Thursday 9 April 2009

The bigger truth is found in small thingsPt 1

Have you ever made a judgment about a major organistion based on a single interaction ? Thought so, and I bet it wasn't positive.

The truth is we make meta judgments based on micro experiences.

How do I judge an entire hotel chain?

On what my experience was the last time I registered, when the girl on the desk asked me if I'd ever stayed with the chain before when I'd only checked out 36 hours earlier.

You ring the service desk, get an off hand message and conclude IT don't care about the business.

Get the small things right in IT and there is a chance you will get the big things right.

Get the small things wrong and you might as well go home.


2 comments:

  1. I can only agree 100% about your observations that humans makes generalizations about many things. Otherwise, it would be completely impossible to maneuver in a complex world (and in a world that also used to be very dangerous to humans).

    But don't you think that humans have a 'negativity bias' paying way more attention to things going wrong, rather than things going well?

    How many rights does it take to negate one wrong?

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  2. Good point. A wrong can be turned into a right if a complaint is really well handled, though obviously it is better to avoid the complaint in the first place.

    We need very open channels for people to complain, and when we respond we need to recognise that many complaints have two components. The complaints that worry me are those that cease to be about the initial issue and become about how that issue was dealt with.

    "The kettle in the room was broken, and when I reported it to reception they said there was a coin-op vending machine I could use in the foyer"

    A faulty kettle is annoying, but disregarding my complaint makes it personal and emotional, and demands an emotional response to deal with it.

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