Reflection – Storytelling 

 Challenge and Selection 

 I have done a few other online coursed on DT and amongst all the tools that I have learnt storytelling   has become my favourite .   Since it based on story , there is virtually no limit to the imagination that   you can use to craft and weave stories . 

 I am a customer service and customer experience management consultant . I work primarily with   small and medium companies in the IT Infrastructure services industry and in the hospitality   industry . As a part of my consulting services I also train and conduct workshops for my customer ’s   teams on how to improve the customer service they give to their customers . Most of the   participants in these workshops are in the lower and mid - management category and most of them   are in the 40 - plus age group . Many of them do not have formal training in customer service . Many of   them deal with irate customers every day and managing the customers is a big challenge . Earlier I   used to do a very text - based slideshow presentation to them .   But I soon realised that I was not able   to connect with them and invoke their interest in the training as they were not used to classroom   type trainings . Their participation level used to also go down . Then I then started sharing stories with   examples of bad and good customer service for each different aspect of service .   Most of the stories   came from my own background in customer services field and the others were what I had read   about . I noticed a drastic change in their participants and some of them also shared their own   experiences through stories and this made the training session very interactive and interesting to all   the participants . 

 Application 

 I was once taking a customer service training for the customer - facing staff of the hotel chain which   included the front - office staff , the restaurant staff , the concierge and his team and a few   management team members as well . 

 I was talking about the need to empower the employees especially the customer facing members so   that in case of any problems they could take immediate and necessary steps for the guest without   waiting for multiple levels of approvals . As an example , and to drive home the point I recounted a   story based on my own personal experience .   Once I was on a vacation in a remote jungle resort in   South India with my wife who was five months in her pregnancy . Unfortunately , one night she   developed some complications and had to be rushed to the nearest hospital which was in a town a   couple of hours of drive away through dense and elephant infested forests . However , the resort   team went out of their way to help us and arranged everything including ambulance to ensure that   my wife reached the hospital without any problems . The resort staff did this on their own initiative   without waiting for approvals from their management . 

 On hearing my story , one of the management team members of the hotel chain who was part of the   training program came to me told me that this story was a big eye - opener for them . Their hotel did   not have employee empowerment policies in place and in fact they had a very rigid formal   hierarchical structure which required lots of approvals . They would now make the changes in their   policies immediately . 

 Insight and Approach 

 When the management member said that they would change their policies , I realised how powerful   storytelling as a tool can be . If I had tried to convey the same message using normal slide   presentation I might not have been able to drive home the point so well and so vividly . But listening   to the story their mind could paint a picture of the incident and the importance of the employee   empowerment . 

 I encouraged the participants to also share their own stories of incidents wherein they had helped   their guests beyond the normal call of duty and many of the participants shared their own stories .   Listening to these stories the management also realised another area where they were lacking – a   formal process to recognise and reward employees who were delivering excellent service to their   customers . 

 I have realised that people find it interesting and easier to remember something when it is conveyed   through a story . 

 This course has further emphasised the importance of story telling to me and I intend to use it much   more going forward . 

 I also started asking them to share their own stories based on their own experiences during the   workshop and especially how they handled a difficult customer situation . This really helps the   participants to open up and makes the training much more interactive . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection – Storytelling 

 Challenge and Selection 

 I have done a few other online coursed on DT and amongst all the tools that I have learnt storytelling   has become my favourite .   Since it based on story , there is virtually no limit to the imagination that   you can use to craft and weave stories . 

 I am a customer service and customer experience management consultant . I work primarily with   small and medium companies in the IT Infrastructure services industry and in the hospitality   industry . As a part of my consulting services I also train and conduct workshops for my customer ’s   teams on how to improve the customer service they give to their customers . Most of the   participants in these workshops are in the lower and mid - management category and most of them   are in the 40 - plus age group . Many of them do not have formal training in customer service . Many of   them deal with irate customers every day and managing the customers is a big challenge . Earlier I   used to do a very text - based slideshow presentation to them .   But I soon realised that I was not able   to connect with them and invoke their interest in the training as they were not used to classroom   type trainings . Their participation level used to also go down . Then I then started sharing stories with   examples of bad and good customer service for each different aspect of service .   Most of the stories   came from my own background in customer services field and the others were what I had read   about . I noticed a drastic change in their participants and some of them also shared their own   experiences through stories and this made the training session very interactive and interesting to all   the participants . 

 Application 

 I was once taking a customer service training for the customer - facing staff of the hotel chain which   included the front - office staff , the restaurant staff , the concierge and his team and a few   management team members as well . 

 I was talking about the need to empower the employees especially the customer facing members so   that in case of any problems they could take immediate and necessary steps for the guest without   waiting for multiple levels of approvals . As an example , and to drive home the point I recounted a   story based on my own personal experience .   Once I was on a vacation in a remote jungle resort in   South India with my wife who was five months in her pregnancy . Unfortunately , one night she   developed some complications and had to be rushed to the nearest hospital which was in a town a   couple of hours of drive away through dense and elephant infested forests . However , the resort   team went out of their way to help us and arranged everything including ambulance to ensure that   my wife reached the hospital without any problems . The resort staff did this on their own initiative   without waiting for approvals from their management . 

 On hearing my story , one of the management team members of the hotel chain who was part of the   training program came to me told me that this story was a big eye - opener for them . Their hotel did   not have employee empowerment policies in place and in fact they had a very rigid formal   hierarchical structure which required lots of approvals . They would now make the changes in their   policies immediately . 

 Insight and Approach 

 When the management member said that they would change their policies , I realised how powerful   storytelling as a tool can be . If I had tried to convey the same message using normal slide   presentation I might not have been able to drive home the point so well and so vividly . But listening   to the story their mind could paint a picture of the incident and the importance of the employee   empowerment . 

 I encouraged the participants to also share their own stories of incidents wherein they had helped   their guests beyond the normal call of duty and many of the participants shared their own stories .   Listening to these stories the management also realised another area where they were lacking – a   formal process to recognise and reward employees who were delivering excellent service to their   customers . 

 I have realised that people find it interesting and easier to remember something when it is conveyed   through a story . 

 This course has further emphasised the importance of story telling to me and I intend to use it much   more going forward . 

 I also started asking them to share their own stories based on their own experiences during the   workshop and especially how they handled a difficult customer situation . This really helps the   participants to open up and makes the training much more interactive .
### Output: 