To get better complaints: help the customer to complain

Posted on May 16, 2013 by
Complaint Department Grenade

Complaint Department Grenade (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I read this HBR blog and thought about how it could be applied to complaints.  When a problem occurs, an organisation will often wait until someone before trying to fix the issue. As most organisations do not work actively to prevent or pre-empt complains, the complaint becomes an important improvement tool.[1] Yet, when the customer does decide to make a complaint, they are often faced with the standard complaints or contact page.  There is rarely, if ever, an effort to help the customer complain properly or in a way that helps the organisation.

How organisations signpost complaints procedure tells you their value.

What we find are complaints pages or forms that have free text fields or contact details of the complaints team. Some organisations have an online form that has some questions to prompt a better complain. The standard approach is to ask the person complaining to explain the problem, give some details for context and to explain what they want done. The organisation hopes customers will use this online form and make a clear and concise complaint. Alas, this is hardly, if ever, the case. Instead, something like the following occurs.

Long letters without a point except to complain

The complainant decides to write a long letter, usually by hand, so you know immediately they are not going to use the online form. In some case, they may type an even longer letter or email. Usually the complaint wanders over various topics, and expresses personal attacks. Such complaints are usually poorly constructed and usually not well written.

The reader struggles to understand the complaint, the issue and struggles further to consider what might resolve the issue.  Invariably they end up it finding a solution that best fits what the organisation wants.  In many complaints, the organisations gets caught up with the extraneous, emotive issues like insults, and fail to recognise or resolve the problem.  They focus on the complaint and not the problem. As a result, the complaint and not the problem becomes the issue.

What I have never seen, which is why I am proposing it, is an organisation that educates its clients and customers on how to make a complaint.  By that, I do not mean explaining how to register a complaint. I mean educating the customer on the best way to write a complaint letter.[2]  I have never seen an organisation give advice and help or even a link to material to help the customer complain.

Why organisations resist complaints

I understand why most organisations will resist or reject this approach.[3] Many senior managers view customer complaints as a hassle to be avoided.  In many organisations, the complaints are seen as something to be minimized because they see the customer as the problem. The customer is a problem client, or a serial complainer.  If they show the organisation was at fault, then it becomes defensive.  Yet, by educating the public on how to complain, they could help themselves in a number of ways.

How educating the customer to complain can help your company.

First, it would show a commitment to customer service. Such an approach suggests an organisation confident of its complaints handling.  At the same time, it shows an organisation that is willing to learn.

Second, the organisation would get better complaint letters. The letters would more likely to be polite, focused, and propose a solution. (See the list below for links to various web sites with advice on how to write a complaint letter).

Third, the complaint letters would be structured.  An on-line form can capture the main points with systematic instructions on what is required.  If the complaints are structured, they are easier to direct to the appropriate team.

Fourth, the process allows you to triage complaints and prioritize them. If you educate the public on how to complain, you can suggest your preferred style. With a preferred style, form or structure, the organisation can triage complaints and prioritize them. For example, if you use a form or required structure, then you can indicate that a concise complaint will get a quicker response than one that rambles and does not have a coherent structure.

Fifth, a structured approach focuses on the substantive points rather than secondary issues. The letter focuses on the proposed solution. The focus changes from the complaint to the substantive issue: the problem to be solved and the proposed solution.

Sixth, the proposed solution means that you do not have to solve the problem yourself. You are looking at how to make the solution happen. If you cannot solve the problem, then you discuss the proposed solution. By proposing a solution, it saves the organisation from having to expend a lot of effort trying to propose a solution that the customer will not find satisfactory.

Conclusion

I cannot guarantee this approach will transform customer complaints. However, it would help to reduce the 20 page letters and it would help to find solutions.  Most importantly, it would help to find learning outcomes for the organisation.  The learning outcomes will be derived from the proposed solutions. By improving complaints, you can save money as the customer helps you to improve.

 

[1] Please note that this is different from “feedback” or “customer engagement”. Instead, this is about the point at which a complaint is going to be prepared and developing a way to make it easier for the customer and develop it as a learning tool for the organisation.

[2] The following list of sites on how to complain was chosen at random from the internet. I am not endorsing them nor do I have an interest in them.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0002121.html

http://www.businessballs.com/complaintsletters.htm

http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/letters-of-complaint

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Complaint-Letter-to-a-Company

 

[3] Here is an interesting psychological insight into why customer and companies fail at handling complaints. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201105/complaint-handling-where-companies-and-customers-both-fail

 

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Systems thinking for middle managers: workplace democracy in action.

Posted on April 6, 2013 by
English: System Dynamics Modeling as One Appro...

