I was sitting on the wall outside CogansToyota dealership in Carrigaline in glorious sunshine on this Friday afternoon.
Dee was inside going through the paperwork before she collected her brand new car and I was trying to do the necessary to change over the insurance.
I took the contact number from the insurance disk and began the process….”we are experiencing a high volume of calls“.
I was now on hold and at the beginning of another frustrating loop of waiting while listening to auto messages on the AXA Insurance “customer line”.
“Our lines are busy and you will be waiting for 10 minutes. If you prefer click 1 and we will send you a link”
I did that and the damn link didn’t work and I found myself back at the beginning of the queue.
It looked for my e-mail address and the nine digit policy number – what was on the disk was more than nine numbers.
After hearing the “10 minute” message over and over for at least 10 minutes it eventually changed to a “5 minute” message.
This repeated over and over for at least 10 minutes and my frustration was building and building: “your call will be answered in under 5 minutes”, over and over.
A thought struck me ….what a silly 1st world problem…
It’s a gorgeous Friday
You are about to collect a new car
….Life is pretty good
I imagined a Ukrainian woman sitting on a wall somewhere with her two children, hungry and scared.
Her partner is fighting in a brutal war, her home has been destroyed by Russian bombs, they have left all of their belongings behind, she is in a strange country and is totally at the mercy of others to provide food and shelter to her and her children.
What is she thinking?
“Where will we be sent, will we have our own room, will my husband survive, do we start all over again – what’s going to happen to us?“
I quickly went from her nightmare to my situation when a voice came on the phone.
“How can I help you?”
I started to first explain about the long wait, the link to the website and the 9 digit policy number.
He wasn’t listening “what can I do for you?”
I explained that we were collecting a new car and I wanted to change over the insurance.
“Can you call out your 9 digit policy number please?”
“Which 9 numbers do you want?” And I called out what I did have.
“That’s an AIB policy that we underwrite, you need to call them directly” he said
“Hold on… this is the phone number listed on my disk, which brought me to you and you are telling me I have to repeat this whole process again with some other call centre?” – I wasn’t happy ..
“Do you want the AIB number or not?” He was getting short with me now.
“Why print the AXA number on the insurance disk that you issue to AIB customers if it is wrong?” I was getting just as cranky.
He hung up the phone….he was too busy for this frustrated Cork boy!
Jill in Cogan’s garage had the AIB insurance “hotline” number and literally in under two minutes the job was done.
We drove away in Dee’s beautiful new car.
We work our socks off for it but ….we are pretty damn lucky!
What are we seriously like when a printed receipt from a disgruntled customer makes the news in our national newspapers?!!
The outraged Ciara who was charged €45 and 10% gratuity for her and her two guests for their tea/coffee and scones, politely shared her receipt online and boom, outrage and national news.
Let’s pull back from this outrage for half a second and calm our “outrage” jets.
The Cashel Palace Hotel is a brand new five star hotel that has just opened after huge investment, the amount of money that most of us can only dream about. The owners had a vision and brought this fantastic property to life in the best possible way and part of this is delivering five star service to guests which does not come cheap.
This special property has most people talking in a very positive, admiring way and have no doubt it will bring business to the area, the type of clientele from Ireland and overseas who want special experiences.
If we want to sit and relax in a brand new five star property and enjoy five star linen service with the best of coffee and tea, fresh home made scones with jam, butter and cream, then this will come with a price that must cover all of that and yes, make a profit for the business!!
While €45 plus 10% gratuity (I do hate that automatic add on) is a lot of money but it is probably necessary to cover someone occupying a much in demand table for as much time as they choose.
Ciara won’t be back anytime soon but many will.
The Cashel Palace Hotel isn’t where any of us will go everyday for our scone and coffee and a chat but on that special occasion we will dress up, make it a very special occasion and enjoy the food and surroundings and pay that premium price, because sometimes you do get what you pay for.
