The roughness of life and business

 If there's one thing that this pandemic taught us, it is that life can be quite rough. Prior to it, we may have been shielded from the ravages of the world's pressures. Our seeming insulation from the challenges in the news was something that was sorrowful, but didn't really impact us directly - so we sympathized. 

Well along came COVID and give us a fresh perspective, where we were rapidly moved from sympathy to empathy. The reality of the tragedies came quite close to home and NOW we're directly impacted.

The thing is, the impact was so comprehensive it was felt in all aspects of our lives - personally and professionally; physically and emotionally; let's not forget financially, even as we struggled with the nuances of adapting to new measures that impacted us operationally. 

There are lots of people hurting, and though we try to mask it. Thinking it's the business of no one else, the reality is that it impacts those around us, even if they only observe. It so happened that the various elements of our lives have collided and the results are tragic. It doesn't matter if you're in school or working, if you're retired or haven't even entered school yet; everyone was impacted in some way. 

Society says we should keep looking forward, keep moving forward. It says we can do nothing about the past; however somewhere there's a niggling thought from the recesses of one's past that seems haunting. It creates doubts, harnesses fears and uncertainty, simmers the spirit in a way that timidity can bubble to the surface leaving you off balanced and out of sorts. 

Grief has been a key element - loss of relationships through break ups, displacement, death; often without any closure and with a sudden happening that no one was prepared for. One moment someone's there and the next, sometimes in the same day, they're gone. Our coping mechanisms have been taxed at a new level, and one realizes that they can be lonely in a room full of people since no one takes the time to understand their perspective. 

Business, schools, home life, and social interactions have all gone topsy-turvy and  everyone is now in an unfamiliar ground where tensions are riding high and frustrations are rampant. 

We now as a people have to interact within an environment where the people are going to display new and unfamiliar behaviours that we are not accustomed to and will never become used to since they will change rapidly with each hour that ticks by. 

There will be a need for entities to revise their interactions with those they seek to serve. Areas of address will include: 

• Customer interactions
• Operational functionality - there has been significant disruption which has impacted supply chains significantly directly impacting the ability of needs being met adequately.
• Marketing methods and means - there's a need to reintroduce the social in media used to communicate by companies e.g. too many are using this as a go to without first finding out if their public is used to / competent in accessing social media and online platforms. This is so especially for the elderly and some younger people. 
• With the gap in schooling, consideration will have to be taken to using more verbal social media since the reading/comprehension skills of many users has diminished significantly. 
• Financial integrations and programs including banking, insurance, financial transaction documentations and tools
• Legal considerations including contractual obligations, intellectual property, real property, etc. 
• Taxation programs and privileges
• Environmental aspects where the entities need to be more aware of what's going on and the impact on the public. Are the offerings in alignment with the value systems of the public. There's a need to identify where the public is placing their emphasis on as it relates to value. 
• Competency is going to be a key factor going forward since service levels are being frustrated by the lack of delivery on the part of many organizations

Is the roughness real or perceived? You be the judge of that. However, you should note that it is best to consider the impact of one's actions / inaction and how they will be interpreted by those you are seeking to serve. 

If we take enough time to observe we can see the differences pre / post pandemic. The question is are we willing to make the adjustments and if so how willing are we to invest in the future of our people. 

Understanding customer service within your business

Customer service like everything else in business is under revision. It is feeling the pressure of the pandemic and lots of promises formerly made by organizations are failing under the test of the pressure. 

You can no longer reach anyone in most organizations. The reliability of most entities have been put under pressure and they are failing to reach the most basic of expectations. 

COVID has impacted entire departments within organizations where everyone within the said department can be put in isolation/quarantine. This disconnected the organization's ability to be able to deliver on certain basic functions.

With the displacement  caused by  Covid-19  there are many organizations that do not know the experiences of their customers. Simple transactions like document processing, payments on accounts, receivables on accounts, administrative matters, and all else seemed to have gone out of order. 

Lots of organizations are blaming the broad back of COVID, and the occasional bad weather now we are in hurricane season. 

Who is suffering as a result? Well let us start with the elderly, who have having quite the challenge adjusting to using technology with which they are not fully familiar. They try to make calls for clarity only to speak with someone who can offer little more than polite dialogue since they are not even in the same country and don’t know the people within the organization they are supposed to be representing. The elderly will have issues with, among other things; online payments, health and medical insurance claims, seeing the fine print on the screens, being able to speak with someone who can offer solutions that are tangible. The world within which they must now function makes them seem obsolete. 

The youth with education programs that have instructors not fully competent with the technology themselves, but the youth get blamed for not attending class when they spend hours waiting for admittance to the class, or instructors to even show up. How do I know this? I’m a remote worker so I get to observe some of this behaviour through the youngsters in my domain. 

