -- this causes confusion and delays with other drivers. And with the cell phone talkers, their inattention to driving slows everyone down. Of course, when an accident occurs, throughput is further slowed, or stopped all together.

Throughput is a critical success factor in managing processes. If you have consistent processes, you can maximize your throughput, improve your quality, and reduce your costs.

What is confusing about THAT?