Are Soviet style Management principals killing off Customer Service?
Back in the Cold War era we in the West gleefully laughed and poked fun at Soviet Management Principles – for one of my thesis at University I documented a Soviet Shoe factory, which for 5 years running was heralded as No 1 by the centralised Planning Office in Moscow, because it always met or surpassed its out-put quotas. My contributions was to document that the successful General Manager of the shoe factory early in his carrier came up with the idea of simply adding a 5cm rubber sole to all the shoes produced. This increased the weight of the shoes and ensured he could surpass his KPI every year – ‘Tons of shoes shipped’. No one ever questioned if the shoes were sold or at what price. It would seem the West has adopted similar management practices for service delivery. The focus on Quantity and disregard of Quality-measures has dislodged the Call Center from playing any role in the business model of the sponsoring organisation and if somebody else can do this cheaper, then its no wo
