Irish firms follow the ‘tech for good’ trend

There’s no excuse not to return phone calls in a world where companies have to fight for market share

IF YOU attend any tech event in the Silicon Valley, you won’t last 10 minutes without hearing an entrepreneur claiming their technology is ‘changing the world through reduced thread switching latency’ or ‘making the world a better place through seamless fabless semiconductors’. No pitch is complete without making bold claims, reflecting a holistic Californian mindset that ‘we are making the world a better place’, no matter how tenuous the case may be.

While there is no debate that technology has been a locomotive of change in every aspect of our lives, the question that has become more prominent in recent years remains: is tech changing our lives for the better?

This is the existential quagmire that the tech industry is currently facing and cannot ignore any longer.

A growing millennial and Gen Z employee and consumer base are holding it to a higher standard of ethical accountability than ever before.

And for good reason. Albeit unintentional and unforeseen, there have been catastrophic by-products of some of Silicon Valley’s giants on our society.

Social media incumbents face scrutiny over the spread of fake news, hate speech and political interference on their platforms, with ‘deep fake’ technology adding further sophistication to these threats.

Inclusion and diversity are also hurdles for an industry that has been historically ‘male and pale’, as employees and consumers seek action to add diverse voices and backgrounds into tech, trying to ensure that AI doesn’t mimic the unconscious biases of a homogeneous industry.

But technology itself has a neutral valence. It isn’t trying to undermine our democracies, nor is it actively trying to create a catalyst for societal inclusion.

For all the bad press tech gets, there are many innovating for a better society, and there is a group of Irish tech companies at the forefront of using tech for good.

NewsWhip works with some of the world’s biggest brands and media outlets to help them track the spread and impact of a news story.

The Dublin-founded company also uses this tech to support NGOs and news organisations to identify the spread of fake news.

In a similar vein, Logograb has reimagined how its AI tool, which identifies logos in images online, can help clamp down on goods uploaded to reseller sites that feature hate symbols like swastikas. Aid:Tech is leveraging blockchain technology to improve transparency and dissemination of humanitarian aid, while Umba is driving financial inclusion to those marginalised in east Africa. The Irish startup is partnering with MyDawa in Kenya, allowing patients without formal bank accounts to access affordable medicine on credit.

SoapBox Labs is a leader in voice technology for kids and has partnered with Microsoft, in an effort to combat the growing children’s literacy crisis.

Change Donations is changing the world with pocket change; its easy-to-use tech rounds up your everyday credit or debit purchases to the next euro and donates your spare change to a charity partner.

Firms like Connect the Dots, Poppulo and WorkHuman offer solutions at the intersection of innovation and inclusion.

Connect the Dots’ platform is helping organisations to co-design impactful events with their stakeholders, and enable inclusive decision-making, from public spaces to internal company programming.

The likes of Nestle and Honda are using Poppulo’s internal communication tools to ensure that their employees are part of the companies’ conversations across departments.

WorkHuman does just that — make work human. The firm’s social recognition and continuous performance management platform is being used by the likes of LinkedIn and P&G, energising their culture and celebrating people.

Recently, Enterprise Ireland, in partnership with Deloitte Digital, hosted its first-ever Tech for Good event in New York, featuring panellists from tech leaders such as Samsung, Facebook and many of these Irish companies mentioned.

From stopping the spread of fake news and hate speech, to using innovation as a catalyst for inclusion, Irish tech is leading the charge in an emerging and conscious trend of building ‘tech for good’. Oran Bambrick is senior market adviser for Enterprise Ireland in North America

ALEXANDER Graham Bell would turn in his grave. All the great ambassadors of customer service would be disgusted. Business owners and chief executives would be furious. I’m referring here to the bizarre reality where so many firms do not return customer phone calls. From ‘not having time’ to ‘forgetting’, to ‘not having the answer’ and being ‘let down by somebody else’, I’ve heard all the excuses. But none of them stand up to scrutiny.

The world has enjoyed this communication device since 1876 and while it has come through many iterations since first launched, every one of us has one, at our desks but also in our pockets.

