The thought came to me, that I have actually participated in a mystery shopping exercise before.
Last semester, I did THE MOST AMAZING course, called Quality Service Management. For our final project, we had to select an organization, carry out mystery shopping exercises and fill out a template given to us by our lecturer.
I found this very exciting as I got a first hand look at how unsuspecting workers in organizations can be and how obviously they expose their flaws when communicating.
My group chose Jamaica National Building Society. I vividly remember the day I walked into the Mortgage Centre in New Kingston, prancing around stating that I would like to acquire a loan to purchase an apartment in the Phase II Country Club Complex in Portmore.
I remember the agent looking at me with confusion, because to some, I do not look a day older than 18 years old (I'm actually 22 this year :D ). She asked what was my income, and of course I had to make it even more difficult for her, so I stated that it was JA$40,000 monthly.
Now, it is impossible for me to acquire a loan for a $9 million apartment with an income of only $40,000. I remember during the interview, she blatantly answered her phone in front of me and prolonged a conversation with no apology.
At that time, it made me wonder if I were a different person, would she be doing that? The attitude I was getting from her for the entire consultation was that I shouldn't waste her time or my time, because I cannot afford it. She was hypocritically helpful however, as she tried to maintain some form of professionalism.
Personally, I think that mystery shopping should be carried out more frequently in Jamaican organizations as there is a tendency for workers to slack off, and stray from accepted behaviour. You will sometimes see workers arguing with customers, and you may also hear 300 different instructions for one query.
Especially in the banks, there are countless times I see tellers on their BlackBerrys sometimes even peeking at it during transactions with customers.
They need to be held accountable, and they need a constant reminder that a customer pays attention to how one communicates with them and spreads their experience to four-folds of people. This can be both beneficial and detrimental to an organization.
By utilizing mystery shopping, it is a first step to correcting the myriad of communication deficiences within our Jamaican organizations.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Friday, 13 April 2012
Gender, Politeness and Respect
This past Wednesday in my Psychology lecture, my female lecturer realized that a male student had been on his laptop in class browsing through Facebook. My lecturer asked the young man to please close the laptop and he asked why?
She stated that it was distracting her, and that she has stated numerous times that she doesn't want any phones, laptops, etc. in use during her lecture, unless it is related to the course.
The young man became offensive and asked "how is it distracting you?" Completely oblivious to what my lecturer just said. She then said "you know if I was a male lecturer, you wouldn't be asking me these questions, you would just close the laptop"
She asked him to leave the room and he refused. So my lecturer decided to pause the class until he left. It was a standoff, she wasn't teaching; he wasn't moving. After a while, she asked someone to go to the faculty office to contact someone who could help. Within minutes, the Deputy Dean (male) showed up.
He went to my lecturer and she explained what had happened, and both of them made their way over to the student.
ALL THE DEPUTY DEAN DID WAS RAISE HIS FINGER AND SIGNAL TO HIM TO "COME HERE" AND SHOUTED "EXCUSE ME SAH, COME HERE A LIKKLE"
That's all! He complied!
My lecturer then stated, "that's exactly what I was saying"
It dawned on me, that it is very true.
I decided to look through my notes for my organisational communication course to see if there was anything in relation to this issue, lo and behold! there is!
This happening proves the article on Politeness and Gender right! My lecturer, without raising her voice, politely asked the young man to close the laptop, and when he did not comply, she again, politely asked him to leave, and he didn't. However, as soon as the Deputy Dean, who is a male, came and did a little finger signal and bellowed to the young man, he complied!
So even though a woman can be in a position of authority, many times, she is not treated with the same respect as that given to males; even when her voice isn't raised. People tend to respond to shouting, especially from a male authority figure, and tend to take them more seriously than females.
I mean, various students asked the young man to leave! and he just sat there. Mind you, many of the students were females of course, but a male in particular spoke out, and he did not budge!
So this can even question the view of the article, because the male in the lecture that asked the young man to leave, was much older than him.
Personally, I think at that point, he would have left, but it was a point where it was evident that his ego was kicking in, he didn't want to seem like a wuss!
She stated that it was distracting her, and that she has stated numerous times that she doesn't want any phones, laptops, etc. in use during her lecture, unless it is related to the course.
The young man became offensive and asked "how is it distracting you?" Completely oblivious to what my lecturer just said. She then said "you know if I was a male lecturer, you wouldn't be asking me these questions, you would just close the laptop"
She asked him to leave the room and he refused. So my lecturer decided to pause the class until he left. It was a standoff, she wasn't teaching; he wasn't moving. After a while, she asked someone to go to the faculty office to contact someone who could help. Within minutes, the Deputy Dean (male) showed up.
He went to my lecturer and she explained what had happened, and both of them made their way over to the student.
