Yesterday I spent a few hours on the business proposition for Project ART. Whilst I was thinking it through I recalled all the business plans and Private Placement Memorandums I’ve read over the years — either in an official professional capacity as a banker as well as out of personal interest. What I keep returning to is that you can tell quite a lot about the business plan simply from how someone orders their contents page.
Here’s mine:
It may look easy-peasy, but it also reveals how systematic or structured the author writing the BP is. I’ve read BPs which open with pages upon pages of information about technical specifications of a system, but almost no information on the size of the potential market being targeted, the segmentation of customers who will use the platform or any material on marketing execution.
With Project Art, I wanted to make sure there’s a statement of principle along with the commitment of practice:
The other key area to really pin-down early on is, “Who are your competitors?” You have to be able to do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) on them as much as on your own business proposition. Only then can you more accurately know where and how you’re differentiated, so that you can find your unique value metrics and market position and play to your own strengths.
So…….I’ve been trying to trace my knol’s path of activity and, apparently, as well as being shared by Kingsley Idehen and Eric Logan on friendfeed, it’s made an appearance on SocialMedian and somehow turned up on Businessweek’s new Business Exchange beta:
WOW, the link to my knol article on ‘The Global Brain and the Semantic Web’ is on Businessweek!
It gets better. The link is sandwiched between an article in which Tim Berners-Lee notes Web 3.0 is a “legacy” and a piece posted on Planet Geospatial which is about “automated intelligence creation”. This is fantastic because I agree with TBL’s views and I disagree with automated intelligence creation, so somehow my article is the twain between the two opposing views of what lies ahead for us on the Web!
LOL.
Before anyone thinks it’s all gone to my head, please don’t worry. I was first published in ‘Risk’ when I was responsible for the Risk Awards survey, fresh out of university (http://www.risk.net/). The Risk Awards are like the Oscars of the financial sector, btw; Euromoney is like the BAFTAs and The Banker ones are like the Cannes — or something like that.
My analysis on the financial sector has been published and syndicated across a global bank, on Reuters, on Bloomberg, on Thomson Financial and on Multex.
Ergo, a link on Businessweek is lovely, but not about to make me think I’m the next Rupert Murdoch, Edward Murrow or TBL!
For me, it’s just interesting to see how the knol is being shared and where it’s positioned as an online contribution. Obviously, it won’t be mainstream until Oprah talks about ‘The Global Brain’ or it appears as a skit on ‘The Simpsons’ or it makes 1 million views on YouTube.
That’s not what I’m actually interested in. I’m simply glad it’s being noticed by people who work in the Semantic Web sector as much as by those on Google Knol who tend to be from the academic / medical professions, and that readers — regardless of whether they’re techs or medics — consider it of value (and, hopefully, helpful) to share.
As part of various initiatives in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics the 2012 Committee has partnered with the Royal Mint to invite ordinary people to design 29 special 50 pence coins, which will be available in public circulation from March 2010. The competition deadline closed on Friday 24th April 2009.
As inspiration and guidance, the Royal Mint competition website also showed some examples of existing 50 pence piece designs like this one which commemorated the 25th anniversary of the formation of the European Union in 1998:
Competition rules also clearly stipulated that participants had to choose one out of 27 Olympic and Para-Olympic sports to depict, including: aquatics, archery, boccia, gymnastics, kayaking, swimming, table tennis and volleyball.
On the main Royal Mint site itself, there are already special London 2012 commemorative silver and gold coins available for collection, retailing at up to GBP1,295:
I wasn’t aware of the competition until the last few days (whilst leafing through one of my mother’s magazines), but I decided to at least make some attempt at doodling an entry. This is what I submitted which is a line drawing down in a black ballpoint, straight onto the template provided in the magazine, with no editing or erasing:
The portrayal is that of a female archer soaring over the London Eye (a modern landmark located near the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben), with her bow and arrow ready to shoot for the sun, the moon and the stars.
It probably won’t be one of the 27 winning entries but, at least, it was interesting for me to sketch after such a long time of not putting pen to paper in this way and mostly just using photos, Powerpoint, Flash and pure code to make all my visual representations.
We’ll find out the results of this London 2012-Royal Mint competition in November 2009.