While Starbucks will charge you the bones of €8 for the same, you know and I know that it isn’t the same because it’s not just about the scone!
So, maybe instead of outrage, let’s congratulate Adriaan Bartels, his team and the vision of the owners for being brave and creating such a special place for all of us to enjoy on those very special occasions.
Frances Fitzgerald, the Tanaiste has resigned “for the sake of the country“..
Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach has thanked her, for her service and has declared that it is a shame that a good woman who has done nothing wrong has resigned..
Fianna Faíl have got their way and they will quietly sit in the wings waiting, waiting, waiting until the perfect moment to pull that trigger. They exercised their power in a big, public gesture and won this power battle..
Noel Waters, Secretary-General of the Department of Justice has decided to take early retirement and he is angry about the witch hunt against the organisation that he has been in charge of..
Noírín O’Sullivan, the Garda Commissioner, who was publicly supported by the Government retired in September (after her holidays!)..
A devious, nasty campaign against Maurice McCabe, the Garda Whistleblower, Parking Fines, Breath Tests – the whole thing is a shambles, a debacle of monumental proportions and yet at this moment in time no one is saying sorry and no one seems to be doing anything to sort anything out.
One of the critical instruments of the State, our police force, is totally out of control and no one is taking any responsibility – “I did nothing wrong“…The problem is that you did nothing!!!
But, phew..the crisis has been averted for now and there will be no General Election this side of Christmas – we can all get on with our shopping.
But..what about the Whistleblower??
Somewhere in the mix, the whole point of all of this seems to have gone over everyone’s heads.
What about Maurice McCabe??
Have we heard anyone in authority saying (in a manner that we believe them) that we will not put up with any corruption in our State organisations as it will not be tolerated and any whistleblower will get all of our protection?
Have we heard anyone apologising publicly to Maurice McCabe?
Instead we have listened to horrendous stories of legal strategies against him and “it wasn’t in my jurisdiction to interfere“.
In this country we have legislation that was enacted in 2014 to protect Whistleblowers.
The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 aims to protect people who raise concerns about possible wrongdoing in the workplace. The Act, which came into effect on 15 July 2014. It provides for redress for employees who are dismissed or otherwise penalised for having reported possible wrongdoing in the workplace.
Under the Act, you make a protected disclosure if you are a worker and you disclose relevant information in a particular way.
Information is relevant if it came to your attention in connection with your work and you reasonably believe that it tends to show wrongdoing.
This wrongdoing may be occurring or suspected to be occurring either inside or outside of the country. Even if the information is proved to be incorrect, you are still protected by the Act provided you had a reasonable belief in the information.
Wrongdoing is widely defined in the Act and includes the commission of criminal offences, failure to comply with legal obligations, endangering the health and safety of individuals, damaging the environment, miscarriage of justice, misuse of public funds, and oppressive, discriminatory, grossly negligent or grossly mismanaged acts or omissions by a public body.
The definition also includes the concealment or destruction of information about any of the above wrongdoing.
The Act gives people anonymity, it describes how people should go about making a Protected Disclosure and it outlines how the Employer must act when presented with a disclosure.
All of this sounds great in practice, and there will be a poor sod who actually believes it and goes about reporting something they feel morally bound to do!! (Ssssh..if he/she was a friend or work colleague of yours what would you whisper in their ear?).
The Big Question?
So, taking the whole recent circus into account, lets be really honest here for a moment.
If you were in the scenario, working for a State body and who felt strongly about some bad crap or “wrongdoing” that was going on where you worked what would you do?
I’m guessing you would either shut up and say nothing (and perpetuate the problem) or just leave.
We have all learnt a big lesson – don’t complain!!
Early last week we were asked to comment by the publication Fora.ie about the whole Ryanair fiasco and what we thought of how they handled their crisis.
