You know I really wonder how much more broken my back can get with a new ‘last straw’ being added every day. I marvel at the lack of communication, interaction, and willingness to volunteer what might be valuable information. Most of all I wonder how I have endured through it all. I started my job at this company two years ago, all bright-eyed and bushy tailed. I had enough enthusiasm that even with my lack of experience I was going to take my company’s products global. Boy, how naive I was.
Since I joined this company I have asked consistently if I may accompany sales reps to job sites and attend local exhibitions. I usually find out about the exhibition the day after when our guys come into the office looking tired and plop down stacks of business cards. Also, it seems like the sales reps think I’m joking when I ask them to take me to job sites so that I can hear what customers think and see better how our product works in real world situations.
My favorite situations are the ones regarding issues with our products, of which there are eleven. Email shoots back and forth between our sales reps, boss, and tech crew. Heck even the financial guy is privy to those messages. Problems are discovered by customers, worked out by our staff, and solved (usually). One of these days I am hoping that someone will take me seriously when I tell them to put me in the loop and forward the emails to me so I can head off problems with my own customers all around the world rather then constantly being caught flat footed and lacking knowledge. “Oh yeah, we’ve known about that for a while, why?”
A couple of weeks ago I stood beside my coworker who was calmly sitting at his desk going over some prices. Apparently one of our larger customers had somehow heard about a large decrease in our material costs and wanted a decrease in their price from us. It was very interesting to note that a customer had heard that information from unknown sources before I, who sit in the office everyday, did. I asked when our prices had dropped and he said offhandedly, “Oh, a couple of months ago.“ Maybe you should have mentioned something…
Today was another fun surprise. I was deeply engrossed in putting together a new website for our company, teaching myself how to program, figuring out design, working through functionality, and generally having a good time.
A couple of months previously we had had a ‘web design company’ (I use that term loosely) come in for a consult with lackluster results. At one point during the meeting they suggested that instead of them doing the English website I should try my hand at it. Everyone seemed to get a chuckle out of it but I was completely stunned. Sure I’ll make a website then quickly translate it to Japanese and leave you out of work…
That company had apparently been with us since the beginning and it seemed things on the page hadn’t changed since then. Our site was outdated, barely functional and generally looked like crap. We wanted to join the 21st century, or at least check what it would cost. After a few months of waiting they finally got back to us (I don’t know when for sure because despite asking every week for 2 months they didn’t pass that information on to me when it came, maybe they thought I lost interest). Unfortunately, my supervisor said, it was too expensive and we would have to limp on as is for a while longer because we had other priorities.
I held out trying to explain how important our site was to our company in this day and age especially for me since I lacked any funding or other ways to access potential customers. Alas it was to no avail, or so I thought.
So there I was sifting through websites for instruction and inspiration when I decided to take a look at our page. What I saw put my jaw on the ground. It seemed in the intervening time since I had given up trying to convince them to have a professional to do it they had decided, heck, why not, and had it done. Needless to say no one felt it necessary to tell me. I also do not even know if it’s worth it to mention that the English side was left looking like crap.
I wish these incidents were few and far between but they happen on almost a weekly basis. Every question I ask is usually answered promptly but there is a point where you just don’t know what questions to ask and the person being questioned no longer has any patience. It would be nice if someone said one day, “Hey Mike, you might want to know about this” or just forwarded an email on to me.
I could have sworn I just saw a pig fly past the window… maybe…
