Some people will tell you that if you think positively and wish for something or visualise good things happening, there’s a good chance it will happen. I tend to feel there is some truth in this, and certainly think there is such a thing as karma, and phrases and philosophical thinking around ‘what goes around comes around’, and ‘do to others as you wish done to yourself’ certainly has some resonance with me and millions of others across the globe I’m sure. But, what about in working life, where surely you should apply the same school of thought and ethics, does it have the same effect for better or for worse? I can certainly say I don’t know anymore after my nightmare experience today, which has certainly seen life replicate work!
Let me explain… For the past couple of weeks we’ve been undertaking a project for one of our clients who have just had a YouGov survey commissioned to research people’s perceptions of the state of customer service in the UK today. Some of the results have been truly staggering, not least the fact that 76% of people surveyed said their main reason for calling customer services was down to the company they are dealing with making an error -a wrong bill, faulty product, missing parts etc. you get the idea. We’ve termed this ‘avoidable contact’ and started to think about this and been working really hard on angles and placing this as a story to the media and thought positively about it and put good thoughts out there that it will be a success. And as I’ve said already, positive thoughts lead to good things yes? Well, what should happen today as I’m working from home on that very survey project while I wait for my lovely new fireplace that I’ve spent a long time researching, not to mention money on and then waiting for to be delivered (3 and half hours after it should have arrived)… Yes, you’ve guessed it – IT’S TOTALLY THE WRONG ONE!!! AGGGHHH a perfect example of avoidable contact and terrible customer service I think all rolled into one! call it bad luck, call it karma, call it whatever, it’s totally annoying, frustrating, infuriating, yes I’m angry and yes I want to shout as someone, and so totally understand the results of the survey now why so many of us Britons feel undervalued and unloved by the companies we deal with… but, I’ll keep being positive as it’s just a karma blip and wait for the front page story that comes in tomorrow or my lottery numbers to come in this weekend.
Andrew