Those in between, who in many instances are now realizing that being able to see and pronounce a word does not necessarily mean they understand what is being communicated. The breakdown in communication is huge, and it doesn’t help when most cannot spell and are unable to adequately use grammar to ensure what is intended is being communicated. 

Can the current situation be blamed on COVID though? I say NO! COVID has caused us to pause and consider what we have taken for granted for way too long. We have not learned the lesson the first time around and COVID makes us repeat the pauses/shutdowns to see if we would identify what we missed and adjust our behaviours to suit. It feels like we are taking 40 years to complete a 30 day journey. [Only some will get this.] 

This is a time of reset in all relationships, public and private. We need to come to a place of empathy where we take the time to understand each other. In this environment, we wouldn’t be listening to respond, but to understand.

Sometimes when you listen to someone express themselves, even when they are thinking, if you don’t interfere with a response but remain silent, you will observe them arrive at the solution themselves. They didn’t need advice but a listening ear. They wanted the support of someone hearing them think. 

The other aspect is when people require the services/products of vendors who provide them. They ask for concessions, they want to negotiate already bottom out prices or they price your work then wonder why you don’t want to take their offer. However the experience has been when situations like this come up is that not only does one do the work, but then they have to beg to be paid. Many of us have learned the hard way and we’re done with it. 

To be clear, if you want to get into business, then have the money to get the business planning done - there’s no such thing as a discounted lawsuit. They don’t say that they got what they could afford but they, the customer, will malign your name and damage your reputation. Be careful when you are doing business. Take every effort to communicate clearly in this era of distorted understanding. Ensure that you put everything in writing since people learn in various ways and therefore relate differently to information. 

What have been your experiences over the past 2 years? Feel free to share. Have a wonderful Sunday. 

COVID can't take all the blame

As you know, COVID has been around for some time now. We are all aware of the challenges and trauma it has caused to people of all walks of life. People, businesses, countries all felt the impact of COVID. We know it well. 

As things restart, we are doing business once again for both private enterprise and for the government. Everyone wants their work done, with a matter of urgency. 

Claims of how you come highly recommended are common, along with the other lofty reminders of your reputation - so the marketing seems to work. Then comes the "sob" story of the predicament they are in and why they so desperately need your help. Afterwards the closing arguments of how their situation took up their resources and they will pay you in one/combination of the following ways:

• they want to negotiate your fees downwards 
• they want a payment plan that permits installments; which they never stick to
• they want to offer you shares in their business and they are not even incorporated
• they want to pay you on the back end of the assignment
• they even go as far as saying we as a people need to support each other; really
• now there's a new boy, with broad shoulders that took the brunt of licks in the last year - the COVID-19 pandemic [very specifically] got things hard and difficult

In short, they want you to pay using your own resources to do their work. 

Recently, there was one that was heard: The hurricane damaged their many properties so now they have to fix them and then get back to you - who was on assignment to help them get money in the first place. 

People who sell products are raising their prices like crazy and blaming shipping costs. Services, not so much, since they are not aware in many instances that their costs have increased and in what areas and therefore are, in many instances, unable to justify their increases so they work at a loss. 

There's something all business people seek and it's called success. Yet they seem to miss the point that the businesses they deem as successful also have challenges but instead of dwelling on the problem, they focus on a solution. 

The leadership of these successful entities hold themselves accountable and work towards developing plans and utilizing resources that will enable them NOT to stay in an area of challenge for too long. 

There are many articles written about successful people and the surplus they have accumulated over time. Some articles even make it seem downright unfair that these people are being rewarded in the way they are. Yet those same successful people worked tirelessly, making personal sacrifices of time and energy, and sometimes relationships to build and expand their sphere of influence through their organizations. DON'T GRUDGE THEM. 

They use the same principles available to everyone else who is willing to put the work in and invest the time/resources necessary to GET THINGS DONE. 

Stop the blame game, it's doing no one any good. Get the success habits. They are all over begging to be taken up - but we don't want to read, listen, attend to the details and get the information that encourages success. 

Some of us go the other extreme, watching the successes of mega successful people who told their stories and live in the euphoria that we too will make it. Yet ignore those who are a little more successful and identify what they are doing; often within our own environment that makes them successful. 

Just as there is information on what we can do that is right to succeed, there is information on the wrong to avoid so that we don't fail. We all need to be aware, researching both approaches so that we can step closer to success while avoiding the pitfalls of failure. Someone has made those mistakes before, there is no need to try to make them all over again. 

Now that the world is resetting, this is your time to DO IT RIGHT. Strategize, plan and execute, this way you too can build your legacy. Remember, COVID cant take all the blame.