thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

Every so often I get calls from a supplier rep who says something like, “It says here, that I need to call you”.  And then I get some kind of half hearted pitch from them. 

More often than not, this is a cursory process that is needed so that staff member can tick the box and get on with whatever they do, the rest of the time 

Somehow, despite having account plans, a  CRM and job that is all about serving customers the people from this particular company have missed the one thing that might get my attention.  

We live in a time where most products and services are quite similar and these “moments of truth” are the times when a customer might walk because of such auto-pilot attitudes. 

Here is a very shortened version of  a true story that did the rounds a few years ago.  

In Brooklyn, New York, Chush is a school that caters to learning disabled children. A father is at a school function and he tells this story about his son Shaya

One afternoon, Shaya and his father walked past a park where some boys Shaya knew were playing baseball. Shaya asked, “Do you think they will let me play?”

Shaya’s Dad asked if his son could play.

The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said “We are losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning.” Shaya’s father was ecstatic as Shaya smiled broadly.

Shaya was told to put on a glove and go out to play short center field. Eventually it was Shaya’s turn.

Would the team actually let Shaya bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?

The first pitch came and Shaya swung clumsily and missed. One of Shaya’s teammates came up to Shaya and together they held the bat and faced the pitcher waiting for the next pitch. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shaya.

As the pitch came in, Shaya and his teammate swung at the ball and together they hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shaya would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman.

Everyone started yelling, “Shaya, run to first. Run to first.” Never in his life had Shaya run to first. He scampered down the baseline wide-eyed and startled. By the time he reached first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman who would tag out Shaya, who was still running. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher’s intentions were, so he threw the ball high and far over the Third baseman’s head.

Everyone yelled, “Run to second, run to second.” Shaya ran towards second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shaya reached second base, the opposing short stop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base and shouted, “Run to third.” As Shaya rounded third, the boys from both teams ran behind him screaming, “Shaya run home.”

Shaya ran home, stepped on home plate and all 18 boys lifted him on their shoulders and made him the hero, as he had just hit a “grand slam” and won the game for his team.

The story is by Rabbi Paysach Krohn and is based on the experience of one of his friends. It was published as “Perfection at the Plate” in a book called Echoes of the Maggid. You can read the full version at that site.

What has all this to do with CRM and customer service? Well as Gary Bencivenga puts it:

“It’s vital for all of us to understand that our prospects and customers are people, too . . . and people like to connect with others who are unafraid of showing a little humanity, of taking some time now and then to share a laugh, feel some warmth, express some sympathy, do a favor, help a charity, be a friend.

Whatever your product, however impressive your expertise, people will never care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Every now and then, toss a few pebbles of caring into your pond of contacts. Those ripples of friendship will spread and unfailingly return to you in waves of appreciation and loyalty.” Gary B

A certain level of empathy and caring is needed in customers services – some companies even call this their customer care team.

I wonder what would happen if the company which prescribes account calls for their staff got them to place a little card on their computer screen with comments like the one Gary mentions above.

It is not about the tasklist or the computer system – it is all about caring for people and letting your customers know that you care about their business as well.  

In the past few weeks I have heard from two friends who are relocating to Rwanda and Kazakhstan respectively. After the initial surprise, I wondered why and what the reasons were for making these big changes for both of these friends and their families. I also wondered:

a) Was it something I/we said?
b) I have interesting friends?
c) What can I/we do to help out if they need help in their new countries?

I have long had personal interest in development aid along the lines of self help projects and “teach a man how to fish” lines. I have very mixed feelings about the impact of globalisation and for more than 10 years now have been reading up on the topic.

Some of my key reading has been books like

• “The Future of Capitalism” by Lester Thurow, 1996;
• Peter Druckers “Post Capitalist Society” 1993, & “Management Challenges for the 21st Century” from 1999
• “The Case Against the Global Economy” essays edited by Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith, 1996;
• “Building a Win-Win World – Life Beyond Global Economic Warfare” by Hazel Henderson, 1996;
• “Banker to the Poor” by Muhammad Yunus, 1998;
• “One World Ready or Not” – The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism by William Greider, 1997;
• and various others by Peter Drucker, Kevin Kelly and others including
• Paul Omerod’s “Butterfly Economics” from 1998.

These have all contributed to a general sense of unease with the way that we as privileged consumers in the Western developed world act and the wider implications of this all. (Check the form to see where you rate on a global rich scale.)

In August ’05 I had the joy of hearing John Ralston Saul speak about his analysis of the global situation at the launch of his book “The Collapse of Globalism” and the Reinvention of the World. John Ralston Saul is articulate, persuasive and optimistic.

His speech was one of the most eloquent and useful summaries of what works, what doesn’t and more importantly why and what we can start to do about it. Naturally I had to have the book and quickly found out that it is not an easy read at all.

By that, I mean that each idea or argument requires careful thought and ultimately a commitment to personal change that we resist for all types of well intended reasons. (Full list of non fiction by Saul.)

Towards the end of the book, Saul quotes Barack Obama whom he caught early in his career at a speech in 2003..

“instead of having a set of policies that are equipping people for the globalisation of the economy, we have policies that are accelerating the most destructive trends of the global economy”

Saul points out the similarities to ideas from Adam Smith and continues his thesis

“that the globalist crisis has been caused by a mixture of of idealogy, which should only be taken half seriously and bad management, which ought not to be have been taken seriously at all.”

Anyway, my perception is that the debate on balanced development, and what that means globally and locally is a debate worth having and so starting this week we have a new category on development.

I will continue to write about other topic areas but sometimes you just have to go where your heart is.

So to Peter in Rwanda and Tim in Kazakhstan – thanks for your example and we wish you all the best in your new adventures. Here’s to the reinvention of the world on a personally meaningful and global basis.