It seems my additional segment on Google Knol about Linked Data has attracted attention. Kingsley Idehen, President and CEO of OpenLink Software, has shared it with his Friendfeed connections:
This is interesting because Kingsley Idehen and I aren’t connected in any way. We’ve never met. We’ve never exchanged as much as a “Hello, pleased to meet you” online. Kingsley has worked in the Semantic and linked data-related sector for well over a decade and is a respected commentator / panelist at the various conferences; I know this much because I did my research and Googled him!
I’m also aware that Kingsley previously got engaged in a fairly involved online exchange with Greg Boutin (a former BCG consultant, Stanford MBA) about the definition challenges of the Semantic Web. Actually, I thought they both made valid points and what was most interesting was that their intellectual approach was simply different: Kingsley from a classic computing background and its vernacular, Greg from a trained business strategy background and its turns of phrases.
My conclusion was that these seemingly juxtaposed perspectives can actually…….twain.
GOOGLE KNOL: TRUST, CREDIBILITY + AUTHORSHIP
Meanwhile, something interesting is happening amongst two sets of authors on Knol: the issue of trust, transparency and credibility is arising. There seems to be two factions: a Knol Authors Foundation (KAF), which was established several months ago, and an emergent competing group called Knol Site Metrics (KSM) who question the KAF’s rights and principles to be the arbiters of all issues author-related.
For whatever reason representatives from both sets have been commenting on my knols this past fortnight:
(1.) The Global Brain — the KAF team
(2.) How to LOL — the KSM team
The first team want me to join the Knol Authors’ Foundation as a director of some unofficial board of members they’ve constructed and one of them says my ‘Global Brain’ knol can “be a template for other authors” whilst the second team have stated I’m in line to win the “Knol for Dummies” contest and they seem to be on the judging panel or somehow involved with the judging panel appointed by Google Knol and Dummies.com.
Let me state clearly that I don’t personally know any of the people in either KAF or KSM.
It’s all very interesting but until I hear directly from a Google Knol team member on whether they’d like me to do whatever or I’ve won whatever, I have no basis to trust either parties!
LOL and in that stated position I just highlighted a great irony of online content, context and credibility!
SERIOUS STUFF: CONTENT STRATEGY
Yesterday I had dim sum at Hakkasan which was recently rated #4 restaurant in the UK in the San Pellegrino’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants guide, a gastronomy list compiled by chefs and food critics who are “in the know”. Most of the afternoon’s conversation was about content credibility, velocity of delivery (i.e., this includes targeted direction as much as speed) and value which will impact on how the content is monetized on-site as well as via syndication by third parties.
My friend (let’s call him “Bob”) has invested some capital in a well-known news service which targets financial services professionals. Bob and I have been friends for more than a handful of years, but we’ve never discussed this investment previously or ‘e-Intelligence’ which I created, project managed and was Editor-in-Chief of at the big bank in 2000.
Bob — being a lot older and wiser and seriously successful — tried to explain to me the exact nature of why senior bankers are willing to pay the site’s subscription charges (information competitive advantage) and how well the content syndicates across third party properties. He noted that the content is much more differentiated and diffused than its competitors, which is why it’s so influential.
[NB: Web 1.0's use of "content differentiation" is now becoming Web 3.0's proposed "content contextualization," by the way; just an observation of mine.]
I — having utilized and distilled every financial news information source known (Reuters, B’berg, Thomson Financial, PwC Moneytree, Financial Times, 247WallStreet, Silicon Alley Insider, TheStreet.com, The Banker, efinancialnews, NVCA, EVCA sources etc to name but a few) as well as having subscription access to McKinsey Quarterly, BCG, Oliver Wyman and every other mgmt consultancy report known. PLUS having plumbed the gold nuggets from Jupiter Media Matrix, Gartner, Nielsen, Comscore and a whole raft of Internet analytics as well as quality Internet blog sites. Most importantly having run ‘e-Intelligence’ which amalgamated / twained analysis provision on the banking, TMT and management consultancy sectors with financials, strategy diagrams and synchronous user participation — told Bob in no uncertain terms that his investment’s operating in Web 1.0 terms and we’re on the verge of Web 3.0 already!
Then I suggested three key improvements he should put to the CEO (in his capacity as an investor who wants to see the value of the company increase and smart diversification of the product).
