Monsters, the light bulb and customer service

     Last night, my three-year-old daughter dashed quietly into my bedroom and whispered “Dad!” as she lit the lamp on the night stand. While I cracked my eyes open, she slipped into the bed sheets murmuring about a monster. I chuckled as she snuggled close, and, as I stared at my lamp’s light bulb, my mind began to wander…. 

     Now awake and knowing I would soon have to carry her back to her room, I decided to kill some time on my phone googling about the invention of the light bulb. I found out a man called Humphry Davy invented it in the 1700s, but his invention caused more burns than it prevented. Seventy five years later Thomas Edison and other scientists continued Humphry’s research. They all obtained different successful results. Edison received the credit for inventing the light bulb because his version of the light bulb was technologically superior. It also included an entire integrated system that was scalable, adaptable, maintainable and viable for mass production. 

    I realized that all that is baloney, because all I want is to flick a switch and get light. If the light doesn't turn on, I know it’s time to change a light bulb. It then dawned on me that this is an example of excellent customer service. Maybe Edison had that in mind, maybe he didn't, or maybe that’s why he came up with the integrated system. Customer Service is not just attending every single call in a satisfactory and speedy fashion. Customer Service is not only to reduce the number of calls or have more people attending those calls. Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of the customer’s satisfaction. Customer service is the feeling that a product or service has met the customer’s expectation. Although there is a lot going on beneath the light bulb, the user interface is very simple: a switch. Consider generators, wires, relays, and transformers that, when well-coordinated, make light appear in a room at the flick of a switch. Technology users expect their computers, systems and applications to be available and functional to perform their daily tasks, it’s that simple. They don’t care what’s beneath their computer screens or even deeper than that. We know there are programs, java, servers, operative systems, routers, networks, ISP’s, and you know other things that I'm forgetting. 

    We should seek simplicity inside and outside of the technologies we manage and support. We should drive to deliver systems and applications that are simple for our customers to use. Behind the scenes, we should install solutions that are scalable, adaptable, maintainable and trainable, just like the light bulb example!