So you need an MBA to do customer service, eh?

So we have this bunch of people talking about the need to improve customer service. And we have all them MBAs and consultants coming to provide advise. However So, once in a while I run into really good customer Service.
Recently, I found my fishmonger offering squid and fish to a japanese couple. In the interest of customer service, his wife and he know the names of fish in japanese. They also know it in malay and english. And in case you are tempted to try a different type of fish, they very much are able to suggest cooking and fish cleaning methods.
Yesterday my car battery died On me. I went out to my regular workshop to get a new one, and, Since it was a run-in run-out matter, my wife opted to Stay in the car.
The regular lady saw my wife and immediately went out to say hello. Next thing I knew, she had managed to convince my wife to come in. I've always given this lady top grades in customer services. As a loyal customer, I have earned pickup Services, where after sending my car, they would Send me back to office and collect me when the car is done. Over the years I have earned a crate of oranges, a few caps, Swiss army knives, mobile phone holders, thermal cooler bags and even kuih raya for the Eid ul Fitr celebration. Recently they have even thrown In free wifi, So doing business with them is So convenient.
So how come we have So much trouble giving good customer Services? No MBA?

Using a Wiki

Whats a wiki? Have u ever used one?
To me, the best example of a wiki is Wikipedia. A trailblazer in its time, today if you needed a quick reference from the internet, most likely you would be searching wikipedia.

The interesting feature of Wikipedia is that it consists of information and references (knowledge?) on a huge, huge scope. The large scope can be attributed to the way wikipedia works. Wikipedia is a living encyclopedia consisting of a collection of collaborative work of contributors. People can update what ever information they have, and, in the process of updating attach their comments, arguments and references supporting their decision to update. It is amongst the better examples of the power of collaboration.

A wiki is then a collective approach to information and/ or knowledge. Founded by Ward Cunningham as the simplest online database that could possibly work, a wiki brings together knowledge of people resulting in a living repository of information and knowledge.

Why wiki?
As an organization, each of us have points of view shaped by our individual, unique experience. What we know, very often, cannot be described by us (we do not know what we know) and the knowledge that we have only become meaningful when the situation or context arises. This is the fundamental issue with managing knowledge. Very often we talk about "writing down what we know", but without context, we would not be able to identify where to start.

Many times, we realize we have something to contribute in the middle of conversations. These conversations in my experience tend to be informal, over a cup of coffee, in the hall ways and etc., and during these times only we realize that there is someone out there who has the answer to what we need. In this realization, the context has been determined and, as a result, the knowledge arises. what if it was a new topic of discussion? would you know who to invite to coffee with?

Without creating context, then, we would not know were our knowledge resides, and this is how our abilities become limited. Context is dependent on sharing.

Wikis become useful because context is created when the subject is raised by in the wiki. This could be as simple as starting an article on "preparing presentations". The initiator sets out what he knows on the topic, and shares it with the rest of the organization. other people then set out to add to the topic based on their on knowledge and experience on the topic and the quality of the information grows and gets updated. Using a Wiki is helpful, because each version is saved and references arguments and contributors get tracked.

By using wikis, subject matter experts begin to become apparent in the organization as their contributions impact the knowledge in the wiki. The most important part of this is that the knowledge is collective; everyone contributes and the organization has on record everything it knows. And, tracking the contributors make the organization aware of who their experts are and it makes the organization more effective in trying to move forward.

In the maintaining of management System procedures and even circulars and policies, wikis to me provide the platform in which these documents go through changes and continue to evolve. Imagine a live procedure that continuously changes.

Such power does the wiki have. Sadly, this does not happen easily in the organization. A critical enabler of such collaboration is the willingness to share. Without sharing, information does not grow.

More on twitter

Earlier on, I wrote about Twitter as a means to get productive. Twitter is somewhat unimaginable if you haven't tried it. 140 character blog? web based asynchronuous IM? duh?
I felt the same way since I first got introduced to it. Initially, of course its not so fun when friends are not on it, you're tweeting (twitter-speak for broadcasting) to a whole bunch of strangers what you are doing. But after a while it becomes fun to be able to read all the stuff people put up; and somewhere amongst the noise, you get a message like: New blog post http: yada-yada yada.
Then I began to realise that, Hey, there is some use for this, too. Especially when you need to run out for a while, or you suddenly need to find out things like "a quick show of hands, who watched the last episode of x files?"

