Our Dispatch Department started a WWIW initiative in spring of 2009. The acronym stands for ‘What Would I Want’ and speaks to the importance of giving others what you would want for yourself. Of course this logic is useful in your personal life but we thought it might also have a profoundly positive impact on how we interact with our customers, our co-workers and in how handle our business in general.
Our Vice President, Luci Kasiorek founded the idea last year when hit with the epiphany that at the end of the day what matters most are the relationships we build. Whether they are personal or professional, our bonds are what keep us together or break us apart. She thought about how she could infuse that mindset in our department to inspire everyone to provide experiences internally and externally that create bonds and alliances. She knew a huge part of WWIW being successful depended on individual acceptance of its value and their commitment to taking a hard look at themselves to improve their opportunity areas.
The program was rolled out to Dispatch in a series of small group meetings conducted by Luci or myself. We outlined the direction we wanted to take and how important it was to our customers, our department and our business. At the end of every presentation each individual was tasked with submitting 3 personal growth commitments and assigned an accountability buddy to insure their focus. Everyone was also given a WWIW bracelet to wear as a constant reminder that we must give what we hope to receive.
The program has been very successful and received great responses from our team. We also shared this idea with our Telephony Operations group and they are now part of the WWIW movement. In Dispatch to date we have seen a 53% (over 300 compliments) increase in kudos within our team.
In Culture
posted February 16, 2010 at 7:00 am
The culture in our Dispatch Department is one of family and servanthood! We rely heavily on teamwork to handle the enormous volume of daily tasks while providing the highest level of customer service possible. Our organization focuses on personal as well as professional development for each individual, and as positions open we promote primarily from within. The Dispatch Team also maintains a very informative environment for our team members to maximize their ability to serve their customers.
While our group has limited contact with external customers, we place great focus on the customers with whom we do interact, and they are WOW employees! Essentially, the Dispatch Team for WOW is a centralized unit and we work through the planning and routing of scheduled jobs, unassigned jobs and same-day jobs for our customers – the Broadband Technicians who are installing and servicing external customers in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
A very recent example of the Servanthood culture in Dispatch was during National Customer Service Appreciation Week. We wanted to show how much we appreciate the hard work that occurs each day, by every team member in the Dispatch organization. To do this, our Quality Team orchestrated a full week of recognition and appreciation activities, including an On-site Movie Theater complete with snacks – an Old fashioned Pop Corn machine, nachos, and of course candy! In addition to this we had “theme” days coupled with a special treat for each day of the week: Monday was “Favorite Color” day with breakfast served to each individual at their desk; Tuesday was “Sneaker Day” with build your own nachos; Wednesday was “Crazy Hair/Hat Day” with Ice Cream; Thursday was “Sports Team Day” with tailgate-style hot dogs; and Friday we celebrated with a Pot Luck. On Friday there was also a Best Dish contest and it was themed as “Decade Day”. Everyone was invited to dress according to their favorite decade choosing from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s!
This week of appreciation was a huge success for everyone, as everybody was able to participate in the festivities in their own way. We do not however, wait a whole year to show our employees how much we value their hard work, so this appreciation week is really just one of the many “company hugs” we like to give. Quarterly chair massages, Dispatch Summer Games, Halloween parties and other holiday celebrations, random raffles for positive accolades… are some of our other recognition and appreciation efforts and the list goes on and on. This is what sets WOW! apart from other companies in our industry. Our culture is one of hard work and true heart! We believe in our core values so we live them – and that translates into celebrating our successes together and saying ‘thank you’ for a job well done.
- Tina House, Director – Dispatch Department
In Culture
posted December 16, 2009 at 6:50 am
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