Conference 7.286::digital

    Oh, do I have a lot of experiences to offer.  Wouldn't be appropriate
    to post them here though.
    
    This to say that after all the layoffs, there are still many deadbeats
    in Digital.  Many of them still have and will always have a non-caring
    attitude towards customer's needs and interests.  It's a shame but it's
    definitely true.
    
    /Mario

    Here's another one from today dealing with telephone numbers.
    
    Sales rep calls me. Needs to get a SNA Gateway installation service
    scheduled (I'd previously been working with this sales rep). The
    procedure to do it is to call the general customer support number.
    Unfortunately I didn't know that number (knew it had 9000 in it but no
    more). Looked in the phone book, couldn't find it anywhere. Said I'd
    get back to him. I called a person I knew in the CSC and got the number
    (1-800-354-9000) and asked exactly how the sales rep should get to the
    group in the CSC that schedules SNA Gateway installs. He told me.
    Basically:
    
    	- Call 800 number
    	- Ask for SNA Administrative Support
    	- That will get you through to a person who he gave me the name of
    	  and DTN.
    	- We agreed I should give the sales rep the 800 number not the
    	  internal DTN. Reason being is that calling the 800 number should
    	  give guaranteed response. No chance of VOICEMAIL or non returned
    	  phone call etc.
    
    I call sales rep back and leave him with the 800 number. 1/2 hour later
    I get a voicemail message from sales rep.
    
    	He called the 800 number
    
    	THEY HAD NO IDEA WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT AND ESSENTIALLY TOLD HIM
        TO SEE FIGURE 1
    
    So I call him back and give him the internal DTN number of the admin
    person who happens to handle SNA installs. I hope he got through to
    her.
    
    I find this DISGUSTING. Why is it that the only systems that work in
    DEC are the informal ones. Why on earth can't a call the 800 CSC number
    be routed correctly. What if this had been a customer. This sales rep
    only got his problem solved because he happened to know me. I was only
    able to finally help him because I happened to have a contact in the
    CSC. But the real problems are:
    
    	1, The CSC number was nowhere that any reasonably intelligent
    	   person could find.
    
    	2, The 800 number is either answered by an imbecile or someone who
    	   has not been trained.
    
    Pathetic,
    
    Dave

    
    
      In our business here (Digital Event Services Group) we often get
    calls from customers (internal and external) looking for answers or
    contacts for different business options.  I would think that since we
    are really becoming a "customer focused" company that it may be
    beneficial to have a laminated card made with DEC DIRECT, CSC and what
    ever other numbers would be necessary to give to a customer who needs
    for every possible employee who could answer a phone, have contact with
    a customer or potential customer.  It further appears that we spend $$$
    on sometime needless publications.  In my eyes, this would serve to
    help eliminate some of the embarrassing phone calls from customers and
    people her passing the buck!
    
    Regards,
    
    Bob

    Someone, probably from Ed L's burgeoning empire should take a week or
    so and write up a "When a Customer Comes a Calling" type memo, poster,
    VTX posting...
    
    Every single employee should have a ready reference that they can whip
    out at any time.  Each of us is, or should be, an adjunct of the sales
    force.  There is no excuse for a customer to turn away from Digital
    because of a lack of contact.
    
    Cost cutting memos get wide circulation.  New VP announcements get wide
    circulation.  Customer assistance info should also be a very high
    priority.
    
    Marv
     

    re:.3
    
    That card would as big as a house.  Why not just put together a
    geographic brochure and send to all customers that have in the past
    (say within the last 12 mo) and who currently have an active customer
    code, indicating who their respective contacts are, i.e., their
    Customer Support Consultant (who should be able to answer any questions
    they may have around contacts, phone numbers, etc.).  There are 300+
    CSC's around the US that are chartered with this (and many other)
    tasks.
    
    BR.....jp

    	Customers/sales should just call one number. Digital should assume 
    	the cost of routing the calls verses the customer. How about
    	1-800-digital?  Hopefully everyone knows that number.

    	We need to start treating sales like a customer also. When a sales
    	rep has a problem that needs resolution we should work it just like
    	we would a customer problem. After all the quicker the sale closes 
    	the sooner the next one will.

