The problem might be that BA have neither the carrot or the stick and they simply have week management who do not understand how to engage their staff. The manager at BA I met clearly was not someone I’d consider a high enough calibre person to manage and motivate people at UKFast. We simply all have different standards.

As far as I am aware BA is not state owned, yet….. but, you never know. As you implied, a state owned business does not have a track record of inspiring it’s workforce.

With regards to the carrot or the stick approaches. I am not a fan of the stick method. I think people respond to fear, but they respond negatively.

I have 2 great dogs. Indie and Lara, they are Boxers and they have a huge amount of energy. They are big too and with 2 small children (one new born when they both arrived as puppies) they need to be very well trained.

My dogs sit where they are told for as long as they want, they will not start eating until they are told to, they also attack on command. Sadly, I have not got this quite right as they both attack me at the moment! But how have I done this? Through reward based training. If they do something good, they get a treat. If they do something bad, they don’t. Eventually they stop doing silly things.

I think us humans are not too dissimilar. Shout at us and we get stressed and defensive. There are much better ways to inspire our teams.

On the second point regarding the team at UKFast using Liveperson. This is indeed a tricky situation. This is about managing expectations.

The team managing the LivePerson are our receptionists. So just like when you ring up and someone at UKFast says “Hello, how may I help you?” they simply do the same via the live chat facility.

If you ask a tricky question to a receptionist, you will need time for them to figure out who is the best person to answer this. I think the problem here is 2 fold,
1. your expectation of what the UKFast employee is able to do at this stage is too high
2. UKFast has not made it clear enough that this is a receptionist, trying to point you in the right direction.

Govind, I can see from your site you are a man who knows his stuff. What you are wanting is a simple answer to a simple question. It is simple in your eyes, but that’s because this is your dedicated profession.

I have teams of people who would have enjoyed speaking with you at length on your chosen subject and beyond. Sadly we were not able to match you to the right person on this occasion, but I wouldn’t write UKFast off, due to this small miscommunication.

The service a UKFast customer gets is significantly higher in my opinion than any other business in our sector. I am confident of this as we have clients who host on both our network and the other top provider too. The vast majority move their entire infrastructure over to us. I know we have not branded ourselves “fanatical” but our clients know our passion for the job in hand.

And that being said, we are a million miles away from where we need to be. And your feedback is already winging its way back to the UK, back to the group who manage the Reception and Live chat facility. Each week we ask the question, “how can we make this better?” Well, if it’s any consolation, your comments are helping shape UKFast. So Thank you.

Kind regards

Lawrence J

But the thread is interesting in that UKFast’s own Sales chat (powered by LivePerson) is less than helpful when compared to a US budget provider like Netfirms (who don’t use LivePerson). Your rep wasn’t able to confirm something simple like a server setting unless I was “added as point of contact on the account.” And this after the rep initiated the chat with ” Welcome to UKFast how can I help?”

Not very helpful wouldn’t you say?

I would doubt that today many people, especially in the UK will have heard of Ames – but in the seventies, Wal-Mart and Ames were the two high flying convenience chains. However, there was a striking difference between their values as businesses.

The directorship and senior management at Ames were complacent. They didn’t believe that they had anything to learn. They had a formula that worked and they were not swerved from their path by changes in industries or user habits. They basically were not listening because they didn’t think that they had to.

Wal-Mat on the other hand never stopped asking questions, researching their markets, talking to consumers, employees, competitors and striving to reach new levels of satisfaction and delivery.

This progressive approach has led them to be one of the largest companies in the world today, while Ames literally fell off the chart…

The Virgin Group seems to always ask the questions, while BA just doesn’t seem to be listening.

Does not surprise me at all – have the misfortune to fly BA too many times and suffer terrible service and high and mighty attitudes and for what!!!

Flew Silverjet to New York fantastic service but alas no more – BA should have sent their senior team on their flights to see how it was done!

Business class with Virgin and American to SF have been fab in the past and will never fly BA again – ill stick to better carrier in future..

Necker what are you like…………….

Have a blast Jono

When the brand identity alone becomes the most powerful source of influence, companies sit back on their laurels, become distracted and lose focus on the basic fundamentals of good business. And when this happens, ultimately you are just selling disappointment, because reality will never live up the perceptions and expectations that people have of a brand. BA is on that slippery slope and their brand may not be enough to save them. Worse still, their very actions are now damaging the one thing that is compensating for their appauling delivery – the brand.

Bransons philosophy of splitting companies off and keeping them at an ‘impactive’ size enables them to retain their focus, passion and drive. The quality of thought and the understanding of customers needs at the most senior levels within Virgin Group is a clear differential between Bransons companies and their competitors. The philosophies of BA and Virgin seem worlds apart and it would appear from your experience Lawrence, that those differences are very evident in the standards they maintain.

Having recently flown Virgin Upper Class to South Africa I can confirm that they know how to deliver amazing customer service.