Monthly Archives: July 2010

Business Brands, Life Experiences, Social Media, Values

Fired up then wired up from a GREAT service experience

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great serviceI had an ENLIGHTENING experience recently.  I’m NOT ashamed to blatantly praise a company through this blog as they simply deserve it.  In turn I’m not going to ‘name and shame’ those who have no idea what good service means.

 Recently we were looking for a person or company who could help us her e at The Now Bunch with systemizing and organizing our computers, wiring and cables in our offices.  We were about to receive new desks in 3.5 weeks and needed to get this sorted prior to their arrival.  This seemed enough lead up time to secure someone to help us for a couple of hours !

We have over 1400 friends through our different Social Media channels so we thought we would go to them and ask for referrals from them so that they could continue to build relationships as well.  We posted a simple call out “Who knows of a good electrician or data cabling person or company who can help us sort our office out ?”. 

We received many replies back which equated to 7 names/companies for us to contact.  Being as diligent as we are and respecting the advice from our ‘friends’ we contacted each of the 7 suppliers.  It is important to note that with everyone we talked to, we let them know that they had been recommended by a current client of theirs.  Here is the outcome from each;

Suppliers 1 & 2: We left a message on the voicemail of 2 suppliers and neither called back.

Supplier 3:  This guy said he was busy for two weeks but would call in a week to book us in – he never called back.

Supplier 4: They took down all our details (the wife of the sparkie was on the end of the phone) and she promised that her husband would call back either that night or in the morning.  He never called back.

Supplier 5: We called him and he did not have a pen, so I said that I would text him my name and number and also email him with our details, which we did. He was very happy with that, but …. You guessed it, he never called us back.

Supplier 6: We called this company who said that they would send someone on Friday at 10am.  We waited. No-one showed and no-one called. We never heard from them again.

Supplier 7:  this company promised that they would drop in the next day on their way back from a job but they did not show.  I called them again and they apologised and said that they would call me on the next Monday.  They never called.  I spoke to them again and they promised that they would call the next day to organise a time, they never called. 

I was over it and it was now only a week until our desks arrived.  I just wanted to give someone money to do some work !! With cap in hand and frustration oozing, I went to Toby, our CEO and asked if he knew anybody.  He said that he had used a guy when he was at Tradies who owned a company called WED Group.  The guys name was Matt Worthington.  Toby said that he always did what he promised he would do.  Toby gave Matt a call.  Here is how the journey with the WED Group went ….. 

  • Matt promised Toby that he would call me the next day before 10am.  Matt called me at 9.30am.
  • Matt said that he would send someone out the next day to have a look and see what our needs were, and if one of his team could not, then he would come himself.  He said he would be at our office at 10am.  At 9.30am we received a call from Matt to confirm that he would arrive at 10am.  He was there on time and in person !
  • Matt let us know what was needed, the time frame it would take, the approximate costs and what we needed to do prior to his team returning.  Matt then sat down at the computer and logged into his online appointment system and locked us in for a suitable time which was only 3 days later.  Perfect – it would be complete before our desks arrived.  Matt confirmed that he would be at our office at 7.30am on the Friday.
  • The day before our appointment, Matt called to reconfirm his visit the next morning.  The next morning, we received a call at 7am from Matt explaining that he was caught in traffic and would be about 30 minutes late.  He arrived at 8am as promised.
  • Matt wasted no time in completing the job
  • Matt and his team presented well (in uniform) and were polite and thoughtful to our business needs.
  • When Matt was leaving, he noticed that there was a problem with an electrical source that may cause a problem in the future (yep – a fire).  Matt fixed that at no further charge !

Basically, we were blown away that this company, who I had never heard of before, did everything that they said they would.  That is all that I asked for ! How can I give back to a company that simply did the right thing by us and demonstrated exceptional service?   Firstly I bought the team Vietnamese pork rolls for lunch whilst they were in the office (every blokes favourite lunch I think), I then drafted a banner for them to advertise their services with us and now I am writing to tell the world about them.  This is what great service does to others.  People like me want to put others on a pedestal when they go beyond the call of duty.  Don’t you want to tell everyone about truly exceptional service?  Congratulations Matt Worthington and your team.  You blew us away !  It is a pleasure to have met you.