    I do not know whether this will make a difference:
    
    Whenever I get a call forwarded , even though it may not concern me, I 
    always give them all the answers I can and if I can't answer the
    question, I give them the proper phone # and also give my phone # of home
    and office and request them to call me back one way or another so that
    I know for sure that they have been helped and will also call them back
    to make sure that they have the right answer. This may take few minutes
    but I believe this helps in building a good relationship with the 
    customer. I end up taking a lot of abuses internally from people who
    claim they are always busy and have no time. 
                                  I used to build the chips at A.M.D. and
    Motorola and then @Digital and  I know what politeness can do the customer.
     Infact a friend of mine who worked for T.I. where B.P. started his career
     told me that T.I. had a policy that if you call any higher up and ask for 
    a technical question, the person on the other end is supposed to be
    polite and answer to the best of his ability and if not forward to the
    right authority. If he does not do that , he won't be around for too
    long. Infact by helping customer, I always endup learning something.
    
       But here is a incident worth reporting here:
    
    About two months ago a sales rep sold ALPHA3000_400 to a prof at a
    major university here and he had all kind of machines like SGI,HP AND
    I.B.M. Sales rep as usual had given him the clorado springs support
    phone #. The professor is a pretty smart guy and was finding that his
    machine was running slower than decstation and the support people told
    him after professor send them the code that he needs to upgrade his
    O/S. Prfessor wanted help and due to being jerked around and treated
    like sh.. was ready to dump our machine. He called our local office 
    and the secretary came to me I called the professor and talked to him 
    and calm him down. I then fed express my copy of the compiler and the
    O/S to our field service guy there as the place was about 70 miles from 
    here and then called him several times in two weeks to make sure he was 
    not getting a correct answer. Finally we found that he needed more
    memory . His problem was solved and he was happy and he personally
    called me to thank me for my help. But funny part is that a manager of
    digital told me that I violated the company policy and did not follow
    proper channels . I guess I took the abuse from these super busy people
    again.
    
    Regards,
                             
    AK

    
    
    	re .5
    
    	The problem with the brochure is that it would probably be out
    	of date by the time the ink dried on it.
    
    	Why not have ONE number manned (personned?) by well trained people
    	that can direct incoming calls to the right place? Use the number
    	1-800-digital; it is already well known.
    
    	This brings up another pet peeve...complaints about the potential
    	customer that 'only' has $50K or so to spend, and can't get a 
    	Digital salesperson to talk to him. I suggest that we have a sales
    	force in place to deal with just these customers...call them 'low
    	volume sales' or whatever. Paying more attention to ma and pa shops
    	would go a long way towards making Digital a household name. Or
    	don't we want to be as well known as HP or Apple or Microsoft?
    
    	John

    I work for the CSS Sales Support hotline. We've seen it all too often the
    kind of customer abuse that was mentioned in here. But, sometimes, we
    feel we are powerless to change anything - besides doing our best to help
    our customers. I believe this problem is so widespread within the
    corporation and it's really damaging to our business and well being. It
    needs the attention of upper management to have the problem corrected. 
    Let me say this, I really admire some of our customers' loyalty to
    Digital. With some of the crap they were put through, they continuely
    stayed with us. If I were in their shoes, I am not sure I could've
    stayed on for that long.
    
    Mike

    i have a simple way to help in this. i dont know why no one though
    of this before.

    we have some phone numbers that customer need to know and use to reach
    DEC, right?

    so why not write these numbers and print them on little plastic cards,
    the size you can put in your wallet or pocket, and print all
    the important phone numbers one needs to know. prints thousands of 
    them (the cards), have them every where so customers and DECeees can see 
    them and get get one, like at front disks, etc.. so every time you need 
    a number just open your pocket and look at the card.

    may be have on the back of the card if more space is left the year
    calendar or something like that .or just have both sides just phone 
    numbers with what the number for.

    why don't we do something like this for the customer and for us
    to ?

