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October 21, 2009
October 21, 2009
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My long battle to have Internet convenience in my home finally ended last week ... I think. It has been a journey through several attempts to do wireless, which initially failed to get the signal to my home office. I finally used a hard wire to hook up directly to my laptop. I will be able to do one final attempt using a signal extender into the hard wire so my wife and I can still have laptop mobility in that section of the house.
The frustration began when I realized the person who built an addition to the house did not wire it as was expected, but that's another story about quality control.
I am telling you this story because I had a great experience with the company that finally got it right; it is a good example of attitude and customer relations.
I used to joke that the "experts" at Best Buy were good only at reading the end of the box and really couldn't tell you how the equipment in the box performed. More recently there seems to have been management, which recognized the problem and has worked to correct it.
My problem was solved by their technical group called The Geek Squad. After I had tried a couple of times to get unwired signal extended using my less-than-perfect technical prowess, I talked to the Geeks. They came to the house four times, charged me for two calls, spent more time than they really should have, and in the end sent one of their smallest people down a tiny, second story, 75-foot crawl space to get the room wired. The kid reminded me of the "tunnel rats" we had in Viet Nam to explore the Viet Cong's tunnel system.
As I counted up the time spent on the project by some well-qualified technical people, I realized they spent about 25 man hours on the job. Even though the cost was minimal, the most impressive thing was that they saw a problem and worked through it until it was solved. I had four "Geek Squaders" who worked on the job and none of them ever said it was an impossible task. They tried several different ways to do it, ways that should have been viable, and finally got it done.
Do you and your people have that same vigor for your jobs? Don't tell me it's hard to be motivated in these hard times. A couple of the guys on this job had lost their IT manger positions in the recession and were working well below their qualifications. They both said they were happy to be working in something somewhat like their field.
I don't know if the attitude is there because of great local management or because of a culture throughout Best Buy, but I do know that great attitudes bubble down, not up.
If your people have become "on the clock" instead of "till the job is done," you'd better work on attitudes. "On the clock" generally means a less than impressive job is going to be done.
Oh, and remember, the attitude of a group begins at the top.
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