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When it comes to telecom, I’m more than a little abnormal – it’s in my blood. My dad retired from AT&T Long Lines after 42 years (he had one of those “Ma Bell is a Cheap Mother!” shirts during one of the CWA strikes), and my mother was one of those ladies on roller skates working the cordboards back in the 40s. My first real job was Co-Op Engineer for GTE AE Labs in beautiful Northlake IL – when I told my dad he said something like “Haven’t you been paying attention? All the nights & weekends I had to work? Knowing how to answer the phone at night? I thought you were smarter than that – and not only do you go to work for a phone company, you go to work for THAT phone company!?!?!?!”
He was shattered. I was hooked.
I still don’t have Caller ID on my home phone – partially because I’m too cheap to pay for it & partially because I genuinely enjoy answering the phone completely unawares, sometimes hoping it’s a telemarketer so I can turn the call around, find out where they’re calling from, whose gear they use, whether or not they’re on the payroll or contracted, and then I pitch them. I always volunteer to answer the phone when visiting my family & the display says something like “out of area – undisclosed caller” – but they don’t let me.
I like calling customer service toll-free numbers & playing with the speech reco lady just to see what she can do. Zeroing out just to see if the screenpop worked, and whether or not I actually get connected to *Krissy*. Firing up a chat session while I’m on hold on the speakerphone just to see which one comes up in queue first.
Which brings me around to Get Human . If you run a contact center and you don’t know about Get Human you should. Because chances are if you don’t know about the Get Human standard for customer service, your customers probably feel like Joe Thompson…
It doesn’t have to be this way of course, and your customers won’t get anywhere near the thrill I do from a visit to telecom hell. They might just strap on their skates and disappear. Check out the Get Human standard – like dear old dad said “Haven’t you been paying attention?”
Mike Burke
http://www.iq-services.com/
6601 Lyndale Ave South, #330
Minneapolis, MN 55423
Forgot to mention…I attended INNUA - the annual Nortel User Group meeting in Pittsburgh last month. Bad enough Nortel’s on the edge of mortality, but then you throw in the economy in general and it got really weird. We were exhibiting, and it was amazing how happy and grateful they were to have us there. Thank you from the committee! Thank you from Nortel! Thank you from Pittsburgh!
But it was Nortel’s swansong and everyone knew it. Mike Z. was up there saying things like “Thank you all for your loyalty through the years. I know you want to know what’s next and I really want to tell you, but I just can’t yet. We’re going to try to keep it together as best we can...” So a week later Nokia-Siemens picked up the network piece for a song. But now what about enterprise? Siemens again? Avaya? Who can tell? When will we know? A surprise perhaps? Maybe Nortel could come back as Rolm? What do you think?
You know it’s not all just going to go up in smoke. Those DMSes out there aren’t going to disappear overnight by any stretch of the imagination. Wouldn’t it be weird if Avaya, the remnant of AT&T Business Telecom, actually ended up buddied up with its old nemesis? I guess stranger things have happened.
I spent a lot of time in the company of Nortel folks, all moving forward but in an altered state. It was clear they cared about their company, their innovative technology and their brand, but they’re still in shock that their time in the sun has come and gone. I was reminded of that web bit that made the rounds during the telecomm crash in 2001 – the one about the 2 Nortel guys who each got a bonus; one decided to invest in Nortel stock, the other bought beer in returnable bottles. (http://oclug.on.ca/archives/oclug/2001-September/009408.html) After the crash, the returnable beer bottles were worth more than the stock. Who knew it would actually turn into liquidation? What a world, what a world…
Mike Burke
http://www.iq-services.com/
6601 Lyndale Ave South, #330
Minneapolis, MN 55423