    \nasser

    Could someone post the appropriate phone numbers and their respective
    functions in this notes file?  Or, is 1 800-digital all we need to
    remember?
    
    Thanks,
    Dave
    

    
     Well I just called 1-800-digital and tried to get some technical
    assistance. We stumbled on a customer who can assist us in a particular
    account, needless to say, after 12 minutes of "holding" I hung up.
     Some interesting marketing messages tho...
    
    -Mike Z.

    Hmmmm.   It upsets me to have to hear that customers with money to
    spend or have spent have difficulty in getting TLC for reasonable
    inquiries.
    
    Our channel strategy needs and should account for customer TLC -- I
    believe it does.  I think that we break down and the direct sales
    world.
    
    Most customers are assigned to a Sales Person.  The problem is that if
    the customer fell into a patch where the sales person has a large list
    of small accounts, chances are there hasn't been a connection.
    
    That's when the problem happens because in a location, most folks know
    "Named Account" Reps.  Those little $50K (Arrrgghhhhh) folks may not be
    known. 
    
    Most calls bump to a clerical person who does the pass-off and eventual
    customer P*&& off.  In our office we solved that by instructing the
    clerical staff to pass that customer direct to a "Sales Desk" staffed
    by someone who doesn't do a pass-off.  Clearly it is a location process
    and clearly we haven't, as a company figured out this simple process to
    support the "orphaned" customer  --- AND sadly, they probably will buy
    from someone else.

    re: .11
    
    We really need to get our act together in this area of service.
    I cannot speak from experience. However, if this example is
    more the norm that an exception heads ought to roll.
    
    One would never be treated this way if one were to make an
    inquiry when calling most other computer firms let alone an
    LL Bean, Road Runner Sports, Speigel, etc. We need up front
    knowledge who not only knows their stuff but present themselves
    in a proper manner.
    
    Granted, I'm sure most do and they are only going to be able to
    present what is given them. 
    
    Jim C.
    
      

    Ooops, that was meant to be a re: .12 on my .14.
    
    

    re.-10 -nassar
    
    		It takes a Corporation this size to make the simple
    	things difficult....for instance , as soon as the cards are 
    	published , there would be 1 or 2 numbers out-dated. So then
    	we'll need to make the card Revision Controlled, and assign
    	a responsible group to insure that the numbers are indeed 
    	accurate every day........probably need a "new" group to
    	do this. When the numbers change , there would need to be 
    	a person responsible for recalling all "old" cards that were
    	published, and replaceing them with "new" ones.....sorta like
    	Phone Credit Cards,etc.
    
    		But don't mind me , I've got ISO 9000  fever , I think
    	I'd like the next month off, I just don't have that much vacation
    	accrued.      I do really like the IDEA , though. And as nassar was
    	pointing out, isn't that simple enough ?
    
    				Pablo
    
    

    
    I like the card idea, who would offer to maintain a .PS file in a
    public directory that has the top 10 US phone numbers?
    
    If I knew more about desktop-publishing and so forth I'd do it myself.
    
    For revision control we can put an ACL on the file to collect usernames
    accessing the file, and maintaina  distribution list.
    
    Simon

    We (our sales team) actually did make up a card for a major customer.
    We put the sales rep's business card on the front and on the back
    I made up a business card with their DBA Number and the top 6 
    Digital phone numbers they need to call on a regular basis.  I 
    had the business cards made for a cost of $20/thousand at a local
    office warehouse.  
    
    We finally bought a business card laminator and I laminate these
    2 cards together.  It works great!
    
    You are right about the numbers changing though! I just had to throw
    away a bunch of cards because several numbers had changed. BUMMER!
    
    /teri
    
    * if you like the business card idea and intend to use it please send
    me .50 cents for the idea!  :-)
    
    

    
    I've been working for this company for ten years. I have run into this
    problem since day one. We must ALLLLLLLLLLLLL take ownership of 
    any customer call that may ring our phones, even if you are not the 
    correct person to talk to. Find out who is and transfer the call or
    get back to the customer with the correct info in a timely manner. 
    I know that the way we do business this is not always easy but if
    we don't make it easy for our customers soon, it will become a moot
    issue. I like the idea of a main "HUB" phone number for our customers
    to call. I recently called my local Ryder Truck Rental establishment
    and got an out of state central control desk. They reserved me the
    vehicle I needed and gave me the number of the local location to 
    verify. All this took 4 minutes, no waiting. The truck was ready as
    scheduled.

