Insulting Our Intelligence

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

Starting with a story from Alain Hunkins book, “Cracking the Leadership Code,” I encourage you to stop insulting our intelligence with stupid conduct.

TRANSCRIPT:

I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, a coach who helps people professionally in a number of different ways.

I started reading an excellent book called “Cracking the Leadership Code, by Alain Hunkins.

He starts with a wonderful story about how in 2007, a large well-known organization identified a problem with keeping pace with their customers’ expectations. They developed an 87-page strategic transformation plan, and the conclusion was that their performance didn’t meet customer expectations.

And paraphrasing here. Basically, people were asked to wait on a line longer than best-in-class service providers did. So to help their customers, they spent some time evaluating it. And they came out

with a recommendation.

So what they did in all their facilities, what they did at the US Postal Service, was remove the clocks in every post office, in theory, because that way, you wouldn’t know how long you were waiting (as though you

didn’t have a watch, as though you didn’t have a phone. As though they didn’t have a way of just knowing you were waiting a ridiculously long period of time.

Have you ever been on a call and been put on hold to wait for customer service to be connected with you? And they say that wonderful line, “your call is

very important to us.” Another wonderful lie that we’re told.

Firms lie to consumers. Why? Your behavior tells customers what you really think of your relationship with them. Stop trying to insult their intelligence. Work diligently to be better at what you’re doing.

Saving costs with automated systems was a great idea when you had a lot of call center people behind you. At this point, all of you…