BadKern Thinking Outloud

If you ask me to tell you what I do and why I do it, I will tell you in advance, it’s not that easy to explain. I suppose I could sum it up in a nutshell but most of us do the same thing right?.. or do we?.  I had never worked in a call center before prior to this one.  Coming from a sales and manufacturing background, I quite frankly, never even considered it.  The thought of it actually sort of scratched at my ego for a long time.  Call Center!  I didn’t even like the sound of it.  I needed something more.

What started for me, as something seemingly easy, stress free, and a break from my habit of “bringing work home”, turned out to be something quite different. I needed something to shoot for. A Goal. It’s just in my nature. But it took some digging to figure out. So off I went to find the answer to the question.  Why am I here.

My propensity toward solid tangible explanations, led me on a search into the belly of the support structure and into the brains of the operation. A big task I am aware!.  As with any big question, chunking the issue into manageable pieces led only to more questions.

These were the few that I came up with:

Why are we so good? 

What do I do to be better than the rest?

How can I help others be better?

The answers I found are for another day – The fact that I asked questions and where they led me is what is important.

So, I figured it out (for me anyway).  Whether it’s to help our customers figure out how to navigate the tricky world of online business, or helping you figure out how to become a better representative of the company. I am here to help people be better people. 

I am a teacher.

We spend so much time thinking and reading about how to “close the deal” we forget that if we believe whole heartedly in our product, it’s not about “the pitch”.  Pricing should be based on getting to the next level, not greedily getting rich.  Keep the focus on helping customers accomplish their goals, and we shall accomplish ours.  Companies and friendships alike will flourish, if  focus is on service and providing an experience, more so than superiority of  products.  Brand yourself and your ideas and your products will speak for themselves.

New poster design.  All this talk about company culture, just got me thinking….  This American Life Episode #394: Bait And Switch (aired November 8, 2009.), Ira Glass and Jim Henderson were discussing the concept of “Doable Evangelism”.   About how Christian Evangelists will do anything it takes to get someone converted.  Even if it ends up turning people off to the idea.  As stated in the interview Mr. Henderson discussed a belief that it shouldn’t be so much about converting, as much as it is about connecting and having a positive influence on a person. 

Relating this to business, I stole the phrase – and made it my own.

“do-able corporate evangelism” is not as much about pitching company culture, but about making a connection with your people and letting the word spread on it’s own.   The word need not be shoved down someones throat to get them to believe – It needs to be lived.  We need to lead by example and grow our tribes with action.