End of Week 12+1th November 2009
Superstitious, me? Ha ha!! As if. Well, with it being Friday 12+1th of November (I tried 12th+1, which is probably more correct, but I decided to be awkward and sound more silly), I decided to ask my colleagues at Plusnet Towers to come up with some superstition-based weekly updates. And some have even delivered! Thank you to you all. As far as superstitions go, I don't like the number 13, yet don't care about walking under ladders or seeing black cats in my path. I mean, I'd care like if it was a giant big black panther or something, but a little black puddy tat or two doesn't phase me 
However, if I pour out too much salt, I chuck the excess over my shoulder (though I do try and ensure my flatmate is not stood there at the time). Miaow from some black cats and on with the show!!!! First up, Jen in HR:
Once upon a time in Plusnet Land, in the year of Two Thousand and Nine, the thirteenth day of the eleventh month fell on a Friday. Folklore around these parts tells of very strange happenings upon this day. Indeed, the HR team can atest to this. All day, strange noises have been interrupting out attempts to complete our Best Companies application. Icy breezes have been fluttering the pages of our new starter documents. Gremlins have been interfering with our computers and old references we typed months ago have been spluttered out of the printer. Numbers were appearing where they shouldn't be on spreadsheets and no-one seemed to know why *cough*. If you do dare to step out upon this eve...take care! After all, it is Friday the Thirteenth!
Next up, it's me!
I tried to reverse delegate this update back up to my manager, but he cleverly convinced me that I was definitely best placed to write the Business Improvement team update. I think that's why he's in charge. Anyway, this week I've picked up a couple of new areas. One biggy is knowledge management. Might sound dull, but actually, good knowledge management is key to helping our business grow - and making sure we deliver excellent customer service. I'll be spending time over the next few months working on a strategy and helping deliver a solution that means all our Plusnet knowledge is held in an easy to use, easy to access format and of course is up to date. I'm also going to pick up reporting around 'one contact resolution'. This term is all about us, more than ever, trying to resolve customer issues first time round. If you only have to contact us once, or we only have to contact you once, you get a better service and we are able to run a more efficient business - which again, ultimately benefits you, our customer. Clearly we won't be able to fix every single issue with just one call or ticket, but by carefully monitoring where we are up to and challenging the status quo, we'll know where to focus on to reduce the amount of contacts a customer has to make. This ties nicely into some work that James K is doing around our provisioning process (i.e. setting up new broadband/home phone for customers), to improve the automation and improve the speed at which we can supply new services. He's working closely with the Dev team to improve processes that are not fully automated or simply take too long. It's a huge piece of work but we're already seeing improvements. Good effort!
Up next is Mand in Digital Care (nee Comms):
Today (and forever more, sob) we're a man down, as James has now officially left the building. We said goodbye to him in traditional Comms style yesterday (click here) and today many will be saying goodbye to him in traditional Plusnet style, that is to say, at the pub. Today was otherwise filled with taunting our boss with sausage rolls (when we weren't convincing everyone they were in fact apples), Matt placing orders, Bob and me going 'raaaaaaaaa', Chris scaping the debate, and Andy going down the only road he's ever known. Apparently. (According to Andy, it's this road) The rest of the week was filled with happiness and joy. Or possibly bitterness and anger. I don't know, as I spent most of it not here. I'm fairly sure it would have involved laughing at Bob, copious amounts of coffee, frogs-in-blenders*, whining, SQL errors, and darkness. *at no point was a frog actually put in a blender.
Well, that's good news, Mand! Next we have Andy in the Consumer team:
Consumer team returned to full strength this week, much to the relief of the head honcho who had been quietly going mad over the course of the last week or so. Unfortunately for Chris he has been plunged back into a world of Jimmy Choos and Lady GaGa, so he’s ready for another week off already! In terms of actual work, we’ve been exceptionally busy directing the Crayola team with some large-scale colouring in, as well as working closely with our delightful Web Team, who’ve worked very hard putting together a plethora of lovely looking webby things for us. In the midst of all that, the tyrannical trio have been Taxed trying to Add Value, and look set to be for some time. Busy, busy times indeed.
Finally, and no means leastly (err, that's not even a word!), it's Nick in Faults, back with us after a rather nice trip abroad:
Howdy all! Good to be back in the UK after a fun packed 10 day trip to Vegas – although the cold/jetlag combination is not the greatest feeling in the world... I've been switching between dog tired and incredibly hyper. Add to that it's Friday 13th and I'm definitely feeling strange today 🙂 So back into faults! Got back in and picked up where I left off with those faults which have been ongoing for a while – and was pleased to see there was only one customer still without internet when I got back, it bodes well for the week! Things are going well with our new team member Craig, too. He's one of the most experienced agents from the tech teams and to be honest has been spending a lot of time doing faults these last few months anyway. Although he does keep beating me at pool, which really has to stop. Faults wise, it's pretty much been business as usual, trying to keep on top of the intermittent connection faults is the biggest challenge as always, but we're getting there. I've been handling escalations all week, trying to keep people in the loop and generally trying to tie up long standing faults. I've also been looking through our satisfaction survey feedback (thanks to all of you who fill those out – they really do help) and while it's generally very positive, I've taken your suggestions for improvement and passed them onto management to hash out the details of what we need to do better. All in the name of progress! Not enjoying this getting-dark-at-4pm rubbish. What's that all about? Seriously, it's not on. Roll on the Spring!
Thank you, everyone. And I TOTALLY agree with Nick about darkness. Rubbish!!! All that remains for me to do is not get run over on the way home (or to the pub, to meet Mr Bailey) and wish you all a fantastic weekend! Ali McGowan
Once upon a time in Plusnet Land, in the year of Two Thousand and Nine, the second Friday of the eleventh month fell on a Friday. Folklore around these parts tells of very strange happenings upon this day. Indeed, the HR team can atest to this. All day, strange noises have been interrupting out attempts to complete our Best Companies application. Icy breezes have been fluttering the pages of our new starter documents. Gremlins have been interfering with our computers and old references we typed months ago have been spluttered out of the printer. Numbers were appearing where they shouldn't be on spreadsheets and no-one seemed to know why *cough*. If you do dare to step out upon this eve...take care! After all, it is Friday the Thirteenth!