Management Blunders

I am sometimes amazed at some of the brainless moves we see from managers. And yes I said BRAINLESS!! Who told these people they had the neutrons firing in the correct order to make decisions, decisions that are some of the most blatant fumbling of the management football imaginable.

Here are a couple examples of what I feel is mismanagement decisions that make me scratch my head and wonder what are they thinking????

Bank of America announces a $5.00 monthly fee for debit card usage. I remember thinking the same thing a few years back when another bank announced they would start charging a fee for going inside to make standard transactions like deposits or withdrawal that could be made instead using the ATM.

But I could almost justify this fee, if they could cut back on the amount of tellers they could cut costs. Cutting cost upfront should mean working more efficiently. It didn’t work that way with the banks. We all grumble and complain about the “fees” charged for low account balance that they call monthly “service” or “maintenance” charges and explain it away as a fee for the accounting effort to keep track of your money. So let me get this straight, you want me to put my money in your bank for safe keeping, you tell me up front you are going to lend out money to people and charge them interest to make money, but you also want to charge me for the privilege to keep my money in your bank? If your holding my money, wouldn’t it be your job to keep track of it? And why is it if you have a great deal of money for them to keep track of, they don’t charge you? Isn’t that backwards?

Now you want to give me a card that is tied directly to my account to use, I no longer have to write checks, so it is automated for you to handle transactions, which, in my simple way of thinking, means less people which means less cost, and now you want to charge me for this privilege. And in today’s world of electronic processing who is doing this work in the end?

What happen to the good old days when banks set examples of customer service that were good? I remember as a child going into our local bank, (not owned by big corporation people) and my Father told the Vice President “Tony” he wanted to buy a new car. Tony replied, “Mr. Cloniger, just go pick out what you want, we will take care of the paperwork afterwards.” Now “Tony” was not a family friend, he was “our” banker. “Russ” was our insurance agent, etc. They were people. They worked for us. Why, because we were customers and good customer service was normal. Thanks Bank of America, just another reason I am happy I have never “banked” with you and I never will!

Another article I came across was the most outrageous example of poor bad management decisions. This story comes out of the land down under, Australia. A bride to be was told sidestep their store by the customer service department of an up-market chain “Gasp”, after she wrote an e-mail to complain about a rude salesman.

Per the report the young lady went in the store looking for bridesmaid dress. The sales clerk “chided” her for being a size 12. The as she was leaving the sales clerk yelled, “I knew you were a joke the minute you walked in.”

The customer service management reply defended the employee’s action and said his “retail superstars” only problem is he is too good at what he does. He also stated talented people, such as his clerk, “generally do not tolerate having their time wasted, which is why you were provoked to leave our store.”  Wow, serving the customer is a waste of time. I never knew people thought like that.

The manager also commented “So if you would like to do us any favors, please do not waste our retail staff’s time, because as you have already seen they will not tolerate it.” The manager claimed in his reply the store carries clothes worn by A list celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez and Katy Perry to name a few, and their clothing is worn by a select few. “Similarly these items are priced such that they remain inaccessible to the undesirable.”

I mean I am at a loss for words. Are there people out there placed in a management position that have had their frontal lobe removed completely?

I am so appalled by this story I will include a link to the article where you can read both the customer’s email and the manager’s reply. You can make your own decision. Now I cannot attest as to how the customer acted in the store as there was little mentioned about that timeframe, but have we lost the “Customer is always right” attitude completely and replaced it with, please leave, I will wait for a better customer?

Here is the link for the article:

http://www.news.com.au/national/customer-complaint-email-and-response-by-gasp-clothing-goes-viral/story

Finally, Oklahoma’s school superintendent made a statement Thursday saying that her chief of staff calling school administrators “dirt bags” in a personal twitter post a “poor choice of words” really, a poor choice of words?

It once was the manager, the level headed one that made decisions, kept the customer happy as well as the employee.

I suppose there is no test for common sense.

Interesting fact I found this week Charleston, there is a law on the books that all carriage horses must wear diapers. I love horses, but I am not going to change those babies!!!! Have a great week!