NaBloPoMo

Blovember #6 – Why wait for poor service?

/ Dominic

I have just read a rant on Facebook where a customer of BestBuy in Calgary felt very hard done by because the staff in-store were rubbish and despite nothing else to do they ignored them whilst standing around doing nowt. They waited 5-9 minutes apparently. Not only does such a statement imply that the complainant is pretty bad at judging the passing of time it also says to me that they had nothing better to do than wait and work themselves up whilst plotting their punitive retaliation (embarrass them using social media). there is nothing to suggest they even attempted to escalate the issue at a store level.

Whilst this is just rubbish service I don’t think you have earned the right to complain if you did nothing. There will be a manager on duty and I’ll bet that summoning them – the mere act of – will be a bit of a rocket to the lazy assistants. As a manager I’d dearly like to know if my customers are not receiving a level of service that delights them. As a manager I can’t improve it for you or other customers if you wait, bottle up your unhappiness and then snipe at us using Facebook (despite the dire threats to splash the entire world of social media with this example of egregious treatment they posted it on the US BestBuy page and not the Canadian one. BestBuy politely pointed this out. I only saw it because a contact reposted it.).
Staff make mistakes, staff are sometimes lazy, offensive, bring personal issues to work etc etc. All to be avoided but the fact is they do happen. There is a difference between a one-off and repetitive crap behaviour. Maybe the manager needs replacing? Who knows if you don’t bring it up.

By all means expect and demand high levels of service but don’t shy away from bringing it up with first-line  management if you don’t get it. Being a customer in the real world isn’t a completely one-way track. Do your bit before you take to the airwaves to shout about your unhappiness. Try being part of the solution and not just part of the problem. No change will come if you shirk your responsibilities as a customer.

Blovember #5 – Don’t get me going

/ Dominic / 6 Comments

Organised religion. The mix of church and state in the UK that is enshrined in law. The plain pig-headed refusal to acknowledge facts, or more precisely the cherry picking of facts.

Newsflash – you can’t pick the facts you want to support your argument and then choose to ignore the ones that torpedo views based on faith. Really. Just really. It’s what 6 year olds do. Grow-up.

The old maxim applies here: “Never argue with an idiot because they’ll just drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”

Have you ever tried to have an argument (not a row, an intellectual argument) with a religious believer? Yes but, Yes but, yes but ad infinitum. I am not patient enough and have to bite my hand to avoid being offensive. It doesn’t always work.

It’s the election of the leader of the free world tomorrow. One would like to think that religion won’t have any part in it. Ho ho. Some hope. The winner gets to be in charge of serious weaponry and I’d like to think that they will take decisions based on proven facts and not an alleged  god whispering in their ear as they pray for guidance.

Pray for me as I am obviously one of those deluded lost souls that places my faith in science over mythical Sky Pilots. Silly I know, but there you go.

Blovember #4 – just missing the chestnuts…

/ Dominic / 5 Comments

…because I am sitting in front of an open fire. Doh.

It is between 2 and 4 degrees outside and wet as well. The kind of damp and chill you to the core sort of cold without even needing a wind. It might be the leaner post-hospital me of 11st of nothing that just feels the cold more easily.

Desperate measures – well 1.5:1 may be required; Whisky Mac (a.k.a. Winter Warmer) 1.5 parts blended (read cheap) whisky to 1 part green ginger wine. Bring it on.

bottle top

bottle top (Photo credit: jovike)

Blovember #3 – or, One more won’t get me there any quicker

/ Dominic

Day 3 and yet more of my deeply interesting life. Well, that which I am prepared to share which, face it, it’s on the web’n’all, I ain’t telling you where I have put the bodies. Reminds me of the saying of a friend’s husband, “one more ain’t gonna take me to hell any faster”.

Life gets better. I don’t know why I took so long to acquire my v own copy of Blackhawk Down.  Not important as it arrived yesterday from Amazon for the princely sum of £3.49 w free delivery for a “Bonus 2-Disc  Special Edition” or similar marketing nonsense. I figure that at the price it is a commodity item taking up shelf space in the vast Amazon warehouse and just needs to be shifted. I remember being taught that patience is a virtue. It also  helps to be massively forgetful at times and at that price the excuses can no longer be made.

So…number three done with. More tomorrow if I remember. Now where did I put the quicklime…?

Blovember #2

/ Dominic

Day 2 and I feel like a kid being made to write the “what I did on my holidays” post half-term standard fodder.

Today I applied to Sophos for a v interesting looking role as the Sales Enablement Program Manager – Learning & Development. Looks v interesting, plays v well to my strengths and is relatively local. I don’t mind business travel but at this stage in life am not looking to relocate as that is for peeps without kids at a non-boarding  school.

The interesting thing to see is whether I am even spoken to, as my CV is coming to the UK HR Dept via a friend of a friend in Vancouver. I have never ever ever received a reply to an application via Linkedin as my CV isn’t a nice boilerplate example of I did this and then this and then this where the respective “thises” have been a steady progression along an A-B-C-D sort of obvious line. I like to think I have had an interesting and informative life but  we’ll see what Sophos think.

Blovember

/ Dominic / 2 Comments

So it’s a cheap an easy title? I am sitting in bed when I remembered that I was talked into once a day blogging in November by Musings From the Sofa. This is for NaBloPoMo – stupid sounding name imho. Blovember, much better.

Day 1 and there is project slippage. Hi ho. We’ll see what gives in a week. Nothing of note today apart from staying in touch with friends and recovering from yesterday. I bought a pair of orange and blue trainers for £25.The orange is so bright I can find them in the dark as they seem to emit their own energy. Most odd. They didn’t have a Chernobyl glow in daylight.

Yesterday was pretty cool. I stepped into something I hadn’t done for 10 years and it came back more naturally then I had hoped. My old boss from 14y year ago is the CEO of a firm with one of those – picked from the air, sounds kinda tecchie and most importantly the domain name is available – names. Flexiant. I really enjoyed it as it was especially challenging as it was a seasoned and experienced audience. If you don’t get credibility in the first 5 minutes the next 10 hours are hellish. I did, they weren’t.

Off to bed. More tomorrow.