What a surprise....
I see that Ryanair have been voted worlds worst airline - so far as I can see, and
have experienced, they delight in their 'could not care less about customers'
attitude so they may well be celebrating the award. Of course, we all still use
them when we need to get somewhere cheaply - but in any case where there is
anything close to a like for like choice, they won't get my money.
Read More
Car insurance...does not compute!!!
I phoned Direct Line yesterday to get a car
insurance quote. I fully expected to do the deal with them as a) I have not had
a car since I had a company car 5 years ago, and b) Had some form of mini
no-claims bonus built up with them by being a names driver on my fathers policy
with them c) I have always been told they are a good customer-focused
organisation.
But.....despite having no claims ever, and no driving offences ever - the system would not allow them to give me a quote. Apparently not having a no claims bonus overrides not having any points or claims - the fact that I have lived in the middle of London and thus have not needed a car for the last 5 years makes no difference.
Thankfully Norwich Union must employ people to make decisions rather than programmes and i'm now insured with them.
But.....despite having no claims ever, and no driving offences ever - the system would not allow them to give me a quote. Apparently not having a no claims bonus overrides not having any points or claims - the fact that I have lived in the middle of London and thus have not needed a car for the last 5 years makes no difference.
Thankfully Norwich Union must employ people to make decisions rather than programmes and i'm now insured with them.
Read More
Supplier Review of the Year 2006
I've not had too much time free for blogging lately,
although that should change this year with a bit of luck. So I though i'd go for
a general 'review of the past year' to catch up on the many things I should have
had to say about my various suppliers.
So here is 'review of the year', I enjoyed the thought process and found it useful in terms of thinking about how to make life easier in supplier terms - so I suspect i'll make this review and annual one from now on.
Ten Best Suppliers to Me in 2005
1) Ten UK, my buyer-centric 'concierge service' has to top the list. 95% of the time they do what is asked of them, well, with minimum fuss, and the rest of the time is not far behind - well worth the money.
2) Apple, their computers and dot Mac service continue to improve, Dot Mac in particular with its tight integration of basic stuff like e-mail, back ups, web site publishing etc makes it a service I don't ever envisage being without.
3) Myserverworld - they host 8 web sites for me; simple to use, good value for money and very rarely any down time.
4) Starbucks, 'always the same' I agree, but their coffee, blueberry muffins and wireless internet work for me - from Sydney to Soho Square.
5) Marks and Spencer - consistently good food, even if their portions do shrink mysteriously after a new product/ version is first launched.
6) Hilton - My preferred hotel chain, very consistent - and in Hhonors the best loyalty programme around.
7) Adam Street Club, London - top notch club off The Strand, well geared up for small businesses and not too stuck up - unlike most of their peers.
8) British Airways - the best fleet around and good web site and loyalty programme - only held back by the weaknesses of Heathrow Airport.
9) Historic Scotland - the main supplier to our wedding, some minor hiccups but you can't fault the property assets they have to offer.
10) Ridgeback - makers of my new bike, very impressive.
Ten Worst Suppliers to Me in 2005
1) Mapfre Insurance Company - straight in at number one, the insurer of my property in Spain. After a robbery in March 05, we still do not have the claim settled, un-paralleled degrees of in-competence and intransigence; i'll have a lot more to say about this shambolic crew when I finally get the claim settled.
2) Spanish Builders - continuing the Spanish theme, don't ever believe a Spanish builder when they give you a timetable.
3) Palm - the Treo 650 smart phone is a great idea, only problem being that it does not really work as a phone; and mine has had to go back for repair twice within 7 months. How did such a ground-breaking company allow themselves to churn out such half-baked products?
4) British Airport Authority (BAA) - i'm sure they try hard, but how come Heathrow Airport just continues to be a painful place to travel through? Far too many times this year i've spent 45 minutes or so sitting on the ground waiting for a place to park the plane. Passport queues get worse, food outlets are bland - and all in an airport that I used to regard as the best. That's what comes from being too successful I suppose...
5) The Heathrow Express - This BAA subsidiary also merits a top ten place - just how many times can the prices go up by far more than the rate of inflation before the government (who paid for the thing in the first place) call a halt!!!
