Ascolta Commentary - Continued

I went back to the space I had occupied earlier.  The alpha male was no longer leaning on the banner with his arms crossed, but he was still scowling.  I decided I'd start with him, since he looked like he was in charge.  As I approached, the dust collector/alleged beer drinker was off of his stool trying his best to converse with people.  I thought maybe I had it wrong, until he opened his mouth.  When I heard what he asked a customer, I actually stopped in my tracks.  I had to process what I heard.  It's hard to translate accents or voice inflections in writing, so I'll try to provide analogies so you can grasp what was going on.

Remember Jeff Spiccoli (Sean Penn) from the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"?  If not, do your best to imagine the stereotypical surfer-dude sound.  As the Dust Collector approached a couple, he blurted out the following:  "Hey man, you interested in some Cisco Training?" 

I am not exaggerating.  I can still see it. I can still hear it.  Sometimes I lose sleep over the sheer idiocy of this event.

If you just laughed, imagine how I felt.  Luckily, I had long since finished my beer.  Otherwise, I very well could have spewed Budweiser through my nose, all over the floor.  All kidding aside, my opinion of the Ascolta staff went from bad to worse.  As I continued onward towards the Alpha Male, I couldn't help wondering if the Dust Collector had ever attended ANY kind of sales training.  Was this his very first time in a public setting, speaking to all of those potential sales?  I figured he was brand new on the job and was a trainee.  I was wrong.

I quickly composed myself and walked over to the Alpha Male.  He was still scowling.  Since he did not acknowledge the fact that I was breathing the same air, I opened the conversation.  "So, why would I choose Ascolta?"

I thought it was a pretty simple, straight-forward question.  If I were an Alpha Male, and were in sales, I would AT THE VERY LEAST have 2 or 3 rehearsed statements touting my company's benefits and strengths.  I'd explain how our service set us apart from everyone else.  I'd explain how we were awarded the honor of being the "Cisco Learning Partner Of The Year" for 2007.  I'd say SOMETHING positive.  After all, I might be a $3,000 sale...  maybe a $50,000 sale.

At that time, almost on cue, Mr. Dust Collector stepped in and said, "Well, let me tell you why you should choose Ascolta." After listening to him for about 30 seconds, I stopped him.  I introduced myself to the Alpha Male and his minion.  I let them know I was already an Ascolta customer and had attended multiple classes with them.  All of a sudden, the Alpha Male liked me.  He introduced himself as Fred and his minion as Eric.  The instructor also came over and introduced himself as Hilson.

We talked about training for a bit.  The conversation eventually moved to why my organization "Black Lists" training companies.  It comes down to class cancellation.  I work in a remote section of Southwestern Colorado.  Travel to/from training requires a flight from Durango to either Denver or Salt Lake City, then to the major city.  We are required by our business process and the airline's flight availability to schedule our flights a minimum of 14 days prior to travel.  Each time we have to cancel or change a reservation, we take a hit via a financial penalty.  In addition, we have to schedule/reschedule resources to cover employees while we're out.  In other words, attending a training class takes planning and money.  Some training companies cancel classes because they don't have enough students.  When that happens multiple times, we choose not to spend our money with an unreliable company.

Once I explained this, Fred (The Alpha Male) insisted that Ascolta doesn't cancel classes.  He actually stood there, looked me straight in the eyes, and told me, "We even run classes at a loss if we have to."  I was glad to hear that.  When we schedule training, it's for a specific need.  Many times, implementation of a certain technology is dependent on receiving said training.  In other words, certain facets of our business rely on the promise of a company to conduct training they've sold.

After that, the conversation was cordial.  UNTIL I tried to put in a good word for an Ascolta employee that had given us tremendous service.  I mentioned the fact that Lucie Payne did a great job and that she was the reason we continued spending our money with Ascolta.  Almost as soon as the last word of that sentence left my mouth, Fred's arms crossed, the scowl returned, and he virtually blew me off.  I no longer existed.  Eric, on cue again, turned and walked away.  It was almost like a bad commercial.

To his credit, Hilson took up the slack and conversed with me.  I could tell he was very good at what he did, and he had pretty good customer service skills.