English: System Dynamics Modeling as One Approach to Systems Thinking (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As middle manager, I have been thinking a lot about how I do my job. As a colleague explained to me, “We are the jam in the sandwich.”  I liked the idea because it shows a central, sweet, and connective role we have in an organisation. The middle manager has a special role because they connect the senior management’s vision to the frontline work. In that role, we act as translators of the organisation’s mission or vision into action, which can sometimes lead to unintended outcomes.  Aside from that translating role, there is also an unappreciated democratic role.

The idea of work democratic workplace has been a key theme in Harold Jarche’s work.  If you have not come across him before, I strongly recommend you check out his excellent site.  Middle managers represent a democratic ethos in an organisation because they manage and are managed in turn.  Just as in a democracy in which people govern and are governed in turn, the middle manager has a similar experience.  Middle managers often have to have “difficult” conversations as well as set targets, and manage the performance and in turn, their performance, their targets and the difficult conversations they have with their managers.  Middle managers have a unique role because often how they manage others is how they have been managed.  The more they are “networked managers” the better chance they and their staff have to succeed.

The idea about the middle manager as being a democratic model came to me when I was reading Brendan McCarron’s article in CIPFA’s PINpoint magazine,[1] which drew on the, work of Ferninand Fournies.  What McCarron did was take Fournies idea and apply it to  it of particular interest is that it uses a systems analysis to understand how to find solutions to common performance “ problems” in the work place.

We often hear about systems thinking or lean thinking.  From a system’s perspective, we can often have what appear at first as nonsensical ideas proposed. For example, we hear that:

Staff have only a very small impact on the performance of the organisation.

At first glance, this seems strange if not impossible.  In a command and control organisation this sounds seditious as if it a shirker’s charter. Yet, as middle managers we see this intuitively in our work.  We performance manage staff and staff are our biggest concern with improving performance avoiding grievances and getting the work done.  We constantly seek ways to keep staff motivated, engaged, and productive.  What we may need to do is focus on something else, which was brought up in our session on performance.

As Brendan McCarron explains, the point is that staff actually have very little influence on their own performance.

Staff can indeed be “our most important asset” and work themselves ragged, but if the system they work within in is poor, their efforts will be largely wasted.

What we find is that improvement reviews or lean reviews often reveal that staff are often not doing their work, the value added work *because* they are working on other tasks such as redirecting members of the public to other parts of the authority; doing other section’s work; or putting right other people’s errors.  If the system around them is not structured to allow them to do their work, then

 No matter how hard the staff worked, they would not be able to make a big impression on the performance of their section because the system itself is to blame for the poor performance.

As middle managers, we help to design and to implement the systems. When we see something “not working” in the system say, performance targets are unrealistic or not SMART, we need to readjust or remove the target.  We need to look at the system around the performance to understand what contributes to that performance. At the same time, we have a responsibility to ourselves and to our staff to speak up on systems issues if we do not have control over the system.

If you promise to improve performance by managing the staff better but the system will not allow your staff to succeed, then how can you succeed?

We may need to see the situation carefully to make sure we understand what is happening and not trying to solve the immediate problem, poor performance or poorly performing staff, because the system may be requiring the staff to operate in a way that undermines their performance.

McCarron draws on the list developed by Fournies after thousands of interviews across hundreds of companies.  He set out examples of common performance “problems”.  Here are some examples:

“Problem”: Staff think something else is more important

Suggested advice to managers: Often staff are “too busy” on something of less importance. It is your responsibility to explain clearly your priorities and to verify they understand the importance of them.

McCarron look at the problems Fournies identifies as a clue to a deeper system design issue that needs to be addressed.  As our work is based on systems, we need to understand those systems so that we can design it or redesign it to make the system more productive.  Here is an example of this type of challenge.

“Problem”: Staff do not know what they are supposed to do.

Suggested advice to managers: Separate out general responsibilities (e.g. liaise with colleagues) from specific tasks required of staff (e.g. “agree decisions about x with Bill and Jan”), test understanding and keep under review.

We can work to improve their individual performance, but if we are not changing the system at the same time, the results will not change.  We may have to look at ways to redesign the system to cut the problems.

If you want to read more about this approach here and here are some other examples of this in practice.

I would be interested to hear of your experiences as a middle manager. Does this reflect where you work or do you have a different experience as a middle manager?

[1] I have to declare an interest.  I wrote an article for the same edition of the PINPoint Magazine. If you are interested, my article can be seen here.

 

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In the age of social media, will your Chief Executive sort your mail?

Posted on March 8, 2013 by
English: President Richard M. Nixon and the Ap...

