Is there anybody out there?

There is no doubt that compared to say 10 years ago we have a much greater capability today to contact other people.

We have mobile phones, tablets, wafer thin laptops, voicemail, text messaging, Skype chat, Instant Messenger – the list goes on.

Paradoxically it is becoming increasingly harder to talk to people in real time.

So voicemail is becoming the default – with your crisp, to the point, message logged onto their system in the hope that the recipient accesses the message at some point in the next few days and responds back.

I don’t think so.

Accepting that people are very busy and bombarded with data/messages/Spam it now seems the default is to not respond back at all.

I have been following up on leads over the last two weeks and experiencing the “dark side of the moon” contact phenomenon.

In fact when I find somebody at the end of the phone I am so shocked that I almost need a script to get the conversation off the starting blocks.

So the deal should be …, if you are not available it is fine to leave the phone off but accessing your messages and responding should be the quid pro quo.

Even better, if you are not interested in what the other person is offering just say “No” and avoid the fishing analogy where the line is in the water and of limitless length and the poor person is cast off after a journey lasting months which should have been nipped in the bud in less than 5 minutes.

I can handle “No” albeit with some tinge of disappointment.

I am finding I cannot handle being kept on hold for months because the person has not mastered the art of courteous communication mixed with an adequate amount of assertiveness.

Now this Useful Guide should be standard issue and would be far kinder to the environment.

Submitted by guest blogger Keith Beechener.

Should I spend my time on Facebook or as a volunteer?

A few days ago I was doing my daily browse through all the usual online suspects (email, social networking, forums) and came across this disturbing statistic.  Facebook’s active users spend 700 billion minutes per month on the site. If we look at Facebook’s own statistics we can work out that every one of their 800 million users spends an average of 875 minutes (about 14.5 hours) on that site each month.  It’s interesting to note that if I hadn’t engaged in social networking online I might not have encountered this fact.

What is even more disturbing is that a short while later, while enjoying some fresh air and strolling in my shopping centre, I spotted a sign in a charity shop window which said ‘We need volunteers’.  That hit me harder than the earlier statistic.  This is a real hard fact of life.  There are charities and people out there who need our time and effort, yet we waste the equivalent of around half a working day each week telling our friends things that will ensure they spend even longer online.

What can we do about it?  Well recently, when moving home, I tried to give away a mattress that was in a good condition.  I used the online environment (www.freecycle.org/) to offer it free to anyone who wanted it.  No takers.  I phoned a local hospice shop who had advertised that they might take this type of thing.  They would only take it if it had no marks on it and had a fire safety tag.  It had a scuff mark along one edge so I failed yet again.  You just can’t give things away.  I did have one small measure of success in the recent move.  I managed to recycle two old guitars to people who were going to learn to play for the first time.

Now that’s music to my ears.

How are you managing your time? (A Useful Guide to Time Management)

New iPhone/iPad app

My iPhone 4 started to have some issues recently when I tried to open the camera application to take a photo. The screen wobbled for about 10 seconds and then the phone would shut down.
I rang my service provider, O2, who were very helpful but recommended I booked an appointment with an Apple Store Genius. I had never heard of one of those but I checked online and, sure enough, I saw that I could select an Apple Store and book an appointment for them to check it out.
I booked the appointment for 8 Oct at 14.10 (how precise) at the Apple Store Lakeside, Thurrock, and immediately received a confirmation e mail back from the system.
At Lakeside I found that my timing was just too impressive and I arrived at 13.45. At the door a receptionist, armed with an iPad, asked me for my appointment time, confirmed my booking and although I apologised for being early she suggested she might find an earlier timeslot for me to save me waiting about.
Waiting about in a store full of high tech gadgets and a buzz you could hear as soon as you went in? I was prepared to wait!
“We can see you in about two minutes if you make your way to the Genius Bar” she said with a smile.
I sat on a stool at the bar and watched the Genius team in their blue Apple shirts deal with one customer after another.
Suddenly my name was called and I was greeted by one of the Genius team called Kay.
“Hello Steve, what seems to be the problem?” I explained and she nodded sagely.
She checked the base of the phone and a red indicator within the connector (which she showed me) meant that there was suspected moisture inside the phone.
“Please let me take it into our workshop and I’ll remove the back and check it out for you”
After 2 minutes Kay returned and said that she could not find any moisture. She also said she would let me have a new replacement phone, no charge.
She apologised that the new phone would not be fully functioning until I synchronised with my computer back home – where the backup file would automatically restore all of my contacts, settings etc.