In a crisis situation we always advise –
Don’t hide
Quickly establish the facts
Be 100% truthful
Always provide a solution (or a least be honest about working hard to find one)
Don’t be afraid to say sorry (as long as you mean it)
Don’t be shy about telling people the good things you are doing
This can be achieved with a combination of holding statements, follow up statements, interviews and implementing any necessary changes.
In the case of Ryanair there wasn’t really a formal apology but Michael O’Leary was door stopped by reporters and did say it was “clearly a mess” but he went on to point out that it was just 2% of their passengers that had been affected. I think Michael is missing the point here about focussing on the good things!
On their website where they have a page dedicated to the cancelled flights they also remind people of this “2%” as well as listing the flights that have been cancelled. They also provide a ‘link’ to a page that directs people to an EU legislation document about entitlements to refunds and compensation.
The words “sorry” or “apologise” don’t appear anywhere!
Understandably customers are irate – Ryanair are not helping the situation by drip feeding news about cancelled flights, their customer contact lines not being managed efficiently and are still overheating their situation by promoting flights at “€19.99”.
Furthermore, they have been denying that part of the problem is pilots leaving to take jobs in other airlines.
This scenario has got even worse with pilots going public with their gripes and painting a pretty awful picture about what life is like working for the ‘low care’ airline.
All of this comes at a time when the airline has been trying to refocus it’s brand with their “Always Getting Better” campaign.
A different scenario?
So – would it have made a difference if Ryanair were upfront, issued a formal apology and showed genuine empathy with inconvenienced customers and were honest about solutions and assurances going forward?
The answer would be a big “Yes” but there is also a big “But” to contend with.
The effectiveness of this approach will depend on what people feel about the company when embarks on such a course –
Do people feel warmly towards the airline?
Do they believe that there is a genuine concern for customers?
Do they believe that staff at the airline are treated well?
Do they believe that this company does charitable work?
Do they believe there is a strong moral compass at the airline?
Have they communicated the great things (if such things exist) they have been doing to the general public and stakeholders?
Maybe realising this Michael felt there was no point pretending to care?
In a crisis a robust process will definitely help but the best preparation for a crisis is to be good and do good things and communicate this effectively – it is only then that people will be willing to listen to your apology and accept it.
Leopards don’t change their spots and not caring will bite you in the butt eventually.
We were on the North East Corridor train heading out from Penn Station in New York to Metro Park in New Jersey to spend a few days with my brother Colin and his family.
On a commuter train to suburbia it’s hard not to observe the other passengers and wonder about their stories and their lives.
There was a guy sitting across from us, I’m guessing in his twenties dressed all in black with headphones on – every now and then he would sing along in Spanish. Many of the public signs here are in English and Spanish, which surprised me.
There was an African American guy, again in his twenties wearing a green hoodie and a baseball cap under that, also listening to his music.
An older guy sat alongside us wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a grey top and an unusual pair of Crocs on his feet. He also had a crutch so this probably explained the footwear. He looked a little dishevelled so maybe he wasn’t having the best of days.
The ticket collector came around – he takes your ticket, then produces another ticket, punches a hole in this and then clips it behind you under a little metal clip. He does this for each of the people around us.
He comes to the guy next to us, the grey tracksuit guy, who takes his ticket from under his sock and produces it for inspection.
“Tear it in half” the ticket officer tells him. The passenger looks confused.
“Tear it in half” the ticket officer repeats, this time with a little more intent.
He looks confused and asks “Why?”
“I’m not touching that, it’s been in your sock” he says.
The poor guy in the tracksuit never felt better I’m sure. His bad day, week, month, year or decade was confirmed in front of his fellow travellers and he quietly accepted this instruction and tore his ticket in half.
The ticket officer was able to go ahead with his job without having to touch the offensive ticket.
This was an unpleasant and unnecessary exchange between two strangers and at what cost?
Would it have been so hard just to take the piece of paper from this fellow human being and treat it like all those other pieces of paper, equally and with respect?
The first I knew I had been caught speeding coming out of Dublin last year was when Dee called me.
