Fossildog wrote:

With regards to the UAE the people whose 'city' it is actually live a great life. There are some expats here who treat the sub-continental expats badly but these are few and far between. It is all relative though. Whilst some get paid AED1,000 a month (£150) that is still a considerable amount to them and they will live like kings in their village once they return home. What I get paid I am sure the average Emarati would consider a normal wage whereas in the UK I would be in the top 2% of earners.  As regards H&S workers outside during the summer now get a 3 hour break in the hottest part of the day. This is strictly enforced and every day you can see the workers down tools and sit around under the trees trying to keep cool.  All in all it is a surprisingly good place to work and the Daily Mail scare stories can for the most part be dismissed.

Just want to highlight this attitude, for the benefit of those not familiar with Dubai, as the kind of attitude displayed by many a well-paid ex-pat which makes you cringe with embarrassment when you hear them proclaiming loudly it at another luxurious ex-pat social function.

It's not shit management speak, SG.  I'm sorry, but you're wrong on this one.  If they said, "we want you to proactively synergise our profitability opportunities," then that would be wank-speak.  But just asking you to be proactive is no more jargony than asking you to be more efficient, or or thorough, or whatever.  It's just a word, and it is unusual for someone to not understand it or object to it.

I don't think its bullshit but there's not necessarily a clear meaning to it. 'Proactively managing a customer base' could quite easily just be calling them up and trying to sell them shit under the guise of 'offering enhanced value opportunities' or something. 

I'm assuming revel means he just rings them up or drops by to see how things are going and stop problems before they develop (although I'm sure there's an element of trying to see if they can be sold something else). 

Its like 'efficiencies'. It does mean something but the jargon is loose enough that it can be used to cover up / describe all sorts of stuff.

I think it makes perfect sense.  I don't think "proactively managing your customer base" necessarily just means cold calling them to sell them shit, I think it's akin to spotting that something about their account could be done more efficiently to save them money, and ringing them about it rather than waiting until their next meeting or waiting for them to spot it.

Proactively managing could just be paying attention to all details of their account on a daily basis, rather than just pulling out the dusty file and saying "right, what are we doing with you?" when they pitch up for a 6-monthly meeting.  By way of a simple comparison, I felt like Orange proactively managed my old phone account when they rang me up and said I should change to contract X because it would have saved me £10 a month over the last 3 months, and they reckon that's enough of a trend to warrant giving it a shot.

I've had active and lazy people work under me before; people I could be sure would pour a lot of energy into a job when it was given, or people who would stretch it out to a perfunctory conclusion at the last minute.  However, both types of people could be proactive too; it was nice to suggest that job X would be good for them to do to have them say "no problem, look, I saw that needed done and I've already started it!"  They key thing there is some of the lazy people were proactive too, in that they'd choose to start the job off their own back so they could say they were looking after job X, but then spend ages on it and barely get it done in time.

Everything else revel said was wanky management speak bollocks, but proactive was fine.

It's a perfectly reasonable word to use in a number of contexts, but I can envisage corporate types dragging it out to hype up their motivational fisco-babble.

Elmlea wrote:

revelthedog wrote:

Our business model is based around the success of our customers. So a call to see how they are doing is how I play it. We have nothing else to sell them as well. So they actually look forward to our contact.

.... on the other hand, calling to say "how are you doing?" isn't really proactive management.  It's still very passive, isn't it?  Calling to say "how are you doing?  We saw this option and thought it might be perfect for you guys, it'll save you £2.32Bn a month, we were just going over the records and trying to find ways to get your account to run more efficiently" sounds like proactive management. Just ringing them up might be proactively (or more accurately just actively) contacting your customers, but does just ringing them up for a chat really count as managing them?  Unless we're buried in the business-speak where just reminding them that you're still there is part of management, I'm not sure.

The main reason is to make sure they are still satisfied with the service.  We also have a range of topics to cover with the customers as well in terms of improving their listings in the marketplace. 

We are primarily there to make sure they are as effective as possible. Some people need a bit of a nagging to do things that will ultimately benefit them because there are only so many hours in the day.

In some ways yeah, i think its important to keep in contact. I know of so many companies where the contact is warm and friendly right up until they sign on the dotted line. And then everything goes cold because they have the agreement  or a signed contract.

hello. How are you?

Did you get your stuff sorted out mate?

I've just realised that it might mean good customer service. I know what that means.

That's the bit I get confused with.

Are you out in the workshop Moto? You are quite far away and I can't really see what you are saying.

adkm1979 wrote:

Fossildog wrote:

With regards to the UAE the people whose 'city' it is actually live a great life. There are some expats here who treat the sub-continental expats badly but these are few and far between. It is all relative though. Whilst some get paid AED1,000 a month (£150) that is still a considerable amount to them and they will live like kings in their village once they return home. What I get paid I am sure the average Emarati would consider a normal wage whereas in the UK I would be in the top 2% of earners.  As regards H&S workers outside during the summer now get a 3 hour break in the hottest part of the day. This is strictly enforced and every day you can see the workers down tools and sit around under the trees trying to keep cool.  All in all it is a surprisingly good place to work and the Daily Mail scare stories can for the most part be dismissed.

Just want to highlight this attitude, for the benefit of those not familiar with Dubai, as the kind of attitude displayed by many a well-paid ex-pat which makes you cringe with embarrassment when you hear them proclaiming loudly it at another luxurious ex-pat social function.

ha harsh but fair. Money is the main motivation for moving out here so no surprise it a main topic of conversation. I have probably fallen into the same trap although i am out here buying time for myself. For each year I work here it is almost the equivalent of working four years in my last job. Therefore 4 years out here plus my end of service bonus will have saved me 12 years worth of work back in the UK. If that makes sense!

Elmlea wrote:

Everything else revel said was wanky management speak bollocks, but proactive was fine.

I just noticed this you plane flying shitebag.

I use the word "liaise" all the time.  MS Word still thinks I've made it up.

"I just wanted to catch up with yourself"

Yeah it's really annoying.

It's "moving forward" all the time here.

"On Monday you will finish your current project, then moving forward you will be on the new project"

Pointless word adding.