Even in my personal life, I keep getting opportunities to practice my craft 😉
The difficulty of finding a plumber
The other day, I had to call in a plumber. It was no easy task and I felt like I was the one being interviewed! I had to convince them that I was worth their time!
On the agreed date and agreed time, no one showed up. ⏰ So I called the supervisor who promptly told me about all his staffing problems… The consultant in me was interested, the customer in me much less…
From then on, it was one tricky situation after another:
- The technician came in the afternoon, having left his good mood behind. ⛈
- He realized that the problem he had on his paper and thought he had come for did not mention the actual things he was supposed to fix.
- He didn’t have the spare parts he needed.
- So he went to pick up the spare parts from a local depot and returned after an hour. He then noticed that he has gone back to the warehouse for the wrong parts.
- Once he had completely drained the heating system with a pan (more expletives) he found out that the machine he needed to perform the task had broken down.
- A second colleague came to help him, but as they couldn’t complete the task, they both left at the end of the day, annoyed because they haven’t been able to work. Luckily, they had put the heating back on!
Second try
A few days later, the plumber came back to do the job as planned. Everything went well, but there’s one detail missing: I wasn’t warned of his arrival and practically greeted him in my pyjamas.
In short, I think you can see the kind of situation where you just don’t get off on the right foot. 🧨
Once the job was complete, the heating still wasn’t fully working so we started troubleshooting. after all, my job is to problem solve. One flooding later, we found the blockage in the pipes. It was now late (overtime) and couldn’t be fixed.
Third try
By now you’re begging for this post to end, so you’ll be pleased to know that it went well! 🎉
In all, they quoted for a 1 day repair, and it cost them 3 technician days 💰 and extra fuel ⛽️.
A waste of time and money for the company.
Learnings
Assessment for me: well, I found the experience instructive, an abysmal customer experience and a great consultant opportunity!
During the interventions, I was able to question the technician, get him talking and do my detective work, as I do during my consultancy work.
Part of my job is to gain the trust of my contacts and get to the bottom of the real problem.
This company is lacking in management and internal communication. It has trouble recruiting and retaining staff. There are a lot of things that don’t work, or don’t work well.
In the short time I’ve been in contact with the technician and his work, I’ve become aware of the company’s problems. Most of his issues were linked to the way they are organised and his mistakes were due to the stress of the moment, not his ability. As a consultant, I already know what I’d have to do if I had to intervene, all without having been invited to set foot in the company. As a customer, I’ll seek another plumber…
Can you say for certain something similar isn’t happening in your company?