The necessity of cell phones and customer service

Have you ever been somewhere and as you're getting ready to leave you realize both your legs are asleep? It makes me feel awkward and momentarily helpless.

That's also how I felt last week when some cell towers were down and I had no cell service for a day or so.

Just like my legs being asleep, I knew it would pass, but I still didn't like it.

To make it all worse, I don't have another phone. I guess I could have used a work phone or something, but I don't have a landline at my house. I missed an important work phone appointment, but I wrote the person an email a half an hour later when I figured out what was going on and they were very understanding. But what would have happened if there was some sort of disaster? Well, chances are that even then the phone lines might be out, but still it makes me think that I should get a landline, just in case.

And just communicating via email isn't always the best. The same goes with texting. Yes, it's convenient. Yes, I can attach documents and include URLs. However, in any formal messages, I always have to be thinking, "How would this sound to a superior or a client or someone under me? Does this sound like I am unintentionally rude or unprofessional, or like I'm inadvertently criticizing them?" My wife and friends know me well enough to understand my tone, but coworkers and colleagues probably don't. What other messages am I sending?

Ten years ago I didn't have a cell phone, so why am I so tethered to it now? I'm addicted to it, and I don't even have any apps or games featuring disgruntled fowl launching themselves at buildings. I see the benefit of my future children having cell phones, but I also see drawbacks. I grew up fine without one. How did we used to do business? Are cell phone even necessary?

Probably. We've built our past-paced culture around being able to get ahold of whom we want at anytime. It will be an interesting day when something happens to knock out our communication networks or if there's some massive power outage. We feel entitled to open communication - from the government, from businesses (especially big ones, or ones in which we have stock) and from our associates.

Speaking of open communication, I'm just going to complain a little about the lack of it from my phone provider, who didn't email me to tell me that there was a problem with some towers. (I almost said "who didn't call or text me", but I caught myself.) Actually, I don't even know if this was a planned thing. If it was, then it was a bad idea and it was poorly executed. But supposing it was not, which I prefer to assume, they still should have taken the initiative to try and let their customers know there was a problem.

I don't care if I have to pay more – I would rather have a provider that's concerned about me and goes out of their way to let me know there's a problem and how long it'll take to fix. What about doctors who depend on their phones to get emergency calls from their patients or from the answering service? Because of this company's lack of concern for their customers, somebody could have died. Obviously this is a bit of an exaggeration, but it's still feasible.

The videogame industry has been struggling with that lately, too. One of my coworker's accounts got hacked and the company didn't tell him. One day he tried to use his credit card, and it was declined. So he called his bank and they told him the same thing has happened to other people and others were putting their own accounts on hold because of a hack. At that point he called his videogame online network customer service people and they explained that their network had been hacked weeks before.

Ok. I'm done. This went from my vulnerability from only having a cell phone to me being frustrated with bad customer service.

And since I've been sitting cross-legged on the floor while I wrote this, my legs are asleep, too.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

Apple retail stores and the TQM experience

About a year and a half ago, a friend of mine was getting ready to move to New York City for the summer, and some of us were talking about what we would do if we went out to visit her. One of my friends said the first thing he would do is go the "glass cube" Apple store on Fifth Avenue (pictured at left).

As nerdy as that sounds, he's not alone: a recent article in the Wall Street Journal says that more people now visit one of Apple's 326 stores in a single quarter than the 60 million who visited Disney's four biggest theme parks last year.

The aforementioned article is filled with valuable insight into what drives the popularity of Apple's retail stores. But I want to highlight what stood out the most to me: Apple sales associates are trained not to sell, but rather to help customers solve problems. Employees receive no sales commissions and have no sales quotas.

To me, this epitomizes the Total Quality Management (TQM) principle that we are taught in our operations management classes. Employees in a TQM environment focus primarily on the customer. They aren't thinking about themselves ("If I sell two more gizmos, I will make an extra $30 on my next paycheck!").

I am not a smart enough person to know the exact situations when sales commissions are appropriate and when they are not. So I am certainly not saying that sales commissions and quotas should be eliminated, nor do I believe that businesses that use them are foolish. But, there is something to be said for the emphasis Apple sales associates place on the customer. In our own jobs and careers, we will be much more successful if we find ways to shift our focus away from ourselves and toward those who we are trying to assist.

Connor Child

A student speaks about advice from a career accelerator

"The true character of a person is how he or she treats people they don't need."

These were the first words quoted by Ron Godfrey of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business when he came to my business communication class as a guest speaker. Someone passing by the classroom would have heard him lecturing about employment, what to put on a resume and how to present oneself at a job interview. However, I heard him speak about how we can become successful in the classroom, at the workplace and in every aspect of our lives.

"Your resume is the most important part of you getting a job."

As a college student, I have heard this several times; however, instead of hearing what I should put on a resume, I heard how we as students can go about finding our strengths, weaknesses and what things make us who we are. Mr. Godfrey told each of us to "Brand yourself; bleed onto the paper." He said that many of those who are in charge of hiring employees will ask the receptionists and the custodians how interviewees treated them. They are looking for employees with the utmost integrity. This is great advice for someone competing for a job but better advice for someone to live by everyday of his or her life.

"Hey, I need to talk to you about a couple of things." To which Mr. Godfrey would reply, "What's the second thing?"

