I’m securing 4 speakers for one client — outside of my comfort zone, for sure. Going through this process I’ve learned a few very valuable things. I should probably open a training company and teach it to everyone in the event business because they pretty much all suck. But processes in general are frustrating to people wanting to be served, and customer processing applies to every business, everywhere. My primary takeaway is this:
I don’t want 5 or 6 contacts to accomplish one goal.
Names have been changed to protect the guilty: Harry is the first point of contact. He refers you to Mary to do the paperwork. Mary refers you to Robin regarding how to give them money. Mary refers you to George because he’s finance. George is done with you and passes you to Larry for logistics. Larry is helpful but if you have a question that’s not about logistics he can’t assist. You have to remember the name and contact information for what area your question pertains. If they aren’t sure, they point you back to Harry. For me — this is the exact case for 2 of the 4 speakers!
Yes, I’m hot over the experiences I’m receiving. What isn’t hot is the weather in Indiana. Pretty frosty here in fact:
One person – a concierge.
Harry – the initial point of contact — should be the one delegating to Mary, Robin, George and Larry and come back to the customer/client (me in this instance) with what they need. Period. Did I mention Larry is overseas? Demands for what I can do to help them (a long pre-event questionnaire so I — as the customer — do their work for them)… and no help for what I need.
One of the speaker’s agents told me, “our talent; our rules.”
Around here, we play by the “GOLDEN rule.” The one with the GOLD rules. Right now, I have the gold. Ok, so it’s not really mine, but they don’t get it unless I say they get it.
All 4 of the speakers are getting a huge chunk of change (when your pay for one-hour is enough to buy a new BMW X1, that’s huge in my book!). They are getting it because a friend recommended them. If Jerilyn or Alisa recommended me to do work for MasterSbilt or the State, do you think I’d pass them off to Ben, Perry, or my Mom? Hell no!
They say customers complain more. They say employees don’t want to serve customers anymore and companies can’t find help. It’s because the processes have inflamed customers and the only person they can rage to is the one in front of them! The frontline employee doesn’t want a job… doesn’t want to work for a reason. It’s because the processes happening before they get the customer sets them up to fail.