Keynote article ...
Not just a pretty face to answer the phone.
Many years ago when I was the UK's technical expert on range of computer graphics products, one of my sales and marketing colleagues had me return a call to a gentleman who was "Technical Director" of a small but high tech company in Cambridge.
Alas, my Technical Director wasn't available, but the lady who answered the phone asked me if she could help and - hey - why not tell her the reason for my call. She turned out to be knowledgeable - VERY knowledgeable - about the project I had called to discuss and how the company wished to use our computer graphics terminals, and I felt that my job was done. Being mindful, however, that messages can get lost as they're passed around I felt I should make a note of who I was talking to. "In case I speak with John Smith in the future and need to refer back to this conversation, who am I speaking to?" I asked. "Juliet Blackburn". "And what is your role with xxxxxx". "I'm the Managing Director" she replied.
I was reminded of this story as I was going through my weekend mailbox, having spend an exhausting week visiting every country except Wales in the British Isles, and I came to an email that started "I spoke to the receptionist who said that you were not available ....".
That's funny - we don't have a receptionist. This must be the guy who spoke with Lisa - and wouldn't tell her what it was about. Oddly enough, the question that he goes on to ask is one that Lisa could have answered for him just as well on Friday (if not better) than I can. Now I'm certain that Lisa asked if she could help the gent ... in fact, she's quite put out when people make an assumption that she can't help because she happens to be on phone duty and she had actually emailed me about this particular call to give me a "heads up".
It remains our target to have a knowledgeable team here so that anyone who phones or emails us can get a prompt, courteous and correct answer within a couple of hours - at least to the extent of having triaged requests. And yet we all get those calls from time to time where the caller refuses to speak with us if we pick the phone up, insisting on being put through to someone who can help. Of course, we do try not to say anything awkward when the call is passed back again a minute or two later.
(this article written on 2006-02-26) |
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A little more about this newsletter ...
At Well House Consultants, we run niche IT training courses ... and we run a hotel for delegates on those courses and other visitors to Melksham too. And we make a lot of friends - have a lot of ambassadors with whom we want to keep in touch. So every day Graham (that's me, writing this piece) puts together an article or two which might include the latest sample programs that I've written during the current course, new information about
Well House Manor - our business hotel, tips on search engine optimisation,
announcements of upcoming public courses, pictures of local places, and even (on occasions) rants and whimsical pieces to keep those friends up to date and in touch. The feeds are available directlt via the Blog -
"The Horse's Mouth", they're on our
Twitter Feed and you can find me at my
LinkedIn profile.
But most people just want to look us up occasionally - every month or two, and then to catch up on the latest news just for their particular subjects of interest ... and that's what this newsletter is about
You'll find above the titles of ALL the new articles written in the last two months, listed by major subject area, and showing as
(new) with their date of publication. You'll find additional articles in each category too - topping each category up to a minimum of five articles. And you'll find a link at the end of each section which lets you expand that section to show the titles of every article that's been published in that section. After all, "the old ones are often the best ones", aren't they?