Monthly Archives: February 2005

Believe it or Not, You WANT Complaints!

Posted on by

There’s a statistic out there about unhappy customers – for every person who actually complains to you about bad service, there’s 26 others who won’t.

And another statistic – every person who dislikes your service will complain to others (80% will tell ten people, 20% will tell twenty people) – or on an average, about 12 others.

Put these two together, and it means that for every actual complaint you’ll receive, there could be a mass of 323 people represented behind it that you will never hear from – but are already turned off by your company.

And the worst – 297 of those are just listening to an unhappy customer, and haven’t even given you a try!

So when you hear a complaint, cherish it – you’ve got a chance to turn someone’s mind, and win back some of those 324. Do that often enough, and you might not get the remainder mad in the first place (those unknowns that will never bother to email you).

As well, make sure your email system makes it very easy to complain – in fact, consider adding an anonymous form on your system to make impulse comments easy. It’s not fun, but if you can nip that negativity in the bud, it will directly affect your bottom line.

And when you do get a nasty email, remember those 323 others!

Do NOT Write a Personal Blog!

Posted on by
Reply

I was watching ABC News tonight, and they had a brief segment on blogs and firings. In a short period of time, they listed a large number of people who went jobless, because of what they said on their blogs.

Some sins:

  • Describing the higher ups without names, but with some creative descriptions.
  • Revealing company sales information.
  • Taking photos in a company stewardess uniform, on a company plane, without approval.
  • Holding a Government position while writing a sexually explicit blog.

The list is endless. ABC News made a good point – free expression may be nice, but if you hurt a business, you’re not likely going to get sympathy in court.

Now this is all very interesting (and useful, since it gives me a ‘blog carefully’ entry at least once a month), but the sad fact is, it’s getting quite obvious that no one should have a personal blog.

In the past, the diary with the key was the repository of all secrets. Or sitting at the bar badmouthing our bosses. Or just getting mad – privately.

But blogs make it easy to vent often, vent publicly, and vent permanently. The fact is, a personal blog is a recipe for disaster. Start one for business, start one for social change, start one because you feel you need to support a cause – but NEVER start one because you feel you have something to say.

If you do, it’ll only be a matter of time until you say something that will be used against you. And the one thing I’ve noticed time and again – it WILL be used against you.

So please, find a non-permanent way to complain about your boss. Keep your opinions anonymous and off the Internet. Don’t commit anything to paper, digital or otherwise.

And forget a personal blog – the price is too high.

Review: AlphaZip Zip File Manager Program

Posted on by
Reply

Question: How do you get recognized in a highly-saturated market?

Answer: Do something different.

In the case of AlphaZip, they’ve tried something unique, but incredibly obvious. They’ve gone for a software program that is actually is easy to use – and targeted people who are not comfortable with zip files.

Hard to believe? Unfortunately, many tech heads (myself included) find zip files straightforward, and just another way of passing information around on the Internet. At least, until we run into someone who doesn’t eat, sleep and breath hexadecimal.

For those people, AlphaZip can provide a real benefit – and a smooth introduction into that all-important format, zip.

For instance, the initial install gives you the option to view an online tutorial. I’m a big fan of providing as much explanation as possible (since surprisingly enough, not every user knows everything), and AlphaZip has a nice one, which starts off explaining the basic controls, to discussing what .zip files are, to describing settings and the use of plugins.

(Note: when I refer to .zip files, I’m actually referring to one type of compressed packaged, or archive. There are many other types, such as CAB, TAR, JAR, and so on, which AlphaZip also supports).

The included help file continues in this vein, providing plenty of information, including a How-To section.

The help is plentiful, but may not be needed, since the program runs so smoothly. You start off being able to open current archives on you computer, or create new ones. Verification of archives, and creation of self-extracting ones (where a unzip program is not needed to unpackage – great for providing files to others on their computers) are some of the features, which allows it to match many on the market. The use of plugins also allows it to add more features in the future (and the startup option to ‘check for updates’ means that you will get the changes easily).

