You don’t understand, I’m new here
I took an old laptop in to a shop to have it repaired before Christmas. They lost it in January but promised to look for it. I went in today, for the 10th visit, to find out the status of my laptop. The manager was not familiar with my problem. I expressed my dissatisfaction with the overall situation. The manager replied to me, "You shouldn’t be mad at me. I just started working here. I am not familiar with the situation." I told him I didn’t care whose fault it was. I didn’t care that he was new, my concern was that I brought my laptop into his establishment, and didn’t want to feel like it was my fault that it was missing.
He continued to explain to me that it wasn’t his fault. I acquiesced and asked him to try to find my laptop. He went into the system and started asking me questions about the make, model, and serial number of my computer. I asked him to review the records on his system. Surprisingly, I don’t have the serial number of my old laptop memorized. It was not in the current record in his system. So, I asked him to find a prior service record for my laptop. He found a prior record and got the answers to his questions.
He wasn’t sure how to proceed in looking for my laptop. I asked him a series of questions about how a laptop typically would be processed and we identified three points it could be missing. We identified how he could verify whether my laptop was in those locations. It took about 30 minutes for him to agree to take responsibility to look for my missing computer.
I believe this is a talent management and process problem. From a talent management aspect, the basics of the business were so obvious to everyone else that no one explained the laptop process to the manager when he was on-boarded. Also, this is a new manager. The business doesn’t have a clear understanding of the necessary skills and competencies for a manager in this store. He may be technically competent but he lacks some customer service competencies.
From a process aspect, there is no process to ensure accurate information is stored when orders are entered. There is no process to track customer complaints. There is no process to ensure inventory moves reliably through the system. This shop is very affordable, and they have historically done quality repair work on my computers.
There are two more local PC shops and two computer repair chains nearby my house. By failing to hire talent and manage their processes with the view of the customer in mind, this company has lost a customer. It isn’t enough that they are cheaper and technically competent. What capabilities within your company are most visible to the customer? Are you keeping in mind the customer impact of the talent and process decisions you are making?