Helpers vs Blockers or why attitude is the key of success for any customer oriented company

Friday 3:30 pm and lightly thinking how we are going to spend the weekend while finishing all weekly tasks. Suddenly all alarms are triggered and the unimaginable happens: your transport agency just tells you that the shipment of ingredients that should have arrived on that Friday has been blocked at customs without a definite date of departure and therefore will not arrive on time. Production will be irremediably delayed and therefore the delivery to your customer with the subsequent risk of stopping their production chain if they did not implement the good practice of keeping enough safety stock at their warehouse.

The problem is on the table, time is limited and the solution passes through urgently coordinate a group of people both internal and other suppliers to have new ingredients on time. The commitment of your team to the company but also the one from those suppliers considered as partners are at stake.

Well, we could be surrounded by people with an unblemished desire to solve the problem by minimizing or delaying other less important tasks either professional or even personal in favor of the urgent resolution of a significant problem, so that the called ‘helpers’, but unfortunately we could also run into those ones who prioritize their own tasks even less important or those supposed partner-suppliers that definitively do not show that status in punctual struggling moments. Undoubtedly these last so-called ‘blockers’ should be minimized in any company that would like to be positioned in the excellency level for customer service.

Both helpers and blockers surround us in everyday life. Who of us does not have a family member or a friend always willing to help with any new endeavor you want to carry on. In the same way, we have surely ever come across to any Mr. Can’t, that person from which you do never expect anything beyond his daily task.

Personally, I would always prefer being surrounded by crazy optimists persons willing to empty their current table to get down to work without delay in the resolution of urgent problems that could put in a bind the sustainability of the company, although those were not their direct responsibilities. On the other hand, I would avoid those professionals, even good, without enough commitment or attitude in solving problems unrelated to their basic commitment to the company.

Certainly, it is always an attitude issue. As many times said, attitude does not add up but multiplies the rest of a person skills.

Andres Jordan

Director of Operations

Related articles:

https://www.monteloeder.com/blog/2019/02/bad-companies-never-bring-anything-good/