And the winner of the 2016 AFL Premiership is...

I have a theory.

Whether it's in business, career, sport or life in general, teams and individuals that achieve their dreams have almost always tasted heartbreaking defeat first. 

Defeat toughens people who got so close only to miss out. The experience burns inside and if that burn can be harnessed, is often the catalyst for not letting it happen again the next time.

Think about an experience in your life where you fell short of the mark. Did the disappointment and pain stay with you? Do you think it drove you to success the next chance you got?

Let's turn this to sport where this week debate has raged as to who will win the AFL Grand Final. Will it be the fairy tale finish for the Bulldogs? Or will it be a calculated, well executed finish to the season by the Swans?

The Bulldogs have had an amazing journey and they've surprised everyone to will themselves into the last game of the year. But have they tasted the bitterness and heartbreak of losing when they got so close to the prize?

Only two years ago the Swans were beaten by Hawthorn and the sting of that loss would still be there. For that reason, the Swans will want to harness that burn and my tip is that they will be AFL premiers for 2016. 

A tick for Telstra!

Whilst many organisations talk about their commitment to improving customer engagement, most don't do what they say they are going to do. Over the past year Telstra have done a lot of talking about the changes they have made to their customer engagement programs so it was great when a real situation came around to put all of that talk to the test.

If you have moved house recently, you will have come across one of Telstra's new initiatives. They have introduced as part of their Dedicated Moves Team the role of a Customer Engagement Manager (CEM). This service helps customers manage the move of their current technology services such as broadband, phone and other data services from their old home to their new home.

The CEM sits between sales and installation. They are brought in at the end of the sales process and become the liaison person until the completion of the work.

Whilst this was the first time that I had heard of this service from Telstra, this is not a new initiative in the service industry. For the many companies that are focused on a better customer experience and improving customer satisfaction, they have had a Customer Engagement Manager, also referred to as Customer Success Manager, in their teams for some time.

The person in this role does not sell, deliver or install. They are a facilitator who is the point of contact for questions, updates or complaints.  They can investigate any queries or simply provide a regular status update. Their main focus is to keep customers informed and ensure that everything is on track to meet expectations.

I recently moved homes and I experienced first hand Telstra's model. They co-ordinated the relocation of my cable broadband service to my new address keeping it under the existing contract.  

Whilst overall I would say that the service worked quite well, there is still room for improvement. 

In my case, I had a call from a Telstra technician alerting me to an issue about 2 weeks before the booked move date. It wasn't a big problem that was easily resolved and after that call I contacted the CEM who took the required action.

What I found surprising was that he didn't know anything about the issue until I told him. I felt that I was keeping him informed rather than the other way. If the CEM had called me to let me know there had been a problem but they had a plan to resolve, it would have been much more impressive.

A successful engagement model needs the CEM to be proactive in checking the status of their assigned customers' jobs so they are aware first of any potential delays, changes or problems.

In any business, you always want your management to be finding out about problems before they get to the customer. You want to be telling the customer what has happened and what you're already doing about it. Or in turn, not tell the customer at all and just fix it! 

The need to have a dedicated role for customer engagement is growing fast, especially in the technology sector, given the nature and size of IT projects. It is a positive initiative and should be considered by all types of businesses. The need is not dependent on the size of the organisation, but based more so on what services the business offers and/or how complex delivering those services may be.

Happy to say well done Telstra!

When sorry seems to be the hardest word..

If you picked up the newspaper today, you will have read of the reported data breach by Woolworths.

Here is a snapshot of the story:

Fairfax Media has obtained a copy of the email which contained an excel spreadsheet with the names and email address of thousands of customers and a downloadable link to 7,941 vouchers, worth a total of $1,308,505. It is understood the spreadsheet was emailed to more than 1000 people, all of whom could access the gift card codes and immediately begin shopping." – The Sunday Age, 31 May 2015.

I am going to focus just for a moment on the incident, but more importantly I want to look closer at the response and highlight a lesson in damage control.

We know a mistake has been made and it’s quite possible that your or my personal details have been leaked to the world. Let's be honest, companies employ people and sometimes these people make mistakes. Ultimately the company has to take responsibility and they wear the blame.

In this case, everyone knows that in today's world, there is always a risk when you submit your details, that there is every chance that one day that data may mistakenly end up in the hands of a 3rd party.

One of the customer's interviewed was reported as saying "hopefully my email address doesn't end up somewhere where it permanently gets lots of spam."

I don't know about you but I get spam emails every hour and I have no idea where they come from so there's no way that customer will ever know.  

What bothers me with all of this is the message coming out from Woolworths. Where is the apology?

It is one thing to make a promise to investigate how the incident happened, but start with showing some respect to your customers. The first communication needs to be a straight out apology and that's precisely what is missing. 

As reported by Fairfax Media, here is what Woolworths did write in their formal statement; "Woolworths takes the concerns of its customers and data security seriously," the statement read. "We experienced a technical fault with an e-voucher offered to customers this week. We are working to resolve the issue and are assisting customers."

Why don't we see the words "We're very sorry" anywhere in that press release?

Companies in these situations need to be proactive and show leadership. However all too often they fail to take decisive action. Whilst Woolworths investigate further, an apology for the fact that the incident occurred would have been so much better than what they said. 

And by the way, I don’t know if they really are assisting customers. As one customer said "I tried to call Woolworths but no one picked up the phone." A quick glance at their website tonight and there is still no mention of the incident, not even under their 'Latest News' section.  

If you want your customers to respect your organisation then don't roll out the party line like a politician who can't admit fault or accept responsibility whilst hosing down the seriousness of a blunder. This was a data leak! Think how much worse it would have been if the email had included credit card information!!

If I were advising Woolworths, the statement would have read more like this;

We are investigating the facts and as yet we are not in a position to make a comment. To all of our customers who have been impacted by this situation, we are extremely sorry. We will provide answers as soon as we have more information available".

Open and honest communication wins respect with customers. Anything else leaves people questioning their loyalty to the brand and to the organisation and that is not clever in business.

To the PR department at Woolworths, step up and take the lead. Issue a statement that says it as it is. 

This week I hope to read a follow up press release with a clear message that says yes we did it, it was a genuine mistake, we are extremely sorry and here is what we are going to do to make it up to you. Most importantly thank you for your loyalty.

Let's watch this space.