The Dreaded Customer Satisfaction Survey

I was sitting at my desk this afternoon trying to prepare some shipping documents for a 2pm deadline. At 1:55pm, the phone rang. It was the manufacturer of our photocopier conducting a survey to ensure the recent service and cleaning they performed last week met our expectations. My first instinct was to say "Call me later" or "If there was a problem, you would have heard from me already". Even though it felt like three minutes of my life I'll never get back, I answered her questions candidly and thoroughly. Why? Because I know what it's like trying to ensure customer's expectations are met.

ACS is currently undergoing a similar excercise. Every year, we ask 20 questions about why our customers buy from us, what they want to see in the future and what, if anything, can we improve upon. I sincerely understand completing these surveys is less than exhilarating. Some people may even believe the answers are not read, go into a black hole and no actions or changes take place as a result of everyone's efforts. Not true!

Every year, the data is collected, summarized and presented to the entire management team. Although the data is tallied, raw data such as comments (both good and bad) are unaltered for all to see. Tranparency is important to the management team so that we truly understand the mindset of the customer. After all, we're in business because of our customers, not the other way around.

So if you received a customer satisfaction survey from ACS by email, take a moment to fill it out. Your feedback will be reviewed and any questions or concerns will certainly be addressed in a timely manner.

Shawn Fitzpatrick

Marketing Manager

The story doesn't end here...

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ! The hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race.

The moral - "Slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with." Correct ?

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

there are few more interesting things ..... it continues as follows ......

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that he'd lost the race only because he'd been over-confident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed. This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

The moral - " Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady.It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable."

THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE

The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. It thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river. The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.

The moral - "First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency."

THE STORY STILL HASN'T ENDED

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realized that the last race could have been run much better. So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time. They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.

The moral - "It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work as a team and build on each other's core competency, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership. Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could." In life, when faced with failure sometimes, it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different … and sometimes it is appropriate to do both. The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.

To sum up - The story of the hare and tortoise has much to say: Chief among them are that

A. Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;
B. Work to your competencies;

C. Pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers;

D. Never give up when faced with failure & finally,

E. Compete against the situation - Not against a rival.

Ramesh Chittur
Director of Information Technology

Alcohol and the Economic Downturn

While many of the international blog visitors reading this may be cushioned from the downturn in the US economy, there are plenty of you that are personally impacted by the latest recession. To those that are thriving in the current economy, go grab a coffee and watch a re-run of Seinfeld - this isn't for you.

It's no secret that direct and inverse relationships exist between an individual's disposable income and what they choose to buy. For example, when money is available, an extra vacation might be suddenly accessible. When money is tight, sandwiches make a viable dinner instead of the filet mignon that might otherwise be served that evening. But what about alcohol?

Logic might suggest that a little extra money might permit an expensive bottle of wine at the dinner table instead of water. However, alcohol consumption, specifically excessive alcohol consumption, is often a result of a lack of disposable income. Money woes are numbed by alcohol which only perpetuates the problem. So what can you do about it? Well, try to track it.

Try to remember how much alcohol you consumed during the "good financial times" and write it down. Perhaps it was two beers after the big game or a glass of wine once per week at dinner. Whatever the amount, exceeding your regular pattern might be a sign you are relying on alcohol to get through a rough patch. Once you have documented your typical pattern, try to cut consumption in half. It will save you money while ensuring you are not relying on alcohol to distract you from other things. Once the economy turns around, all the more reason to celebrate at home with a nice glass of merlot.

Shawn Fitzpatrick
Marketing Manager

ACS Wins Two New Awards!

Don't Believe Everything You Read In The Papers!

To listen to the the radio or television news lately, one would think that the sky actually is falling, and we are all about to be thrust back to the economic stone age.

Yet among all this doom and gloom there are many bright spots.

Just look at ACS. Fresh from winning the Ontario Chamber of Commerce's Ontario Global Traders Innovation Gold award, we were honoured today as one of three winners of The Canadian & Manufacturers Exporters, Regional Technology - Ontario Region Awards. Our forthcoming family of alcohol interlocks will set new standards in features, security and vehicle safety.

ACS and it's employees refused to accept conventional wisdom and set about building a better mousetrap. Instead of shrugging and saying why, we said, WHY NOT??

In doing so, ACS continues it's legacy of improving peoples lives through technology that drives traffic safety.

Allan E. Soll

Program Services Manager

Compliance Monitoring

Risk down = Revenue Up

After 30 years in the alcohol interlock business, we thought we’d seen it all. That was until a new client told us his revenue increased by 25% after installing alcohol interlocks in three of his vehicles as a pilot project.

A few months ago, a small taxi company in Belgium committed to a three month pilot of interlocks in three of their taxis. With a little help from our local distributor and the attendance of some key government officials, politicians, newspapers and televisions stations, we launched a media frenzy and the beginning of a new taxi pilot.

Three months later, a peculiar thing happened. The client noticed revenue in their taxis installed with interlocks had increased by 25%. Corporate clients transporting key executives insisted the taxis provided were among those which were interlock equipped. The client has now equipped the entire fleet with alcohol interlocks and boosted their reputation, goodwill and social responsibility to new levels.

John Colton
Business Unit Manager
Commercial Interlocks

Buying from Ebay? Do your research first.

Since the inception of Ebay and online retailing in general, a lot of random items have sold for amounts that far surpass their true value. On the other hand, I know some people who have, including me, managed to get a few deals without having to leave their house. If you can tolerate the typical shipping delay of 5-7 days, online retailing is a good choice for many purchases.

But after 13 years in the business of breath alcohol testing, I always question how you can buy a “quality breath alcohol tester” for under $40. Perhaps my biases are coming into play, but these devices are about as useful as random number generators with brightly coloured lights on a convenient keychain. I have purchased some just to perform accuracy testing and confirm my suspicions. They just don’t work.

When introduced to someone at a social event, inevitably I’m asked “So what do you do for a living?”. After a brief explanation, I often hear “Oh, my brother just purchased one of those alcohol testers over the internet for a few dollars”. Needless to say, I quickly clarify the differences between the various alcohol testers on the market. Then, I encourage them never to rely on those trinkets for any level of accuracy – especially before driving. The risk is too great.

Does this mean you shouldn’t buy things over the internet? Of course not. It’s incredibly convenient and appears to be the way of the future. But like all purchases, do your market research and make informed buying decisions – even it you are only spending $40.

Chris Wilson
Business Unit Manager
Breath Test Products

Why is ACS Blogging?

So why is ACS Blogging? We have a website? Isn't that enough?

The short answer is "no".

Business is about communication. I was once told that the root cause of 90% of business-related problems stem from poor communication. I suspect the same applies for all relationships. So the time is right to add yet another type of communication. THE CORPORATE BLOG.

I suspect this blog will be a little different from our website or other marketing material. In fact, it will be quite different. Employees will be the primary contributors rather than the Marketing department. Topics will vary as widely as possible and are more about what is "new" as opposed to promoting products. Updates could be daily or weekly depending on how busy we are on other things - which makes sense since we have to be doing other things to make things "new" so we can blog about them. It's an exciting cycle isn't it?

We are just getting started. If you want us to blog about a certain topic, just ask. It's all about communication with the customer, the reader, the employee and the company.

Shawn Fitzpatrick
Marketing Manager