Bob will probably now raise it at the next board meeting, :*).
Yesterday the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, announced the budget for the fiscal year 2009 with the customary PR shot outside No.11 Downing Street:
Five key elements of the Budget stood out for me:
• Economy forecast to shrink 3.5% in 2009
• Public borrowing to increase to £175bn this year
• Borrowing levels to be £173bn, £140bn, £118bn and £97bn in years after
• Scheme to guarantee mortgage-backed securities to boost lending
• Income tax for those earning more than £150,000 to rise to 50% from April 2010
I chose these five because they reveal the real cause for concern for the UK economy and how this Budget may be detrimental for this generation and future ones in terms of debt repayment. Firstly, it’s clear that the increase in government borrowing will be allocated towards some form of insurance scheme to guarantee the mortgage-backed securities. Unfortunately, no one has a grasp on the precise value of these toxic assets still sitting on the balance sheets of the likes of Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds TSB etc……yet. Structuring the insurance coverage for assets for which there’s incomplete information in valuation terms will be a real challenge. Secondly, the shrinkage of the UK economy by 3.5% in 2009 may be an under-estimate by up to 0.4%. The IMF’s forecast predicts a UK shrinkage of 4.1% for 2009 which is fairly severe, I think. Reading some of the banking analysts’ economic reports around 3.8-3.9% may be more realistic. Thirdly and finally, increasing the tax levels of high earners may, on the one hand, send out the signal that the bankers who earn US$million salaries and bonuses will have their earnings clawed back (directly and indirectly) and, on the other, result in the very people who are knowledgeable and talented enough to get the UK banking sector properly functioning again move abroad to locations like Singapore, Dubai and Continental Europe where they will get more favorable tax regimes. If this happens, London will lose its status as the financial hub of Europe and we may see the rise of either the Deutsche Borse or Euronext superseding the London Stock Exchange as where more of the stock market activity and investment is happening.
The final point is a particularly challenging issue because, obviously, London wants to retain its position as a premier destination for international banking and asset management with top talent. Yet, increasing taxes for higher earners to finance public provisions for the less well-off could also be presented as a more just and equilibrating measure of social democracy or “caring capitalism”.
Notably, this morning, on all the news channels as well as in the British newspapers the reaction to this budget has been less than favorable towards the Government. Here’s a selection of sites providing good analysis on what it all means for families and what the business sector thinks of the Treasury’s plans for economic recovery and its contingent debt burdens:
• New £750m strategic investment fund to help emerging technologies and regionally important sectors
This is a step in the right direction and I would go further. I’d like to see the type of innovation proposed in this article which suggests a Venture Capital bank on every high street:
The author, Ann Lee who is an adjunct professor teaching economics and global affairs at New York University, doesn’t have the model quite right yet in terms of which parties due diligence and sign-off budgets on those investments nor the board and operational structures which need to be in place but the idea has merits worth exploring.
After all, as one BBC Breakfast interview observed this morning: angel investors are putting their money into SMEs because the rate of interest in a bank account at 1-1.5% means it makes more financial sense for them to angel invest.
So why not set-up VC/angel banks for the UK high street?
to take into account the latest iteration of the Linking Open Data diagram which in its current form looks like this:
I’ve updated my version of it from March 2008 and this now looks like so:
Personally, I’d like to see the Linking Open Data contributors utilize Debategraph’s tools to generate a diagram with flow- connections that look like these:
Strategically, it will be a lot better for the Linked Data crowd if they do adopt debategraph’s approach to representing the LOD universe in more visually appealing and easy-to-navigate clusters rather than its present shapeless and confusing spore model.
In any case, I’ve written about it at length on my knol because it does concern me a wee bit that those at the bleeding edge of the formation of the Semantic Web (which will lead to, hopefully, the Global Brain) are showing signs of ad hoc, unstructured and not necessarily clear thinking — which is manifesting in their own LOD diagram, btw.
Maybe I should simply pretend not to notice these things and let the LOD spore grow and grow, more and more shapeless and more and more confusing…………….sort of akin to knowing there are neural deficiencies in a third party and letting them descend into Alzheimers, Parkinsons, manic depression, schizophrenia etc. and not intervening because it’s not “politically correct” to intervene and “Who asked you, anyway?!”.
