Managing facility or Managing expectations?

“I want hot water before lunch”

“I want lukewarm water to be served every hour”

“My green tea should be served to me 30 minutes after I reach”

“The flowers in my cabin should be changed everyday”

Jyoti, a hospitality professional had joined the corporate office of her new company and was baffled handling exceptions. She was used to a standardized culture where one type of SOP was good for one category of employees. But things were going wrong horribly as even after doing her best, there was at least one criticism at the end of the day. She gave herself one more week. Looking at the mirror at the end of the day she said to herself “one more week Jyoti, just one more week, either you change things or quit” 

What happened thereafter was no less than case study.

Next day after reaching office, she requested face to face meeting with all key stakeholders. After three days of detailed discussion with them she realized that like each kid has different needs and here too each function was different in terms of its functioning, time of operation, the hours of operation etc. 

For example, Sales Team would mostly go on calls in the first half and would return by the end of the day to put up the reports, review meetings and share the targets achieved. Operations Team would arrive late mostly because they have stayed late solving the issues of the previous day. Finance Team, like any other overburdened team, come early, works late. Project Management Team had no fixed time to come and stay in office. Hence, same pill would not kill the pain of everyone. The treatment of each set of people would have to be different and hence, the strategy to map her manpower to various departments that existed in her office would have to be well thought out and deployed accordingly. 

Rama was a happy go lucky person and was always smiling. He was never unsettled even during the strictest of crackdown. Any other person with self esteem in his place would have left the job but he took everything in stride and tried to improve himself. Jyoti decided to place him with a person who was very aggressive and impatient.

Siddique, a newly married young man hated to stay late for obvious reasons. He was very polished in his talks and was kind of person who would make you feel at home at your place. He was assigned to a department which was customer facing.

Laxmikant was a no nonsense person and would follow instructions to the tee. He would exactly work what was expected of him and sometimes did not apply his mind at all. He was assigned to a team which was handling lot of documentation. 

Things started changing within a week itself and she felt the positive vibes from both the sides. Not only were the respective departments happy and felt that their need was being catered too, the frustration of the facility management staff was also reduced to a great extent. 

When everything appeared to be working out nicely, one day she received a mail from one of the Departments complaining about the attitude of her staff and criticizing them for non-cooperation. It was a rude shock for Jyoti. On analysis of the whole matter she realized that her staff was only following the instructions as per company rules and procedures. What was being expected from him from that department was much more than the scope of work given to the agency and if she started accepting such exceptional requests, her position would be back to square one. It was also important for her to stand behind his person so that her own credibility was maintained even though she know the gap in the stature of her staff and the dissatisfied Department. 

Jyoti kept on thinking about the possible solution wherein she would convey the message to the Functional Head without antagonizing him. Next morning, she presented a coffee mug with a tactful message which made the gentleman realize his mistake.

Let us enumerate some takeaways from the above case:- 

1. KYC - Know you customer:- in order to customize the solution understanding the requirement in detail was very important. Unless and until you know what are the requirements of your customer you will not be able to service him fully. It is like selling a product to the customer which he does not need. So, understand what is needed and then plan your services accordingly. 

2. Connectivity:- After knowing your customer, its needs, one must be making sure that the network is very good and there is full flow of information and there is a lot of communication. The worst thing to happen is any confusion happening due to lack of communication even though the work is happening. Every possible way of communication must be used even at the expense of being repetitive.

3. Managing tough customers:- Customer is King and the first two steps protect the interests of the customers. However, in order to maintain best service, one’s own health must be good condition in order to be in a physical and mental condition to do so. The point at which “NO” has to be said must be clear to both the sides in order to avoid the unpleasantness. 

Jyoti was able to pull off because she did not actually manage the needs of the employees but their expectations. In today’s world one one solution does not fit all. We have to customize the need of each and every person. It does not cost much, what is needed is just a flexible approach without compromising own interests. Staying well within the guidelines, rules and procedures we can interpret the same thing to suit the needs of three different people, making them all happy. 

This applies in relationship too. Firstly, Know your customer. It can be your spouse, friend, relative or any person. Connect and understand their needs, what they want from you or wish to see you. Having said that, maintain the limits and have mutual respect. 

Cheers !