A Garda had knocked on the door of our house with a Court Summons – she was working from home that Tuesday.
He remarked that “you are never at home” as this was his fourth time calling!
Dee called me immediately as according to the summons I was due in Naas Courthouse the following Thursday week. Not only had I been caught doing 113 in a 100 stretch of the motorway leaving Dublin but I had also neglected to pay the resulting fine!
There was obviously an error as I had never even received the speeding fine.
I called the phone number for An Garda Síochána that was on the summons and as expected I was put through to some call centre.
I explained to the woman on the phone that I was more than happy to pay my fine but I had never received the notice so a court appearance should not be necessary.
“Do you not send a follow up reminder, like one would get with a phone bill or any other bill?” I asked her.
“No, we send one fine notice by regular post and if you don’t pay we automatically start a court process” she explained.
“This is totally crazy, how can you rely on regular post with something so serious? I pay my bills, I was one of the stupid idiots who actually paid their water charges! Who can I talk to?”
I was quickly given the usual “there is nothing I can do” line and was told to ring the court. I asked her if a lot of people ring with the same issue and she admitted it is a regular occurrence.
Change the stupid process maybe?!!
I tried calling the court phone number she gave me and failed miserably to get past their answering machine – I guessed that would have been another pointless round of “there is nothing I can do” so I gave up.
A quick call to my solicitor confirmed that this bullshit system is what it is and the best advice was to attend at 10:30 as indicated.
Brilliant…a trip to Naas on a busy workday is all I needed!
I changed around my week so that I could make my court date. I left Cork early for Naas on the Thursday. I hoped the whole thing would be done quickly so I could make a meeting in Dublin in the afternoon. I told my client I might be delayed and quite frankly I was embarrassed about the whole court thing so I didn’t mention why.
As expected the court was a hive of activity with every sort hanging around, with many huddled in corners chatting to their solicitors.
The court clerk directed me to the lists on the wall. I was number 51 on the list in Court 1. I asked her if there was any chance that I would be gone by lunchtime. She expected I would be.
I made my way into the packed courtroom and found myself a space to sit on one of the many wooden benches. There was a very mixed crowd in the room including a bunch of tough looking lads in tracksuits near the front of the court.
The Judge got into the flow of his day with breakneck speed processing case after case.
The names were called and as each person approached the bench he shouted “Hearing date” at them.
That was the prompt to admit to the charge in question or look for a case date. It was clear that 90% of the cases were speeding fines and he flew through them one after another.
59 in a 50 – “sorry Judge, I was on holidays and missed the deadline for paying” – case dismissed!
146 in a 120 – “guilty” – “that’s a 300 euro fine. You have 6 months to pay”
There was an interruption to the speeding fines to deal with one of the tough looking young lads that was in the court. It was hard to hear the conversation between the Judge and the barrister but it resulted in a hearing date and the young lad was led out of the court in handcuffs. It looked like he was quite used to this environment.
An older woman’s name was called and she shuffled to the top of the room on her bad legs “Hearing date” …”I have two already” was her response. She thought he said “hearing aid“. The whole court room giggled as well as the judge.
She received a fine.
Another poor old man who clearly needed a hearing aid tried to explain that he had paid his fine but it got lost in the post. “Case dismissed”
The man was told he didn’t have to pay his fine.
Was I missing something – why not pay the fine?
Eventually my name was called and I made my way to the top of the courtroom. “Hearing date?”
“I accept the speeding charge but I never received the fine, your honour” I explained.
“Do you want a hearing date?” he repeated.
I repeated what I said and he asked me again about a hearing date.
“I’m happy to pay a fine but I didn’t receive a notice”
The Judge looked at me and paused and asked carefully if I had taken legal advice and I explained that my advice was that I should attend. He gave me a look.
I was clearly missing something.
He offered to swear me into evidence at the end of the court sitting as a way to resolve this. I explained to him that I just needed to get to Dublin and was okay with paying a fine.
