I was the committee chairperson for a CCA in NUS last year. We organized an event called ‘Mastering Interview Session’. It was a workshop to train students on proper conduct and the dos and don’ts during interviews. We got two speakers from company X. After receiving their confirmation, we started our publicity.. We got a good number of 300+ registered students. We then prepared surveys to help us understand what the students were expecting from the workshop. The information was compiled and sent to company X a week before the session.
Two days before the session, company X called and said to postpone the workshop as the speakers were busy. However, we could not do so as the publicity and registrations were done. They said they understand and will make sure the speakers turn up.
On the day of the workshop I received a call from my branch president saying there is a big problem. My CCA is a student branch of an international organization and the company X had sent an email complaining about our student branch’s misconduct, to the main branch. I was shocked to hear this because so far the communications between us have been good and they had even confirmed their coming the day before.
Later the company called me and said they would like to break ties with our club as we have been dealing very rudely. When asked where the communication went wrong they said the speakers were offended by the survey information we had sent. The survey contained information on what the students were interested in, however the speakers had found it to be demining as they thought that we were trying to tell them what to say during the workshop, which was not our intention.
I would like to know what could have been done in this situation, not only from my committee’s point but from the company’s point as well, since they had their own problems for having speakers who were busy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Dear Keerth,
ReplyDeleteI will suggest make an appointment with the speakers, the person you liaised with together with your President to explain why things turned out that way in their office.
I believe it's perfectly alright to let the speakers understand what are the needs of the students and tell them some suitable content for the workshop. Since they are a renowned company, I am sure they will deal with this professionally. ^^
Cheers,
Jason
Hi Keerth,
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the problem from your CCA's side is that you did not consider the how company X might want the surveys to be conducted. You could have sent company X and the speakers the survey forms before conducting them.
Perhaps you can take this as a lesson. Next time you want to make a deal with another external company that is of great importance, put everything down in black and white. Better if they can meet up with you for a discussion. They will not be able to break off that easily too.
For the company's side, the problem lies with their low efficiency in dealing with their customers (your CCA) and their speakers. They should have met you in person to discuss about the surveys instead of dealing everything over the phone. It is a very rude and inconsiderate thing to do.
Hope this helps.
With regards,
Pak Ming
Hi Keerth,
ReplyDeleteI suggest that you organize a meeting to be held together with your branch president and a representative from Company X. Having a meeting together with your branch president will ensure that he/she gets to listen to first-hand explanation from both ends of the table and provide a more objective view. This may help to clear out any existing misunderstandings between you and company X.
Furthermore, the representative from company X may show more respect towards your president since he is from the main branch and not just a small student branch. The same message that you want to bring across may carry more weight if someone of a higher position (your branch president) is the one delivering the message.
-Glenda
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments.
Glenda & Jason: we actually did fix a meeting with the company, but nevertheless we decided not to work with them again, because we later found out that they were unable to keep their promise in providing the speakers as they were busy. Hence, they were trying to blame our committee instead as they were not willing to accept fault.
Pak: yup, I believe so too. The next time we should meet the company representatives in person and also ask their permission for doing any surveys etc then they would not be able to blame us unnecessarily. Also, I think that any agreement should be made black and white so that they will keep their promises and it will be a means to safeguard ourselves as well.
Thanks,
Keerth
Hi Keerth,
ReplyDeletePretending that I haven’t seen your reply, I would think that the company is offended by the survey which was conducted without their permission and also the action of just sending it to them. As working professionals and also the invited speakers, it is not good to “tell” them what to say as they may feel that their own materials or what they think should be presented are important. It would seem to them that your CCA is not showing them much respect.
I would suggest meeting them personally, and talk about the upcoming event. You might want to ask for opinions and suggestions, in other words, consultations about how the event will be like. This will make them feel important and also gratification. You might want to disguise the survey results as a passing remark about how you have feedback from students that they may be more interested in a few areas, and then name them.
Also, the company might have confused the parent association as the one and same association you have in NUS. Take for example, I would think that by writing to Singapore Aisec is the same as writing to NTU Aisec or NUS Aisec because I do not have explicit knowledge of the structure of the association you belong to.
Although the company are the ones to complain, it seems that they are not overly concern on how your CCA or the NUS student body views them. By not giving a former and proper complain to their host is very unprofessional and that it reflects a great deal about the company’s poor conduct if they were to be absent on the day of the event itself.
We must note here that the conflict is not just between the company and the CCA, there is also a conflict between the Audience and your CCA should they not appear. Students and participants sign up and make payment and they would expect a certain level of competency from the organisers and they would be in the “I am a costumer” mode.
What the company could have done is to formerly apologies and substitute the two speakers or offer to arrange it at another date. I believe your CCA has little that it can do to salvage the situation other than thanking the company and apologising to the audience and offer the next date.
An insightfull post. Will definitely help.
ReplyDeleteApart from traditional marketing, these days most of the marketers use viral marketing. I came across a website called www.how2talk2.com. It allows people to write articles about their products and services for free in a fun way. You write an article in the form of how to actually talk to someone and you can include links on all of your websites in your articles.
Also, thanks for the great post!"