I stuck around for a couple of minutes longer, just to see if I would receive any further interaction from the Alpha Male and his minion.  I didn't.  The preceding span of 10 minutes left me feeling irritated.  There I was, not a prospective customer, but an existing customer, and I was being treated like I had offended them by saying something good about one of their own.  As I got back to my room, I decided to do a little extra research on Ascolta.  I found a press release touting Ascolta's Cisco award.  It had contact information pointing to a man named Fred.  (Click here to view)  I put two and two together and figured it was the same guy.  The Vice President of Sales.  Wow.  No way.

When I discovered this, I couldn't decide if I was shocked, surprised, repulsed, angry... or .... maybe... disappointed.  I couldn't help but wondering what it would be like to work for someone like that, if he conducted himself with his employees like he did with a customer.  Unfortunately, this was shaping up to be just like an episode of Dilbert.

Within a couple of days of this incident, I surfed to Ascolta's website.  I found their feedback page, and submitted a glowing statement about Ms. Payne's wonderful service.  Since I had very serious doubts about the integrity of the VP of Sales, I copied the text of the submission, pasted it into an email, and sent it directly to Ms. Payne. 

July passed, then August.  We had scheduled a total of 5 seats for an IDS/IPS class in San Jose in September.  I had requested Ms. Payne to schedule 2 of those seats for the entire week, and an additional 3 seats for the last 2 days, which were dedicated to HIPS.  Although it was a demanding request, she made it happen quickly and without complaint.  Through a scheduling conflict on our end, and our new campus going online earlier than anticipated, I ended up having to re-schedule the 3 seats for the HIPS portion of the class.  That left us with two seats for the week long class.

About two weeks before the class ran, Ms. Payne informed me that Ascolta had cancelled this class.  I was livid.  I explained to her that the VP of Sales had assured me that Ascolta does not cancel classes and that they would run the classes at a loss.  Apparently, this was not true.  A man whom is supposedly responsible for a sales organization and ultimately customer service lied to me.  Lying to a customer is one of the cardinal sins I mentioned at the beginning of this review.  Not only is it a really bad idea to lie to a large pile of training dollars, it's even worse to get caught in that lie.  My opinion of Ascolta declined even further.  As much as we enjoy going to San Jose to train with Ascolta, I was taking the necessary steps to remove Ascolta from our list of authorized vendors.  Ascolta was a signature away from losing much more business than they imagined.  Luckily for Ascolta, Ms. Payne's quick thinking almost saved the day.  Over a tedious phone call, she made the effort for us to attend the same class in Irvine a week later.  Unfortunately, this would not work with our scheduling.  Then, right after this episode, we decided to cancel the ACEOC class in October.  Future training with Ascolta is in question.

During the course of all these cancellations, I asked Lucie how well her organization patted her on the back for the glowing testimonial I'd submitted to the sales team.  She had not heard a single peep about it.  This made me even angrier for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, I'm a paying, returning customer with a laundry list of classes we still need to take in the next few months. Also, I'm a very busy man, and I took the time to create a well thought compliment to their company.  I would think that input given by me, or any similar case, would be pasted on their website and passed down through TOP management as a hearty "THANK YOU, GREAT JOB,  KEEP IT UP!.. WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP YOU CONTINUE SUCCEEDING  IN THIS FASHION?"

What did we get instead?  Based on either ME or based on Ms. Payne, the feedback was pigeon-holed, or accidentally erased, which demonstrates either  incompetence or apathy.  OR, even worse, the feedback was intentionally not mentioned anywhere because a VPs "favorite" wasn't mentioned.  In this case, I point to pettiness, insecurity, feeling threatened.  Tie all of this together, it smells like terribly poor leadership.  Poor leadership that has probably lost a significant portion of future sales. 

We have not Black Listed Ascolta yet due to Ms. Payne's service, professionalism, and accountability.  We've rolled our dollars already spent into credits toward classes for next year.

Go back to Fred's statement to me:   "We even run classes at a loss if we have to."  that was a lie.

Here's a portion of Ascolta's Mission Statement  (Click here to read the whole thing )

    "Listening, that's what we're all about.  We chose our name from the Italian word for listen, ascoltare, because it uniquely describes a value we consider essential to any successful business relationship.  We know you count on us to listen to your needs and deliver upon those expectations." ...

From my past experience with Ascolta, I don't believe this is the true mantra behind closed doors!