This was a really slick, customer friendly, simple transaction.
I have told quite a few friends about it not because I had received a new phone free of charge but because Kay could easily have said that she had found moisture in the handset and therefore I might have been charged with a repair.

So we had technology combined with great personal customer service.

Simplicity.

Sometimes that’s all you need…. And people who really care about customer service.

If you care about customer service yopu’ll be interested in A Useful Guide to Customer Service and A Useful Guide to Process Mapping.

So what is the rush all about? Are people just bad at planning their time?

My appointment with a client in London was scheduled for 2pm but, knowing the ways trains can be delayed and connections fraught with the unexpected, I left my home about 11.30am.

This allowed me time to take my car to the excellent Park and Ride service, get on an air-conditioned bus, and slowly amble my way to the station.

At the station I had time to spare so called into a local sandwich shop and bought my lunch to go. The pace of life was slow and the sun shining added a Summer’s edge to the end of Sept.

And then the Rush Hour began …

People climbing the rail stairs two at a time as they rushed for the train about to leave the platform.

People spilling their coffee out of their plastic containers as they were barged out of the way as the few seats left on the train were the target of more than one person.

I waited for the next train, casually stepped aboard, and found a nice seat.

Alongside me a businessman was assaulting his laptop keys and trying to talk on his mobile at the same time. People were running through the train looking for some nice seats.

At the intermediate stops the shuffling continued and generally the pace was fast.

At the destination in London I was about 45 minutes ahead of my planned arrival time so I sat on a seat at the station for 15 minutes just relaxing, thinking about my meeting and observing.

Doesn’t anybody just walk anymore?

Is everyone running for fitness purposes?

A glance at the arrivals board always seemed to result in rapid acceleration to the platform.

It tired me out just looking at everyone – and I mean everyone.

I headed for the client’s office and arrived about 30 minutes before I really needed to.

I sat down and watched people rushing in and out of the building.

The meeting was excellent, very productive and afterwards I slowly walked back to my station and repeated the calm journey on the way home.

So what is the rush all about?

Are people just bad at planning their time?

Do people feel guilty if they relax a little on a business day?

Just take some time out and observe those around you … it makes you think they might be missing something.

A Useful Guide to Time Management might need to have a new section added “How not to feel guilty because you are better at planning than those around you” – Food for thought.

Sea front - Felixstowe

We’re lucky in Felixstowe. The Council invests heavily in keeping the sea front looking good.

I took this picture today on my morning walk.

If only we all did the same everywhere!

We hope that your next flight with us will fully meet your expectations.

Last week I had to go to Peru. During my return home the plane from Paris to London Heathrow was delayed by just over 2 hours. On the train from London to Ipswich, the penultimate leg of my journey, I received an apology email on my mobile phone. For a moment I was impressed but then I read it …

Dear Mr./Mrs. CLARKE,

We are sorry that your flight on 08/27/2011 was delayed. Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

The situation you encountered was not in line with the high levels of service we aim to provide. We assure you that we are constantly working to improve flight punctuality.

We hope that your next flight with us will fully meet your expectations.

Yours sincerely,

Air France Customer Care.

 To receive real-time flight information on your mobile phone, please indicate your mobile phone number when you book your ticket or ensure that this number is included in your Flying Blue contact information.

Please do not reply to this e-mail. If you wish to contact your local Customer Care department, please go to the Contact us section of our website at www.airfrance.com. If you no longer wish to receive this type of communication from AIR FRANCE, please click here.

I was puzzled by a few things …

1. Why didn’t they know if I was a Mr or a Mrs? I’d booked the flight as Mr.
2. They had my mobile telephone number but I didn’t get any “real time” texts to let me know what was happening.
3. Why did they prevent me from replying to the email which would have been the easiest way for me to contact them if I had wanted to?

If you truly want to provide “high levels of customer service” then experience your processes otherwise the customer experience is that you are just going through the motions and don’t really care at all.

If I had been able to reply to the email I would have attached a copy of A Useful Guide to Customer Service       by Bryan Edwards      .

Would you work here?

We received these 11 pictures in an email last week. They were pertinent as we had just been discussing A Useful Guide to Managing Manual Handling with its authors Steve Amos and James Hammerton-Fraser. This Useful Guide is the first in the series of 3 Useful Guides relating to Health and Safety.

