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CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Thursday Nov. 17, 2016
I was happy …
Not off-the-charts. Content. Regular appointments, consistently good service. Just what we all want in ‘customer service’ anywhere.
Then, change. Not ownership – local outpost of a large organization, but ‘new manager’. Mood of that place changed. Person serving me was the same, but things aren’t. I hung in for a few months, biting my tongue, dreading sight and sound of ‘him’.
In a recent telephone conversation with ‘him’ I got irritated, voiced my opinion; made my point, clearly, calmly. Had no desire to move my business. At my next appointment, given a letter (2-pager) by that manager. Upon opening, I realized ‘this ain’t coupons or an apology’. Read it twice, tore it up – voted with my feet. Deposited my business elsewhere. May take awhile to find a satisfactory ‘new service provider’, but doubt it will be difficult. I’ll be happy again.
The bad manager? If, before he runs that business aground, they wake up to their problem they can fix it. My guess is they won’t. They’ll lose customers, lose good staff, here every excuse imaginable – to every piece of rationale from their manager. Imagine, if they’d just made it possible for customers to connect with their ownership – they could solve a problem when it was tiny. It won’t stay tiny. Little problems are like iceberg tips – not little at all, the protrusion of something larger and more complex and potentially dangerous …
Cut off my nose to spite my face? In a way, yes. I’ll try someone new until I find ‘happy’, then stay a loyal regular customer as long I’m treated well, or until management changes …
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