    Re .-1
    
    Thanks for that. Your writing style is excellent. It genuinely caused
    me to laugh. I found it fun to read after a stressful day.
    
    Also as matter of record SUZANNE CONLON from the CSC followed up with
    me first by mail and then by phone. I thought that was a nice touch. I
    explained all the details I knew to her. I'm sure the vast majority of
    calls are handled well by dedicated individuals. This one wasn't. As
    both yourself and Suzanne discovered the routing information is in
    STARS. According to Suzanne the caller should have been referred to the
    customer assistance desk rather than being told he couldn't be helped.
    Suzanne was planning on letting CSC management know of this situation.
    I emphazize that the intent of this is not to deal with this one
    mishandled call but instead to maybe use it as data and input to any
    process improvements that are/could be made. There are always
    opportunities to improve any process, however perfect.
    
    I'd like to publically thank Suzanne for her follow up. It's that sort
    of attitude that will make Digital successful again.
    
    Dave

    
    My thanks to you, Dave!
    
    Suzanne

Greetings all,

When I first came to DEC there was this campgain on that had everyone 
sign a painting that said I THINK CUSTOMER. I thought it was a wonderful
thing to behold. Oddly enough I worked in the DEC20 group in our branch
and within reason (and because those customers gave DEC a bundle of money
for maintenance) we could not help but be married to our customers. Since I
came to the VAX side of the house it was easier to justify the lower level
of service because the equiptment was easier to fix and maint. was cheaper.
Tragically after the awfullness of the downsizing of last year rather than
being more customer-centered the company seems to be only concerned with
the bucks involved and reshuffling them so we can turn a profit. The idea
that DEC is even MORE difficult to deal with than ever seems to be lost on
the powers that be. 

Today I did a install and the OEM (from some house in Huston) told me that the
sales support is somewhere between awful and  non-existant. Noone is accountable
and noone is taking responsiability  for anything.  This feedback should
be the stuff that makes management change things after all this is potential
sales!

So in summary I agree with:

1. We have said alot of things about being more concerned with customers etc.
but generally aren't. ie the attempting to close remote sales, ie #2 TFSOing
sales reps-who's to sell our stuff?

2. If everyone who is running things around here would start giving equal 
attention to selling that they have to cutting costs (I'm predicting after
the Q1 results they will) things will turn around. Reason for this being
that alot of people could trumpet their sucess at "cutting costs" at the
expense of the customers and future growth. ie the advertizing budget was
cut before the alpha was announced. 

3. All the carping and complaining I've heard about the change in sales'
pay hasn't brought out much more resonsiveness probably because there are
so few sales reps left that they can't possiably cover all the territory 
they used to. 

Finally on a positive note:

1. This OEM that I was working with today said he was glad he didn't take
the job that was offered to him 3 years ago by DEC. He and I agree that
now is the time to come on-board with DEC, We've got products the value of
which the rest of the world would kill to be able to offer. 

2. Though there is talk everywhere that DEC will go the way of WANG. We seem
to have done so many awful self-distructive things in that last two years
ie getting rid of our Ultrix people, getting rid of a substantial number of
salespeople etc. we just can't do much more of that. A year ago when field
service was in the midst of saying goodbye to tech's who promptly went out
and got jobs with our competitors I heard alot of talk that field service 
was a thing of the past becuase we would be ALL phased out to be replaced
by contractors. Anyway the most awful part of that period was that stupid
awful ideas seemed to be so causally accepted. The reason I feel therefore
that we won't go the way of Wang is because the SLT is getting a bellyfull of 
the results of those awful decisions that were made over the recent past. 
Alot of the people responsiable for them are going to be explaining why 
the awful "pain" hasn't gotten us "profitable". Calll me a dreamer but thats
why I'm optomistic. 