6) Wedding Photographers - Why should a photographer retain the copyright to pictures from my wedding - i've no idea but it is a model that has to break down before much longer. Bring on the guests with good digital cameras and save a bit of money!!!
7) John Lewis - another wedding supplier. How many separate deliveries does it take to deliver a complete set of about 100 wedding gifts. I'd never have believed it would take the 10 that it did, or the multiple trips back to the store with damaged or faulty goods.
8) Property alarm companies - I have experienced two of these this year, both were only interested in winning the business and after the installation don't want to know. ....You know who you are....
9) Tesco Local - how to make a mess of what till then had been a nice looking street (Marylebone High Street).
10) First Direct - I had £900 stolen through ATM fraud, and for the first 36 hours of the experience I was treated like I was the criminal, and the assumption was that I had given my card/ PIN to someone. So why would I do that then when there was nothing in my long account history to suggest it. I got the money back, some 3 weeks later - but went right off First Direct in the process.
'Could Do Better'
Here's some organisations 'in the middle' that with a bit of effort might make my top ten.
1) Glasgow Rangers - a nice league win on the last day of the season, but what a down-turn. Sort it out, we'll have a new manager in the summer please and I big clear out of the players that are simply not up to the job. And you know who you are too......
2) British Gas - why such a mix of great service staff and occasional duffers?
3) PPP - make up your mind, are you just an insurance company or are you actually interested in my health? The former judging by the lack of new health-promoting activity/ offers.
4) BT - what a great brand, what a reliable network, when are you going to do something interesting?
So here is 'review of the year', I enjoyed the thought process and found it useful in terms of thinking about how to make life easier in supplier terms - so I suspect i'll make this review and annual one from now on.
Ten Best Suppliers to Me in 2005
1) Ten UK, my buyer-centric 'concierge service' has to top the list. 95% of the time they do what is asked of them, well, with minimum fuss, and the rest of the time is not far behind - well worth the money.
2) Apple, their computers and dot Mac service continue to improve, Dot Mac in particular with its tight integration of basic stuff like e-mail, back ups, web site publishing etc makes it a service I don't ever envisage being without.
3) Myserverworld - they host 8 web sites for me; simple to use, good value for money and very rarely any down time.
4) Starbucks, 'always the same' I agree, but their coffee, blueberry muffins and wireless internet work for me - from Sydney to Soho Square.
5) Marks and Spencer - consistently good food, even if their portions do shrink mysteriously after a new product/ version is first launched.
6) Hilton - My preferred hotel chain, very consistent - and in Hhonors the best loyalty programme around.
7) Adam Street Club, London - top notch club off The Strand, well geared up for small businesses and not too stuck up - unlike most of their peers.
8) British Airways - the best fleet around and good web site and loyalty programme - only held back by the weaknesses of Heathrow Airport.
9) Historic Scotland - the main supplier to our wedding, some minor hiccups but you can't fault the property assets they have to offer.
10) Ridgeback - makers of my new bike, very impressive.
Ten Worst Suppliers to Me in 2005
1) Mapfre Insurance Company - straight in at number one, the insurer of my property in Spain. After a robbery in March 05, we still do not have the claim settled, un-paralleled degrees of in-competence and intransigence; i'll have a lot more to say about this shambolic crew when I finally get the claim settled.
2) Spanish Builders - continuing the Spanish theme, don't ever believe a Spanish builder when they give you a timetable.
3) Palm - the Treo 650 smart phone is a great idea, only problem being that it does not really work as a phone; and mine has had to go back for repair twice within 7 months. How did such a ground-breaking company allow themselves to churn out such half-baked products?
4) British Airport Authority (BAA) - i'm sure they try hard, but how come Heathrow Airport just continues to be a painful place to travel through? Far too many times this year i've spent 45 minutes or so sitting on the ground waiting for a place to park the plane. Passport queues get worse, food outlets are bland - and all in an airport that I used to regard as the best. That's what comes from being too successful I suppose...
5) The Heathrow Express - This BAA subsidiary also merits a top ten place - just how many times can the prices go up by far more than the rate of inflation before the government (who paid for the thing in the first place) call a halt!!!
