Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

As I have noted elsewhere, our customers mostly like us, and what we do – the results we received from the survey we recently conducted were largely what we expected, in this sense.

When I find a bit more “spare” time, I’ll summarise some of the feedback here.

It’s a nice thing, but one we can’t take for granted.

From my perspective, we’ve already disappointed some of them on too many occasions.  I really want major improvement in the months ahead.

If we are really going to make “Customers First” our prime reason for being, we need to have an explicit measure of the extent to which we really do live by this motto.  When we have this measure, we will drive the company by this measure.

The development of this measure will be one of the core responsibilities that our new GM for Finding, Attracting and Delighting Customers will need to adopt, when we have recruited them.

Hence it was with interest that I stumbled upon this presentation titled “Ideas for Building Better Software Businesses” from Dharmesh Shah (of HubSpot) at the Business of Software conference in 2009:

Note that Dharmesh (as an additional service to his customers and fans) has prepared this page from his “OnStartups” blog to list some of the key points in the video.

I like this approach of “going the extra step” to make the message more understandable.

The following notes are specifically about his suggestions for the Customer Happiness Index (CHI):

Note that there is plenty of other good stuff in this video (you have to get to minute 47 before he mentions CHI), which I might have a chance to talk about at some other time.

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Technically speaking, our recruitment process has not even begun yet.

However, back in January I did mention that we hoped to have our GM M&S in place before the end of the year.

As a result of the interest generated when we kicked off the process of recruiting Derrick as our GM for DDD WCW, a number of people contacted me about this second position.  Some of these have kept in touch with me to keep tabs on our progress with a view to being considered when the process begins.

In case there are other interested people out there, here are some details of our status.

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For those who have been frequent readers of this blog, you will understand that I have a number books on the go at any one time.

This makes for eclectic reading, and generally slower progress than would otherwise be the case.

1)  Binary Review

… however I pretty much flew through this one, given it was aligned with our primary core value of “Customers First”, and the other ones as well.

The Book	What we thought
“I love you more than my Dog” by Jeanne Bliss	Just where we are headed

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I’ve just posted a book review of “I Love you More than my Dog!”

The following five-step action plan for saying sorry to customers was provided by the author (p144) and is worth remembering, so I’ve posted it separately here for east of reference:

STEP 1 = “Delivering a swift response.”

STEP 2 = “Showing humility and empathy for what the customer is experiencing.”

STEP 3 = “Accepting accountability”

STEP 4 = “Providing an honest explanation of what happened and a commitment to improve”

STEP 5 = “Extending the olive branch – to right the situation and mend the relationship”

I know we have a long way to go until we can say that we follow these steps unfailingly in all circumstances…

I was pointed to this post on the Esther Derby blog by some discussion on one of the many groups I’ve joined on LinkedIn.

With Shirlaws reminding me that one of the enduring roles of the CEO being to coach (and not play), I am keen to learn as much as I can about this increasingly important part of my role in the company.

In my 20 years of professional experience, I’ve gained a fair exposure to a wide range of aspects of the competitive electricity market – and have some clear ideas about the needs of our broad range of clients, and how we can delight them with the software we develop.

The role of “coach”, however, is not something in which I have gained extensive experience.  Hence I’m keen to (and need to) learn as much as I can.

Nothing else to say now – just want to keep a record of this post for future reference.

Over the 10+ years we’ve been in business, we’ve been lucky enough to gradually stumble upon a formula that provides us our own measure of stickiness with clients, and potential clients, in the electricity market:
1)  We have products, such as NEM-Watch, that have proven sticky products (the manifestation of ideas) in their own right
2)  The way our clients perceive us (in terms of “making the electricity market understandable”) has proven to be understood by many (though not all) people who come into contact with us – as we have been told by those who responded to our recent survey.
3)  In addition, we’ve had some (though far from all) of our communications prove to be fairly sticky.

Given where our bus is headed, we have a keen interest in building on this base to make ourselves much stickier in future – in the above ways, and more

1)  Binary Review

It’s for this reason that this book was of great interest to me…

The Book	What we thought
“Made to Stick - Why some ideas Survive and others Die” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath	… and it did not disappoint

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The June issue of Inc Magazine arrived recently.

Some issues don’t have much relevance to where we’re at, but this one had a few interesting articles.
1)  On this post, I’d like to comment on “Never read another Resume” by Jason Fried, co-founder of 37 Signals, specifically as it relates to us.
2) Perhaps I’ll also find time to post about the others at a later date …

Repeat visitors of this blog will understand how we’re investing quite a bit of time and effort, of late, in upgrading our capabilities – we’ve brought in a couple coaches (to bridge our skills gaps, short-term) and have started recruiting in a number of key people (starting with the software development team).

This article was relevant to these efforts.

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This may be the first time you have read an article posted on our “Behind the Scenes” blog – or you might be a regular reader.

Whatever is the case for you, you will have formed some kind of impression about our company, and the type of B2B software services we provide.

As such, we’d like you to tell us what you think of us, as this will help us to continue to develop and enhance the services we provide – now into our 2nd decade of service.

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As noted previously, we’re continuing the ongoing Autopsy 2 process to give some consideration about how we’re perceived in the marketplace, and (to the extent that it is different from how we wish to be perceived) what we need to do to move this perception.

Hence, it was with interest that I rocked up to today’s Brisbane session of the “Thought Leaders” breakfast series held by the AIM.

Perhaps I’m not too quick on the uptake, but it was not until the breakfast had started that I realised I had been lured into a session that was part real information, and part infomercial for a consulting/coaching firm that runs by the name of (you guessed it…) Thought Leaders.

Today our presenter was Darren Hill, on of their mentors.

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I first read this book about 10 years ago. Re-read recently it to refresh my memory of some of the core concepts expounded by the authors – as it is very topical for the company, where we are at presently, and with several important decisions to be made.

1)  Binary Review

This one is a pretty easy read, with good insights (and many anecdotes).

The Book	What we thought
“Positioning – the battle for your mind” by Al Ries & Jack Trout	Very topical for us

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