ALL THE DEPUTY DEAN DID WAS RAISE HIS FINGER AND SIGNAL TO HIM TO "COME HERE" AND SHOUTED "EXCUSE ME SAH, COME HERE A LIKKLE"
That's all! He complied!
My lecturer then stated, "that's exactly what I was saying"
It dawned on me, that it is very true.
I decided to look through my notes for my organisational communication course to see if there was anything in relation to this issue, lo and behold! there is!
This happening proves the article on Politeness and Gender right! My lecturer, without raising her voice, politely asked the young man to close the laptop, and when he did not comply, she again, politely asked him to leave, and he didn't. However, as soon as the Deputy Dean, who is a male, came and did a little finger signal and bellowed to the young man, he complied!
So even though a woman can be in a position of authority, many times, she is not treated with the same respect as that given to males; even when her voice isn't raised. People tend to respond to shouting, especially from a male authority figure, and tend to take them more seriously than females.
I mean, various students asked the young man to leave! and he just sat there. Mind you, many of the students were females of course, but a male in particular spoke out, and he did not budge!
So this can even question the view of the article, because the male in the lecture that asked the young man to leave, was much older than him.
Personally, I think at that point, he would have left, but it was a point where it was evident that his ego was kicking in, he didn't want to seem like a wuss!
Sunday, 1 April 2012
The impact of Body Language
In class last week, we played a game of "charades." At first, I thought it would just be a little stress reliever, but as it turned out, it had a deeper meaning. If you really think about body language, it is something we all do unconsciously every single day. However, we often fail to realize that our body language, specifically referring to our gestures, may not have the same meaning worldwide.
A crazy thought popped up in my head, which prompted me to make this entry. I was thinking about a virtual meeting through Skype, with some of my key stakeholders. There was one in Japan, one in Greece, one in the United States, one from Trinidad, and myself from Jamaica.
We are finally closing an anticipated deal, and we are all excited, so the United States partner signals a "thumbs up", I signal a "thumbs up" as well and the Trinidadian signals an "OK" sign.
Soon the partner from Greece begins to argue and decides to pull out from the deal and immediately signs off Skype and out of the meeting. Everyone wonders what is going on, we just closed an amazing deal!
The following article explains my hypothetical issue:
http://ingenira.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Read-Others-Thoughts-by-Their-Gestures
The "thumbs up" gesture is interpreted as a sign of profanity in countries such as Northern Greece. Yikes! That ruined everything right?
It is very important as someone who deals with business partners worldwide, or even a person interacting with friends/people from various countries, to understand what different body languages mean. It may not be as detrimental as a business deal falling through; it may be a situation where you hurt one of your dear friends from another country, without knowing it.
I have experienced this myself where giving a simple hug to my family members who were born and raised in the United States; you can almost feel the anxiety through their clothes, when you hug them. Its not normal for them to hug when greeting someone, they see it as an invasion of their personal space; while in Jamaica, we hug A LOT!!
We should all ensure that we are knowledgeable of the different meanings body languages have cross cultures, so that we do not send the wrong message or insult someone unintentionally and ruin a very good business deal! lol
You can check out this link as well where Sam Diener goes into more detail about body languages:
http://www.samdiener.com/2009/10/body-language-in-different-cultures/
A crazy thought popped up in my head, which prompted me to make this entry. I was thinking about a virtual meeting through Skype, with some of my key stakeholders. There was one in Japan, one in Greece, one in the United States, one from Trinidad, and myself from Jamaica.
We are finally closing an anticipated deal, and we are all excited, so the United States partner signals a "thumbs up", I signal a "thumbs up" as well and the Trinidadian signals an "OK" sign.
Soon the partner from Greece begins to argue and decides to pull out from the deal and immediately signs off Skype and out of the meeting. Everyone wonders what is going on, we just closed an amazing deal!
The following article explains my hypothetical issue:
http://ingenira.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Read-Others-Thoughts-by-Their-Gestures
The "thumbs up" gesture is interpreted as a sign of profanity in countries such as Northern Greece. Yikes! That ruined everything right?
It is very important as someone who deals with business partners worldwide, or even a person interacting with friends/people from various countries, to understand what different body languages mean. It may not be as detrimental as a business deal falling through; it may be a situation where you hurt one of your dear friends from another country, without knowing it.
I have experienced this myself where giving a simple hug to my family members who were born and raised in the United States; you can almost feel the anxiety through their clothes, when you hug them. Its not normal for them to hug when greeting someone, they see it as an invasion of their personal space; while in Jamaica, we hug A LOT!!
We should all ensure that we are knowledgeable of the different meanings body languages have cross cultures, so that we do not send the wrong message or insult someone unintentionally and ruin a very good business deal! lol
You can check out this link as well where Sam Diener goes into more detail about body languages:
http://www.samdiener.com/2009/10/body-language-in-different-cultures/
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