Customer Service and the Strategic CIO plus a tip of the hat to @ComcastMelissa

Moving is a real pain in the neck.  We've done it enough over the years to become fairly expert at it. The prep work before, the packing and craigslisting, tidying up the loose ends including utilities transfers- it's a lot of work.

Saturday my wife reminded me that we needed to return the cable TV converter box to Comcast.  No problem, it's always been pretty easy to drop off a box as there have always been a number of places on the Eastside (of Seattle) to do so.  So I quickly log on to Comcast's website to get the closest address only to find that they've revamped things and the closest dropoff location is in Auburn WA, an optimistic 30+ minutes away by car.  Did I mention that moving is a pain? So this frustrated me to say the least and I vented a wee bit on Twitter about it.

That's where it got interesting.  Within 10 minutes of my tweet, @ComcastMelissa had replied with info I hadn't found on their website that solved my problem and frankly left me feeling lots better about Comcast and less frustrated.  Win for me, Win for Comcast.

It got me thinking however- I'm a bit unusual for my generation in that I use Twitter all the time.  I'm a geek having worked in Technology since the 80's.  I'm more Digital Native than Digital Immigrant (also see Don Tapscott's "Grown Up Digital" for a really interesting work on the Net Generation).  But what about "most people"? How would they have found the information? It wasn't readily apparent on Comcast's website on the Service Locations page.

@ComcastMelissa's response to me saved the day but why isn't the reference to her, and what I assume are her Social Media Customer Service colleagues - what does one call these folks?, linked clearly and directly on the website where it's needed???

My guess is that the Social Media team reports somewhere other than to the CIO/CTO.  It clearly isn't integrated with the website UX team and more importantly whoever's responsible for the total customer experience.  Without throwing stones at Comcast's CIO and CMO, someone in that organization should clearly be viewing and reviewing the big picture to make sure that from the customer's perspective it's all seamless.  This is the kind of stuff that moves the CIO from engine room operator to strategic thinker in the view of the CEO and Board.  It's the brand reinforcement that all CMO's work to achieve.

It was also an instructive lesson for me as the COO for Kidelicious, the startup I'm a co-founder of and working on building to launch.  We all tend to get a bit siloed focusing on the UX for the e-commerce platform or the social media experience but who's stepping back and making sure it all works to serve the customer and reinforce the brand?  Get it right and you delight your customers or at least lower their frustration level.  Get it wrong and you undo a lot of careful work.

Action items especially for CIO/CTO folks who still struggle with getting that coveted "seat at the table".

• Go home and play customer.  What's the response time like for  your website? Does it behave the same on every major browser (and if you aren't using a Mac, find one and check at least Safari)?
• Call your customer service numbers and see how long it takes to talk with someone who can actually do something.
• Tweet something and see if anyone "hears" it and responds.
• Then figure out how to make it better.

Stop thinking like a CIO

Maybe I should have better said "Think like a consultant...or Think like your boss". In any case, too often CIO's, myself included, don't do enough to get outside our roles and consider our particular business and business in general from another perspective. It matters not whether you're in a profit-making endeavor or a not-for-profit, it's important to spend time thinking about your enterprise differently if you're going to provide the sort of game-changing leadership needed.

I love to read. Everything from Sports Illustrated to aviation magazines to Runners World to fiction. I try to always have a big stack of books waiting for me. My rule is to alternate fiction with non-fiction; switching from "play" to "work" to stay fresh.

The last quarter of the year I read a series of books by my friend and colleague, Faisal Hoque, founder of BTM Corporation. Faisal's been advocating for a different, structured approach to managing business technology for years. One of the key takeaways was the need to move from striving to align the IT and business strategies (as if they were somehow separate) to fully integrated business technology management. BTM have built the frameworks and applications to help organizations dramatically improve the return on their invested business technology capital. Great stuff and for starters I'd highly recommend his book "Winning the Three-legged Race".

I just recently finished an excellent book which may not be on the typical CIO or CTO reading list but should be. Entitled "The Breakthrough Imperative" by Gottfredson & Schaubert, it's an excellent look at how the consultants at Bain & Company analyze a business to determine opportunities for improving performance. As the business technology leader for your organization, some part of each week should be consumed in doing the same thing. Think like a consultant. As technology leaders, we have an advantage over nearly anyone else in the organization (or the consultants on the outside for that matter)- we are trained to think holistically, in systems and their interconnection. Analyze your business, fold that into your technology investment discussions with your peers in the rest of the business and see what a difference there is in the conversation.

Read any good books lately??

By the way, our website is Clear IT Leadership. I'll be migrating this blog to our new site soon.

Run IT as a business -- why that's a train wreck waiting to happen | Adventures in IT - InfoWorld

Run IT as a business -- why that's a train wreck waiting to happen | Adventures in IT - InfoWorld: ""

I'll keep it simple by saying first, Amen to the general principle which is that IT doesn't have internal customers. There are NO "internal" customers. All the customers are "out there". I define customers as those from whom we obtain revenue. Everyone else, every function inside the company, is part of meeting the customers' needs. It's why the company exists. But then I've said that before.

Secondly, where I will disagree slightly is that this isn't a train wreck waiting to happen, the crash has already occurred; we're just watching the clean-up now. We see it all the time. The CEO says "IT's become an order-taking organization and we need them to be more strategic." IT matches up with the article's profile including calling the business, "customers". CIO's should forbid the use of the word throughout IT in reference to anyone who doesn't give the company money, i.e. isn't the source of revenue.

