Customer Service – “Put Them in the Freezer”

A couple of years ago I was on a fight from Toronto to Montreal, and then connecting from Montreal to Saint John.  When I stepped off the flight from Toronto, I went to the lounge area for some food.  When I sat down, I glanced at my leg and saw I had something sticky on the right thigh of my pants.  The sticky substance seemed to be gum.  I guess a previous passenger must have conveniently disposed of his gum below the window to the right of the seat. I had presented at a conference in Toronto and I was wearing black dress pants, so the gum was very visible on my pants.  

So, I visited the agent at the lounge with two thoughts in mind. First, would they pay for dry cleaning, and second, they’ll likely want the opportunity to clean that gum so another passenger wouldn’t have my experience.

I approached the lounge host.

Customer Service Expertise

“Hi I just stepped off flight 123 and I have gum on my pants. There must be some gum by the window.  I was in seat 6A.”

“Just put them in the freezer.”

“What??”

“Put your pants in the freezer.  The gum will come right off.”

Putting my pants in the freezer was impractical as I was wearing them. I continued.

“I thought you might want to get the gum cleaned from that seat, and I’d like to know if you’ll pay for the dry cleaning.”

“Oh. I’ll try to let someone know, but for the dry cleaning, you’ll need to see someone in customer service downstairs.” When someone says they’ll ‘try,’ that’s never much of a commitment.  Do, or do not.

I went downstairs to customer service.

“Hi I just arrived on flight 123 and I have gum on my pants. I was in seat 6A and there must be some gum on the side by the window.”

“Just rub an ice cube on them.”

“What??”

“Rub an ice cube on the gum. It’ll come right off.”

These guys were experts at gum removal. Not at preventing future gum stains on pants, but strong on gum removal. 

Customer Service Culture

Later that week dry cleaning removed the sticky gum, at my personal expense. I remain puzzled at the customer service philosophy of this airline. When I identified an easily fixable problem, I received advice, but no compensation. Admittedly it wasn’t a large expense.  And there was no thought to preventing a similar incident with another customer on a next flight.

That service behavior still puzzles me.  The agents were very friendly, and offered advice. They seemed very pleased that they knew how to remove the gum. They knew how to fix my problem, and clean my pants – maybe this is a common occurrence.  However, they displayed no urgency or interest to prevent the next incident with the gum at seat 6A. I have to think it’s pretty easy to share a message for a minor cleanup at a specific seat on a specific plane.

Does company leadership behave in a similar way with employee issues? Are they outwardly friendly and supportive, but without a view to prevention of future issues?

Building Company Culture

Building culture takes time. Hire, train, articulate goals and mission, empower and evolve.

Here’s a good resource on assessing company culture https://www.achievers.com/blog/5-simple-ways-assess-company-culture/

Assigned Goals & Some Feedback on Poor Performance

Did you ever receive a performance review indicating you had done absolutely no work on an assigned goal?  I have.

Do you usually set your own goals, or are your goals assigned to you? Do you easily accept any goals assigned to you?   I’ve struggled with this in the past when I wasn’t fully bought in, but over the years I became better at accepting assigned goals.  There were occurrences when I didn’t think the goals were fair or valid, and I put little effort to completing them.  One time I received a written performance appraisal stating exactly that.

Career Beginnings

I began my career writing computer code as a Cobol programmer.  I progressed well in the IT organization of the former New Brunswick Telephone Company. As my skills and ambitions grew, I decided I wanted to work in sales and marketing, so I took a position titled Application Analyst, which was a great job, although I didn’t fully realize it at the time. What appealed to me was that I would support sales people when they discussed technical solutions with customers, and this experience would enable me to transition to a sales and marketing position at a later date.

Using my technical skills, which were current at the time, I supported some customer software and hardware applications, and I accompanied sales people to discuss the art of the possible. I also performed some internal systems support.  There was tremendous variety in the job, and I learned a great deal, including the ability to manage multiple competing priorities. This is what I most appreciate looking back at the role.  

Very Direct Feedback

One year when planning my upcoming annual performance goals with my manager Phil, I was assigned the task of transferring an internal software application from a minicomputer to some other unspecified hardware, in order to speed up the remaining applications.  I was informed emphatically that my budget for this was zero. Zero.

