Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Hi guys, I know some of you have been here before and it’s eating me up. It took me a couple of years to finally figure out what I want to pursue long-term but now, I spend all my time looking for pointers to the “how to get there”. I have been in retail banking since November 2014 and beyond my passion to help people save, invest, plan for retirement and debt management, I ensure that whichever part I am responsible for in the customer journey is immaculate. Sometimes, I doubt myself on the job and friends tell me it’s just impostor syndrome but one aspect I have never been found wanting is customer service and relationship management. I have done it across board within the bank; small business, the rich, professionals, immigrants with language barrier and the list goes on. Having done customer service at micro-level based on my previous and current roles, I have become fascinated and interested in having input at enterprise level. The problem I face now is how to get started. I’ve read a few stories of how people got into doing related duties but my current role is a full investment and credit position which leave me with almost no option than to quit and get something that would align to an area of CX. I have also been thinking of school but all I’ve found are courses. I have my bachelors but I’m looking for a relevant one or two year part-time program (preferably a diploma or certificate) that can arm with knowledge and tools applicable to in CX work environment. I have held off school for a while because I wasn’t sure of what I wanted but now that I know, it will be unwise and a complete waste of time and money to jump into just any program. I know I’ve typed out a lot here but it’s due to how overwhelming it has been for me. I’m not happy in my current job and I’ve considered quitting a lot time but the bills won’t pay themselves. How would you recommend I approach this career change? Jobs? What kind of roles (even if it’s going to be transitionary). School? what kind of programs should I look for that’ll give me ready tools to start functioning in the CX space? P.S. I live in Canada. Help me 🙁
submitted by /u/AngryRetailBanker [link] [comments]

In 2021, digital transformation will accelerate at even greater speed than in 2020 as organizations move from band-aid remote work solutions to a new operate from anywhere standard. In its top strategic technology trends report for 2021, Gartner confirms that this new standard is more than just working from home or interacting with customers virtually. A successful “”operate from anywhere”” model supports customers and enables employees everywhere: no matter how, when or where they interact and engage. So, as we kick off 2021, we are excited to share an update on our latest release, which brings enhanced Customer Experience capabilities, improved Microsoft Teams functionality, exciting Video Meetings updates, new compliance features, and expanded integrations and partnerships so that you can Engage, Work, and Manage every interaction between your employees and customers. Full article: https://www.8×8.com/blog/2021-winter-release-highlights
submitted by /u/vesuvitas [link] [comments]

In today’s digital era, An engaging Website is a MUST have for any business, however many industrial websites focus more on showcasing their portfolio, But is that enough? Find out 12 Must-have features for manufacturing websites. reddit.com/r/advancedentrepreneur/comments/lka476/12_musthave_features_for_manufacturing_websites/ #enhanceduserexerience #engagingwebsite #featuresformanufacturingwebsite #manufacturingbusiness #manufacturingbusinesswebsite
submitted by /u/krishaweb [link] [comments]

(There are some fractions here, please persist. It’s worth it.)

Imagine that you have a daily drive. Half of it by distance is on dirt roads where your car can drive 10 miles an hour. And half of it is on a good road where you can drive 50 miles an hour.

Which is a better choice: Trading your car in for one that can drive 22 miles an hour on the dirt road but no better on the highway? Or one that can do no better on the dirt road but 200 miles an hour on the highway?

OR!

Imagine that your factory has two kinds of machines, all fully busy. Half of them can process steel with an accuracy rate of 2 in 10. The other half can do it with 80% accuracy. Which is a better investment: Tuning the lousy machines into 30% accuracy or making the newer machines perfect, with no errors at all?

And finally, what’s the best way to improve fleet mileage? To get the 14 mile per gallon Hummers to upgrade to Toyota Camrys, or to get the Camrys to convert to infinite mileage electric cars?

In all three cases, because you can’t average averages, the answer is to improve the laggards.

Here’s the arithmetic if you’re curious.

And we should be curious. Because it feels safer, more productive and easier to go after the devices or systems or people that seem to be so close to getting it right. But it’s the laggards that cost us the most.

March is the perfect time to go on a world tour from your living room. In the Northern Hemisphere, early March offers perfect weather for shipping, and a blissful shortage of Hallmark holidays and cheap chocolate.

Megan Giller and I have put together a series of interviews (and tastings!) of dark chocolate and we’re inviting you to tune in.

Find out all the details here.

The short version:

In March 2021, on my Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram pages, I’ll be posting live interviews and tastings with some of the greatest chocolate makers of our time. And you can pre-order the bars and taste along if you like. If you’ve got chocolate in hand, feel free to join in with comments or live feedback as we go.

Dark chocolate, made by hand, by artisans who start with the bean and take it all the way to the finished product–it’s special. There are tones and notes and flavors that you can learn to taste. It’s fun to share. It’s an affordable luxury–you can buy the equivalent of a $500 bottle of wine in chocolate form for $11 or so. You can even get snobby and talk about trinitario and porcelana beans…

And the people who grow the beans, the farmers, are some of the poorest people in the world, often at the mercy of a heartless industrial food chain. The bars we’ll be tasting are all from producers who pay their farmers significantly more than the clearing price. If we can spread the word about this craft, they’ll all do better.

Thanks to Megan for helping me make this happen, and thanks to everyone who makes things a little more delicious, bringing care and dignity to the world at the same time.

Some people get one. Most people don’t.
But, if you’re reading this, it means that you’ve received more than one, perhaps a countless number of, little breaks.
Access to tools, the benefit of the doubt, decent health, occasional peace of mind.
Little breaks. Over and over.
Little breaks get you into a room, but they don’t guarantee your performance. Little breaks get you a glimmer of trust or opportunity, they give you a microphone and a chance to share your dream.
Little breaks don’t always announce themselves the way big breaks do.
Little breaks compound, one often leading to another. Or they don’t, creating false momentum and then disappointment.
Sometimes little breaks pretend to be big ones, and sometimes they’re hiding in plain sight.
Little breaks are easy to ignore and thus are wasted.
Little breaks don’t like being waited for the way big breaks do, because while you’re waiting, you’re wasting the little breaks you’ve already gotten.

Independent workers, founders, creators and organizers are often lumped together with a simple term, but that one-size-fits-all model fits no one.

You might be an entrepreneur, building a significant business by borrowing money to buy machines or to develop a market, focused on creating value, improving your leverage and eventually selling the company when it reaches scale.

Or you could be a bootstrapper, focused on avoiding financing while building an organization that pays for itself as it scales. It’s a different discipline from the first moment to the last, one that brings freedom along with responsibility.

Perhaps you’re a freelancer, getting paid when you work, and aware that your labor and your craft is how you make a difference. The only way for a freelancer to make a bigger impact is to have better clients, which is a project unto itself.

And it could be that you are committed to running a small business, the backbone of our culture, a craft that works at the right scale and doesn’t worry a lot about what the business magazines have to say.

I hope you’re not a tech-bro, building a make-believe business that’s somehow valued at a billion dollars even though it has no visible business model.

You could happily be an impresario, someone who produces, arranges and orchestrates an event or a movement. (Just posted, a long lost lecture on this).

Whatever you choose, choose! Being confused, seeking the best of each of these while experiencing the worst of all of them is no way forward.

Indies create possibility, they shape the culture and they make things better. We need you more than ever.