3. Finally, years ago I heard all the stuff about information explosion. I 
never really payed too much attention to it until recently when I got hooked
on NOTES. Ahhhh thats what they were getting at, I thought. The thing that will
turn the ship of DEC around is that people like the person in the base=note
can have an opinion about something like this and not fear retribution. Its
 a wonderful strength DEC has as long as we have and foster it we'll be okay.
The more we foster and use this we have a chance to turn this all around.

Fred 

Long ago, and far away, I used to manage the trading floor system at the
Montreal stock exchange.  Overall, the MSE is teensy-weensy compared to
a NASDAQ or NYSE, but when the system went down in the middle of the
trading day, the floor manager would scream at me until the the systems
were back on-line.  The systems were HP-1000s (giggle) at the time, although
I believe Digital won the business a couple of years ago.

Anyway, whenever I had a technical question and needed support, I would 
call a 1-800 number that would get me to an HP tech support center.  They
had a prepared list of questions to ask that would identify the customer,
the type of system, type of application, if the call was a general question,
product specific, or a problem.  They would thank you for your call, and
ask you to stand by for a call back.  If the call was a general question
you would expect a call back within 2 hours.  If the call was a problem,
the call back would come within minutes.

When the call back came, it was usually from an on-call consultant somewhere
in North America who could usually answer the question right there and then.
If the original call was a problem, the call often came from a local tech
support person.

Apparently, HP had (may still have) a roster of support personnel with
their expertise and pager number.  There was only one number to call for
tech support of any type.

Digital should do something similar.  Everyone should participate, regardless
of organization or role.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 2717.20 by SALEM::BOUDREAU 
    
    >I've been working for this company for ten years. I have run into this
    >problem since day one. We must ALLLLLLLLLLLLL take ownership of 
    >any customer call that may ring our phones, even if you are not the 
    >correct person to talk to. Find out who is and transfer the call or
    >get back to the customer with the correct info in a timely manner. 
    
    i agree 100% and do this daily. it'll also probably cost me my job. i
    get 7-8 calls from customers a day inquiring about our products and
    strategies covering every aspect of networking. i am a network
    consultant and this would seem to be OK. and it would in a normal
    situation. i sent the following memo to various management and have
    little hope it will resolve anything.
    



                  I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M

                                        Date:     28-Sep-1993 10:06am CDT
                                        From:     Gene Haag                     
                                                  HAAG.EUGENE
                                        Dept:     Digital Consulting
                                        Tel No:   851-2255

TO: (removed by author. the system is wrong. not the individuals. eph)  

Subject: Suggested Improvements                                                 1

xxxxx,   (please forward as you see fit)

This memo highlights, per your request, the organizational issues we discussed 
a couple of days ago. It's my opinion that some of the obstacles itemized here 
are detrimental to our achieving success in meeting customer expectations, 
generating profitable revenue for the corporation, and getting the troops 
morale back on track. I am speaking specifically about the new organization I 
was placed into for FY94 (the networks business of Digital Consulting). 
Furthermore, I have discussed these issues with many other members my group and 
they concur, sometimes passionately, with my assessments. For a variety of 
reasons most are reluctant to speak publicly about them. In an attempt to be 
concise I've limited this memo to three sections: Budgets, Revenue Generation, 
and Morale. Each section also contains recommendations for improvement.

Budgets
Frankly, I believe the budgets assigned to my group for FY94 are much to low 
yet are all but unattainable. Consider:

   . Members of my team have budgets that will force us to compete with
     one another for the same business in the same geography. 

   . What members of my team are chartered to sell does not reflect what 
     customers want from us in the networking space. 

   . The network business appears to have been fragmented into several groups      
     each chartered to sell their slice of the pie. In several cases these      
     "slices" overlap. Not only do we have competition within our own group,      
     but also between our group and other groups within Digital.

   Recommendations

   . Eliminate individual budgets. Goal us as a team. We sink or swim
     together. 

   . Draw up a plan based on what customers are willing to buy and give
     us a lofty budget aimed at selling those solutions. This will only 
     work if it is developed using those who deal with customers first hand. 

