Haiku Poem

Work environment

Must include trust, ethics, and

Group Diversity

The Way I Think Customer Service Should Be Approached

Since I've came to the USA I've encountered two extremes of customer service. From one side there are companies that provide a great customer service exprience as: Apple,Dell,Marriot Hotels,Starbucks and many more but from the other side companies that caused me frustation like: MCdonald's,Calvin Klein,Priceline.com,Microsoft and many resturants that I don't attend anymore.
I've concluded that the companies that have superb customer service are the ones that use the role of customer service as active rather than passive. What that I mean is that the companies understand the needs\frustation of a customer with out the need that he will explain it explicitly.
For example, A week ago I've ordered Chipotle through the Iphone App, I went to the resturant 15 minutes later and the order wasn't ready. They appologized and did it in 2-3 minutes. Than, I've discovered they prepared be a Burrito instead of a Bowl. I've returned she Appolagized again, asked the kitchen to fix my order and quickly gave me complimantry chips and salsa. In addition she offered to serve me the food when it is ready which I kindly refused.
The thing is that chips and salsa costs almost nothing to Chipotle but they understand that it is better to compensate me with a cost of 1$ than letting me leave the resturant and maybe not getting back.
For all the call centers, I would suggest that companies should consider to open outgoing calls call centers.
Those customer service should call back to customers in different segments and that there records indicates they are dissapointed from the agent\supervisors when they called.
Let's take the cellular companies for an example. T-mobile can create a field of customer value meaning how much is the customer is valuable to the company (based on how much his bill is and how many lines he has).
After this segmantation T-Mobile can create special discounts\plans if this customer is in his way to leave the company but much before he calls to disconnect the line. If he already bought AT&T cell phone this plan is worthless.
To conclude,the all approach that customer service should answer questions and not being creative and active is wrong in my opinion.
As the economy moved to be a Service Economy instead of Manufacturing customer service should be the main goal of the companies.

The Blog- Feedback

I found the blog to be a great tool to express my opinion and thoughts. When looking back on class I think the things I'll take with me will be the blogs and class activity. It is true that we have to know the definitions but I find the blog and the group activities to be much more practical in the day after. First the blog will be up and I will always be able to look back and read what I wrote or what score I got on the DISC test.
I definitly think this tool should stay the upcoming classes.
The blog also gave me a chance to know people outside of class. Since I come to class directly from work and right after I have another class I don't really have an oppurtunity to speak with other class mates. Through the responses I gave and that people left on my blog I got to know a few people and started to say them at least "hello" when I get to class.
After responding to some students and read their replies I could guess there score at the DISC even without looking at the score. After a few blog assignments I picked five blogs that I constantly replied to because I really liked the style.
I truely think the blog accomplished the goals the Proffessor tried to achieve.
It was engaging,challanging at times and fun at the same time
The only annoying part is to keep track of all the responses but given the fact it is 20% of the grade it is not too much to ask :)

DISC Assesment

In the DISC I got results that I think do reflect my leadership type. My results were Ic. Within the workplace I do feel I influence people doing it my way but not in a dominant way. I remember a few years ago when I was a shift manager at a  call center how I’ve influenced the employees. From one side I had to keep the level of service up and that everybody will answer the calls as fast as they could but from the other side I had to decide who can take a break and when. Many times as a shift manager I had to say to people to wait with their break. I can say that most of the time the employees respected and trusted me when I said “no” because when it was possible I would encourage them to take longer breaks.  The notion was that if I’ll show that I care they will pay me back when I need them the most. I saw shift managers who were dominant and always complained I was too soft but they were amazed to see the reports analyzing the calls during my shifts. The level of service was the highest and the call center atmosphere was very good and quite. When the dominant shift managers had the control the atmosphere was bad, people didn’t stop to argue and I saw no respect in both directions. That answers why I don’t regret not being dominant and I am very satisfied with the results.

I think it is very important to know with what “types” of people you work with. My previous boss was dominant and it took me a while to understand that but when I did I saved a lot of energy and time. In the beginning when he said to me to do something I would argue he is wrong but after I understood he is dominant I started to say first “no problem, lets do it” and than lead him to the conclusion that it is wrong. In other words, with dominant boss you have to act as a “yes man” and with a bit intelligence to make him change his mind. I think this test can help in any interaction but I believe it is easy to analyze people by the behavior and directly characterize them-I don’t think I need them to answer the questions to say if they are D\I\S\C

Extra Credit-McDonalds

The Five Pickles Meal

            The first thing that crossed my mind when we got this assignment was- how will I explain the McDonalds personnel that I need exactly five pickles. I felt that if I will not be able to convince myself that it is a reasonable request, so I will not be able to convince them. After a few days of building my confidence I went during lunch time to McDonalds at 40 st and second Ave. Immediately I've noticed that during lunch hours was not such a good idea since they are trying to serve everybody as fast as they can. I thought to myself that there is no chance they are going to agree to put exactly five pickles in the sandwich.

I have been waiting for a few minutes in line and than Adriana asked me with a smile "what do you want to have sir"?. Right after I asked for five pickles and well done fries with a big Mac sauce, she smiled and said: "$2.59 please".