Some people talk a lot and say very little. This was not the case when Mr. Godfrey came to my class and spoke about employment and career acceleration. It was as if not a single word was wasted in his lecture. Using his years of experience in the business world, he was able to teach me things I can do to have a better chance at landing a job; but with wisdom (and sometimes needing to read between the lines), he taught me ways I can become a more successful person.

Adam Thompson

Take Charge

On Tuesday night, our Great Work Great Career class learned about the importance of having an idea of what you want to do in life and working towards it.

The course we have been taking is based on the book of the same name that was written by Stephen R. Covey and Jennifer Colosimo. It helps people identify and develop their unique talents and passions. It also helps people better tap those skills, and it prepares them for the job market by helping them improve their resume and interviewing abilities.

Most recently, we had the opportunity to hear from Dave Patel, director of executive outreach at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. He talked about when he graduated from Utah State University and immediately drove to Washington, D.C., to take charge of his life and pursue a great career. He had the opportunity of working for the office of Senator Orrin Hatch and later for the office of the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Patel explained that integrity, initiative and intelligence are crucial characteristics when working to improve your life.

Mr. Patel closed by saying that the world needs more Aggies. He encouraged us to get involved, take advantage of our opportunities along the way and get out as we take charge.

22 to 10 in 15 minutes

I agree - that's a strange title. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, we met with architectural firms interested in doing the programming and design of our new building. There were 22 firms at the meeting. That's where the "22" in the title comes from. I was not excited about reading 22 proposals - especially if they weren't legitimate contenders.

Programming is the process where we figure out how many classrooms we need, what size and configurations those classrooms need to be, how many offices we need, how many meeting rooms, etc. It's complicated stuff - especially with the dynamic changes happening in business education right now. We really want to work with someone who has been through the programming process for a business school in the recent past. I spent 15 minutes explaining this need to the 22 architectural firms.

Apparently it worked. We got 10 proposals - not 22. It is taking me an hour or more to read and evaluate each proposal. So my 15 minutes saved me more than 12 hours of work. Hooray!

And I still have time to write this blog.

Ken Snyder

Warm weather means yard work for one student

This weekend I went to my grandfather’s funeral. Among the people who spoke at the services was my dad’s youngest brother. One of the things he mentioned was how he always remembers his dad pruning the trees and trimming up the bushes and all kinds of other yard work. So when he got the news of his dad’s passing, the only thing he could think of to do was yard work, just like his dad would do. And after he did all the yard work he could think of (or rather, that his wife could think of), he got his kids to clean it all up, just like his dad would do.

That got me thinking of all the yard work my parents would get me to do.

It seems like every summer there was always some project to do in the yard. One summer we had to remove the brick wall, so they armed my brother and me with an air compressor and handheld jackhammers to bust the grout out from between the bricks. I think they paid us a dollar for every brick we extracted without breaking. The next summer, they paid us to build a patio using those same bricks.

It seemed like no matter what the project was, it always involved tearing out a tree or bush or something. That’s when I found my true calling. They armed me with a saw and I would scurry up the tree trunks and start dismantling the trees, relieving them of their soon-to-be extraneous limbs. Then we’d cut down the trunk until there was only about 4 feet of it left, then dig up as much of the roots as we could, and haul the stump out with a chain attached to the back of my dad’s truck. Awesome.

And it didn’t stop when I got a job either. Partly because I could always use some extra cash. Partly because I was cheaper than anyone else they could find. Partly because I still jump at the chance to use a saw.

One summer they even got me to reroof their house. I’d get up at 5:00 a.m. and work until it got too hot at 11:00. I pretty much worked by myself, which probably wasn’t the smartest thing safety wise. But it took me pretty much all summer, May to August.

Even when they ran out of things for me to do at their house, they would volunteer me to do things at other peoples’ houses.

One summer I flew out to Ohio to visit my brother for a few days, and while he was there he had me take out a few trees from his backyard. His neighbors were a little surprised when I had to ask them to borrow a saw. They figured that everyone from the West was a logger and would naturally just travel with their own saw.

So as long as everyone was here for the funeral, we all went to town on my sister’s house, because she lives alone. We helped her paint the exterior of her house. We helped fix the little waterfall fountain in her backyard. We helped trim her hedge. I even got to take out a tree. I haven’t done that in a while. I should let my landlord know I’m willing to help, if he even needs it.

Paul Lewis Siddoway

American Idol and the importance of connecting with people

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I celebrated her birthday by driving to Los Angeles to view a live performance episode of American Idol. The competition was down to its final three: Lauren Alaina (pictured on the far left), Scotty McCreery (center) and Haley Reinhart (right). As we watched each of them perform, I realized something: Scotty is the least-talented performer of the group, but he will undoubtedly win this thing. (For those of you who don’t watch the show, Scotty was crowned the winner a week later.)

I realize that the degree of Scotty’s talent level is a subjective opinion and many of you will disagree with me. But I believe that Scotty won the whole thing because he was able to connect with the largest number of people with his engaging personality in addition to his country singing skills. As someone who watched him perform in person, he is an expert at working the crowd and you can’t help but like him.

A correlation I took from the experience is my own need to improve my abilities when it comes to making connections with people. I realize the importance of developing a unique skillset that will help me stand out in the workforce, but that won’t do me any good if I can’t connect with the people who are in positions to give me those great opportunities.

Connor Child