English: President Richard M. Nixon and the Apollo 13 crew salute U.S. flag during the post-mission ceremonies at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. Earlier, the astronauts John Swigert, Jim Lovell and Fred W. Haise were presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the Chief Executive. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The question is shocking, as it seems impossible. Yet, in today’s social media enhanced workplace, the potential is implicit within the technology.   We would not expect a Chief executive to open a company’s mail, sort it and deliver it. Yet, technology, by giving Chief Executives access to large amounts of information, both about the company and its industry can have that effect. The following temptations can emerge.

  1. The Chief Executive as Editor in Chief
  2. The Chief Executive the Entertainer
  3. The Chief Executive as Press Spokesman
  4. The Chief Executive as Project Manager

The Chief Executive as Editor in Chief.

As social media and technology tools allow the Chief Executive becomes immersed in the details, they can become like an editor.  Like a copy editor, they focus on the details of the business, the comma, the grammar.  We can see this with Lyndon Johnson and the desire to manage specific targets during the Vietnam War. The desire for more information gets the Chief Executive immersed in the detail.  The challenge is to set up the processes and procedures that sifts the details into a action plan for the Chief Executive. To put it directly, the Chief Executive has to offer more than being an editor.  He has to provide the vision and strategy. To continue this analogy, he has to be the publisher not the editor.

The Chief Executive as Entertainer

Here is where the need to create content and meaning as set out in McKinsey’s report on social media skills for leaders. Here, though, the social media becomes an end in itself.  The Chief Executive becomes engrossed in the operational rather than strategic tasks.  The challenge is that the Chief Executive becomes the face of the organisation and thus becomes responsible for the details of the media message.  They are blogging, tweeting, and posting online videos.  The Chief Executive becomes the frontline staff by default.  As the demand for content increases, they are drawn into more media work rather than strategic work.  In worst-case scenarios, the Chief Executive becomes the Press spokesperson.

 The Chief Executive as press spokesperson.

The more the Chief Executive becomes available through online media, the more tempting it is to read the reviews. The Chief Executive can become overly concerned with appearance if their focus on outcomes is only to manage their appearance, then their approach is to act as a spokesperson. In that situation, the social media, because it allows all views to be seen and heard, creates the fear of bad press.  To paraphrase PT Barnum, you cannot keep all the people happy all the time.  As a result, the fear of “bad reviews” leads to a greater, rather than less, in the media message.  If the Chief Executive does not step back from the stage, then the danger is that actions are taken to avoid bad press. In United States politics, Richard Nixon was a case study in avoiding bad press, which lead to an almost pathological concern for leaks.

The Chief Executive as Project Manager

In the social media age, this is the greatest temptation. The Chief Executive becomes involved in so much detail that agenda items soon reach double digits.  The reports, papers, and presentations run to hundreds of pages as the thirst for detail increases.  As a result, the Chief Executive and senior management team has no time to think or discuss. They are drowning in details.

The senior management team try to take control of the detail and revert to project managers. They lack the time or energy to develop a collective vision. They have forgotten their role and responsibility.  As a result, the organisation begins to drift. Without the critical distance to set strategy, the Chief Executive allows operational issues to take priority.  The management team need to set a strategic vision. They need to structure their meetings for strategic issues. Meetings need to be shorter on issues that fall within their role and responsibilities.  They need to set up the procedures and systems so that reports come to them for decisions not details.  They need to communicate the division of responsibility to the management teams. The organisation as a whole has to be clear about the relationship so that the information provided by social media is managed and monitored for the Chief Executive to understand its impact on strategic plans. If the Chief Executive is focused on the latest tweet or blog, they have lost their strategic vision.  The detail is only important to the extent it affects the strategic vision.

In reality, none of these archetypes exists. Instead, they demonstrate the traits that can emerge because of the power of social media. They are more likely to occur in larger organisations, but smaller organisations are not immune.  The challenge is to spot the archetype as it emerges.  How senior managers and the chief executive meet this challenge will depend on their awareness of social media and how it influences the organisational culture.  The stronger the culture as centred around a common vision shared by all staff, the less the ephemera of social media will affect it.

The challenge is not so much to turn off social media, but to put it in the strategic context. The stronger the strategic vision, the less the Chief Executive will be tempted by social media’s daily hum.

 

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Tesco, horsemeat, and how to write an apology letter.

Posted on January 20, 2013 by
tylenol bottle closeup

tylenol bottle closeup (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Tesco has been at the centre of a food scandal recently in which value beef burgers sold under its label were found to contain horsemeat.  While other companies such as Aldi and Iceland have been involved, Tesco has received the most attention.  In response to the scandal, Tesco apologised and removed all the identified products from its shelves.

 

For some commentators, the focus of the scandal has been on the question of the food chain. A related approach by commentators is to look at supplier networks for major supermarkets.  For others, it is about the question of whether horsemeat is an issue.  Finally, for some it is resigned exasperation as they ask “what did you think was going to be in a value burger?” These questions, and the lines of enquiry they show, are interesting in their own right, yet my focus is on Teco’s customer service apology letter.

