Rodney, Delboy & grandad

For any non UK readers or those in the UK living in another world in the last 20 years, “Only fools and horses” was a massively popular BBC TV comedy program.

Two brothers Del – “Delboy” (UK slang for Derek) and Rodney were dreamers and flyby night chancers. They were small south London market traders, salesmen of most things, some legal, some not so.

They lived in a small flat with their grandad (and then later Uncle).

However,  they were both quite dim. BUT crucially they also thought that THEY themselves were smart and it was the other brother was the dim wit.

So what’s all this got to do with customer service?

One Delboy catch phrase was “Always ‘finkin Rodney, Always ‘finkin”

(‘Finkin being London dialect for “thinking)

The other day, I got am email following an enquiry I made.

The email started off

“As customer service is not a high priority for us….”

Now – reading the rest of the email, it was clear what the author meant to say was something like

“Our prices are low because the customer/end user is expected to be self sufficient in their affairs and managing their own account”

What the author had temporarily done was stop thinking about the customer.

We are all wrapped up in our own businesses. We live and breath them and sometimes we take things for granted. Like customers…

So be like Delboy and be “always ‘finkin”

Browser plugins – Which do I need?

With the boundaries of the web being stretched with all manner of applications and different technologies being flung together, the average non technical user can be forgiven for being a bit lost.

It is not uncommon for people buying a new PC or laptop from a high street vendor to have no idea of what software is installed on it.

So which browser plugin do you need? (And which can you do without)

(Note there are browser plugins to do all manner of tasks and shortcuts – especially for the firefox browser – so I have kept this list relevant to people wanting to view video and play games online.

Adobe Flash Player

One of the major reasons why Adobe bought Macromedia in 2005 was to acquire the technology behind flash.

Flash player is free and it allows you to watch videos and animations created using the paid for flash authoring tool. (Or compatible tools)

Flash player will generally prompt you when it needs to update and you should update when prompted. Flash player is installed in over 97% of new computers.

Shockwave player

Shockwave was the format of video and animation outputted by Macromedia Director. However, since the Adobe buyout, question marks persist over the future lifespan of Director. As a result, you probably won’t need shockwave player.

Authorware player

Authorware is a no longer supported elearning application. You should look closely at any sites requiring the authorware player. (Last time I checked, it was quite a large download also).

Quicktime player

Quicktime is a format of video produced by apple. Similar to the flash player, the viewer allows you to watch media created with the paid for authoring tool.

Maybe it is because I use a PC, but I have always found this format to be unreliable and buggy.

Windows Media Player

Good old windows media player. I have no recent experience of this and it is used to watch video rather than animation and games.

So which browser plugin?

The only player you should really need to watch videos is the flash player. That’s the reason why the Sharp End Training courses are made using it.

What about you ?

Which browser plugins have you used and which have you installed and not needed?

It’s kind of hard to be objective because the show has to cram so much into 55 minutes.

Introduce the characters, pay sufficient reverence to Sralan (sorry Lord Sugar) and the current economic climate, provide entertainment and ultimate have someone fired (although technically, they don’t actually work for him).

As if working a 17 hour shift with complete strangers is bad enough – 17 hours with strangers who all seem to communicate by shouting is a true baptism of fire.

All of this (the task) portion has to be edited into a 25 minute slot for the show.

Even I, the viewer, felt bewildered by the fast moving nature of the show.

Just a couple of observations -

1. I have never met a manager yet who says “This is my management style…”

Most good managers just get on with it.

2. Lord Sugar’s observation that an entrepreneur is not something that you call yourself, it is a label other people give you was a little nugget left in by the producer.

3. My son was slightly surprised that people were working (and cutting meat) and 3:40am.

So the Laws of the apprentice were proved correct again – the project manager on the losing team on the first week was fired.

The viewer was left to get their breath back and I for one didn’t a watch the BBC2 show straight afterwards because I felt I needed a breather.

The only other thing is the low key debut of Karren Brady although Nick Hewer was on form without even saying much at all.

As a result, my wife suggests that having a mouth moving at half speed is to be recommended and wondered if this could be made permanent?

Here is the link to book

http://www.o4rb.com/index.php/latest-news/manage-your-events/viewevent/10-YOUR+COUNTRY+NEEDS+YOUTO+CREATE+WEALTH

The phone rang the other day and the first sound that I was not the main centre of the callers attention was the general office drone in the background and the fact that the caller finished a conversation in progress before speaking to me.

“Hello, I am from XYZ^%£!”*&^, How are you today?” (I don’t know much about cold calling but I am guessing that the “How are you today was a crude way to try and build empathy”

“OK”

“The purpose of this call today is to gather information about your business”

(Oh right, so you ring me out of the blue and you tell me what the purpose of the call is. Do you know the difference between pull marketing and push marketing?)

“Can I take the business name”

“Umm well you just rang me – don’t you know?”

The caller then proceeded to requesting information, (much of it publicly accessible) which is a lot to be asking straight off the bat with no obvious benefit.

“Now the purpose of this call is to help you get unwanted sales and marketing calls”

“You mean like you ?”

“I’m sorry?”

“You mean unwanted calls like yours?”

“Pardon?”

“Well you ring me up out of the blue and start to sell to me”

“Oh I am not selling, I am promoting”

“There is a difference?”

“Well sorry I know you have a list of numbers to call but you are doing a good job of showing how to annoy people on the phone. Can you you remove me please?”

She hung up on me – result..