Thousands of metres up the vertiginous slopes of Shifou Mountain in Hunan Province, China, a team of workers, operating with hardly any safety measures, are building a footpath. Once it is finished, will stretch for 3km and be China’s longest sightseeing footpath.

See if you can spot the harness!

The final product ready for the tourists. Would you walk along this footpath?

Do you procrastinate too much?

Later on in the day I realised that I definitely needed to go but wasn’t sure when to go. I looked at the airfares – there was no change in price. On Monday evening I decided that I would go on Wednesday (today) but would check a few things before booking the flight. There was still no change in price.

Early Tuesday morning I checked the price and it had gone up by £100. I still needed to check some things so I didn’t book. After breakfast and my final checks I went online to book and found the fare had increased by £1,000! As a result I am now leaving on Thursday when I can have a sensible fare again.

My procrastination could have cost me £1,100! Sometimes the Nike motto “Just do it” is absolutely right.

Perhaps I need to commission A Useful Guide to Decision Making and then read it!

Do we create the time to sit down and listen to music through great sound systems anymore?

A couple of weeks back I was playing my stereo amplifier (are there any mono ones out there?) and suddenly the Mute light flashed on and off, cutting out the sound to the speakers.

The amplifier was 3 years old and produced a marvellous sound out of the speakers I had bought nearly 20 years ago.

I rang the place where I bought the amplifier in Witham in Essex.

Mark, the sales assistant was excellent. “Sounds like a dry connection but we can send it back to our repair centre in Sevenoaks and they will check it out for you” he said understandingly.

I delivered it back to them at the weekend and expect a report back soon on the fault and cost of repair.

My son Christopher casually remarked, “No problem in waiting, you only play the thing about once a month.”

Interesting point, there are rare moments when I am in the house on my own (not essential for listening but helpful ) when I play music through the “stereo system”.

I tend to listen to most of my music through headphones/earphones connected to my iPhone or iPod in a quality that in years past I would not have given house room in those hi fidelity days.

In addition I realised that I am also tending to listen to music mostly when I am on trains and planes, rarely in the home – complete with background noise, high volume mobile calls and the odd (literally) station announcements by the train guard.

Perhaps we rush about too much and do not create the time to sit down in the home and listen to music through great sound systems anymore?

It may be that the pace of life now makes us feel guilty about sitting there, without the TV on, without a book or newspaper in our hand, without checking the mails on the iPhone instead of taking some time out to experience music in the old way …

Perhaps I need to read A Useful Guide to Work Life Balance     if I can put down the iPod, the iPhone or turn the TV off for long enough.

The surgeries were spotless and full of expert surgeons with the latest equipment.

We had been to the specialist dental surgery before when our local dentist decided that my wife’s tooth extraction was just too difficult for him so now we had two more to contend with!

The specialist unit in Colchester we were referred to had an excellent reputation.

From a marketing perspective it did not have much going for it.

It was difficult to find despite the map, and although sat nav helped to get you into the vicinity you could still search for hours.

The car park is miniscule and impossible to park in without blocking another visitor in – yet reporting instructions state that you had to park in this car park because they did not want groggy patients having to negotiate the roads and pavements.

Once inside you travelled down a poorly lit corridor where two receptionists battled with paper records (in the main) and a phone that kept on ringing.

In the waiting room the paintwork was lacklustre and the pictures on the wall of roses had seen better days.

The magazines were quite old and the chairs not the most comfortable.

But when we were welcomed and briefed on the procedure the whole experience changed.

Here we were now in the hands of professional surgeons and nurses who knew their job.

I had only been waiting for my wife for 20 minutes when a friendly gentlemen asked me to join him. I was expecting news that there had been difficulties or timings had slipped (the waiting room was filling up fast).

“Your wife is in the recovery room, perhaps you would like to keep her company? “ he said.

A nurse was sitting with her and explaining to me the next steps and giving me advice on making my wife comfortable as the anaesthetic wore off over the next few hours.

So, on the face of it, not a showcase venue.

A poor car park and a place difficult to find.

A waiting room that needed decorating to brighten it up.

But the surgeries were spotless and full of expert surgeons with the latest equipment.

It did not need to attract people in or sell anything – it just had a reputation for providing a top notch, professional referral dental service.

I prefer the branding to be that way round.

A Useful Guide to Customer Service and A Useful Guide to Personal Branding were really not necessary.