 

I found the letter to be of an exceptional quality based on its content, cogency, and most of all its refreshingly honest and direct language.  Tesco did not waffle. They did not seek legal defences. They did not blame someone else.  Most importantly, they did not blame the consumer.  One wonders if governments or other organisations would be willing to write such frank apology letters so quickly.  Tesco’s customer care ethos is in marked contrast with the callous indifference of the South West Water Authority, which in July 1988 refused to tell the public in Camelford about poisoning their water for 16 days. Moreover, they ordered their staff to remain silent about it even though they knew the risks and the danger to the public. Organisational silence can be deadly.

 

To appreciate how good of letter this is, we need to look at it detail.  The following is a line-by-line analysis.  From this analysis, I think anyone in a position of authority, especially business but probably most importantly government could learn.

 

We apologise.

 

The opening to any letter sets the tone and this one hits it. The language is direct and to the point. Once you have apologised, you have broken the ice.  The main thing that consumers and customer wants is someone to say sorry, to acknowledge something went wrong.

 

You have probably read or heard that we have had a serious problem with three frozen beef burger products that we sell in stores in the UK and Ireland.

 

They recognise the problem and the wider issue.  They understand they are part of something bigger, but are not trying to hide from it.

 

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has told us that a number of products they have recently tested from one of our suppliers contained horsemeat.

 

They have connected it to the official judgement so there is not attempt to look for an excuse. They are acknowledging the evidence and the quality of evidence.  This is not an opinion or your word against theirs. They respect the authority and responsibility of the FSAI. They are not trying to undermine them or question their qualifications, research integrity, or jurisdiction.  This may come later during legal proceedings, but the consumer is not interested. The consumer wants to be reassured and Tesco is making sure that this is clear.

 

While the FSAI has said that the products pose no risk to public health, we appreciate that, like us, our customers will find this absolutely unacceptable.

 

In the past, an organisation may have brazened this out and insisted it was safe. In the Haringey case, the corporate officer involved insisted, on national radio that despite a child being killed, Ofsted rated them three stars.  Tesco has acknowledged the issue, understood that it is a problem for their customers and they are stating that the outcome is unacceptable. Even if it is completely safe, Tesco understands that it is not acceptable for its customers.  In legal proceedings, they may use this defence, but in terms of customer care (and public relations), they understand that this is neither the place, nor the time, to make such an argument.

 

The products in our stores were Tesco Everyday Value 8 x Frozen Beef Burgers (397g), Tesco 4 x Frozen Beef Quarter Pounders (454g) and a branded product, Flamehouse Frozen Chargrilled Quarter Pounders.

 

They name the product so that customers can act if they are affected.  They are not trying to hide the issue nor pass this off, at least publicly, on their suppliers. They understand that it is under their label so it is their responsibility to alert the customer and make the changes.

 

We have immediately withdrawn from sale all products from the supplier in question, from all our stores and online.

 

They have not waited. Much like the Tylenol scare following the unsolved cyanide poisoning case, the makers immediately withdrew the product and changed its procedures for packaging and safety.  Tesco have acted quickly and efficiently in responding to the issue.  Here is how Johnson and Johnson’s, the makers of Tylenol, reacted:

 

“As the plan was constructed, Johnson & Johnson’s top management put customer safety first, before they worried about their companies profit and other financial concerns.”

The company immediately alerted consumers across the nation, via the media, not to consume any type of Tylenol product. They told consumers not to resume using the product until the extent of the tampering could be determined. Johnson & Johnson, along with stopping the production and advertising of Tylenol, recalled all Tylenol capsules from the market. The recall included approximately 31 million bottles of Tylenol, with a retail value of more than 100 million dollars. (Broom, Center, Cutlip, 381)

 

If you have any of these products at home, you can take them back to any of our stores at any time and get a full refund. You will not need a receipt and you can just bring back the packaging.

 

They are reassuring the public that this will be handled immediately and without question. Their deeds will follow their words.  They have also said that there is no need for a receipt so they are not going to haggle, or quibble, or refuse to take responsibility at the point of sale.  Again, this shows a willingness to do what is right to make the customer happy and reassure them that if they want a refund, they will be given one.

 

We and our supplier have let you down and we apologise.

 

Attentive readers will note that Tesco mentions their supplier only after Tesco has apologised.  They do not name the supplier nor do they try to shift any public blame.  Instead, they show solidarity in agreeing that they have let the customer down and they have apologised.  They reinforce the opening message with a clear unequivocal apology.

