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December 21, 2007
Sprint Debacle: Round 2
Posted by Shawn Stewart | Filed under: Experience
OK, so I wrote a quick entry a few weeks ago about my experience at a Sprint store. Someone commented that they saw a very similar thing happen at an AT&T store. That got me thinking about why things like this happen to businesses in the first place. There are of course lots of potential reasons, but I think there are two primary ones and they have to do with human behavior:
1) It's always hard to manage people especially when you're as big as Sprint or AT&T. It can be done, but it takes an internal culture that understands itself and doesn’t seek to create robots, but fans. For a great perspective on this check out Alex Frankel’s article about frontline employees from November’s Fast Company.
2) We as people are quick to cover our own backside (if you know what I mean). The problem is when an employee "passes the buck" by suggesting the company's policies have tied their hands or that it was someone else’s fault--it's always a direct reflection on the company. If you’re in a Sprint store talking to a Sprint employee and they say that another Sprint employee shouldn’t have told you that, it doesn’t matter to you. Sprint told you, not Jimmy the rogue employee.
Consumers don't distinguish from the individual representing the organization and the organization itself. Remember, organizations are like people, they have a personality. Sometimes, unfortunately, it’s a split personality.
But it doesn’t have to be.
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