Then again……If we do mean to build a HEALTHY and high-functioning Global Brain then maybe the honorable and altruistic thing to do is point out the Linked Data crew should structure their LOD diagram by cross-pollinating with debategraph?
Right? Ah well, I’ve now incorporated it into my knol in any case!
Finally today sourcebinder has invited me into their alpha testing group.
I registered on their site many months ago because as readers are aware I’m interested in systems which facilitate linkage and sense-making of what may be seemingly discrete, silo information sources. When I saw this video from them on YouTube, it looked like they’re trying to synaptically connect information sources in a visually and technically innovative way (with Wii, haptics, Papervision3D and AS3 in synch):
Initially, it’s obvious that this alpha group is extremely small. At this initial stage I count 6 participants, including myself, who’ve activated their invites and are exploring the features available.
Over the next few days I’ll explore more and update everyone on functionality and ease of use as I discover it myself. At first glance, the layout is quite neat — although clearly oriented towards people who may be more technically capable than the mass consumer; this UI does not look like a MySpace / Facebook / Twitter. It’s an amalgam between viewzi, onellama (a radio music site a friend of a friend founded) and a music download iPhone app store that I once happened upon. In any case, I’m looking forward to playing around with it and testing what it has to offer.
ALPHAs, BETAs, CONTENT OWNERSHIP + TWAIN
Following what was an unexpectedly awful experience with a SemWeb beta last year (appallingly unprofessional management team, systematic breach of user goodwill and trust on their part, lack of consideration towards user feedback and the decimation of collaborative user content), I’ve made the decision NOT to contribute my content or insights to any site / mgmt team where users are not valued, where users can’t monetize their content within a reasonable timeframe, where users’ time(s) and positive energies are being wasted or where, as a user, I simply feel uncomfortable with my reputation being associated with that particular platform.
I am a quality content contributor — as shown by the fact Google Knol has awarded me “Top Pick Knol” for three different postings — and I will only engage on quality platforms with quality management teams.
Platforms and management teams I do recommend entrusting content with include:
A lot of marketing research is currently being conducted on online behaviors and motivations. Here’s an insight into me as an online contributor. I’m not the type of person who creates a socnet account to garner followers or to throw electric sheep around — although I admit I have a facebook and myspace account simply to prevent anyone squatting on my name and then posting items pretending to be me.
For someone who enjoys sharing knowhow, I’ve simply made the choice to exclusively participate on platforms where the return on utility (ROU), the reciprocity of user respect (RUR) and the collaborative dispersion of sense (CDS) is high. Users’ content, their collaborative capabilities and their time are precious and valuable.
There is absolutely no point giving a platform like that SemWeb play these treasures and gold nuggets for them to exploit when there are a million and one other competing platforms out there which do treat users, their content and their contributions with respect, and where they can monetize their content or organize / promote / own it in a way which suits their needs.
CONTENT IS KING, CONTEXT IS QUEEN AND CONSIDERATION ARE THEIR PROGENY, (C) Twain, 2009
This weekend I’ll expand on this phrase I coined in response to someone’s comment to my Google knol on ‘The Global Brain’ and explain how it relates to a viable monetization model for Web 3.0.
LONDON 2012 — ROYAL MINT DESIGN A 50 PENCE COMPETITION
I’ll also release some images and a video of my submission to this competition. Essentially, the Royal Mint is inviting the public to design the tails side of the 50 pence coin in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics. There are 27 sports themes for designers to choose from and the prize includes seeing their designs appearing on 50 pence coins in circulation as of March 2010.
It’s been a little while since I sketched anything so I found the flow arcs of my wrists not as flexible as they were when I sketched more, but I’m pleased with the design concept I submitted!
That’s all for now except perhaps to say that my Knol entry “How to LOL” is apparently in the lead to win the Google Knol-Dummies contest and that some parties from the Knol Authors Foundation would like me to join them.
Again, because of the bad experience with the SemWeb play I’m reluctant to allocate my time to helping systems and teams improve — unless it’s actually my job or I’m being financially remunerated for my efforts, upfront.
Goodwill which isn’t reciprocated or respected is simply exploitation and that’s……….MORALLY WRONG.
