Conference 7.286::digital

Few questions:


1.	How many know this?

2.	How many, of those who know this, also belive this?

3.	How many of those who belive this, also put it into practice?

How do you want Digital to increase productivity, and improve its image,
when there are people, who don't answer a phone call, because it is lunch time?

Instead of hanging your nice picture on some walls in EHQ, why don't we try
to hang it somewere in the minds of those (many many) who need it?

Norbert

	I think a great many people in DEC hold this idea of customers.
	I know that the engineering groups I have worked for do as well.
	Many engineering groups keep in close contact with the related
	DECUS SIGs. They also look forward to help for and from their
	field test sites. As a Software Specialist years ago I got my
	greatest satisfaction helping customers with problems.

	Alas, I have to agree that, this opinion is not shared by everyone.
	I remember a salesman who got at least one call a day from a 
	customer. For over two weeks he did not return the customers call.
	Why you ask? "They just want to buy a printer and I don't have time
	for it." was his answer. Can you believe it? He did not have time
	to take an order! I heard him say that with my own ears or I would 
	not have believed it.

	It only takes a few like that but we, like all companies, have too
	many. We have to educate people. Japanese companies have training
	for a few weeks to a few months just to teach new hires how the
	company thinks. Disney World sends their new hires to a special
	class for several days just to teach them that the customer (they
	call them guests) is the most important part of their business.
	Perhaps we should do the same?

Alfred

Although I have never worked directly with real customers while at DEC,
but did so before when I worked for DEC OEMs.    Real customers are
those who pay DEC real money, not the imaginary kind.    

I found real customers to be easier to deal with than internal customers,
as, since they have a limited supply of real money and our services cost
them a lot, they have reasonable expectations about what their money
can buy.    If they do not have reasonable expectations, then it is 
easier to get them to adjust them once you have gained their confidence
in your abilities.

The real customer is King.

I've even heard the ideals expressed in .0 in a speech by KO.  

I know the people I work with hold those ideals and by doing so, they
pass them on to the people around them.  In particular, I call
just about every customer that sends me an SPR.  Usually I have tried
to work out the problem first, so I can intelligently talk to them
about what was going wrong.   By talking to them, I ask enough questions
to give them an acceptable work-around.  Most of the good engineers
around me do the same. 

If enough people practice these ideals, those that don't will realize that
they are in the wrong company.

	KC

the idea to call back at once the customer is used in the TSC here in Paris,
just to tell him that his call has been registered, so that the customer is
happy to know someone is doing something on his problem, even if we just say
hello.

From an ex-customer, I **NEVER** received call-backs on the SPRs I 
submitted.  I would sincerely have enjoyed getting such a call-back 
since I had typically put a great deal of time into preparing a GOOD(?) 
SPR.  Hence, I must conclude that the majority of people DON't follow 
such an excellent guideline.

Hummmmm...

well... When I was working in the TSC, we received the charter to read ALL
SPR's, look for an answer, then retype them in English and send them to COG(?)
for processing if no solution was found. The secretary had to send a letter
to the customer to tell him what we are doing with his SPR. When we get the
answer, six or nine months later (no flames here, please. Thank you), we
send the answer with a letter.

I believe this is still valid.

re: .6, .7

When I was a customer I never received answers, much less phone calls, to
almost half of the SPRs I submitted.

	- Jerry

It is unfortunate that our Sales force is perceived as not being
tolerant of our customers.  It is true there are tremendous horror
stories of salespeople not selling the customer what they need, of
phone calls that are ignored, of customers being convinced that they
need the particular piece of equipment that happens to be the only
piece of equipment that the salesperson is familiar with, etc.

In talking to the salespeople in the field, though, you do get a 
different perspective.  Many of these people are given mixed messages
from headquarters.  I went to the field once to teach them about
"solution sell" and got pretty 'beat-up' for it.  It seems that whil
I was told the sales people were going to be "solution-selling", no
one told that to the salespeople.  The salespeople were told to make
90 day sales and to sell PRO's because that's what we got in inventory.
Solution sell takes time and PRO's are not the only piece of equipment
that solve our customers' problems.

I think it's ok to say that the salesforce doesn't give a hoot about
DEC's customers, but I think that all comments like that should be
accompanied by the statement that senior management has to set policy
that will allow the salesforce the incentive to GIVE A HOOT.

DI

"give a hoot" ?

	"Give a hoot" is a slang idiom for "have some concern".

=Mark_E=

whether you deal directly with a customer who buys our equipment or
if your client base is the employee ain the next cubicle, the priniciple
is the same.  if it were not for your customers, you would not have a
position.   sometimes it seems that they only call because they have a 
'problem', or to bother you with something 'trivial;.....but physicians
probably feel the same.  

and, while i don't normally deal with DEC customers, DEC employees expect
me to provide a service and they ARE MY CUSTOMERS.  the day i decide not 
to deal with them is the day i decide to leave a service organization, and
that probably means i would be leaving DEC.   not very likely !

since i am in for the long haul, i just have to remember (and sometimes be reminded) that they are why i am here.  

re: .5,.6--When I was answering EDT SPRs I almost never called the customer,
but that was because I didn't have the time: we averaged one SPR a day, for
three years!  Also, many of the SPRs required complex answers, which are
much better conveyed in written form.

One thing I did do was answer SPRs quickly.  In the three years I worked
on EDT our average turn-around time was less than a week, and no SPR ever
took more than a couple of weeks.  When I left the project the backlog was
zero.  (It was also zero when I started: that was one of the conditions I
made for becoming project leader.)