Knowing who the company's customers are and working to provide them with the services and products they require is the reason IT and the rest of the business exists. We're all in this together.

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous New Year to all!

"IT is key to post-recession growth, say CEOs" Time to get that seat at the table?

IT is key to post-recession growth, say CEOs: ""

Interesting report from Gartner posted on December 14, 2009 in Information Age. Interesting I think for a couple of reasons. First off, it's no surprise that CEO's (and the rest of the C-suite) expect that IT will be key to post-recession business success. This isn't really news nor about the recession. For some years now the vast majority of CEO's have seen business technology as a key lever in growing the business. In fact I wrote about this last year. What is different I think is the comment in the article that CEO's don't want help just growing the top-line but are looking to business technology and the CIO to help with structural changes that can reduce long-term operating costs. This is in reaction to their, correct I think, assertion that consumers will not return to pre-recession spending habits any time soon.

The second interesting item is the comment that CEO's "were basically protecting IT through this recession". That's one way to look at it I suppose. It's certainly different than I've ever thought about it, particularly when I was being asked to cut my budgets. I don't think I buy it though. Yes, IT was likely cut less than, say, Marketing but I suspect it's more due to the largely fixed cost nature of IT budgets for most companies. Therein lies a significant opportunity for CIO's to show that they clearly get the changing nature of business ahead. And yes, it's a chance for those CIO's still pining for a "seat at the table" to show that they deserve it.

In many (most?) companies business technology expenditures are in the top 3 line items. If CEO's are looking for ways to make structural changes in their costs, then isn't it incumbent on savvy CIO's to look at their own budgets as opportunities for change? The largely fixed nature of most business technology budgets not only makes it hard to cut but makes it hard to ramp up investment. IT is often anything but nimble and agile. Instead of just looking at the opportunity to grow your budget as you work with the business going forward, take another fresh look at where you can make structural changes in how you spend.

Think in terms of how you could create a more flexible business technology organization and budget. Just as the supply chain organization is constantly re-evaluating sourcing models and suppliers, the business technology leadership should be doing the same inspection. If you were starting out today, would you structure your budget in the same way? Would you use the same suppliers? Structural change, by its very nature, is hard work but the post-recession world requires we make that change.

It just might give you a better view from a different seat at the table.

Nope, I haven't abandoned this blog.  It may seem like it but actually I've been busy with client work lately.  So instead of writing about being a CIO or consulting to a CIO or other C-type, I'm actually working on the doing side of things.

I do have some ideas I've tried to capture along the way and will in fact write about them....just as soon as I slow down!

Who's the customer? Rebuttal to "Whom Do We Serve? « The Effective CIO"

Anyone who's ever worked with me as CIO or in some of my other IT leadership roles has heard my position on this- many times. "There are no customers inside the company. The customers are "out there"!

Chuck's post is quite thoughtful and has some very useful points to include in your operating style. The point that the customer for IT is the business is mistaken. In fact, one of the things that consistently gets CIO's shown the door is a failure to be focused on the customer, on driving revenue. That doesn't mean you aren't focused as well on suppliers, employees and other stakeholders but it's all in the context of a partnership with the business.

As an aside for those who've asked about the new role I've taken on with BTM Corporation, I am going to be even more focused on working with CxO's, including the CIO, to help take this business/IT partnership to a new level- to move from aligning the business and technology to converging business and technology. We move from "Information Technology" to "Business Technology". That's a topic for another post.

I completely agree with Chuck's point that customers and revenue are not solely the CIO's role and responsibility. Instead the CIO works in tandem with the business to focus every effort squarely on the customer. The failure to do so is a prime reason why CIO's struggle for the mythical "seat at the table". In fact, in many cases a CIO vacancy (i.e. "left to explore other opportunities") is the result of a lack of vision and drive to help create and retain customers.

In my mind, even projects to fix the plumbing are there to better serve customers and should be expressed that way. If you can't define a project in business impact, then you aren't ready to ask for the resources to accomplish it.

Whom Do We Serve? « The Effective CIO: ""

(Via .)

The tipping point: iPhone users turn against AT&T | Wireless News - Betanews

More to my previous post about AT&T Wireless. It's as if they are hoping the rising level of "vocal" frustration will just die down. "If we don't acknowledge problems there aren't any." Fascinating to watch.

Is this going to end up as a Harvard Business Review case study on how not to manage negative publicity? And I have to wonder where the CIO is inside AT&T? Not a negative comment at all but just wondering how this is playing out. Is this a place where the savvy CIO should be collecting data, working with the CMO to effectively sense and respond?

As a customer I hope this prompts AT&T to finally react and begin to fix the problems. As a consultant, I can't help but wonder who's providing advice.

The tipping point: iPhone users turn against AT&T | Wireless News - Betanews: "Betanews

The tipping point: iPhone users turn against AT&T
By Tim Conneally | Published July 21, 2009, 3:24 PM
Print ArticleE-mail Article8 Comments
The iPhone crowd has turned into an anti-AT&T mob. Spend 30 seconds on Twitter or perform even the most basic search for iPhone and AT&T information and you're sure to run into some serious rancor from disgusted iPhone users across the country. While the exclusive partnership between Cupertino and the Dallas teleco has never been perfect, user hostility has lately been at a fevered pitch.
In February of this year, prominent blogger Om Malik announced he was 'breaking up' with his iPhone. 'I love my iPhone -- but AT&T's network has failed me. Apparently I'm not alone. If you follow me on Twitter, then you know how often I complain about it; my complaints always result in me receiving sim"

(Via .)