 Think back to the last time you had a service company over at your home to do work. I’ll bet you’re like most people I talk with who seem overjoyed to talk through the fiery details about their hellacious contractor experiences where hopes for good services are incinerated by severely, underwhelming contractors who still somehow render work for top dollar.
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Monday Quickie - You're Doing It Wrong7/22/2019  “They gave us world class, but all we needed was the basics.”
Last week I was speaking with a VP of Quality at a small medical device company at which point he politely complained to me about a recent experience he had with a consultant their company brought onboard. The company was implementing a new online quality management system (QMS) and was utilizing this consultant to get it up and running. The VP shared with me his irritation about how the consultant came in and took on the project as an expert in the field. The consultant had done many QMS implementations prior and came with good recommendations of his work. As the conversation went on the VP share further irritation about his experience working with the consultant. He brought in an expert to do a job that was rather straight forward yet that’s not what the company got in the end. Unfortunately, the consultant failed to understand one of the most important aspects of his job – understand the needs of the customer and implement accordingly. “We’re a small company, we don’t need all the bells and whistles right now [from a QMS system]. We just need a system that keeps us in compliance while making things easier from a process flow standpoint.” The VP was sharing with me a painful experience he was having as a result of someone doing work for him and not understanding what was actually needed in the moment to be successful on that project. Sometimes what’s needed is the basics, not world class. The key is knowing when each of these is appropriate. All to often we show up to a project or work with the idea we’re going to dress up the proverbial pig ready for a fancy night out on the town. This pig of ours is going to look amazing, amazing because of the work we did to get it there. However, we end up missing the mark because we don’t bother to ask the right questions along the way. If we had bothered to ask the right questions to understand what was truly needed by the company and the key stakeholders we may find out the ‘pig’ just needs a new pair of shoes, not a whole wardrobe change. Here’s how this played out in the scenario above with my client and VP…
Here’s the rub on the situation. If the consultant had bothered to ask the vital question of their client upfront “What does ‘success’ looks like at the end of the project?” he would have found out the client needed a practical QMS which met the basic needs of their product and regulatory requirements yet did not need a lot of the fancy bells and whistles larger companies utilize with their QMS. Basically, this small medical device company needed a QMS that was straightforward, basic yet allowed them to upgrade their company to meet the regulatory requirements for their product. The client wanted a no frills, basic system yet what they got was a world class system they’ll probably never fully utilize. Key Takeaway: Don’t assume your work or project requires you to put forth world class service. Sometimes ‘good enough’ is all that’s needed. Knowing the different between ‘good enough’ and world class work outputs is a vital skill to develop and implement in your career. Action Item: Before you begin your next project at work think to yourself “what’s really needed here? The basics or something more?”. Then actually go ask the key stakeholder in charge. Doing this shows an ability to think big picture with an appreciation for what’s best for the company, not what’s best to make you look good as a result of the work you can do. 5 Steps to Dealing with a Bully Customer5/20/2016  The customer is (still) king--even when they're toughLet’s face it — customers (or clients) are what keep us in business. Without the customer, there would be no business, no management, no worker bees, no complimentary coffee that tastes like gym socks in the office kitchen — and certainly no revenue. At the end of the day, customers are the end-all, be-all. Without a willing buyer for your product or service, you simply cease to exist. The customer and the business aren’t mutually exclusive; they rely on one another. Yet in reality, the one who holds the most influence in the relationship is often the customer. When Power Warps BehaviorInfluence — or power, for that matter — has a strange way of changing how people behave. Sometimes it even creates monsters out of otherwise kind men and women. When customers become difficult to deal with, what we see on the surface often isn’t the full picture. To truly understand their frustration, we need to dig deeper. A Pizza Shop Lesson in CompassionThat reminds me of an old story from another lifetime — back when I was in high school. I was a server at a small pizza restaurant in the town I grew up in. I loved the job. I got to eat pizza all day and interact with some really great people — our customers. Let’s be honest: everyone’s happy when they’re getting pizza. I genuinely loved this job. Enter: The Difficult RegularOne day, a customer came in to pick up a pizza to-go. I had served this guy many times before, and every time it played out the same way. He’d come in and immediately start frothing at the mouth about how his last purchase was awful — how it was never on time and “the pizza sauce sucked.” “There are never enough pepperonis,” he’d complain. Then, like clockwork, he’d ask for the manager and demand a discount — which we usually gave him. It was like Groundhog Day, same script every time. I’d laugh to myself, wondering: “If our food and service were really that bad… why does he keep coming back?” It was like some evil self-inflicted punishment. One Honest Conversation that Changed EverythingOne day, our manager had enough and finally confronted him. I’d love to say it was me, but I was just a pimply-faced 16-year-old — definitely not gutsy enough to speak up and risk my pizza privileges (or my job). Our manager, Tim, interrupted the man’s usual rant. He took him aside and calmly asked: “Sir, why do you continue to give us your business if you dislike our food so much? You seem awfully upset and often treat my employees poorly. Is everything okay?” As I eavesdropped, I was shocked by the man’s response. “I’m sorry, Tim. I was fired from my job a couple months ago. I lost my house, and I’m living out of my car. Pizza is the cheapest, easiest thing for me to eat. Please tell your staff how much I appreciate them — they’re always nice to me, even though I’m not a very pleasant person myself.” The Power of EmpathyMy jaw hit the floor. None of us had known why he was always so grumpy — just that he seemed to enjoy taking it out on the servers. Tim gave him the pizza for free that day. Then he invited the man to come back the next day to watch our team in action — to see how we made pizzas, to show him we cared about quality and about our customers. Tim also gave him a free lunch. But the best part? After the “field trip,” our manager offered the man a job delivering pizzas — a chance to earn some income and get back on his feet. Lessons that StickThat experience taught me an incredibly valuable lesson: Confront the tough stuff — don’t let it own you. I also became a firm believer that you attract more bees with honey than with sledgehammers. Once we understand why a customer is acting a certain way, we can respond with solutions that change the course of the relationship. 5 Steps to Turn Around a Tough Customer RelationshipIf you’re dealing with a difficult client or customer, here are five practical steps to help you uncover what’s going on beneath the surface — and potentially save the relationship:
Make Peace, Then Make the CallAfter you’ve put in the work, take a moment to reflect. Has the relationship improved? Or is it still toxic? If things haven’t changed, it might be time to move on. But at least now, you’ll walk away knowing you did everything you could. “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” - Wayne Dyer Looking for MedTech Support?At Square-1 Engineering, we provide technical consulting services covering a variety of projects, product ideation to obsolescence, with medical device OEMs, start-up & strategics. Our skilled engineering and compliance teams take on projects of all sizes in R&D Engineering, Quality & Compliance, Regulatory (RAQA) and Manufacturing Engineering.
About the AuthorTravis Smith is the founder and managing director of Square-1 Engineering, a medical device consulting firm, providing end to end engineering and compliance services. He successfully served the life sciences marketplace in SoCal for over 15 years and has been recognized as a ‘40 Under 40’ honoree by the Greater Irvine Chamber of Commerce as a top leader in Orange County, CA. Categories
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