Revenue Generation

   . My group gets little or no credit for selling many of Digitals 
     networking hardware, software, and service offerings. Many believe
     that we are in fact penalized by taking time to develop customer
     solutions in areas (and there are many) that benefit Digital but are
     not credited to our group.

   . Our accounting systems are abysmal at best. My group has been asked to 
     enter revenue/forecast/pipeline information into at least four different 
     systems weekly. Many do not have accounts to use the systems and wouldn't 
     know how even if they did. My personnal admin time spent feeding numbers
     into these systems has increased 5 fold since last June. 

   Recommendations

   . Eliminate the fragmentation of "money counting" along product and 
     political lines. As network consultants for Digital we should be
     goaled to sell EVERYTHING Digital has to offer in the networking space.
     Not a mere fraction of what we have to offer. 

   . We simply have to find a single, easy to use accounting system to enter
     and track our progress. Digital internal accounting systems do nothing
     to enhance customer satisfaction or generate revenue. 

Morale
These organizational restraints have had a devastating effect on morale. If we 
want to be successful in selling networking business we need to be free to sell 
solutions customers want. Customers want consultants that are free to evaluate 
their problems and propose whatever solutions make the "best fit". As it is 
today we are being told by Digital to sell customers what Digital wants them to 
buy. This does not work. 

Rgds,

Gene Haag, Network Consultant 
Minneapolis, Minnesota
DTN 442.2255
VMSmail:   HAAG::HAAG
A1 Mail:   Gene Haag @MPO

    I have been in Digital a long time and can identify with this.  Things
    haven't changed.  I had an experience with the State Government in
    Texas.  I realize that this is not as large as Digital, but everyone
    knows the bureaucracy can be.  Anyway, the state agency called and
    needed some informtion.  The person gave me her first name only.  I
    told her I probably needed some additional info to find what she
    needed.  She was very nice, and told me she would work on the extra
    info I needed and get back in a couple of days.  To make a long story
    short, I did a little research and found the info.  To prevent her from
    doing alot of research I called her back.  But all I had was her first
    name and an 800-#.  I called the number, gave the name of the person I
    was dealing with and the info.  I didn't give the attempt much of a
    chance, but to my amazement, she returned my call within 1/2hr and
    explained that she was returning my call.  I asked how they did that. 
    She explained that they have highly resources answering their 800#. 
    This not only cuts down on the extra running around and work, but also
    put in place to enhance their relationship with the public.    
    
    

    There is a listing in VTX for all Customer Support Consultants.  For
    those of you that don't know about "us", we are defined as the customer
    liason between Sales & Manufacturing, hopefully getting involved after
    the initial customer call and continuing through the process to
    warranty conversion.  Anyone on the "LIST" posted in VTX should be able
    to assist a customer with most every aspect of the "customer to
    customer" process/program.  If anyone is interested, here's the
    instructions:
    
    VTX
    Keyword: US_LOGISTICS
    Menu Select #3, Customer Support Work
    Menu Select #8, LSSN Operations
    Menu Select #1, CSC Directory
    Menu Select #*, (geographic listing by 7 LSSC's)
    
    This list incorporates, by geography all CSC's with internal and
    external phone #'s, their manager, a "generic" list of the assigned
    accounts; however, any customer within the geography, i.e., I support
    N. Florida, specifically State Government; but I'm not limited to that,
    should get appropriate support from any of us, and for the Sales
    organization, particular booking centers that we support.
    
    I know it's not EXACT, but I believe we've at least started.....
    
    Toodles.....JP

	Follow the procedures as documented until someone fixes them so they
actually work!!!

	Stop doing the right ( undocumented ) thing cos u are only preventing
the accurate procedures being developed. You are the problem because the author
of the process is being protected from his/her own mistakes!


		No Smileys, no sarcasm, I'm serious


		Remember they deserve what you give them! 

    Hats off to #2717.7!  It's people like you, who are willing to go the
    extra mile (or 5 miles if needed) to help make Digital profitable
    again!
    
    We all have a vested interest in Digital's success (or failure).
    Bravo!
    
    Renee