Our first full day. We kicked off the day with our introductions. Several of the speakers walked all the way up to the front of the room to speak while others just stood in place, which I thought was very interesting for some strange reason. Most of the speakers did very well. I immediately realized that I didn't interview my person nearly well enough. Ah well, go with what you got. I enjoyed hearing about everyone.
This was followed by two customer service videos then presentations from Rich, Joe, Mr. Opfer. The first video was basic retail/business customer service that kept reminding me very strongly of the customer service episode from The Office (BBC). The second was on internal customers within a government agency...very appropriate for us. This was immediately followed by Rich who introduced Opfer who spoke and took questions. Rich followed that with a presentation of his own ideas on customer service, and then Joe sharing some of his experiences.
In the afternoon we split up into our breakout groups after enjoying cookies supplied by the hotel (one cookie each please). My group was led by Joe who spent a lot of time reading comments (sounded like just selected phrases from comments). For example he would tell us that one comment said our staff member was "professional" while another comment said our staff member was "rude and abrasive" and then sort of emphasize the idea that "professional" was good while "rude and abrasive" was maybe not so good. This was followed by our taking a personality test, the "Parker Team Player Survey" meant to "identify your style, assess your current strengths, and create a plan for increasing your effectiveness as a team player." Sadly we ran out of time and had to wrap up before everyone had tallied up their score (which was confusing). Turns out I'm more of a collaborator and communicator than a contributor or challenger.
After a bike ride and a chance to digest this afternoon I'm starting to get a little apprehensive about where we seem to be headed. Rich and Joe seem to have a very good sense of what constitutes good customer service, and they seem very confident that they are practicing good customer service, but I'm wondering about their ability to lead us in achieving good "team" customer service. In a sense I think I'm hearing them say "I do good customer service. You need to do it too. Here's what it looks like. Now go do it." I'm wondering if what we're really lacking here is someone who can teach us. Ah well, we'll see I guess.
After we were dismissed for the evening I raced up to get changed and get out for a ride. I got all the way outside before I noticed a flat rear tire, first one of the trip. A staple. I went for a great ride down Osborne Turnpike to the Osborne Pike Boat Landing.
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