Appear to Care

When Jonathan Greene went on his first business call of the week, he was upbeat and excited. You see, Jonathan was a commercial banking representative, and he had been on his job for one month. He arrived at the offices of Mary Pierce to meet her and to get to know her better.
He was basically an account manager, her personal customer service agent.

Jonathan's company had recently bought Mary's previous bank and therefore had taken over Mary's commercial banking relationship.

When they met, Jonathan was dressed in a well-pressed suit and took a seat in Mary's office. As they began to talk, Mary provided a business card to Jonathan, and Jonathan searched for and found one of his to provide to her. They discussed her prior banking relationship, the people she knew in that bank, and the services she had utilized. Even though this banking acquisition had only occurred three months prior to this meeting, there had been several issues in the transition relating to service charges and online account access, and the two discussed the problems. And after about 20-25 minutes, the meeting ended.

Here were Mary's observations of Jonathan:
- "He kept shuffling these business cards in his hands like a deck of cards after I gave him mine - very distracting."
- "He also kept looking at the cards, like there was something interesting about them."
- "The way he leaned back in his chair gave me the impression that he was kind of cocky, that he was more interested in TELLING me things than LISTENING to me."
- "It ticked me off when I mentioned that I really liked the service from my account representatives at the previous bank, and then he stated that his bank had 'much better service.' All I had experienced with his bank were unexpected service charges and an inability to access my accounts online."
- "I wish I had my old bank back."

Jonathan's body language was a real turn-off to Mary. He conveyed that he was preoccupied and cocky instead of focused and listening. He further hurt his impression of being a good listener by making the comment about how much better his company's service was when Mary had just described how much she liked her prior bank and how many issues she had with Jonathan's bank.

Sometimes it's not about how you dress or how big your company is or the flashy business cards and marketing materials. It's about how you listen and are perceived to listen.

Appear like you care.

Employees Complete Business Process Management

Six IST employees are one class away from completeing Business Process Management (BPM) trainining, a prerequisite for Six Sigma Training.

BPM strives to identify processes that do not add value to our organization and help define the best processes of Mecklenburg County.

The training is being conducted by consultant Janie Mines.

The employees going through BPM training are Bunny Brown, Dwayne Campbell, Esther Craig, Pam Harris, Barbara Lockwood and Isa Momoh.

Meet: Dwayne Campbell

Time with the County: 11
Position Title: CRM
Job Description: Primary point of contact for IST customers, ensures that customer expectations are met or exceeded in obtaining products and services from IST, partners with customer senior management and business staff to plan/anticipate business needs, facilitate development of information technology strategies, manage/set customer expectations, and coordinate cross-organizational needs.
Best thing about working for Mecklenburg County: Knowing that the work that we do directly benefits the overall livability of our City/County.
Hobbies: Golf, reading, cooking, collecting walking canes, tennis
Favorite Movie: 13 conversations about 1 thing

Line from movie “ Once I knew a happy man. His happiness was a curse.” Film deals with adversity that comes into life and how we might respond.
Last Book You Read: The Giver by Lois Lowry
What one item in the kitchen best describes you and your personality? Cumin (spice found in most Mexican dishes) Kick it up a notch!!!
What CD would your friends be surprised that you own? Enya (Shepherd Moon)
If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be?
State of absolute happiness! (More important where you are mentally than physically).

Customers Praise IST Employees

Take a look at some of the e-mails submitted to our IST Praise e-mail box:





"In addition to consistent technical assistance with on-line federal grant procedures, I want to recognize Nathan McCrory for going beyond the prescriptions of good customer service. Most recently, Nathan assisted the Medical Examiner's Office and me in scanning, converting and tranmitting federal grant documentation, including scanned signatures, that went well beyond his every day responsibilites. Without Nathan's patient assistance, beyond the scope of his business day, we would not have gotten the grant application in on time or in the appropriate format."



"Hail to Thee, O Wayne (Butler) the Wonderful, O Wayne the Wizard, O Wayne the Wise. Thou hast cast thou magic spell upon the Location of Ethereal Discernment (AQ ftp site) and it hath been released from the Demons of the Internet. Laud and Honor to Thee O Wizard of the Web. May thou spells never waiver (or at least until March 1, 2009 when I plan on retiring)."

Welcome, Jamie Collomb!

Welcome to Jamie Collomb, a new contractor working at Help Desk East.

Jamie comes from a healthcare consulting company with a background in computer and network support. He is also a Microsoft Certified Professional, A+ certified and an audio visual engineer.

Welcome, Jamie!