Tonight I went to an advanced preview of Werner Herzog’s documentary film about existence at the South Pole and I loved it! The film gets its UK release later this week on 24 April and Herzog has already presented it at the BFI (British Film institute).
Admittedly, the first five minutes didn’t quite have a compelling narrative because whilst there was a voiceover (v/o, in script writer’s terms) the lack of interaction with his fellow passengers on the flight out to Antarctica meant that those scenes felt quite abstract, disjointed and vaguely faux philosophical.
However, as soon as the passengers disembarked at McMurdo and Herzog interviewed various “travelers and dreamers” who’d eschewed conventional careers to work where there’s 24-hours of daylight for five months of the year — October to February, inclusive — or who’d landed there to undertake vital scientific research to unlock a myriad of mysteries about the “Big Bang” including:
·neutrinos
·the DNA of single cell micro-organisms
·volcanic
we met some wonderful and, occasionally eccentric, characters. Their stories of how they had ended up near the South Pole where a person “falls off the margins of the map” were both illuminating as well as lent pathos and dry wit by Herzog as the director, writer and narrator.
The first interviewee was Scott Rockwell, a former banker who’s now the Ivan Terra mobile driver on McMurdo. This is akin to a banker becoming a bus driver, by the way. Next was Stefan Pashov whom Herzog subtitled as “philosopher, forklift driver” who spoke about being read Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey as a child:
Another character was of Red Indian descent and he informed us that his doctor had told him he carried the royal blood of the Incas, according to the rather unusual and distinctive shape of his hands. On McMurdo and in today’s modern age, he’s an occasional welder of pipes.
With the exception of two former computer experts, whom Herzog did v/o’s of to cut short their rambling and soporific interviews, everyone portrayed in the documentary was engaging and revelatory.
Along the cinematic journey, the audience was also witness to the majesty and mysteries of Nature where it can reach to minus 70 degrees Celsius. Apart from the expanse of crystalline ice with the sun refracting all the colors of the rainbow as it bounced off it, we gained insights on plant and organism life below the surface of the ice sheets. There were pulsating neon red jellyfish, fluorescent yellow worms and scuttling shellfish that sent sand dispersing through the icy water.
Herzog’s pan and tracking shots of this sub-aqua activity were accompanied by either urgent violins, church organs or angelic choirs, to give the sensation that Nature is a religious (or, at least, spiritual) experience.
During another preview screening, Herzog was recorded being interviewed about the process of making Encounters at the end of the world, so this is well worth a look-see:
Near the opening of the film, he noted that he told his sponsors The National Science Society that he would not be in Antarctica to film any more “fluffy penguins”. True to his word he focused on this little penguin on his journey instead:
In conclusion, it was 101 minutes well spent and I’ve never laughed so much at any German’s sense of humor like Herzog’s before! There are some priceless moments of observational wit and dry humor in ‘Encounters at the End of the World’.
So maybe some of us should move to the South Pole………………to grow a GSOH!
Two contrasting events happened this Easter weekend which made me think again about the social contract between a company, its customer(s) and their reciprocity. In this post I’m going to highlight some companies, from personal experience, which get their customer services spot on and I’ll list three simple rules for either side of the company-consumer coin.
SOME HISTORY + SOME LAW
“The customer is always right,” is said to have its origins in the American retail sector — although there was a preceding French version credited to César Ritz (1850-1918), the renowned French hotelier, who extolled, “Le client n’a jamais tort,” (‘The customer is never wrong.”). The phrase’s American counterpart sprang from Marshall Field’s department store in Chicago (now known as “Macys”) and its UK transmittance happened via Harry Gordon Selfridge (1857-1947), the founder of London’s Selfridges store which opened in 1909. Harry Gordon Selfridge had previously worked for Marshall Field from 1879 to 1901.
[Incidentally, Selfridges is my favorite department store in London. They even sell cans of Thai crocodile curry! Plus I lose all track of time when I'm in in the kitchen appliances section; who knew there are so many contraptions for cooking the perfect meal and then serving it!]
Now, as readers are probably aware, all manner of consumer protection laws have been written over the years on both sides of the Atlantic to enforce and protect this edict: “The customer is always right.” Here are some sites where more information on US, UK and EU trading laws can be found:
With these links, consumers can become equipped with enough information to know exactly when a company’s product or service levels aren’t complying with their legal rights, and possible avenues for them to address these — either in the form of a replacement product / service at no additional cost to the consumer, financial compensation for faulty goods that have damaged their health / property / person(s) or even the closure of the business itself.