 

If you have any concerns, you can find out how to contact us at the bottom of this page, or go to any of our customer service desks in-store, or ask to speak to your local Store Manager.

 

They offer the customer several different ways to address their concerns. They are prepared to handle the complaints, questions, or issues at all levels. They are not trying to force the customer to a particular channel. Nor are they only offering one channel, which may be overwhelmed, which would create additional problems.

 

So here’s our promise. We will find out exactly what happened and, when we do, we’ll come back and tell you.

 

Here the direct language reaches its peak. At the end of the apology, Tesco is promising to find out what happened and tell the consumer.  One hears echoes of Vinegar Joe Stillwell.  When his army was thrashed by the Japanese and forced to retreat out of Burma back to India, he did not look for scapegoats.  He did not blame others. He did not sugar coat it or try to play “politics” to look good for an audience.  He retreated on foot with his soldiers and said it like it was.

 

“I claim we got a hell of a beating. We got run out of Burma and it is humiliating as hell. I think we ought to find out what caused it, go back and retake it.”.

 

The tone and the directness of the language are very similar. Tesco is telling us they will take action, they will find out what went wrong, and they will tell their customers about it. They will not wait for legal proceedings. They will not wait for a long drawn out inquiry. They will act.

 

And we will work harder than ever with all our suppliers to make sure this never happens again.

 

The last sentence shows their determination and their focus on collective action.  They set a promise that it will never happen again, which shows that they will hold themselves to a high standard and they expect the public to hold them to that standard. For a company that prides itself on customer service, and high standards on its products and its service, this is a strong and reassuring message. The message also sends a signal to the staff that the senior leadership are taking this seriously and providing a standard by which the frontline staff are judged is the same standard as those who deal with customers every day.

 

Even though no one died from the horsemeat scandal, it represents a good case study in crisis management. Like Johnson and Johnson, Tesco has put its customers first and itself second. How many organisations can say they do this when it comes time to apologise or make amends for their failings? How many are willing to do that before they are called to court, or called to testify before Parliament?  If a company is dealing with customers and needs to reassure them about the issues, they would do well to learn from Tesco’s apology letter.

When was the last time your company or organisation gave such a direct, unreserved, apology and promised to investigate and explain what went wrong?

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Privacy and the right to be forgotten: who owns your personal information?

Posted on December 31, 2012 by
RFID (radio frequency identification) ticket t...

RFID (radio frequency identification) ticket to Bergen Science Centre. VIP, student, child and adult from left to right. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Over the past year, the right to be forgotten (RTBF) has become a topic of debate and interest.  What began as an academic or theoretical issue has become a legislative proposal within the European Union.  From the perspective of the data protection act, in the UK, which institutes the EU Data protection Directive, the RTBF fits with the 4th Data Protection Principle.  The principle covers the idea that data should only be held as long as necessary and unlimited storage should be the exception and not the default.  In this blog, though, I want to discuss how the RTBF is based upon a right of privacy that assumes, incorrectly, that we own our own personal information and raises philosophical questions about what it means to be human in the digital age.  As such, the right is a technological solution to a technological problem created by a bureaucratic process and not a fundamental, or natural, right.  By only providing a technological response, the right does not address the fundamental idea of what makes us human, and therefore gives us privacy. In other words, we are working on the false, but understandable, belief that a technological solution will resolve our philosophical problem.

The technological solution to a technological problem highlights a bureaucratic process that appears almost uncontrollable.  In the past, my data (my bureaucratic shadow) was relatively limited.  If I checked out a book, the library would know.  Depending on the topic, the state and the era, the FBI might know as well.* Other than those two bodies, no one else would know or be interested in knowing what I checked out of the library.

Your library book can now be analyzed to track your existence

Today, as more records are electronic and control systems are electronic, our digital shadow has increased. The bureaucratic process has become technologically enhanced as the spirit of the technological infuses our lives. Even leaving aside the official bureaucratic records, such as birth certificates, driving licences, and national insurance or social insurance numbers, we have a huge amount of data accumulating about us every day.  Unlike the older library, modern libraries have Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags in books.  The RFID tags allow us to monitor the book for audit purposes within the library as well as allowing a location to be identified depending on the software.  When we connect that to big data centres where smart algorithms that can match a GPS signal to a person’s smartphone or to the book’s RFID tag, it can show who the person met, if they are holding the book when they meet and their GPS signal is scanned.  In the past, that information did not exist. It exists today and people would like to know that it is “forgotten” and is not being used to shape their lives without their permission. If you are interested, have a look at these sigma scans on future of information technology especially the emerging use of sensors.

