The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell
A friend lent me this book recently.
I always see this at the bookstore, browse through a few times, but it never attracted me enough to want to purchase it.
The concept of the book revolves around what makes certain situation change drastically and quickly from one point to another. It explores the idea of how are trends, epidemics, or social situations are started. How little things make the difference.
The main concepts are:
- Having the right people: Connectors, Maverns, Salesmen
- Stickiness of content
- The context of environment
- The magic 150 (any group larger, it would be hard to control the organisation or group by effective means)
My thoughts on the book:
I was bored. So much so I ended up skimming through the book.
The concept was interesting initially but it felt so draggy and repetitive as the chapters go on. This was a book that presented a lot of different case studies, but I’m not really sure if they do highlight any point that the author wanted to make.
The writing style was not as engaging as I hope it would be. It’s like a cut and paste book with references and case studies from various sources put together in a book.
That pretty much sums it up for me. That’s the reason why I have never wanted to buy it from the bookstore, despite it being a bestseller.
Automated customer service
I’m not a fan of dialling customer service hotlines. Most of the time, I would be placed on hold for awhile, listening to recorded voice or some elevator music if good, else music from the wrong radio channel.
That day, this hotline I called beat the cake.
Here’s how it went
CS: “Hi, I am Lee Lee, your automated customer service assistant. For English, please say English”
Me: “English” (Feeling quite ridiculous that I’m saying this)
CS: “For XXX, please say XXX. For YYY, please say YYY……….For more options, please say more options…”
Me: “More Options…” (and that’s when I heard that there’s actually other options after this…damn.. how do I get back to the previous menu??)
CS: “For AAA service, please say AAA. For BBB…..To speak to our customer service officer, please say Customer Service”
Me: “Customer Service”
CS: “Please hold, we will transfer the call to our customer service officer”
(Waited half a sec)
CS: “Hi, I am Lee Lee, your automated customer service assistant. For English, please say English”
WTF?!
I hung up. Called the main line, asked to be transferred to the correct department.
After mins of being placed on hold, I was glad to hear an actual person’s voice. I had the officer help with my request and after that, I said, “Can I give you some feedback?”
CS: Yes please do.
I told the officer that the automated hotline was tedious, quite silly, and I couldn’t get to be transferred to an actual officer to speak to.
He tried to explain that it could be that they are having a high volume of calls etc, which then I counter that it should at least inform the customer that the call was being transferred, not to be put through the entire sequence again.
At the end of it, he understood what I meant. I’m suspecting that he probably feels the same way about the system as I did.
To top this experience, I received a call from another service provider today, requesting for feedback on the performance of a customer service officer which
1. I can’t even remember when did I make the call to this service provider
2. I can’t even remember if I had spoken to a customer service personnel.
I asked when the call was made, the lady replied, “Oh, you made the call 3 weeks ago…”
3 weeks ago?! How would I remember?
Feedback should be timely and prompt. Not 3 weeks later
And please make it easy to speak to an actual person for all those providers out there.