This, though, is the worst-case scenario.
The majority of companies providing goods and services engage lawfully and try their utmost to comply with the various international consumer laws. However, customer service is about more than being legally compliant and observing legal contracts. It is also about consumer consideration towards the company rather than any one-way relationship where the onus is on the company to conform with the marketing mantra, “The customer is always right,” or where the customer is making a payment and/or time commitment and receiving a low return of satisfaction from the interaction.
COMPANY-CONSUMER RELATIONS: A DOUBLE DUTCH PARADIGM
It’s preferable to think of the company-consumer relationship being akin to Double Dutch skipping: to make it work, both sides have to turn the rope simultaneously and in reciprocity. Here’s the awe-inspiring coordination which can happen when all parties involved are on the same wavelength and skipping to the same beat:
[Yes, as a child, I spent quite a few hours doing Double Dutch. It increases your stamina and visual spatial co-ordination which then translates into other team sports like netball, basketball, badminton, hockey, athletics and baseball/rounders.
Btw, as we can see YouTube is also doing its bit for customer service by now enabling us to customize the colors of the frames around our videos as well as increase the choice of advertising embeds.]
WHAT HAPPENED THIS EASTER WITH ME
Now let me talk specifically about my Easter weekend experiences and then I’ll list some sites and stores I regard as “XLNT” for customer service.
Ok, so here’s an admission: periodically I use eBay to buy items which are disposable, non-perishable and good value. I have a 100% rating as a purchaser because I always pay items I’ve won promptly and I leave fair and relevant feedback. Most recently I bought a few cases and screen protectors for my Apple iPhone. Unfortunately, one order I made from a Hong Kong-based company arrived with all the wrong colors. Prior to shipping, I’d sent them two separate emails with very specific requests about the colors of cases I preferred so I was fairly disappointed when the wrong items showed up. Of course, the nuisance is that the cost of shipping them back to HK to be exchanged is such that I may as well use the money to order them online from another source! This is poor customer service and it means I probably won’t transact with that company again.
Meanwhile, Dreamhost are in my good books. I was trying to transfer a domain name from a European provider over to Dreamhost because they have the following useful features as part of their hosting service:
Unfortunately, a glitch arose with the transfer so I contacted my existing provider and Dreamhost to resolve the issue. Interestingly, the European provider has yet to respond — not even acknowledge receipt of my email and they usually take about 3-5 days to respond to queries. Meanwhile, Dreamhost is fairly consistent in observing a turnaround response within 24 hours.
My existing provider I’ve had issues with previously, including:
·spam to email boxes hosted by them
·not particularly helpful UI or support
·additional charges from nowhere to keep my “Who is?” information
Again, these are the types of poor customer service — especially loading on “privilege of usage charges” (my phrase) that haven’t been fore-explained to me as a user — which means they’re highly unlikely to get my repeat business and I’ll proactively seek alternatives like Dreamhost.
Now it should be emphasized that the consumer also has a responsibility to help under-performing companies understand how they can improve their services. This is helpful because even if you no longer wish to spend your money with them, any constructive feedback you provide may help another consumer and “Who knows?” a few months or years down the line you may return to the company for that better consumer experience!
COMPANIES/STORES WHOSE CUSTOMER SERVICE IS TOP BANANAS
Please feel free to click on the images and experience for yourself how great the customer service is. We can even tell from the look and feel of a site whether it has put the customer and their needs at the heart of a company’s strategy.
* APPLE: in-store and online tailored training for product consumers
* BARNES + NOBLE, Union Sq, NY: a bookstore with a customer brain
* MYDECO, UK: 360o interior design at consumers’ fingertips
* PUMA UK: Mongolian shoe BBQ
You can design your own shoes which takes customization to another level and it’s fun! Here are my fuschia, purple and scarlet dream Pumas:
* VISION EXPRESS, UK: customer eye healthcare and style is their priority
* Le VOLTAIRE, Paris: coffee at the customer’s leisure
RECIPROCITY RULES
Now let’s try to provide three simple rules on either side of the company-consumer coin which will make the engagement between both more productive, conducive and enjoyable.