Zip managers are somewhat common, so I think AlphaZip’s emphasis on helping the customer gives this package a real legs-up. In a crowded archive manager market, AlphaZip’s strong focus on making clients comfortable using the product is a welcome change – and I hope they benefit from it.

AlphaZip comes as shareware, allowing you to try before you buy. Available at http://www.AlphaZip.com

(Note: in conjunction with this review, AlphaZip has provided a special coupon for readers – 20% off the regular price, until March 15th, 2005. Just place an order, and entry the coupon BIGBBALPHA on the order form to qualify.)

Thanks For Last Year’s Superbowl, Janet Jackson!

Posted on by
Reply

As I was preparing to watch the Superbowl I realized that the Janet Jackson fiasco was already a year old. In fact, it was during last year’s Superbowl that she got a little overexposed – which by an incredible coincidence happened right before she released her new album.

What a year brings! Her ‘accident’ (last time with quotes, I promise) signaled a major chance in moral attitude last year. Suddenly, we were talking about how un-family the Superbowl was becoming (apparently, the Swedish Bikini team has all along been considered wholesome family fodder). Not to mention the flatulent horse, and the monkey that aggressively (and disgustingly) hit on his owner’s date.

I’ll even hazard a guess, that the Janet Jackson flap (flap – get it?) started the moral outrage wave, and because of her, the American Moral majority was strengthened, and the U.S. President regained his office on the promise of protecting Americans from further immoral activities.

Or maybe not. But I do like thinking it.

In any case, this year’s selection was much tamer (except for the kitty and the sauce – apparently some people were even offended by that), and much more enjoyable. But this is a business column, so I’ll go to the business tip – don’t forget to mention your company!

Why? As you look over some of the better ads, ask yourself who they were for, and then ask if the $2.4 million was worth it for brand recognition:

  • Kitty and the red sauce.
  • The overprotective Spanish parrot.
  • Burt Reynolds and the bear.

Personally, I vote for Burt and the bear – it helped that they fought and danced in front of a store counter. But was that Kinko’s, or FedEx?

Of course, with ads this huge, you’re going to get replayed over and over, which adds to the exposure – but if people can’t figure out who you are, who’s actually getting known?

Oh, there was one other ad I noted – Mustang. A truly ponderous and moronic ad, but at the end, you have no doubt about the product, or the company.

And since Ford could care less what I think, I believe that sums it up – better stupid and remembered than smart and forgotten.

Boy, does that ever sum up this decade!

Add Banners or Google Adsense to Your Blog

Posted on by
Reply

Wondering how I display my banner advertising here on my blog? The answer is quite simple, actually, just a bit of tinkering with the source code…

There’s a number of ways to tuck ads into a blog – for WordPress especially, it’s straightforward to place an ad before (or after) every entry.

In WordPress, the index.php file does all the text output, so changes can be localized there. The area you want looks somewhat like this:

<div id="content">
<?php if ($posts) : foreach ($posts as $post) : start_wp(); ?>
...
<?php endforeach; else: ?>
<p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>
</div>

There’s more, but you’re looking at the main display loop in WordPress – the ‘foreach’ statement starts a loop for each entry displayed (‘for each’ – get it?). Here is where you’d place an ad, and have it display just before the text.

As another option, you can display the ad just after the article, by placing the html just before this statement:

<?php endforeach; else: ?>

An alternative is to display ads when nothing is found (invalid search, for example). In that case, the ad code can be placed here:

<?php endforeach; else: ?>
<p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p>
...put your html here
<?php endif; ?>

Finally, you can display after all entries end (one time only) by placing code between these two lines:

<?php endif; ?>
...code here...
</div>

Of course, Google AdSense only allow three ads per page, so if you have to make sure you don’t display more than three at a time, or program a limit with a counter.

This just opens some options. If you have code that can display your banners, then you’ll likely want them displayed as often as reasonable. Using WordPress, you can add multiple banners simply and easily – or any other code you want repeated.