So here's a nice piece that explains it all. Thanks to socialmediatoday (SMT) for putting this up.

Getting Productive

For some people who receive my e-mails, you would have seen at my signature my twitter handle.
What's twitter? Its a web service that let's you tell people in 140 characters or less what u are doing. You have a choice to let the entire twitter world read it, or to limit it only to subscribers (i.e "followers"). While being a web service, it also alllows updates from sms, instant messages and third party applications. It has also spawned applications that use this service.

So what? on a personal basis, it allows u to broadcast bits of information to everyone quickly (e.g. "its a girl!"). However, I tend to find it useful to just tell people information like "proposal done" or "off to a meeting, back at 1030". More useful from me are the updates from the people I follow, who posts things like: new blog post: yada-yada.

Some people are creative with twitter, like updating customers, complaints handling and things like that.

here's a blog post on how some people use twitter. Here's more info on Twitter. And if u want to just jump in, here.

Update:
Found this about how a company created a twitter profile for their client and how they used it to improve the customer experience. Check it out!

Anyone with experience really getting productive with twitter? I'd like to know!

Getting around

Today our office e-mail went down. Suddenly I felt cut off from the rest of the world. With e-mails down, phone calls started coming in, mostly telling me that there are materials to review and that the e-mail was down. It's almost impossible to believe there was a time when we worked without e-mails.
What does e-mail do?
E-mails form a convenient channel to share information.
E mails provide people a means to highlight their concerns.
E-mails provide a convenient means to forward information.
Because of this, once the server came down, a lot of things stopped. What if we decentralized the information management?
We could have a central site to share information, with RSS feeds built in. Information at the site allows for larger file sizes and different file formats, unshackling us from the 5MB transmit limit and the 10MB Mailbox size. While e-mailing creates copies for each recipient, only one copy need to be maintained. and, furthermore, with RSS enabled feed, user get updates of changes.
While e-mail allows people to reach specific persons to highlight their issues, services like twitter allow departments to have a general profile which broadcasts simple information to subscribers ("followers").
the drawback of e-mail is that its not necessarily realtime. Users who send out e-mail do so with a touch of faith that someone will recieve the e-mail and respond. Instant messaging applications
lets u see if someone is available and engage them in realtime.
Finally, e-mails are just names in your contact list. Who are they? You won't know. social networking sites provide us with the ability to "humanise" our presence and share our online lives. For the customer in search of service, the value of knowing the likes and dislikes of specific individuals allow for easier communication.
With the above, we get the same service we use e-mail for, and more. Should we still depend on e-mails? What do you think?

update: At a recent knowledge cafe organized by David Gurteen, Luiz Suarez spoke as to whether we could do without e-mail. A transcript of his discussion can be found here.

Aquaria!