I didn’t bother to clarify.  I didn’t seek to understand.  I decided he wasn’t serious. This goal clearly was not fair or valid. Then six months later I received my mid-year performance review.

In that review I received good comments in all areas but one, where the written comments indicated ‘Jim has done nothing to migrate the SAM system off the VS65 minicomputer.” That was accurate.  I guess more senior managers were more serious about getting this work done than I realized. (I still have that written review.  It’s a good reminder for me.)

After receiving this feedback, I interviewed some of the more senior managers to understand this better. I learned that the SAM system had been hogging system resources, and for many years there had been desire to migrate the application to another platform.  But it never got done, it never became a priority, it remained as an unglamorous piece of work, and frustration had mounted.

Additionally, the more senior managers knew that we had some decommissioned hardware that could operate the application on its own, although some complementary hardware would be needed.  So, I worked with some technicians and we got the work done, not without some of the twists, turns and surprises that occur with most IT projects.

Conclusion

It’s great when we can select our own goals. However, often organizations assign goals to people and work teams. Well aligned goals support other organizational objectives.

As leaders, we need to communicate clearly and frequently on the reasons goals were selected and assigned, and we need to communicate frequently on progress, and observed behaviors that will lead to goal attainment.

As team members, it is best to understand how assigned goals fit with other organizational objectives.  Regardless, as team members we do need to accept responsibility for working to achieve assigned goals.

Be Careful with Jokes

 

Displaying your sense of humor in a presentation helps you to connect with your audience. Spontaneous humor shows confidence and builds rapport with audience members.

Planned Humor

I’ve seen some speech coaches advise clients to start their speech with a joke.  I’m not supportive of that approach – with one exception. I’m generally not supportive because when a nervous speaker tells a joke unrelated to her speech theme, and the joke is greeted with silence, then all confidence is damaged. That is, the audience loses confidence in the speaker, and the speaker loses confidence in herself.

Here's an illustration of a poorly delivered joke.  This short video was created for community television by an enthusiastic group of Toastmasters members in the New York City area many years ago. While the video wasn’t commissioned, approved or vetted by the organization, I think it provides a good example.

https://youtu.be/1FexV5Aj6Jk

 

Use a Joke if it is Pertinent

Here is my exception for using a joke. I am supportive of a joke that relates tightly to the theme of the speech. If a tightly aligned joke falls flat that won’t be damaging, as the joke content should seamlessly lead into the remaining content.  The audience will see why the joke content was used.

This applies not only for a joke. All material in a planned speech should be obviously pertinent to your theme and core ideas.

 

Inside Jokes

Speakers should work to appeal to the majority of the audience. By definition, inside jokes appeal only to a small minority, the insiders.

This past week of January 2nd, 2023 provided an example of an inside joke landing poorly with an audience.  On Friday, January 6^th, 2023, in the United States, Kevin McCarthy was elected, after 15 ballots, to the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives, a prestigious, powerful post which places him second in line for the office of President, after the Vice-President. 

Many people were drawn to the drama, arguments, and near fisticuffs, during the contentious 15 ballots, as McCarthy bartered with some of his party members who had withheld their support. I have to believe the drama isn’t over yet.

There are many elements of leadership behavior and public speaking to observe from these events in Washington last week. I call attention to this line from the Washington Post article below, which you may need a subscription to read. However, I have included the line here, as it relates to public speaking, and in this case the nomination speech for McCarthy that was delivered by his friend Patrick McHenry.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/07/mccarthy-gaetz-rogers-speaker/

 

“McHenry, a longtime ally, had delivered a nominating speech that fell flat except to one person, McCarthy, who got all the odd inside jokes. It was set up to be a victory party — until the GOP’s math, again, fell short.”

 

Fell flat except to one person. How would you like to deliver a speech that resonates for only one person in the audience? There are times when we have profoundly funny shared experiences with a small group of people.  If we mention that in a group setting like a speech, the small group will enjoy the memory again, and the rest of the audience will be bewildered by the reaction.

Here is a link to the nomination speech https://youtu.be/8rQ7pAI1Fx0

 

Conclusion

Displaying your sense of humor in a presentation helps you to connect with your audience. Spontaneous humor shows confidence and builds rapport with audience members.

Use a joke if it is pertinent to your speech theme and core ideas. Work to appeal to the majority of your audience by avoiding inside jokes and references.