WAKE UP CALL!

Don’t let Bad Practice become the Norm!

In Holland well known standup comedian Youp van ‘t Hek has criticised callcentres, particularly T-mobile ones.

You have to wait for ages to get to speak to a human and once you do, they can’t help you anyway. A helpdesk that doesn’t help. Sound familiar? Of course we’ve all experienced this.

Youp has come up with a brilliant idea. It’s a three point plan.
Step 1: you answer the phone

Step 2: you listen

Step 3: you help the person and solve the problem!

Sheer genius. So simple.

And there's the rub: T-mobile is not the only company to have a helpdesk that’s not helping. In fact many helpdesks are outsourced and have become call centres. Apparently it’s the thing to do. But customers don’t like it because they want empathy when there’s a problem and they want the problem solved. When helpdesks are not helping and yet more companies are using the callcentre strategy, it has clearly become the norm.

But why does Bad Practice become the Norm?

Why are Wake Up Calls like Youp’s even necessary to galvanise companies to act with plain common sense? The same is true of PowerPoint presentations. Hands up who is elated at the thought of either giving or delivering a PowerPoint presentation? Mostly people agree: groan, another presentation to sit through and yet the tide does not seem to be stopping. Presentations are even becoming the standard way of exchanging information, whether there is an audience involved or not. How much bad use of PowerPoint costs the UK economy, is well argued here by Max Atkinson.

Recently we worked for a client where any info was sent by slide deck rather than a word doc. in essence there is nothing wrong with this. As long as you remember that when you get up in front of an audience this deck is NOT the thing to present with. The Nancy Duarte video Presentations are Broken, Pick Your Battles - which you can find here - argues this point very clearly. The other videos by Nancy, who is a leading visionary on effective presentations, give practical advice on how to deal with the dilemma.

So this is our Wake Up Call: next time you have to give a presentation, think about your audience, just like Youp is making T-mobile think about their customers.

Here is our three point plan to make sure that your next PowerPoint is powerful:

Step 1: Let your audience hear: think about who your audience is and tell them a story

Step 2: Let your audience see: think about how your slides can support that story

Step 3: Let your audience feel: engage your audience by not fumbling or stumbling: rehearse and rehearse!

At C-two we can help you achieve this in a number of ways and here is some more information. Or find out more about our training sessions.

Don’t let Bad Practice become the Norm!