I love solving problems. It’s as simple as that and that’s the value I provide for people and businesses. Everyone has problems in business and in life, and for me to be able show up and solve people’s problems and make their lives easier, then that’s powerful stuff for everyone and anyone.
After being in and around businesses for over two decades, I’ve seen and solved a lot of problems along the way for customers, and organisations I’ve both worked in and with.
Along the way, I’ve had the privilege of working with some great people and businesses including Northern Gas Networks, The Miles Consultancy, The Co-operative Retail Group, The Co-operative Bank, Xerox, Lombard Financial Services, Stannah Lift Services, Manchester United, Volkswagen Group and Principality Building Society. I’ve also been lucky enough to travel whilst working with Rolls Royce to Moscow, Norway, Istanbul and Jeddah.
Many years ago, I took out a Northern Rock mortgage, probably at the time when the company was at the height of it’s success and a good few years prior to it’s bail out by the Bank of England in 2007.There’s a brief history of events
NRAM (Northern Rock Asset Managemen) was created after the company was restructured in 2010 and remains in public ownership and managed by the Government. Northern Rock plc was sold to Virgin Money in 2012.
This is business basics surely isn’t it? We’re not even into the realms of delivering great customer experience yet not to mention wowing the customer. It’s what Tom Peter’s would call ‘sticking to the knitting – being great at the core business and getting process steps in the right order, whether they be short term ones like this around a refund project, or the day to day core operational processes that service delivery is built on. Get a step in the wrong place or out of order and everybody looses. Customer effort increases as do levels of frustration for both customers and employees and overall levels of dissatisfaction. In the cold light of day, this is borderline madness whether a genuine mistake or an ill thought out and mismanaged project – the impact is the same.
A quick look at the NRAM website uncovered this gem of a statement ‘We are making a positive impact on the lives of our customers, whilst maximising value for the UK taxpaying public’ Really?? and this one … ‘Government owned. Mortgages in expert hands’. So where’s the value in having to field a number of excessive telephone calls, hundreds, or even maybe thousands because letters went out in the wrong order?? The girl I spoke to sounded frustrated and it was only 9.30am. I reckon she was in for a long day….
