another coffee, please

This is an industry that attempts to redefine “service”.  If your server is up and running, then you can’t complain about “service”.  If you can contact a service desk out of hours and get an automated email reply, then you are getting “service”.  As long as your service provider is providing something you can’t or don’t want to do yourself.. this is considered “service”.  It’s a concept that, I admit, I am rather bitter about.  I had a dream when I was younger of working in retail (one day when I am an old lady I will serve you at Myer).  I love the thrill of making customers happy, going above and beyond their expectations; in IT, however, it seems as though the base level of service is good enough, and don’t do more unless the customer is paying through the eyeballs for it.  Ugh!

It gives me hope that there are technical people, developers, IT professionals – whatever you want to call them – out there who agree with me.  Who see customer service as more than restarting services when they’re told a website is inaccessible; they will, of their own accord, conduct analysis of the problem, suggest upgrades, fixes, modifications that will improve the end product.  I love workplace environments where you don’t mind working overtime because you know that the customer satisfaction is worth it – either for the warm and fuzzies or for the extra income that will come in or maybe just knowing that they’re going to tell their own customers about you.

A company that really struck me as understanding “customer service” is Runic, developers of a game called Torchlight.  A single user posted on their forums asking if a feature was available, and with no further ado the developers added it.  The customer didn’t have to raise a request via a customer service channel, then wait for it to be acknowledged as an issue (probably only after a percentage of their user base raised the same issue), and then wait for a fix or change to be pushed out with other system upgrades.  It may have only been a minor change, but it was done without fuss, and without cumbersome processes.

I think that’s what makes “service” so difficult.  It may be that Runic is small enough that its developers can make changes to code without having to go through a huge change control process, but then again: why should any IT company have to go through such processes? Why make the customer suffer for what may be a simple change? I dislike workplace policies that require every little change to go through iterations of reviews until either the goalposts move or grow or just fall over and everybody forgets why it’s happening in the first place.

I would rather fix, install, or make the customer’s life easier than to have to wait for their server to fall over while I’m waiting for internal approval of change requests.  Customer service creates satisfaction.  Satisfaction speaks for itself: it’s advertising to everybody what kind of service they’ll get if they come to you.  And that is good for business.  Service levels should imply satisfaction with the end results, not just a way of protecting yourself if an issue is found.  It’s good to know there are companies like Runic who are really putting service back into IT.

(This is a rant post, and all my rant posts are probably going to be lengthy and probably whingey too.  I don’t expect you to read them, and on the same note I don’t expect you to feel sorry for me.  I rant because this is my blog and I can write whatever I damn well want to.)

It’s nothing new to be sick of work, or the place you work, or the people you work with.  To be honest, I like my job.  I like the people I work with.  I like the atmosphere of this company and the work that I do, as long as it keeps me busy.  I loved this job when I started because every day I came to work I learnt something new.  I did something technical, I was involved at the system level, and there were things I didn’t fully understand.

I’m not going to say that ‘now, I know everything’ – far from it! I’m just worried that the way the company is heading is dithering on politics, on contracts, and on potential sales.  Things aren’t being seen through from start to finish with customers, there is a shortage (I won’t say “complete lack”, although sometimes it feels like it) of communication from the management through to ops, and, well, I know I’m not the only person here looking for a new job.

What would I like to see to make my workday more bearable? Hmm.  It’s an interesting question, because on one hand I could be totally selfish and say “Well an extra 30k would be nice” or I could be unrealistic and say “I’d like to have the whole organisation communicate like a well oiled gear”.  Or I can be realistic and say that the following things will slow down my search for greener pastures:

* Good communication.  We are a small-to-medium sized company (somewhere in the vicinity of 30 employees) with skills ranging from the technologically illiterate to those with 30 years+ of technical, practical knowledge.  The variety is refreshing and for a company of our size, good for us: with people around who are less technically literate, we in operations have to think about how we word things.  An example occurred today when one of the BDMs required clarification as to whether “dual hba card” meant two cards, two sets of HBAs, or one card with two ports.

On that note, though, communication has to go both ways.  I like to know what the company’s goals are from a board’s perspective, or from the sales perspective.  I want to hear about where we’re struggling such that I don’t pass on the wrong information to customers.  Since everybody in the company (pretty much) has interaction with the customers, it’s imperative we’re all on the same level.  I don’t feel like this is occurring; in fact, I feel as though the management is purposely telling us something different to what’s occurring over there.  And when we pass on this information to customers it causes all sorts of confusion, which leads to negative publicity for the company.

My solution? Even something as impersonal and tacky as a company newsletter for internal distribution is better than what we have now.  There are, on occasion, emails sent around briefly telling us what we already know about expanding and attaining new customers, but there really should be a central source of gossip rather than via the Exchange grapevine.  If not, then keep everybody updated with the latest happenings of the business and the outcomes of important internal meetings.  There are team leader discussions, but where’s the consolidated team email?

* Better relationships with customers.  Every company has the big fish, the small fish, and the three eyed fish as customers.  It’s a given that some will be easier to deal with than others.  I think it’s important that in a small company, where one of our biggest assets is being easily accessible, that we talk to the customers.  Unfortunately it recently seems as though operations staff is being told to “stay away” – don’t talk to the customer unless you have to; get everything in writing before you commit; push it back to the account manager.  I know that as we grow it’s wise to let the customers know that they won’t always be dealing with the same technical staff; on the other hand, we are small enough that alienating the customer makes them wonder why they’re with us when they can get the same kind of cold treatment from a larger and more established company.

My solution? Ensure that the customer is introduced to the technical staff.  Even a brief greeting and a chat is enough to build a technically founded relationship with a customer who operations staff don’t usually get to see face to face.  (Most of our incident handling is done over the phone/email).  Having the opportunity to meet your customers, and for them to meet us, removes that impersonal layer and promotes open channels of communication.

* Friendlier working environment.  I hate my desk at the moment.  This is seven eighths my fault.  I don’t keep it tidy, and I have a very strange sense of humour (such as the seven legged lamb picture that I pinned to my wall).  We, like most office workers, spend eight hours or more of our day living in a bland cell.  It seriously kills the imagination and I’m won’t be surprised if one day someone comes around and asks me for a TPS report and a stapler.  Why I think that this environment is bad: it suffocates me.  I know there aren’t going to be many other offices out there which are better, but I know that they do exist.  As a techie I can get more out of a mentally stimulating environment than one with four walls and a door.  Whether it’s technical equipment to play with (sorry, “work on”), a chillout area which gives us some place to relax, or improving the general environment and atmosphere, I would really like to see more care given to the operations habitat.

Solution: get a fuusball table.  We’ve tried the magnetic dart board (bad idea) and whiteboards (which actually get used for work).  I would like to see more pictures up and around the walls to make them less bare.  Force people to use their cells – I mean, cubicles – as a place that is both comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.  It will make the whole office look better, and improve your mental health when you’re at work.  Feasible? Probably not.  But I can dream.