Forgetting relies upon institutional memory the problem of archives

In many ways, the technological approach to privacy is beyond the abuse allowed or generated by a paper-based system. The current laws we have are paper based laws and even the electronic laws we are developing are behind the technological trend concerning data creation, retention, and manipulation. I am purposefully ignoring the archives issue, in that records are retained in an archive and thus have always been available, because of the philosophical dispute that archives represents a clean break with current records management. By that I mean, the arguments about archival requirements are a secondary issue that do not address the fundamental philosophical issue.  In other words, archives, which have always existed, present the same technological problem, but only in a paper (or limited) format.  Archives are important, yet they do not in themselves create a break point that limits legislative oversight of the political space or of political memory. Moreover, their special status needs to be challenged if their function does not provide a collective memory so much as an institutional memory based on institutional and not community needs. (See my blog on the Shaw report). n light of abuse histories one finds that the RTBF becomes moot because the institutional memory never wanted or even tried to remember in the first place. Instead, what we need, in those circumstances is a right to remember, but we may as well chase the horizon.

The gap between our digital person and our physical person

I think there is an increasing need for clarity because the gap between our “digital person” and our physical person. The RTBF is showing us a demand that our “digital person” be treated as our physical person would be treated. By that I mean, instead of viewing it as data or information, it is seen as an extension of the person. We then move beyond data protection towards an essential understanding of due process, and fundamentally, a new question of what it means to be human. Thus, the state will have a higher, and more extensive, responsibility about that information (even as it controls the records) and we will have a greater (if sometimes passive) role in it as well.  The question, though is whether the digital person becomes fully a creature, a representation, of the state and is no longer natural.

Will we have digital “natural” rights? Can we be human without them?

The RTBF is in the end, a bureaucratic solution to a technological problem created by the bureaucratic system’s reliance on technology.  We have yet to figure out what we mean by freedom, which is what the RTBF is trying to articulate, but that is a political question rather than a technological question.  To the extent that it has become a technological question, we return to the Heideggerian question of technology.  To put it differently, but directly, our need for a RTBF shows us that we still do not know what it means to be human.  Our reliance on technology further removes us from our human nature in that our fundamental freedoms, our humanity, are becoming representations of data.  We no longer have access to our digital shadow, in a way that we had (continue to have) access to ourselves as selves. By that I mean, 1500 years ago someone may have had a right to property and a right to their own person. Later, as rights became developed as an idea of property that could be exchanged, we lost touch with our natural rights, as rights, and took on positive rights as representations either of the state or an institution, like the Church or a Monarchy. In the 21st century, we do not even have a right to our digital shadow let alone access. In sum, we have become further removed from our natural rights, as we become more of a digital “person”.

If the RTBF is to work, or any “digital rights” are to work, we need to connect them or at least found them in our natural rights. Perhaps it is time to discover our digital “natural” rights.

*The FBI used to pressure librarians in major cities to disclose the details of individuals checking out certain books in the late 60s early 70s, or at least that is when it came to light in the 1980s.

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Is augmented reality the future for archives in a digital age?

Posted on November 11, 2012 by
English: Beth Cron, Program Specialist at the ...

English: Beth Cron, Program Specialist at the National Archives opens with the first talk discussing records management at NARA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been thinking about the future of archives for the next 20 years and how services will be delivered.  I am interested in how the public (archive users) will access the archives. In particular, I am interested in how born digital records will shape the archival offer and what needs to be done now to prepare for it.

To manage the thought process, I have broken the issue into three distinct phases.

Phase One: Next 5 years 90% paper/10% digital.

Phase two 5-15 years, 50/50% or 40/60% paper/digital.

Phase three 20+ years 10%/90% paper/digital.

In 20 years, we will have a large amount of digital records and a smaller, but consistent, amount of paper records.  The question, then and now, is how to preserve or converse the archives as well as provide access.

Preservation as Access

Do born digital records change our priorities of preservation/conservation, and access/use? In the paper era, the access and preservation were opposed to each other.  If you accessed a fragile document too often, it would decay or disintegrate.  To overcome this, we digitize the record.  In the born digital age, decreased access means the record is more likely to decay because digital integrity (cite article on decay of bits) and the need to future proof.  If your computer system is Word for example, you are more likely to keep updating it and future proofing it.  If you stop accessing it and the systems are no longer supported, then preservation may be harder because the record starts to decay.

If this is the trade-off, the “birth process” for digital records needs to be explored.  How are archives or CROs linked to records management process of organisations that contribute to them? For County Record Offices there is a clear relationship with their local government authority.  Yet, for others the relationship is uncertain. Many organisations are unaware of the process by which their records they create may arrive at the archives.  The reason for this is that few organisations have a robust understanding of the records management life-cycle, which leads to the archives or County Record Office.  In the paper era, the challenge, though different, may not have been as great. The process for producing the records, such as minutes, reports, and process was relatively clear.  In the digital age, the same clarity does not exist. There are tools emerging (such as HP/Autonomy) for creating meaning and order out of unstructured data, but their take up is uncertain.

