Customer Service or Customer Interference?

How is your Customer Service?

Over the years people have many causes for complaint, and thanks, for customer service.  Generally I find myself feeling sorry for the front line staff on the telephone taking the brunt of peoples frustrations with little thanks.  Of course a lot of that might be down to the 100's of questions (I may be exaggerating) you have to answer on your touch tone phone before actually speaking to someone!

In recent dealings with a reputable organisation the staff I speak to are friendly and helpful; but completely at the mercy of the industry or company they work within.  They try to help but the system set up does not allow them the freedom to help unless the computer lets them, for example.....

1. An on line bank call me, on my own phone but can't tell me anything because I fail the second security question.  Does anyone know sort codes and credit limits off the top of their heads whilst doing the weekly shop?  The call was only to check some unusual activity on the account (and no not that i was spending on it!).  I know the transactions and amounts but they wouldn't accept this as proof it was me.......result card blocked, so much for the shop I was half way through.  Sorry to the big supermarket with an orange colouration for the full but abandoned shopping trolley!
2. A large professional body who charge for every step of progression.  However I discover a route open to me which was never mentioned, so I progress along the route then complain about the fees retrospectively.  After getting agreement that a refund was due which took a month, I spent the next month chasing the refund. Turn the tables on that one, if my fees were late I'd be facing late fees, interest, expulsion?  You might want to read an earlier blog on that subject before I divert off on a tangent.

Our Customer Service.......

First rate but I suspect you will all think I am somewhat biased in this area.  It might be the size of the organisation but at R L Surveys we pride ourselves on a fast efficient personal service.  All calls returned within three hours, all quotes responded to within 24 hours (if not quoted), and a general job turn around of 1-2 weeks (unless there is a sudden up turn in the economic climate as we are currently seeing).  This service is something we feel all companies should aspire to, and as a result we have won jobs without being the lowest tenderer.

Courtesy costs nothing, but happy clients are priceless (thank you MasterCard an excellent tag line!)

No doubt there are areas we could improve, and part of the ISO9001:2008 accreditation involves looking at these processes and highlighting areas for improvement.  The problem now is that these processes have been set up by the staff assessing them, so are obviously practically perfect in every way!  Change and improvements occur most rapidly when there are reasons to change.  Whilst I am all for the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' philosophy, within business if it's not being fixed your competitors are moving ahead of you.

As usual you can follow our progress through Facebook & Twitter, or with a growing number of people on Linkedin.  But as always best place to find us is at www.rlsurveys.co.uk

Land Surveyor Toys - a Must Have

Here we are.

2014.

Its the first Monday back at work after the Christmas and New Year festivities.  Not that we really had a break.  That's one of the disadvantages of running your own business - you never really stop.

There are still phone calls to take, although admittedly far less, emails to reply to and bills to pay.

Our children are now back at school, Mike is working in London on a Monitoring project and I am left to bring you the first intellectual business blog of the year.

So.

Land Surveyors - you have your own toy!!!

C'mon - I bet there isn't one of you who doesn't want this right now!!

What I LOVE about this Playmobil set is that according to the description on Amazon:

Playmobil - Surveyor with equipment

The set consists of a Surveyor with all the equipment that he needs

Includes:

Figure

Tachometer

3 Cones

Did you read that?  ALL the equipment he needs!!  I don't know why we have an office full of big red boxes with Laser Scanners, GPS equipment, poles and tripods, stakes and nails etc etc.

All you need for this profession is 1 surveyor, a tachometer and 3 - yes 3 - cones!  Brilliant.

So then I got to looking on good old Google for other Surveyor toys - of which are there are not many!

How about this Lego creation?

Picture from http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/354290

Or a GI-Joe Surveyor?

Now what I want to see is Barbie Surveyor!  C'mon - one for the girls!

Happy New Year Everyone.  I hope 2014 is a good one.

Beccy

To Employ or not to Employ: Part II

Should it really have been this complicated?

Unemployment in the UK is hovering around the 2 million mark yet we found it almost impossible to find a suitable person to fill the role of Senior Surveyor in our Ashford office.

In January 2013 we had advertised the position twice with varying levels of success but finally we found the right person for the job.

Why did it take so long?

In February we received a handful of applications predominantly from UK based Surveyors currently gainfully employed but looking for something more as the industries employment situation has stagnated a little over recent years.  Then in March we were deluged with applications from as far afield as Burma, all seemingly well trained and experienced in their field.  On both occasions we selected our favoured 3 or 4 candidates and found from our selection we had the following combinations:-

• Experience on site, but lacking any formal processing experience.
• Currently living well beyond commuting distance from the office, and not looking to move.
• Perfect for the job, but not currently resident in the UK.
• No experience or qualifications.

All made excellent first impressions at interview but concerns were raised over the solvency of the business being relatively new, and then the expectations of the potential candidates were a little excessive at times given the current market & their knowledge/experience.  

If I were being brutally honest I can see their point of view given the current employment situation it will always be a risk moving jobs & everyone wants as much as they can get, but it still left us high and dry originally, a situation which has now been rectified.  However during the process, not wishing to boast but for the first time ever I was stood up, standing like a lemon waiting for the candidate to show up - no response to e-mail or mobile.  What happened I'll never know but standing there I was beginning to think Lord Sugar has the right idea, just need to think up some suitable challenges which have a Surveying tilt - suggestions on a postcard please......

What are the solutions?

Investment in the future - if only the money and time were available for this.  But right now there are no quick fixes but long term our second employee will be wet behind the ears and straight from school or university to train up but right at the time we needed someone to hit the ground running and lighten the load.  However with an eye on the future we were joined for a week in the summer by an undergraduate looking to gain a little experience in the industry......watch this space for our next recruiting challenge!



To follow the progress of our staff, and business as a whole you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn, as well as through our website - www.rlsurveys.co.uk


Up Date: At the time of writing this all of the above was true.  However at the time of publishing we are back at square one, and venturing into the employment market for a second time!!!  Ideally we are looking for a cloning machine, but I suspect someone with some experience and a little common sense would be a good start.