COMPANY
(1.)The customer isn’t always right, but it’s always worth taking in what they have or haven’t communicated.
(2.)Even if they seem to be a nuisance, always remember to show patience, consideration and professionalism.
(3.)Always be consistent in your response turnarounds. 24-48 hours is good.
CONSUMERS
(1.)You are not always right. Customer services and support is there to help resolve your issues, professionally — not to listen to any tantrums or irrelevant gripes.
(2.)Even if they don’t seem to grasp your issue, the onus is on the consumer to be specific about where the problem is arising, when it arose and what measures you’ve taken so far to deal with it yourself.
(3.)Always be reasonable with your expectations and give due credit to good customer service.
During my travels I’ve experienced great variations in customer service: on flights; in hotels, stores and restaurants; relative to whatever socio-demographic classification constitutes the door or online policy. In tandem with the legal obligations of complying with consumer rights, companies need to bear in mind that good customer service is an intangible — like goodwill and brand values — which can be converted into a tangible that may repeat itself as revenue in the balance sheets.
It’s about being considerate about a consumer’s feelings and sensibilities as much as about the finer points of law, brand strategy and finance. Reciprocally, the consumer should also take into account the feelings and sensitivities of the company’s representatives: they’re human too!
Right now, I’m in overcast Londinium wishing that I’d gone to Rome for the Easter Mass which is what I do some years like this one:
It’s always a moving experience and Christians (as well as other faiths and faith-neutral) come from all over the world to celebrate together and to remember those who are less fortunate in the world. Some of the streets leading into St. Peter’s Square are populated by beggars and those who have lost limbs, and people always stop to speak with them and give them some temporary relief (money, some food or simply some kindness).
One year, I came across this gentleman:
He caught my attention because he was sitting outside an alcohol store and, thankfully, wasn’t in a drunken stupor but had benefitted from the kindness of strangers. They’d provided him with a colombo cake (this is a special cake topped with almonds, orange zest, chocolate and marzipan that Italians make to enjoy at Easter) and other food items.
I gave him some money and said I hoped he’d spend it on some nice coffee to go with his cake and a hot dinner rather than in the alcohol store. He smiled at me and nodded in agreement. I also asked him whether it might not be better to find a good hostel for the homeless instead of sleeping out on the streets. He smiled at me again.
The world is full of poverty, inequality and ignorance issues for any one person to resolve. Nevertheless, if we each do our share — even the tiniest bit of it — that accumulates to quite a lot of collective benefit and consideration towards others.
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Sony is challenging Apple and Google with an internet “cloud-based” music streaming service that will be available on many of its networked consumer electronics products. The MusicUnlimited service was announced at IFA, a major consumer electronics show in Berlin, barely an hour before Apple’s own music-themed press conference in California. After the jump, […]
The FT tried something new today. We took to Twitter to answer questions about one of the day’s bigger news stories in the digital-media world: that the UK’s advertising regulator, the ASA, is extending its rules on accuracy and decency into corporate websites, social networks, blogs and mobile apps. Seeing as many people already discuss the […]
Just ahead of Apple’s expected announcement of an autumn refresh of its iPod lineup today, SanDisk has unveiled an update to a rival portable media player in the sub-$100 category. SanDisk claims parity in market share with Apple where the iPod shuffle plays and says its Sansa Fuze+ has far more features. Daniel Schreiber, head of […]
Hewlett-Packard is announcing an entertainment-oriented refresh to its notebook computer line today–and the most notable addition comes with its own 3D glasses. The HP Envy 17 3D’s glasses automatically turn on when the user is watching a 3D Blu-ray DVD on the machine and then turn off again, giving the glasses a projected year of […]
This is a guest post by FT Media Editor Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson Not much has been heard of Beyond Oblivion since the FT pulled back the veil on its ambitious vision of tackling piracy by asking devices manufacturers and broadband providers to pay for music consumed over their products and services. At the time, we reported that Adam […]
One of the trickiest challenges for a company is continuous innovation - to keep updating and refreshing its products when the excitement of a product launch is past - so I take my hat off to Google. In contrast to Microsoft, which in the past let products such as Internet Explorer and Hotmail get […]