Thus I think it is possible to do the right thing by the customer without
necessarily responding to each SPR with a telephone call.
    John Sauter

    I know I have come in on this topic late, but I expect someone will
    understand my view. (By the way, I've only just discovered this
    Digital Note).
    
    One of our "Resource Managers" has just taken up the task of improving
    Customer Satisfaction. Great, he however has never been on the
    receiving end of a REAL customers opinion. As far as I can find
    out, very few of our middle management people have. Customers to
    them are as defined on the wall posters that are liberally scattered
    around the place. 
    I feel to understand how to improve customer satisfaction, one must
    first understand the customer and experience him/her FIRST HAND,
    not by attending DEC internal courses run by a manager who last
    saw a customer 6 years ago. (It does happen here in the UK, it happened
    to me 4 years ago during my induction period and the guy has only
    just moved on). I really could not believe the perception some people
    have of customers in DEC. Forget the ordinary understanding customer
    who believes that anything can go wrong, it's the totally ignorant,
    helpless and gullible guy that surprises me, didn't anybody guide
    him?, or did we work on that good old maxim, "If he's dumb enough
    to buy it why should we be the ones to sting him", or the real pig...
    the one who HAS to find something wrong with everything and normally
    swears at the DEC representative (whoever he happens to be, Sales
    F.S., SWS, Support etc.).
    
    I am afraid that before we (DEC) take up the task of satisfying
    customers (if that is 100% possible) we must first elect to give
    those who have taken on the task; exposure, training and finally
    experience of dealing with them first hand, and then maybe.....just
    maybe, they could be considered qualified to cope with the task they
    have agreed to undertake. We must not fool ourselves into thinking
    that customers are ALL the same as us in DEC. Outside industries
    whether commercial, military, office orientated, engineering
    orientated, scientific etc, all have different pressures that are
    transparent to us and it is only a very naive person who believes
    that the rest of the world have the "laid back", almost casual
    attitide that we in DEC are lucky enough to experience in most of
    our working day. It works for us, let's not assume everyone can
    "identify" with it.
    
    
    Brian.   (ex Sevice Management-3years before DEC, Field Service
              DEC, CSSE, CSS Custom Project Engineer).

    Silly Brian, don't you know the way to have satisfied customers
    is to sit in the district/regional/country office around a conference
    table in internal meetings and talk about it?
    
    							Pat

    IN THE MANUFACTURING QUALITY ARCHITECTUTE TO BE IMPLEMENTED WORLDWIDE
    AND WHICH WILL BE ANNOUNCED THIS SUMMER,WE DEFINED CUSTOMER AS THE
    RECEIVER OF PRODUCTS,PROCESSES AND SERVICES AND IS BOTH INTERNAL
    AND EXTERNAL.
    ALSO THE GOAL IS TO ALWAYS MEET CHANGING CUSTOMER NEEDS AND
    EXPECTATIONS.
    TODAY THERE IS IN DEC A DOUBLE STANDARD ON HOW WE TREAT BOTH EXTERNAL
    CUSTOMERS AND EXTERNAL SUPPLIERS VS THYE INTERNAL CUSTOMERS AND
    SUPPLIERS(AMONG OURSELVES).

    This is an interesting and illuminating exchange--seemingly timeless.
    
    After a 20 year career providing internal MIS services for a non-DP
    company, I came to DEC especially to be able to work with "real"
    customers.  As a Product Manager, I now do that regularly.  But,
    of course, the bulk of DEC's, probably any manufacturer's, people
    serve internal customers.
    
    I submit the view that the major difference is that an internal
    customer is supplied by a monopoly market, where an external one
    is not.  But that's theoretical.  My practical experience is that
    if one deals with external customers the major considerations tend
    to be financial (Sales, revenue, ...) and you have to (artifically)
    impose metrics like Customer Sat.  
    
    Conversely, when your customer is internal, the major issues are
    power--politics, who controls the budget, etc.  Offending or neglecting
    the wrong person can sink an otherwise promising career. [This appears
    a little less true at DEC, because of the weaker heirarchy.]  Its
    difficult to impossible to construct a level playing field that brings
    in the external market, competitively. 
    
    On the whole, I think it is more stressful to deal with external
    customers.  Mostly because there is nowhere to hide.  And by virtue
    of the fact that you are working with 'real' customers you find
    you have expanded access and exposure within the company.  That
    carries its own risk.
    
    One can get carried away with such subtlety.  The best advice is
    that everyone has a Customer, and that Customer is King.

    I work at the CSC in Atlanta; some folks in DEC do not hold us
    in very high regard, but try sitting at the end of an 800# and
    getting calls from all those customers who can't reach their
    sales reps........and we are supposed to be delivering technical
    telephone support.  Not really bashing sales reps here.....some
    customers are very determined when they want an answer YESTERDAY!
    
    At a recent meeting our top level management passed out placards
    for our cubes that read:
    
    
    			RULE 1:
    
    		THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!!!
    
    
    			RULE 2:
    
    		WHEN THE CUSTOMER IS WRONG, REFER TO RULE #1 !!!
    
    
    
    Karen
    

    I was at the CSC in Colorado Springs in late November and do not
    think you guys are not appreciated.  I think you do a great job
    in keeping the customer happy and making 24/7 a reality.  You have
    a CSC fan here in CYO.  So, Karen, you are not totally unappreciated
    by us in the field........

    And, I think the Lights Out Data Center is a place every employee
    of ours needs to see.  They will believe then that "Digital does
    have it now".