6) Wedding Photographers - Why should a photographer retain the copyright to pictures from my wedding - i've no idea but it is a model that has to break down before much longer. Bring on the guests with good digital cameras and save a bit of money!!!
7) John Lewis - another wedding supplier. How many separate deliveries does it take to deliver a complete set of about 100 wedding gifts. I'd never have believed it would take the 10 that it did, or the multiple trips back to the store with damaged or faulty goods.
8) Property alarm companies - I have experienced two of these this year, both were only interested in winning the business and after the installation don't want to know. ....You know who you are....
9) Tesco Local - how to make a mess of what till then had been a nice looking street (Marylebone High Street).
10) First Direct - I had £900 stolen through ATM fraud, and for the first 36 hours of the experience I was treated like I was the criminal, and the assumption was that I had given my card/ PIN to someone. So why would I do that then when there was nothing in my long account history to suggest it. I got the money back, some 3 weeks later - but went right off First Direct in the process.
'Could Do Better'
Here's some organisations 'in the middle' that with a bit of effort might make my top ten.
1) Glasgow Rangers - a nice league win on the last day of the season, but what a down-turn. Sort it out, we'll have a new manager in the summer please and I big clear out of the players that are simply not up to the job. And you know who you are too......
2) British Gas - why such a mix of great service staff and occasional duffers?
3) PPP - make up your mind, are you just an insurance company or are you actually interested in my health? The former judging by the lack of new health-promoting activity/ offers.
4) BT - what a great brand, what a reliable network, when are you going to do something interesting?
Customer Power at Abbey...
A bit of 'customer power' in action, as Abbey move their call centre back from India to the UK
.....
What are the worst words a customer can hear?
There are many bad options, but the worst has to
be that terrible phrase.... 'I can only apologise, but.........'
.
I've just had a dose of that phrase from O2 explaining why my GPRS service had not been working for a week, something to do with an engineer forgetting to do something at their end. So......i'm supposed to do without a service I pay for, spend over an hour tracking down someone prepared to resolve the issue and then another day before the service works again. And i'm supposed to feel better about it because someone 'can only apologise'. Frankly I think they should do a lot more than that, like pay for my time, give me a credit for the service I did not receive; but no that does not seem to be an option.
Over the years, i've had the same wonderful phrase from BT, Scottish Power, British Gas, Apple and no doubt a plenty more i've forgotten. Perhaps Siebel or Salesforce.com could build the capability for a service rep to automate the phrase being dropped into a customer conversation at the appropriate time while they move on to the next call> that would save a bit more money.....and why not, it would not make the customer feel much worse than they do when they hear the phrase from a person.
I've just had a dose of that phrase from O2 explaining why my GPRS service had not been working for a week, something to do with an engineer forgetting to do something at their end. So......i'm supposed to do without a service I pay for, spend over an hour tracking down someone prepared to resolve the issue and then another day before the service works again. And i'm supposed to feel better about it because someone 'can only apologise'. Frankly I think they should do a lot more than that, like pay for my time, give me a credit for the service I did not receive; but no that does not seem to be an option.
Over the years, i've had the same wonderful phrase from BT, Scottish Power, British Gas, Apple and no doubt a plenty more i've forgotten. Perhaps Siebel or Salesforce.com could build the capability for a service rep to automate the phrase being dropped into a customer conversation at the appropriate time while they move on to the next call> that would save a bit more money.....and why not, it would not make the customer feel much worse than they do when they hear the phrase from a person.
Fri - April 21, 2006
Wed - October 5, 2005
Gadget Lovers .....a Dream Market Segment for The Post Office and the Telco
...well that's me just back from another trip to the
Post Office to send back a broken gadget; that makes 5 in the last 2
months:
- my Palm Treo 650
- my wife's Palm Treo 650
- my GPS gadget
- my heart rate monitor
- digital camera
Must be something about those of us prone to buying gadgets, but we certainly are becoming The Post Office's and Telco's best friends; each of these has meant a trip to The Post Office, and multiple long phone conversations....just to get what I had paid for in the first place.
