I have been informed that the British Gas Call Centre in Cardiff (Capital City of Wales for my US friends) is the largest in Europe, employing over 1500 people to sit and speak to customers non stop for X number of hours each day.
It is a hard way to earn a living and, it transpires that the Call Centre has not been doing too well of late. Staff turnover was a staggering 67%, average length of waiting time for a customer to speak to an operator was in excess of 2.5 minutes....hard for citizens of the USA to comprehend, used as they are to exceedingly high levels of service.
In Japan, a shop assistant or hotel clerk will actually run to you rather than keep you waiting...but I digress.
So, British Gas took a long, hard look at their operation and re-jigged it to make it more efficient.
Part of this exercise involved identifying customers by giving them a category according to their approach. In this way, they were able to immediately assess a caller and 'stream' them into a pathway that was ideally suited to their needs.
How did they identify them? By their characteristics.
So, a demanding and authoritarian voice was nominated as a "Controller", a whimsical, imprecise voice was an "Entertainer" and a sensible, clearly defined voice became a "Thinker". I think I recall the advertising agents, Young and Rubicam doing a similar sort of socio economic type of profiling back in the 60s - back then they had "Crusaders" as one of the categories - the remainder are locked irretrievably in the grey blob within my skull commonly referred to as my brain.
So, let's apply this to the Catholic faithful shall we? Is that just too naughty of me?
I think that the extreme right wingers, the SSPXrs that segment who eschew any dealings with Rome; they are definitely "Controllers." The extreme left, on the other hand, the liberal, modernist 'pick 'n' mix' Catholics, they are the "Entertainers" (of course), and that just leaves the sensible, Traditional lobby as "Thinkers" - job done! Of course, I fall into the latter category...
.......did I forget to say that smugness is another characteristic of the "Thinker?"
And, finally, just to finish off on the British Gas front. After making these changes their staff turnover dropped to 13% and customer waiting time shrank to 7 seconds. That's what happens when you employ a consultant!
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| British Gas Call Centre Cardiff - a hard way to earn a living! |
In Japan, a shop assistant or hotel clerk will actually run to you rather than keep you waiting...but I digress.
So, British Gas took a long, hard look at their operation and re-jigged it to make it more efficient.
Part of this exercise involved identifying customers by giving them a category according to their approach. In this way, they were able to immediately assess a caller and 'stream' them into a pathway that was ideally suited to their needs.
How did they identify them? By their characteristics.
So, a demanding and authoritarian voice was nominated as a "Controller", a whimsical, imprecise voice was an "Entertainer" and a sensible, clearly defined voice became a "Thinker". I think I recall the advertising agents, Young and Rubicam doing a similar sort of socio economic type of profiling back in the 60s - back then they had "Crusaders" as one of the categories - the remainder are locked irretrievably in the grey blob within my skull commonly referred to as my brain.
So, let's apply this to the Catholic faithful shall we? Is that just too naughty of me?
I think that the extreme right wingers, the SSPXrs that segment who eschew any dealings with Rome; they are definitely "Controllers." The extreme left, on the other hand, the liberal, modernist 'pick 'n' mix' Catholics, they are the "Entertainers" (of course), and that just leaves the sensible, Traditional lobby as "Thinkers" - job done! Of course, I fall into the latter category...
.......did I forget to say that smugness is another characteristic of the "Thinker?"
And, finally, just to finish off on the British Gas front. After making these changes their staff turnover dropped to 13% and customer waiting time shrank to 7 seconds. That's what happens when you employ a consultant!
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