“150 euros fine” and then he said the strangest thing “did you ever hear the expression ‘never look a gift horse in the mouth’?”
Was he saying I could have got away without paying a fine – surely not?
As I walked out of the court, anxious to make my appointment in Dublin, a guy grabbed my arm and enlightened me.
“You just cost yourself extra penalty points. It’s all or nothing, he was giving you a way out!”
It’s all or nothing – the judge can’t insist on you paying a fine and waive the second part, which is the extra penalty for not paying. This stupid system is costing the country as the judge must dismiss the case and waive the speeding fine or else charge you in full!
Damn – I messed up.
While I was totally frustrated at this point I had to be happy with my decision to get out of there and make my client meeting.
This system is totally crazy – one fine by regular post that never reached me, no reminders, four house calls by a busy Garda, a court wasting valuable time and resources and I wasted a whole day including the cost of travel.
I guarantee 100% that if you drove through the M50 auto toll heading to Dublin airport and you did not pay your toll fee then they would track you down with notices, reminders and further notices.
The following day I read how the government agency, Tusla sent a written apology to the Garda whistleblower, Maurice McCabe because of their fiasco with the false sex accusations. Ironically the whistle blowing was about members of the Gardaí squashing speeding fines.
Their apology went to the wrong address!
There is a of time being wasted by An Garda Siochána and the courts because of really poor systems that results in ordinary folk being dragged unfairly to court on nonsense charges..come on!!
Back in January our Dyson vacuum cleaner packed up and we were more than happy to replace it with another one. It’s a brand I really believe in, so much so that I wrote a blog about it called ‘Hoovering and Storytelling‘.
Three weeks ago we had a problem with our relatively new Dyson so we rang the customer service number and after a very straight forward, quibble free process the offending part would be replaced and delivered to us. The promise was that we would have it within ‘10 working days‘.
To be honest I thought 10 working days was quite a long time for a part they said was in stock but at least they were going to replace it and in the meantime we would manage.
Three weeks passed and there was no sign of our part so we called the Dyson customer service number. They had a record of our transaction and confirmed that due to a system glitch the part had not been dispatched. The operative was very polite, very apologetic but explained that unfortunately we were back at the beginning of the process again and a replacement part would take up to 10 working days to get to us.
It was time to take a stand and explain that this really wasn’t good enough.
Without getting argumentative we asked the operative if there was some way of expediting the delivery of our part. He told us he needed to check with his supervisor so he put us on hold briefly. After about two minutes he came back to us and confirmed that while the circumstances were unfortunate there was “nothing they could do“.
I detest those words because quite simply there is always something that can be done. ‘There is nothing I can do‘ is a choice about what you are prepared to do, a choice about what is acceptable.
This was the system.
We left him know that we weren’t happy and that surely there is ‘always something that can be done‘? Nope ..
We had exhausted the ‘official channel‘ so we reluctantly reverted to twitter to vocalise our disappointment with the Dyson brand.
Immediately the Dyson social media team reacted and wanted to know what happened. Without too much fuss they confirmed that what happened wasn’t good enough, that it wasn’t consistent with the Dyson culture so they would investigate our situation immediately and check with the customer service team.
They thanked us for highlighting a ‘flaw‘ in their customer service procedures, which they would take on board as a learning. Instead of waiting 10 days for a replacement part a new, better machine would be delivered to us in three working days.
With all of our businesses we have to make decisions on a regular basis about how we handle complaints. What do we do, how quick do we respond, what is fair – what do we decide is acceptable?
Things will inevitably go wrong from time to time and while we all hate complaints we need to make a decision about how we deal with them. A complaint is a great way to show the real ethos of your business and instead of saying ‘there is nothing I can do‘ we need to embrace the issue, do our very best and learn from it.
If you were cynical you might decide that Dyson reacted because the issue was highlighted on a public social media platform but I do believe they were genuine and they rose to the Customer Service Challenge. Instead of being a negative for the brand it is a positive. My faith is restored!