Yesterday, we decided to spend the day at Aquaria. During the Matta fair in September, we had already purchased open tickets to aquaria, so yesterday we took the opportunity to use these tickets.
1. it was a good move to pre purchase tickets; the queue to the ticket counter was loooooong. But one person asked us to go straight in and validate our tickets while the other asked us to join the queue.
2. not so good - we had to validate our tickets at the ticket counter. Purpose of validation? exchange paper tickets for smart cards. I thought the smart cards entitled us to souvenirs or welcome drinks - that would make sense of having to exchange the tickets - but instead, the whole reason for the exchange was so that it could be slotted into the turnstile. Wow. expensive technology, but useless. why not just take our paper tickets, let us in, and do the bean counting offline?
3. good - Lots of info available with user interactive touch screens.
4. Not so good - recorded explanations had poor diction, pronunciation and grammar. Just right for a third world country.
5. good - staff were around to guide, explain and remind people with simple rules like: please do not put you fingers into the water, or "this is a friendly reminder that if u have a digital camera please switch off the flash"
6. not so good - diction and grammar was bad, and people who don't follow (many didn't) got away with it. A lot of people were pushing and rushing, too. I guess the ushers need to improve their grammar, speaking skills and some crowd control skills. And typically, we admonish (e.g please do not bla bla bla) rather than encourage (i.e. fishes die when scared and putting your hands into the pool will scare them).
7. good - we could pose and take pictures with a skunk in a jungle setting
8. not so good - the sign said: pose with a reptile!
9. good - fish feeding session: kids get preferential treatment; they get to sit in front.
10. Not so good - ushers weren't kid friendly and couldn't control the kids! Parents didn't know how to queue, and were rushing!
11. Good - announcements were bilingual and scripted.
12. not so good - bad English! no personality! this is a show, people!
verdict?
if they can improve the grammar, and a little dash of creativity here and there, it would be a really exciting experience. But we need to break the rules a little; learning needn't be boring. And by the same virtue, ushers and instructions needn't be straight laced and boring either; and we need to look a little forward to add a bit of psychology and crowd control.

What I really loved was being able to stay in the tunnel as long as I liked. I managed to sketch the shark while spending time in the tunnel.

There's something magical about watching these creatures swim by in their silent world; ebbing, floating amidst the shimmering blue amidst the rays of light.

The Void

On days like these, I feel an overwhelming sense of emptiness. After two whole days of celebration, the adrenaline rush is over. A feeling of tiredness takes over and with it comes a sense of emptiness.
I feel empty mainly because the day is over. It is now night, and the day passed me by just like that. For many nights now, I had been sleeping late... and today the Debt Collectors of sleep have come knocking.
Late morning, I found that I couldn't keep my eyes open, thus my plan to catch a quick forty winks became a two hour slumber.
After lunch, the postprandial symptoms kicked in, and I succumbed then to another 2 hour slumber.
Now it is night; and the day has passed. Truly the day has passed, and I have now wasted it.
Its true what they say, that time and tide waits for no man. My tide has passed, and whatever good that I could have done today is gone. All that is left is to rue what might have been; and most importantly, to prepare for tomorrow so that the same may not happen.

30 days of Fasting, and one day to recover from it all..

My wife makes it a point to cook for her father every Hari Raya. She is a wonderful cook, and putting back on everything I've lost from a month of fasting on the morning of Hari Raya has always been worth it.
Its an annual routine. The Sunday before Raya would be the Marketing day, where we go out and get the foodstuff for the cookout. Then we would pass some raw beef to my cousin, who would cook arguably the best rendang in the country (I'm biased; I grew up on the stuff) a little extra for us. Every Raya eve, we would be up late because she would be cooking. Slotted in between the cooking would be visiting my cousin who lives with my mum to collect the rendang; in exchange we would leave behind some lemang, and some kuih raya.
When morning comes, we would then pack everything and go over to my inlaws; take my father in law to the mosque, have breakfast with him, then move over to my mum's, and have lunch.
Lunch is usually an extended drawn affair, my elder sister would already be there, and as we arrive she would be finishing; and as we join in, other cousins would arrive, then my younger sister, and so on. On Hari Raya, lunch is something that starts at about 11 30 and doesn't end till 3 or 4 pm. For my wife and I, lunch ends when the lack of sleep start to catch up on us.
My wife is an early to bed person, and Hari Raya eve is the only time year when she would sleep late.
Why do I mention this? We all celebrate Hari Raya and we take for granted that the food is there, that everything is in place. Sometimes we forget the people who put in so much for this special day; our parents, who look forward for that day when everyone comes to be under one roof, our spouses who put in so much more just to make the day special, and our children whose very presence make the day special. Not to forget the husbands, whose special function on that day is to ensure there is no food wastage .
Happy hari raya to all, and i love you all for the effort in making this day a special one. and, to my wife, again, the food was especially fantabulous, 'coz no one cooks food like you do, with the secret ingredient TLC.
Now, i wonder where I've put them jogging shoes again...