ESQi - Dan Gass

Just remembered the 'seminar' I went to before I left when this well-meaning ESQi 'guru' came over....did anybody take anything worthwhile from his visit, or did you think, like me, that his over-the-top 'have a nice day' attitude would be laughed at when dealing with the typical, 1989 E-reg Escort driving NU Direct idiot...

the fact that erac think that Dan Gass will teach brits "customer service" is total shite, this ignores the HUGE cultural differences in the uk, if Dan Gass tried some of that over the top crap with your average customer in the UK he would get laughed back to the US!, every role play he forced people to do during his seminars were awkward, and corny. total shite, if someone talked to me like that as a customer, it would piss me off.

[gp65:(]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

the fact that erac think that Dan Gass will teach brits "customer service" is total shite, this ignores the HUGE cultural differences in the uk, if Dan Gass tried some of that over the top crap with your average customer in the UK he would get laughed back to the US!, every role play he forced people to do during his seminars were awkward, and corny. total shite, if someone talked to me like that as a customer, it would piss me off.

How is Esqi different over in the UK? I know here in the states, we act all perky and bubbly like a bunch of friggin cheerleaders. Most British folks I know tend to be more subdued. I can imagine that Gass telling you guys to act like that sounded ridiculous...

[Tim O' Tei]

Originally Posted by gp65:(

How is Esqi different over in the UK? I know here in the states, we act all perky and bubbly like a bunch of friggin cheerleaders. Most British folks I know tend to be more subdued. I can imagine that Gass telling you guys to act like that sounded ridiculous...

The whole "have a nice day/missing you already" philospohy hjust doesn't work here and ESQI really has to be tailored for each individual branch.

For example, I have worked in branches where the local population are generally older and they like a bit of cheek as well as professionalism.

Another branch had a huge ethnic minority (if that makes sense) in their local population. Again the older generation ersponded to openness and professionalism while the young guys thought they were wheeler-dealer entrepreneurs.

What Gass tries to teach you is that people are the same. Quite simply they are not. Everyone has their own motivation and agenda and that is what needs to be ascertained before you can serve them effectively.

Spot on - I always had excellent ESQi (88%+ 12 month when I left...) and you're dead right - treat people as they treat you. Or at least have the sense to judge how they may want to be treated - and it doesn't hurt to have a clean car and be on time either.

dream on 88

No seriously, 88% 12 mth! I also had 100% retention, and nobody quit on me for over 2 years...now OP, that's a different story!

we had to do a few roleplays that my manager did at the dan gass seminar, and even she thought they were ridiculous. the trouble is that erac is such a cult that the managers have to go along with what the top brass (american) have to say, even though the differences between british and american culture, as well as culture from southern to northern england and indeed person to person, are massive.

yes, some people are going to be happy to have some kid drooling all over them and lauding them with cheap rentals etc, but if i hired a car and was asked at the end 'give us a mark out of ten' i'd laugh my fucking head off!

[FailingEnterpriseAdmin]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

we had to do a few roleplays that my manager did at the dan gass seminar, and even she thought they were ridiculous. the trouble is that erac is such a cult that the managers have to go along with what the top brass (american) have to say, even though the differences between british and american culture, as well as culture from southern to northern england and indeed person to person, are massive.

yes, some people are going to be happy to have some kid drooling all over them and lauding them with cheap rentals etc, but if i hired a car and was asked at the end 'give us a mark out of ten' i'd laugh my fucking head off!

A serious question here: Could you say more about the cultural differences between the U.S. and the U.K., and also between northern and southern England? I'm very curious about both of these.

ok. cultural difference. in the uk, people are NOT impressed by over the top, 'have a nice day' attitudes that seem commonplace in the US. when they, for example, arrive at erac to return their car, people in the uk would generally appreciate efficiency and politeness above other qualities you would show. i would treat each customer individually, but my area manager would not, and ended up asking 'the 3 critical questions' to everyone who returned. now, i'm no sociologist, but i can tell you as a 23 year old man i would find it very weird to be asked to give a mark out of ten for the customer service i recieved when i'd done something as simple as rent a car. it would just seem very, very cheesy. when he was in the office and we pretty much HAD to say it, i always felt like an idiot, and the customer always seemed to be uncomfortable. the first word out of 99% of them was 'err...?'

in short, people have places to be, and do not expect to have erac slavering all over them fawning on about customer service. yes, people care about not being treated like a moron, but i tended to find the 'thanks a lot, here's you're driver, take care' approach worked a lot better than asking a series of damned questions about customer service. if i bought a cd i would greatly appreciate a smile, my change, and then the chance to go home and listen to it as opposed to spending five minutes talking to the girl at the checkout about how nice i'd found the layout of the store/was the product easy to find/would i consider buying a cd there again?

the culture in america seems to be driven by who can smile the widest/help the customer to the most ridiculous degree and generally act 100% unlike themselves in order to appease any slight worry at all that the customer may have. in the uk, that just seems cheesy, the worst example being dan gass' crazy esqi ideas that would only see esqi plummet owing to the fact that 'i had to spend ages answering stupid irrelevent questions thanks to that weird smiling american man.'