Thegiconsultant’s Weblog
Blog of The GI Consultant – serving the Financial Services IndustryArchive for November, 2008
Service & Pavements
Do you remember the olden days when the council used to grit pavements? Yes, it was a long time ago! Today I walked to the papershop for my FT Weekend with the dog and nearly came a severe cropper on the ice where the sun had refused to shine on the path. Given that the government is trying to get us out of our cars and on to these treacherous paths you would have thought….. also, as it is much rarer to be so frosty we have less experience to deal with it and it wouldn’t have to be done very often, we also have lots of minor offenders holed up in prison…. is this the germ of an idea? You would think that when events like bed races are cancelled due to health & safety concerns (very far fetched and hard to imagine ones) that this extremely obvious peril would be considered.
How did the council afford to do it before? Is there a history lesson here? Now that they can work smart, not answer the phone, not bother to employ anyone who can string a coherant letter together, why can’t they afford to grit paths? Around here every household is paying over £1,000 in council tax, yes, we have lights, we have gritted bus routes (some places we also have DIY grit in case of problems), we get our bins emptied, if we get them out, we are on CCTV although the retrieval process if you want to see who nicked your mobile phone seems a bit hit and miss, so how does the maths work? How much are the Christmas lights costing? How much is the council raking in from planning applications and building regulations? So many questions!
This brings me to service. Before automated answering services and on-line practises abounded, the council and everyone else had to speak to people to get things done. Now, these people that you can speak to are a rare and wonderful thing. Insurance brokers are a great case in point. Especially smaller ones. These people answer the phone, will give you advice, talk to you about your concerns and take instructions from you over the phone, by e mail or in writing.
Maybe Insurance Brokers should be in charge of gritting.
Big not necessarily beautiful!
When it comes to service, time and time again, big companies fail abysmally. Yes I speak from my experience as well as others. For example, British Gas, another true story! My house was DISCONNECTED due to a fire. The gas was cut off at the mains while things were repaired. After several months I received an estimated gas bill in the region of £200. I rang, I explained, no gas supply. The operator told me that it was an estimate, I asked him to estimate the gas usage of a house ith NO GAS. He still didn’t ‘get it’. This took ages to sort out, and yet, so simple. Meanwhile, I phoned esure’s claims line the other day. I am not with them, the chap who hit my son’s van was though. The ultimate selection though was the same as if I was their customer claiming. After 35 minutes I gave up the idea of talking with them and I wrote! No e mail, no direct dial, no way of communicating quickly. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE SHOULD USE BROKERS!!!! Both of these things illustrate that the small/medium sized firm, staffed by competent people beat the spots off the big impersonal automated PLC any day. Please comment with your stories of this kind of service, I am sick of big being best philosphy. There is room in this country for lots of managable businesses giving good service for a fair price. Agh!
