Blogmatic

There has been a terrible tragedy here in Canada where at the time of writing of this post 12 people had died and many others became sick from Listeria in some products from Maple Leaf Foods. I have been particularly impressed by the response of the company to this horrific situation. Maple Leaf foods has taken the approach of “facing the brutal facts”. They were quick to acknowledge the problem and put in place measures to correct and address the situation. While this won’t undo the damage done it does speak volumes to the character and culture of the company.

The President and CEO have acknowledged the situation in the media, on TV and in an open letter that I found in the Ottawa edition of Metro. My take on the situation is that Maple Leaf foods have taken the problem head on and I think their actions are commendable. By “facing the brutal facts” they have shown much character and conviction as an organization.

Ian Graham

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I often find inspiration in quotes. This past weekend I attended my uncle’s funeral and while traditionally a sombre occasion one that my uncle wanted to be a celebration of his life rather than a mourning of our loss. In this respect there were a couple of inspirational quotes that I wanted to share.

The first is from my uncles’ sister in law to my aunt regarding reflecting on their marriage.

“Don’t mourn because it is over, be grateful that it happened”.

The next was from one of the speakers at the ceremony reflecting on my uncles’ leadership style. This is a quote from Henry Truman that I really like.

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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Can I choose none of the above?

In terms of support both companies have equally dismal performance. This is somewhat of a paradox and the reason I say that is when you talk to the customer support people they seem like good people that are genuinely trying to help. The trouble is none of them seem to have any authority to solve the problems that you have. Typically when I call either of these organizations for support I am transferred to four or five different people. The last time I had a billing issue with Rogers I had to escalate the problem to the VP of Customer Advocacy and National Quality to get it resolved. I have a new billing issue with Rogers now and am dreading the thought of having to dial in to that stupid automated attendant and trying to get to the right person. Perhaps that is the point make support so difficult that no one calls you.

From an organizational perspective what does this say about these two companies? In a word; “Dysfunctional”. If you are going to employ and have a support organization give them the ability to resolve the problem. It seems to me that there is absolutely 0% empowerment at these companies and they have a very top down bureaucratic command and control support structure. What they need is something like 1-800-O-Canada which is a single point of contact for all Canadian government services. I have used it and it is awesome, you call in, talk to a real person and they direct you to the appropriate contact. Most bizarre, who ever thought I would be recommending that private enterprise be more like the government? 1-800 would resolve the auto-attendant crap. Next step in the solution is to give the support people some latitude and capability to resolve the problem. So basically that’s it give your customers easy access to someone that can solve their problem.

In terms of business and marketing I think that Rogers is easily way out in front. Rogers does a great job of attacking Bells Landline service and internet with their home phone offering. Bell expressview may have a reasonable showing in rural areas but will, in my opinion, never gain much traction in urban and suburban areas. Where Rogers competes they win. Bell has retired those cute and cuddly beavers Frank and Gordon and is rebranding. “Frankly” I never understood the beaver campaign and am reasonably certain that while Frank and Gordon were very popular they never did anything in terms of selling Bell services. With the recent acquisition at Bell and announcement of 2,500 layoffs things are going to go from bad to worse. Bell is a dinosaur waiting for the meteor to hit and start the ice age.

Cheers,
Ian Graham

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