Will born digital change our focus of archives as heritage.

I am assuming a local government perspective rather than a community or heritage perspective.  The research organisation or private sector archives present an additional if related challenge. In the future of the born digital, there will be an increasing distinction (potentially false) between digital archives for communities and or research universities and local government or government work.  In a sense, local government, rather than universities, are often seen as the focus of heritage.  By that, I mean local government represents the whole while a university or a community group reflect a part.  In any case, the parts have to work together. Born digital create an issue because official records (products of the local government or government process as public record office) may be perceived differently from those reflecting community or heritage.

How will Heritage Lottery Funding shape the digital future?

Over the last 10 years, at least, the Heritage Lottery Funds (HLF) has shaped the archives or County Record Offices.  The focus has been on creating heritage sites or protecting collections on behalf of a community’s heritage.  The programme has been successful in developing archives and ensuring they have the funding to make the changes. The question, though, is whether the focus from HLF has to be on developing the digital archives.  How will we encourage heritage in a digital age and how will archives establish themselves digitally and maintain a community or heritage offer.

The challenge increases because as archives become digital, their users change.  The heritage focus has been on place, but if the place is now virtual and access is mediated through the internet, how does one support that type of “place”?  At the same time, the focus on heritage and place, especially in the digital age, begins to reveal a wider gap between a CRO and archives found in research libraries. Digital will either exacerbate the difference or remove. The way that CROs approach access and how those within research approach access is related but different.  The divide is not simply public or private, government or academic, the challenge is how their digital access is enhanced.  At one level, the two approaches should be the same, but the future of archives in an electronic age may, unintentionally, be less access.  In effect, the push to digital reduces one mediated experience, the physical control of access to documents and records, with a different mediated experience through electronic access. Two gaps occur in the access realm. The first is the implicit gap regarding Archival User Intelligence.

Teaching people how to access archives?

If the future is digital, we will need to double our efforts to educate our users.  By that I mean, the explicit gap between archivist and user cannot be closed because it will remain mediate through the internet.  What will likely happen, as in other industries, is that online finding aids with self-help automated systems will emerge that allow archivist to leverage their knowledge. What we may be seeing is two interrelated effects.  The first is that the access becomes mediate in a different way.  In the past, the archivist may have been seen as a gatekeeper controlling the archive.  The new user was initiated into the archival search by talking with the archivist and other archive staff. In an electronic age, where it is difficult to “meet” the archivist, how does that education work? How do we educate people to the archives and how to use it when they are less likely to come through the door and more likely to be online?  We also need to consider the archivist’s digital education and what is required to manage the digital archives.  The second issue, which I will treat first, is that the archives themselves stop being mediated in one way, but become mediate in the second way.

Slave to the SEO?

If the archives become increasingly digitized, then they may become captive to the search engine optimisation (SEO) requirements. In the past, the archivist may have been seen as the gatekeeper, the one who mediated or controlled access to the collection. They controlled access as well as the shape of the collection. Yet, the search engine may replace that gatekeeping or mediating role.  As documents become digital, the internet becomes the new mediator. If the public’s access is mediated through the web, for example, through a firewall, or a pay wall, or a subscription wall, how accessible will the collections become?  Even if the access is “free”, the search engine optimisation requirements may keep the archives hidden. In a sense, you may access the archives, if you know where to look, but you may not know what the archives hold or that you need to go to the archives unless the material is indexed to the internet search engines.  The same problem with attracting users in the physical world carries over to the electronic, but in a different way.  The public will have to access the archive that fits the search engine and not the needs or intent of the archive. At the same time, the challenge is that a belief, in the future, that all records are digital may require the warning sticker that, simultaneously, there are paper records that need to be examined on the site. Even now, the search engine optimisation leaves large swathes of material untouched because they rank low on search indexes.  If records are born digital and archived digitally, will they be connected to the internet directly, or will they be mediated through the archive?

Reversing Plato’s cave: trading one form of mediation for another

With born digital records, the mediated experience will change the need to visit the archives physically or electronically.  In the future, we may have more access to archives, through the electronic means, but the access becomes increasingly remote. I mean that literally, as we become removed from the concrete (relatively speaking) nature of the paper or physical record. Even though electronic records can have the same integrity as paper records, there will remain a perceptible gap between paper and digital records.  Paper remains the most enduring and the most accessible; it may become the medium of choice for archives and users.  Yet, the gap will remain and could increase as the electronic will remain suspect.