In any case, i've had enough - no more gadgets for me for 18 months, i'll live without them and no doubt feel better for it.
- my Palm Treo 650
- my wife's Palm Treo 650
- my GPS gadget
- my heart rate monitor
- digital camera
Must be something about those of us prone to buying gadgets, but we certainly are becoming The Post Office's and Telco's best friends; each of these has meant a trip to The Post Office, and multiple long phone conversations....just to get what I had paid for in the first place.
In any case, i've had enough - no more gadgets for me for 18 months, i'll live without them and no doubt feel better for it.
Posted at 12:09 PM
Thu - September 22, 2005
Delicious Library
What a wonderful software application this is
....used for storing and sharing information about your books, videos, DVD's and
games.
It not only looks great, but the built in gadgets are excellent - you can scan in the barcode from a book for example using your webcam and the applications runs off to pull the data back from Amazon web services. Wonderful.....the future of personal data capture.
It not only looks great, but the built in gadgets are excellent - you can scan in the barcode from a book for example using your webcam and the applications runs off to pull the data back from Amazon web services. Wonderful.....the future of personal data capture.
Posted at 03:07 PM Read More
Wed - September 21, 2005
Why Do Local Grocery Shops Not 'Get It'
I live in Central London, and as such have no
shortage of grocery shops near me; I have two Tesco Expresses within a ten
minute walk, and a Sainsbury's local the same distance away. BUT....., I don't
always want to walk for 10 minutes to get some basics, so often use the local
grocers, a number of which are within a two minute
walk.
That sounds fine you say, a nice problem to have in some ways. But the problem is, the local shops, in my experience are now often selling products and services that are inferior in some way to what I can get by walking that extra 8 minutes to Tesco or Sainsbury's. By 'inferior', I mean either:
- almost out of date (e.g. stale bread/ cakes)
- stuff they have bought in from overseas/ 'off the back of a lorry' (e.g. cans of Coke with the writing on the side in Greek)
I can see why these local shops might feel the need to buy cheap, it can't be easy competing with the Tesco's of this world. But can't they see that selling inferior quality goods is not the solution (and is probably why two of the locals in my area have gone bust in the last 6 months). The answer has to be - sell good quality goods where the convenience factor is high and charge more than Tesco's would - but not enough to dis-respect the customers, who is well aware of what is going on, and normally happy to pay for the convenience factor. That would work for me, i'm happy to pay a bit more to save that extra 16 minute trek; because if the local guys don't get their act together I won't have the option for much longer.
That sounds fine you say, a nice problem to have in some ways. But the problem is, the local shops, in my experience are now often selling products and services that are inferior in some way to what I can get by walking that extra 8 minutes to Tesco or Sainsbury's. By 'inferior', I mean either:
- almost out of date (e.g. stale bread/ cakes)
- stuff they have bought in from overseas/ 'off the back of a lorry' (e.g. cans of Coke with the writing on the side in Greek)
I can see why these local shops might feel the need to buy cheap, it can't be easy competing with the Tesco's of this world. But can't they see that selling inferior quality goods is not the solution (and is probably why two of the locals in my area have gone bust in the last 6 months). The answer has to be - sell good quality goods where the convenience factor is high and charge more than Tesco's would - but not enough to dis-respect the customers, who is well aware of what is going on, and normally happy to pay for the convenience factor. That would work for me, i'm happy to pay a bit more to save that extra 16 minute trek; because if the local guys don't get their act together I won't have the option for much longer.
Posted at 12:58 PM Read More
Tue - August 23, 2005
Sky Plus.....what a great product
For once i've been over rather than under-whelmed on
getting a new gadget; the Sky Plus digital TV recorder
box:
- is easy to use
- saves me time
- saves me money (on DVD purchase and rental)
Only downside is limited storage space; I can feel a lifetime of disc upgrades coming on!!!!
- is easy to use
- saves me time
- saves me money (on DVD purchase and rental)
Only downside is limited storage space; I can feel a lifetime of disc upgrades coming on!!!!
Posted at 09:01 AM
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Published On: Oct 26, 2006 11:37 AM
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Published On: Oct 26, 2006 11:37 AM