This group of business owners meet pretty much every second Friday morning, bright and early from 7:30 am till 9am. The sessions always involve some informal networking over a coffee and normally there is a guest speaker about some topic of interest.
(I would highly recommend it to business owners in Dublin – great for networking, learning, contacts and new business)
At our recent session, which I was privileged to chair we did some formal networking by breaking the room into circles of six people allowing each person a proper chance to share with the others what they do. At the session we also looked for people to share their number one business tip, which was quite interesting and varied.
At the end of the session each group were asked to share their learnings, which again generated some really interesting topics;
Nothing beats meeting people face to face
Listen to your customer and be open to changing your offer according to what they need
By listening to others you always learn something new
Cold calling can be quite enjoyable!
Don’t be afraid to ask for the business
My big learning from the session was that you should never under estimate the wisdom that experience brings – in every conversation with someone you nearly always learn something new.
I was chatting to one of the attendees, Sean who was passionate about customer service. The gist of the conversation was that customer service has disimproved generally and that there is huge customer frustration in particular with the call centre culture whereby you rarely get the feeling that someone is really ‘on top‘ of your problem.
You know the drill ..you call, you are often in a queue to be heard, you go through a sequence of pressing numbers, then you give your account details and eventually you get a chance to describe what is wrong. From here you can end up being passed from pillar to post, each time repeating your details and the nature of the problem.
In fact when you have an issue you need to put a good half hour aside as the whole process can end up taking that long.
He used a great expression to demonstrate what a great process would look like. You just want the person you speak to first to say: “Don’t worry, I own your problem now” and leave you with an assurance that they will see it through until it is sorted.
You feel something has gone wrong, you have been treated unfairly, you have seen someone else being treated badly and they are losing out..
If you open your mouth and complain then you become the ‘pain in the backside‘, the one who always ends up raising the issue, always being troublesome, the one to be avoided in the future.
In some ways maybe you are better off just saying nothing … Let someone else be the one to complain or raise the issue.
We rationalise that maybe that is actually the best approach, bite the lip, say nothing, stay in line and stay in favour, surely someone else will ask the question?
All of us do this all of the time because it makes sense, we think about the bigger picture and we decide to be strategic. Surely this is the best way to win?
Every time we do this someone gets away with something that maybe they shouldn’t and bad practices become a habit – with power and influence on their side bad practice becomes an even bigger habit and it goes on and on.
Before we know it we are reading awful stories about sweet deals, favours, corruption, embezzlement, back handers and abuse … we read about Jimmy Savile and wonder how could such terrible, shocking things happen. Who is to blame?
When we make a decision to say nothing it becomes all of our fault.
Dr. Martin Luther King famously said “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”
The call came through directly to us that we were invited to tender for supplying social media training services across the country for this state body (I won’t mention who it was for the moment).
Alarm bell number one..
Why wasn’t this put out to tender on the normal etender website I wondered?
I get quite suspicious when this happens – isn’t there a normal procedure for this?
Alarm bell number two..
We received the specification for this training and I was really surprised by how specific it was and by some of the language used. The objective was outlined clearly and it was up to the service providers to provide a solution. The thing is the ‘solution‘ was nearly fully mapped out in the specification.
One of the challenges for us was that the prescribed ‘solution’ would not achieve the required objectives.
We were well qualified to deliver a comprehensive solution for this organisation and we have huge relevant experience in the area so we went about writing a plan. This work took me the best part of a day to complete.
Alarm bell number three..
There was a very unusual item in the specification advising that the provider should budget “in a range of between €21,000 and €24,000“.
Why would a state organisation provide anyone tendering with a price guide? This was particularly surprising when the published ‘marking criteria‘ included cost.
Is it not up to each provider to assess the need and then provide a budget to fulfil this need?
Our proposal ..
We completed our proposal and included a more comprehensive training schedule than what was prescribed in their specification, clearly explaining why less training would not achieve their objectives.