I was totally shocked. I  was sure she didn't understand what I've asked, but in a few seconds I heard  her screaming back to the kitchen "cinco (five in spanish) pickles" and a few seconds later she came back with a burger with five pickles and well done fries!

I was so happy to get it on the first shot so I immediately swiped the card. When I got the receipt I understood she did everything I've asked but the receipt is not good. The line was so long so I gave up for the day.

I've returned to Adriana a day later, somehow she remembered the five pickles and the well done fries with big Mac sauce. I guess it was weird for her even if it wasn't noticeable. This time I told here, just make sure to print what I have asked on the receipt. She (luckily) didn't ask why I need the receipt but she called Reyna- her supervisor. Reyna told me it is impossible to put it on the receipt. I have insisted it is possible and I got it in the past. She didn't continue to argue any further since she saw I was so confident it is possible. After a few minutes when she almost gave up, she told me she can put additional pickles but only once. I have guided here just to push this button five times instead on once and it worked. Adriana read the receipt for me five times before she printed it out to make sure it is ok,  The well done fries and the sauce were a piece of cake for her. I got my order right second day in a row.

                       

                        During the process of getting my "special order" I've observed a few significant problems that I think represent many of the fast food restaurants and especially McDonalds. The first problem is that the personnel tend not to listen to the complete sentence. The personnel stop listen when they recognizes the word that matches an item from the menu. Whatever is said right after the menu order is unheard.

My lesson is that if you want something a bit different, you should say it first and before mentioning the items. In order to solve this problem, I think the employees need to take a workshop in customer service. There they emphasize listening and guide how to be a good listener. I was surprised to see that between the employees the communication was fair. Adriana explained the problem to Reyna and she listened and truly tried to help her in order to complete the transaction. In regards to the communication with the kitchen I think they should have at least a microphone instead of yelling back because it doesn't look professional. 

            The second problem I have observed was lack of effectiveness. Even the store manager did not know how to make changes to the order. The cashier program is something the employees learn on the run rather than ordinary. I understand that it probably costs too much to send so many employees for a course but they can at least send a regional representative that will study the program and than train the employees within his region. It might be expensive at the short run but it will increase productivity and customer satisfaction in the long run.

            In conclusion, I would recommend McDonalds to emphasize customer service and to make sure the employees knows a little bit more than what is needed. My impression from my visit was positive in general because Adriana kept smiling to me even if she did not have the tools or the knowledge to help me. The problem is that I know I was just lucky to get a patient representative and it is not the typical McDonalds service. Probably a little bit of luck is needed even when ordering a Big Mac

My Vision

I think everybody has vision and a few goals they would like to achieve. Let me share some of mine.

The first and most important vision I have is to extend my stay in the USA. The first action in order to achieve it is to finish my degree. I plan to go and apply to as many positions I can in order to get a job. If I won't be able to achieve this goal I will do so by registering to graduate school and I plan to get a graduate   degree within a year and than try my best again.

My second goal is to achieve economic stability. The method of achieving it is somewhat equivalent to the actions in my first vision. When you have education it's the first step in inquiring economic stability. In addition I'm waiting to finish my degree in order to promote an internet website that can provide me long term stability when I will be able to find investors. As I said before what that stops me than going forward with my plans is the fact I have to graduate next summer in order to promote my first vision,so right now I'm taking six classes and that promotes both visions.

The last vision I have is to build a family but this is going to happened just after at least one of my first two visions are going to succeed. I have to know where I'm going to live before I do it or at least to have some money since I already have the significant other.

To conclude, I think all my visions are tied one with each other in some way that I must focus at one first in order to make the next one so whole the three can be described also as one vision:staying in the US, building economic stability and a family.

The Fascinating Decision Making

Last week I was very surprised to discover we have the ability to control our grades.

I really think it was a great experience no matter what grade you got on the exam.

Regarding the decision making process I think that in the first 5-10 minutes the class was totally in shock. Once because the grades and once again from the idea that we all have to get a decision by ourselves. Things started to move on the right direction just afterwards. The first one who took control was Ed and it really saved the class. If no one would jump to manage the thing I don’t want to think about the result.

After the process started the first weakness I observed was that people didn’t understand what is suggested. Ed did a great job trying to give everybody communicate in respectful manner to share the idea but people didn’t understand the suggestion and that wasted our time. When looking back I think we should have spent 10 minutes in groups. After that choosing from each group a leader and the class should have count on them to do the right decision.

In regard to how I acted I think it wasn’t constant. In the beginning I really didn’t have any idea beside the curve so I think it started with avoidance. After a few minutes I had the idea to drop the lowest grade. I truly thought it would serve all the class equally since a person who failed will be able to delete this grade and move on. From the other side if someone did well, he can get a double reward. After I presented my idea and I saw people didn’t think it’s a good one because they didn’t understand, I was completely in competing to win mood.

After we agreed (at least most of us) on the “happy meal combo” and moved the discussion on the next exam I’ve changed to Accommodation since after the curve and the extra credit I thought people that failed should formulate the next exam the way they will succeed the best.

When looking back I think I should contribute more in navigating the class to move to work in groups and than try to identify the students that don’t understand the ideas and explain them the ideas slowly. In other words I would like to act more collaborative.