We may be further removed from the document and in that gap we may see other issues emerging about whether the digital record is the “true record”.  In that sense, we are pushed into the cave. Instead of trying to escape the cave, make the records and archives more accessible, by digitizing them, people want to come to the archives because they have the “permanent” records the paper records.  The wider digital sphere becomes the ephemeral or meta-universe while the paper are considered the physical.

Augmented Reality the future of archives is everything in its place?

Where do we go from today if born digital is the future of archives?  With digital records and digital artefacts, we open up the third dimension: place.  By that, I mean we need to consider the geographical location data associated with born digital or digital artefacts like photographs.  If these records are tagged, then their geographic metadata must be similarly conserved. Moreover, do we then need to start tagging all records so that we can associate with a geographical space? If we do, then the next generation in archives will have an augmented reality offer.  In this sense, you will be able to see (literally) where the Dickens lived and the archival records associated with the building.  The City of Philadelphia Department of Records is being to use an augmented reality approach with photographs and archival work in Philadelphia.  In twenty years, the following scenario is possible.  People who want to use the archives never visit it, nor do they access an archive’s website unless they want more detail.  Instead, they will go to locations, where their augmented location devices will bring up or highlight the digital records from the archives associated with that location. In that future, the archives will go to the people.  At the same time, the archives or the CRO site will contain the original born digital records or the paper records.

I would be interested in your views on the future of archives in a digital age. The future of archives will be one where the public experience or use them through different mediated experience. As these develop, we will need archives to be structured differently to adapt to an augmented reality as the documents are linked to a place outside the physical archival storage. If the next stage of access, already emerging, links records to places, how do we prepare our records for that future? In that sense, we return to a question at the start of born digital records, is access now conservation?

 

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Need to improve your customer service? Have your Chief Executive sign the complaint responses

Posted on October 31, 2012 by
AMG Affalterbach DaimlerChrysler customer serv...

AMG Affalterbach DaimlerChrysler customer service Eingang (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes you have trouble with customer service. Try as you might, you cannot find a way to improve it. What may exist is a gap between the senior management and the frontlines regarding customer service. In many ways, the senior managers may believe the organisation delivers good customer service because they receive good customer service.  They may not be experiencing the company as a customer.  In that regard, they may not realize how their company treats their customers or they may not know how to develop a consistent approach to customer service.

Is your complaints culture customer centric?

Each organisation develops its own culture in dealing with customers.  The senior managers may see that the cultural issues as inconsequential because they are dealing with strategic issues.  As a result, the organisation may give customer service a lower priority, which means that customer complaints get the lowest priority.  If the organisation wants to improve its customer complaint response, it will have a lot of work to do to overcome its cultural resistance to customer complaints.

One way to improve the responses to customer complaints would be for the Chief Executive to get involved.  By that I do not mean, they read every complaint or complaint response.  Such an approach, while well intentioned, would only create a bottleneck and distract the CEO from their wider role.  Instead, the focus should be on a random sample of responses.  If they sign a random sample of responses, they send an important signal to customers as well as staff.  For customers, it is a way for the Chief Executive to stand by their company.  In a sense, a CEO’s personal signature says, “I approve this message”.  The phrase has an important resonance with customers.

Stand by your response to complaints.

In the United States, federal political campaign advertisements, candidates are required to state that they approve the advertisement.   They will say something like “I am “candidate X” and I approve this message or this advertisement.  Federal law requires the statement and candidates can suffer financial penalties if they fail to follow the requirements.  From a customer service perspective, this has a powerful effect on how the message is seen. Research shows that viewers had a stronger believe that the campaign was being run in a fair and truthful manner.

Customer service is like an election: every customer is a voter.

In many ways, handling complaints is like running an election.  Each customer is like a voter and the organisation has to convince them of their sincerity as well as their reliability in resolving the complaints.  Like an election, if you take your voters (customers) for granted, then you are likely to lose.  At the same time, though in an election, a campaign husbands the candidate’s time for maximum effect.  The same applies to the Chief Executive’s time.

If the Chief Executive randomly chooses a letter or three a month to respond, she can be like the candidate reaching out to voters.  She can also send a strong message to the organisation about her intent and expectations. By doing this, she would make the staff aware that they are preparing a document that represents the organisation and it represents her.  In such a situation, the staff preparing complaint responses, as well as those who manage them, would take a high interest in the quality of their responses.

A chance to sample customer complaints.

In addition to improving the responses from the various divisions, the CEO will be able to sample the issues affecting individual customers.  At the same time, the divisions would get a chance to display their customer service skills.  By providing the personal touch, the CEO gives the public the assurance that their complaints may be handled directly by the CEO.  A side benefit may be that the public see less of a need to write directly to the Chief Executive if they know that the Chief Executive is already involved in some way.

I am Lawrence Serewicz and I approved this post.

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