I priced this using our normal rates and I was surprised that despite the heavier workload our budget came in a few thousand under the €21,000 – €24,000 price range as indicated.
We submitted our proposal and crossed our fingers – this was a really well thought out substantial and comprehensive evaluation and training plan.
Just like every proposal you work on, you end up investing your time and a little part of yourself in them and you become hopeful – on this proposal we were definitely hopeful.
Alarm bell number four – time to evacuate the building!!
We received our ‘Dear John‘ letter within days of submitting the proposal and we also received our score compared to the winning proposal based on the evaluation criteria.
On ‘methodology and fit for purpose‘ we scored 1,800 out of 3,000.
Surprise,surprise …the winning provider scored a full 3,000!!
Our methodology took their specification and went deeper and more comprehensive – I could feel the rage starting to build inside me.
A score of 1,800 means we barely know what we are doing ..
On ‘quality and balance of resources proposed‘ we scored 2,800 out of 3,500.
Surprise, surprise (once again!!)…the winning provider scored a full 3,500!!
Wow …they must be brilliant. Like those kids in school who get 100% out of 100% for everything.
The rage was starting to brim over … the cat, the dog, the laptop, the office door – nothing was safe (don’t worry I just cursed a lot!)
On ‘cost‘ we scored 3,500 out of 3,500..Jackpot!
Surprise, surprise …we beat the winning provider because our costs were below what was prescribed in the tender document. My accounting training was starting to pay off!
Rules and regulations..
I feel sorry for the government agencies as they are obliged to put things out to tender even when they might have a preferred provider. This ‘technically‘ means there is always 100% transparency, fairness and honesty and equal opportunity for everyone.
90% of the providers I have met have given up on this tender process because they believe it is a farce and a colossal waste of time and anything but fair.
In the commercial world we can work with whoever we want and when we want even if providers are more expensive – this makes business easy as we can just get on with things and not be forced into a painful ‘tender’ process every single time we want to get our business done.
However, these rules are in place and when these agencies are obliged to put things out to tender this commits anyone (fools like us) who is interested in the work to spend a lot of time working on proposals.
If the process is genuine we will play the game and put our best foot forward and let the best crew win.
When it is not and we are being used unfairly just so that the agency can ‘tick the box‘ on their technical obligations it is a much different manner.
What can we do??
This time I have had enough and I am complaining, freedom of information, the whole nine yards and I don’t care about the consequences.
The dilemma we all have is that ‘we don’t want to be seen as the troublemakers‘ and if we complain then we run the risk of not getting some crumbs from the table down the road.
We pay our taxes, which pays for these state agencies and if these rules are in place I won’t put up with anyone wasting our precious time just so they can tick a box and give the business to their favoured supplier.
I’ll let you know how this one goes…
Update !!
A lot of people have contacted me since I published this post.
Many are irate and have given up on the tender system as they feel it is anything but. Some have criticised me and told me that we are naive to expect any of this to be a chance of winning business – ‘play the game‘ and get in there before things go to tender, which is how you win things I am told.
I desperately want to believe that this system can work fairly and that it is a valid way of winning business.
With that rationale I did officially complain and as expected I didn’t get very far..
There were explanations
Performance – the winning company apparently committed to seven times more activity than what was outlined in the brief. I can’t see how this would be necessary and I struggle to see how the teams would be free to attend that much training. We will keep a careful eye on that one.
Budget – they told me that it is their “normal practice” to give a budget guideline to be fair to everyone tendering. I don’t think I have seen this in a tender, at least not the ones we have entered.
The unexplained
It turns out another company who tendered for the work scored exactly the same as we did on the criteria except for the cost element. An incredible coincidence …what do you think?
They contacted me when they saw this post and have decided not to complain as they want to make sure that they do get those ‘crumbs from the table‘ the next time they might be going.
Greg Canty Fuzion Blog 