24/7 Software Blog

“Hello. How can I help you?” you say to the gentleman standing at the Lost and Found kiosk.

He anxiously replies, “Yes, my name is Mike Robertson.

I am looking for a lost iPhone X. I am sure you get these a lot but if I do not find it my boss is going to fire me.”

“Let me check,” you say as you head to the Lost and Found storage area.

You begin walking up and down the three aisles of unnamed boxes filled to the brim looking for an iPhone X.

This is your first day on the job. You are not familiar with how items are “organized.”

You walk for a good seven minutes before returning to the counter.

“Did you find it?” Mike stammers.

“I am sorry, I did look at the most recent return boxes. However, I could not find it,” you reply.

You take down Mike’s information because you are not sure what else you can do to help at this point.

Distraught, Mike thanks you and goes on his way.

Phones are a dime a dozen. Unfortunately, after a few short days, they lose their power making many of them unidentifiable.

Most end up being thrown out or donated.

What do you think the chances are for Mike to get his iPhone X back?

How do you feel knowing you could not help Mike because of an inefficient process? Is your Lost and Found process as disorganized as this?

It doesn’t have to be.

Use lost and found software to ensure your customers get their possessions back.

“Sip.”

You finish up your morning cup of Joe.

After the last sip of your medium-roasted coffee, you continue typing your notes of the previous week’s review.

You have your Monday morning meeting in 10 minutes.

It is 8:35 AM, your mall opens at 9 AM. You cannot be late.

You finish your review notes.

The weekends here are busy with thefts and medical cases – you like to spend a little extra time during the meetings discussing this.

This is business as usual.

Plugging through your “incident management system,” you look for this weekend’s incident report.

But, you cannot find it.

It is always in the same place. Why is it not there? “Let me ask Rick,” you bark to yourself.

“4…2…1…”

As you dial your security supervisor’s extension, you feel your blood pressure rise. Your hands are clammy.

All you hear is your doctor in your head saying, “You need to relax. This is not okay for your heart.”

Rick picks up and tells you he completed the report. It should be in the system from Sunday.

You both continue searching for the report but still can’t find it. Frustrated, you dial your solution provider’s support number.

It rings, and it rings and rings some more. After nine never-ending rings, the answering machine message starts.

“Hi, you’ve reached ABC Company. Our hours of operation are 9 AM to 5 PM Pacific Standard Time. Thank you.”

Click. You cannot even leave a message – and you are in New York!

Now, what?

There is no emergency support line. If you email them, you will not get a response for hours let alone ten minutes.

You did not spend the extra $2,400 on premium support, which means you do not have a dedicated support team.

How frustrated are you? An issue as petty as a misplaced report is ruining your day.

To top it off, you cannot get in touch with the very people that can help you.

The snowball effect kicks in. Everything you cannot stand about your “solution” provider rolls through your mind…

Oh, guess what, it is time for your meeting!

“Does anyone have any last-minute questions?” you say to your team.

Most of the group begin shaking their heads. You get the indication that everyone is on board with the action plan.

Tonight’s event starts in seven minutes.

You make your way to the operations center where your team is waiting for you.

Your Operations Manager, Terry, joins you in the Operations Center. You require all your supervisors to be in there at event start.

They usually get pulled out for other calls.

But, you like to do a quick meeting to kick off each event. This ensures everyone is on the same page.

“Hi, Susan,” you say to your director of customer experience, and you walk through the door. “Hey, Steve!” you shout to one of your operations coordinators.

After a few more greetings and a communications check with the rest of your team, the room gets quiet.

The event starts.

Issue and incident calls come in before most events start. But, the velocity of calls picks up once the customers congregate into the building.

A couple of hours of standard incident calls – wet spills, unruly spectators – go by without a hitch.

Everyone is on top of his or her game. Nothing seems to be slipping through the cracks.

But, in an instant, that all changes. Your team receives an incoming call that causes you to get involved quickly.

A customer reported to one of your employees that they identified two of your staff drinking beer while on duty.

You rush to meet your supervisor at the location.

Unfortunately, because the customer had to search for an employee to report the issue, the two employees are gone.

The customer is only able to identify that they were in uniforms. After checking the surveillance cameras, it is hard to distinguish who the employees are or to prove they were drinking.

How frustrated does this make you? How do you feel knowing that you have unruly, dishonest employees working for your operation?

