The majority of the sales and marketing and service calls from our company are done over the telephone. Part of our pledge to customers is that we are easily accessed through the business phone system that we have. What I loved about the system was that we were able to program our telephones at work to ring through to our cell phones. This meant that a customer only had to use one number to reach you. If you were on a service call or did not want to be reached on the cell phone the call could be forwarded to reception or to voice mail.

The new manager did not take the time to discover why we needed an expensive phone service. He simply looked at the cost and decided things needed to change. He received quotes from different phone companies that were much lower in cost, but the service was not there either. He switched over the service and created complete chaos for the employees as well as the customers. After the fact he met with management level employees and asked about the business phone system. He created such havoc in a short time that several of us took positions in different departments.

I have worked for two different businesses in my career. Through the years I have seen good management and poor management. Good managers often have ideas and suggestions that once implemented take a period of time to see results. Unfortunately many poor managers have ideas that are implemented immediately with results that can impair the company in a very short time period.

A few years ago the company I was with at the time had too high of operating costs. The manager was let go and a new one was brought in to replace him. The former manager was quiet and reserved so he had not developed any close relationships. The new manager came in like a whirlwind. At his first general staff meeting he laughed and joked about the high expenses we had and how we had better prepare ourselves for change. The main target that he was going to over haul was our business phone system. He felt the costs were too high and there would be better deals available.