You can find Matt at http://wedgroup.com.au  – say that that White Now recommended them  – because we DO!

Recruiting Tips, Values

It’s SO frustrating when you apply for a job and NEVER hear anything back ! Want to know why this happens ?

Hear NOTHING back !
Hear Nothing Back !

White Now has witnessed a trend over the past 15 years with regard to job applicants and the interview process.  With the growth of the internet and on line job applications and the subsequent ability for ANYONE to lodge an application for ANY role at ANY time, we have seen a growth in application number for all jobs ! This has brought with it some interesting challenges……..

In the old days (geesh – I sound like my 81 year old mother !), it used to take a fair bit of effort to apply for a job.  You’d have to type the covering letter and print it out.  Go to the library to get your resume photocopied and then get it bound at another place.  Buy a large envelope and suitable stamps and THEN go to either the Post Office or Post Box.  You’d then wait for it to arrive at the employer/recruiters doorstep 4 days later.  The cost of this exercise could have been up to $10 per application.  After it was posted, it would then be another week  or two (if at all) that you receive a letter back in the mail saying that the documents had arrived.

These days (sounding like my mother again – sorry) a job application can take some people as little as 2 minutes to send off without a cent being spent. 

They copy their cover letter or change the address and contact name (that’s a debate for a whole other blog post), attach their resume and just press send on the email.  The effort in applying has been lessened so considerably therefore the seriousness and commitment of all applicants in applying for the job can sometimes be an issue. 

The team at White Now can reel off so many examples of when they have contacted an applicant in relation to a job that they applied for (maybe to organise an interview) and the person cannot even remember applying for that role, or even who the role was with.  They have probably applied for 90 jobs that week and kept no record of whom or what they applied for.  I think it is called the splatter gun approach.  They don’t have a specific target, they just keep shooting and maybe one will hit the bulls-eye.

With this behaviour being so prevalent in today’s job market, there are a few outcomes that have surfaced from this trend that you should be aware of.

Often an employer now can receive hundreds of applications for the one advertised job.  If this is a larger employer (150 plus employees), they may be recruiting for 5-10 different positions at any one time.  This may mean in any given time, an employer may receive 1000 applications for 10 positions.  Many employers now put the courtesy of replying to these applicants on the back burner and the applicant simply does not get a response at all, whether that be to say that their resume was received or that they were unsuccessful.  This creates a snowball effect in itself.  These applicants who do not receive a reply then cannot narrow their application to a smaller target.  They apply for absolutely everything as they have no idea where they stand with any job. Alas, the cycle of lots and lots of applicants for jobs and employers not offering a courteous reply will continue. 

We are all so pleased with the growth, speed and automation of internet technology but think about how this has affected the process of applying for a job.  Basic courtesy has gone out the window !

As you know, on our White Now website, many of the positions advertised are ads placed by the Club/Venue/Supplier and they receive the applications directly (White Now don’t see them at all).  It is up to them to respond to the applicants as they see fit.    We place at the base of each ad the following sentence “Please Note: Only short listed candidates will be contacted.  We thank you for your understanding with this decision”.  Now there’s something that you would not have seen on a job ad 15 years ago but now, it is a fact of life for all the reasons I have discussed above.

The good news is that White Now have actually retained the ‘old style values’ when it comes to recruitment.  If we are secured by a client to undertake the full recruitment for a club or client, then we guarantee that EVERY person who applies will receive email notification from us to let them know of their status.  We are still honoured and chuffed by the comments that we receive from candidates about our high level candidate care – it seems to stand us apart from the rest !  We wish that all those who advertised with us would contact all of the applicants but as you can see, this is where the world has taken us !