You can change your process, so you do not have to be frustrated. You can be proactive. You can eliminate this burden and catch them in the act.

Use text communication to find the problem employees creating an unpleasant image of professionalism for your operation.

Keep reading; we are going to share how implementing one of these software solutions outperforms what you are doing now.

You dread waking up every morning at 6:30 AM at this point in your career.

It is not because you dislike your job. It’s because you feel overwhelmed.

Your property does not look good. Your boss is breathing down your neck because your operation is a mess.

Your CMMS is older than your eighteen-year-old kid. You despise using the application because it’s cumbersome.

You cannot keep track of your vendors. Your materials and labor are convoluted.

Engineers and technicians get their paper checklists of work to do each week.

However, nothing seems to get done on time.

For the last year, you have felt your maintenance operation is a lost cause.

However, this weekend gave you time to think.

You want change.

It is time for your current operation to be a distant memory.

You need change.

“I want to be remembered as the man who kicked the status quo in the rear end,” you whisper to yourself.

After rushing to get dressed, you head to your property.

You walk briskly through the parking lot, into your property, and burst through the office doors.

“Jim, it’s time to change!” you shout to your lead technician.

He gives you a blank stare while he waits for you to elaborate.

“We need to find a solution that helps keep everyone on track with their projects.

Will you help me find a solution to this problem?”

He nods.

After seven minutes of scouring the internet, you land on this article, and your property operation changes forever.

Don’t believe us? Keep reading.

“An engineer in California has an invention that she hopes will someday help people with damaged lungs breathe easier,” writes Joe Palca in their recent NPR article entitled “Experimental Lung Treatment Could Make Breathing Easier.”

According to Palca, “Stanford University's Annelise Baron has developed a synthetic version of something called lung surfactant. Lung surfactant coats the tiny air sacs in the lung. Without it, every breath would be a struggle, like blowing up millions of little balloons. With surfactant, breathing is as easy as blowing soap bubbles.”

“Scientists inferred the existence of lung surfactant in the 1950s, and then Dr. Mary Ellen Avery showed that premature infants were unable to make surfactant, explaining the often fatal respiratory distress syndrome they suffered from,” Palca explains.

The NPR article continues that “Stanford University pulmonologist Angela Rogers says a surfactant harvested from animal lungs has been used successfully to treat these preemies.”

"It's absolutely a lifesaver. Hundreds of thousands of people are alive in our country today because of the widespread use of surfactant," says Rogers in Palca’s piece.

“Rogers says that success made doctors wonder if surfactant use could be expanded,” shares Palca.

Rogers continues in the article that "there was a lot of interest in my field to try to surfactant in adults that have a problem with their lungs called acute respiratory distress syndrome."

The NPR article explains that “initial results using surfactant in adults weren't very promising, and lung surfactant was just too expensive to try using it for very long in adult lungs.”

“That's where Barron's work comes in. For more than 20 years, she's been trying to make a cheaper, synthetic surfactant, and now she thinks she's succeeded,” reveals Palca.

Medical advancements like this are exciting progressions for our future that we can all be grateful for today.

Agree?

Steps towards better health are critical to our longevity.

That made us think.

What’s critical for the longevity of your property’s operation? Like Barron inventing a substance to ‘make breathing easier,’ what would ‘make your life easier?’

While we know your role doesn’t focus on synthetic surfactant, there’s an interesting lesson here:

• An operational methodology world-class operations rely on every day to achieve maximum performance could be used to make your life easier

Are you aware of this methodology? It’s Proactive Operations!

And, we’re confident it will make your life easier.

You walk in your office.

It’s 7:30 AM, and you’re feeling good today.

Yesterday was successful.

Everything went as planned – nothing out of the ordinary.

All is good across your operations, right?

But, that’s not true, and you’ll never know that because you’re current “tool” prevents you from understanding this.

You’re not aware of the three people transported to the hospital for food allergies after eating at the same place.

You’re also not aware of the many complaints regarding one of your staff members.

Why?

Either you’re not using your operations management software to the fullest – or using one at all.

That’s a severe problem.

We need to fix it today.

But, there’s a chance we might get pushback from you.

Is “we’re not very good with technology,” going to be your response?

If not, that’s good!

But, keep reading anyway because we’ll share how to avoid facing this issue with your team in the future.

If you do believe you’re “not very good at technology,” we’re going to share why that must not prevent you from using a real-time communications software solution.

Ready?