I remember the local telephone box during my school holidays in Co Kerry. To contact Dublin, we’d wind a crank handle on the side of the telephone, to be answered by the local exchange which was 20 metres away in the post office.

The operator would tell us to hang up and wait in the box before calling us back minutes later with a connection. With childish suspicion, we were convinced that she was listening in on all calls. So we learned to wait for the click before starting our conversation.

And haven’t we come a long way since? Now, we use telephones extensively in our personal lives and they are a basic tool of the trade for every business. Before the world wide web was a twinkle in the eye of Timothy John Berners-Lee, the phone was the revolutionary new channel that created and sped up business opportunities.

It still plays that role. And yet, I never cease to be amazed at how many times I experience poor telephone etiquette in business. There are two issues at stake here. One is the lack of professional courtesy and poor manners. What does it say to a customer when they have made an enquiry, and they don’t get a call back? Surely their expectation of an on-time call back is reasonable?

In the past two weeks, due to an aching shoulder, I called three different medical centres to make an appointment. Guess what?

And I’ll never forget the last time I was changing my car. As a genuine buyer, I visited a dealer and the salesman promised to call me back with a trade-in price. He never did, so I bought my car from his competitor. I appreciate that perhaps he didn’t want my car.

Maybe he had too much stock of my particular year. But don’t you think he should have called anyway? I wonder how his boss would feel about that? Wouldn’t I be a fool to go back there again? I’m sad to say that this doesn’t just apply to the medical and motor industry. It’s going on wholesale across all sectors.

The other negative impact is the madness associated with lost sales opportunities. There are many organisations that I’m familiar with spending millions on marketing, to encourage new and existing customers to make contact.

And despite their investment in expensive and sophisticated ‘customer relationship management’ (CRM) systems, guess what again! I think it’s business-criminal to see this going on.

Have we returned to the crazy Celtic Tiger years, where firms didn’t have to fight for their share of the market? Some customers were even treated as a nuisance during that time.

Did the subsequent downturn and dramatic drop in footfall not teach us anything about how to value every lead? I have also experienced some companies that have a deliberate policy of asking all callers to leave a message with name and number, for them to then expect a call back.

This is not customer-centric. It’s designed to enable the business to manage its workflows, not serve the customer when they want service.

TIPS ON THE BASICS OF TELEPHONE ETIQUETTE: 1 REFRESH YOUR CULTURE

This is a culture issue and if it applies to you, then you need to refresh your culture. Be sure that everyone understands the need to uphold these basic standards. Put consequences in place for not complying.

2 DO A ROOT-CAUSE ANALYSIS

In the language of ‘Lean Principles’, this is a defect. If this is an ongoing issue in your business, you might consider convening a cross-functional group to get to the root of the problem and agree corrective actions.

3 SET RULES AND TRAIN EVERYBODY

Make this a priority, and communicate your expectation and minimum standard to everyone on your team. Make it a rule that all customers should get at least an acknowledgment on the same day (or, latest, the following morning).

Communicate this, and include it in briefings and training to all.

4 LOG ALL CALLS

Every time you make a call-back promise to a customer, log it somewhere. If you don’t have immediate access to an electronic device with CRM software or Microsoft Outlook, then return to an old-fashioned paper diary.

Busy offices and retail stores should consider having one sitting permanently beside the telephone. With a pen!

5 FULFIL PROMISES

Recognise the negative impact of disappointing a customer and value the commercial impact of the missed opportunity. Only make promises that you know you can keep.

Manage expectations if you have to and don’t say you’ll call tomorrow if you know it’ll take three days to address the issue. Then do what you said you’d do.

6 LEAVE A MESSAGE

If you don’t manage to reach the customer at the designated time, leave a message. But be careful about what you say in the message, particularly if it is confidential.

If you know the customer reasonably well, it might even be appropriate to send a brief text message to at least let them know you tried to make contact.

THE LAST WORD

While all the points made here apply to telephone etiquette, the same tips apply to emails. It’s a reality that we’re living in an age where expectations for speedy responses have escalated. Don’t get left behind.

One more thing. I have focused here on customers and the commercial loss of not following up as promised. But internal customers are also important. Don’t develop a reputation internally or externally for not doing the basics.