Next time...

Next time I experience a power cut all I ask is the following:

• The power cut does not set off the house alarm...
• ...in the middle of the night...
• ...when I have forgotten where I wrote down the alarm code...
• ...and I don’t have a torch to find it...
• ...unless I look in a cupboard...
• ...that is the other side of the dish washing machine...
• ...that I have left the door open to...
• ...in the dark...

Ouch

A mobile election?

Election fever is hotting up in the UK with the announcement of a pre-election budget today from The Chancellor of the Exchequer. The smart money has already been placed on a May 6th General Election in the UK, for what will surely be the closest contested election for some time, with the real prospect of a hung parliament.

Plenty has already been written about both the impacts for digital in the UK, and the use of digital technologies as campaigning tools (much of it by Rory Cellan-Jones of the BBC whose excellent blog is covering the subject in depth.)

I am most curious as to how the parties will use mobile to communicate their message. The three major parties all have iPhone apps available to download, suggesting that they feel the election will be less about Motorway Man and more about iPhone fan. This could be a significant miscalculation. For all of the success of the iPhone to date in the UK, the one certain thing is that there are still vastly more people without the device than with it. Still, the iPhone app is today’s “must have” resource for any brand or political party and once one party has one, I guess they all have to.

I am confident that whatever else happens during the campaign there will be numerous ‘Flashmobs’ generated by the parties, perhaps even replacing the old media tactic of the big poster unveil, which seems to have more risk attached to it in the Internet age than simply being defaced.

A more effective application of mobile might be through more traditional methods: text reminders to get people to vote; registration of interest in particular topics through mobile; quick and easy text opinions on policy announcements and initiatives.

Text messaging is often overlooked in the age of mobile data and millions of apps. Yet it still has huge appeal: it is quick, intimate, easy to use and well understood. Most importantly it is universal – it works on every device. In Westminster it may seem like everyone has an iPhone, but across the UK text could prove a far more effective tool for political engagement.

More than big numbers...

The news from Apple this week that one and a half billion applications had been downloaded from the Apple app store in its first year of business (the press release is here) is just another one of those mind boggling statistics about the mobile industry that is hard to get your hear around.

So here are some more. By the end of the year, 4 billion people will be using mobile phones world-wide. That’s conservatively more than half of the world’s population. To put it into another context, about 200 million people are members of Facebook. So for every member of Facebook, there are twenty mobile users. And this does not recognise the fact that many Facebook users will be passive (I now use it about once a month). Can you imagine checking your mobile once a month?

This is why I doubt we have even seen half of the impact that mobile will have yet. Whilst doing some research into mobile payments and ticketing I can across some interesting data. Apparently we check the whereabouts of our mobile phone far more regularly than we do for our wallet. My personal experience would also suggest this is the case. This presents a strong argument that using the phone as a “virtual wallet” might, in fact, be more secure than using a real wallet.

Mobile has always been challenged by competing systems and software and a tendency to over hype new services to the consumer. The tendency was to think, “I know mobile’s day will come but it’s confusing, it’s over hyped, and I will worry about it later”.

Perhaps most interesting will be the impact on society that a fully mobile literate population will have. As part of my job I get to see some of the content that young people are creating and sharing through mobile. It is extraordinary.

As a fully mobile literate generation grows up, the role of educating, training and entertaining them will fall to those of us that have not immersed ourselves in mobile technology to the same extent – and this will mean revisiting so many of the things we take for granted: like how we teach, how we learn, how we communicate, how we pay.

The impact of mobile will be so much more than the big numbers.

You're hired...

Tonight the UK sees the culmination of TV series The Apprentice. The Apprentice claims to take some of the most talented young business people in the UK and pit them against each other to find a winner. The winner gets a £100,000 per year job with business genius and professional grump Sir Alan Sugar.

The Apprentice is the acceptable face of reality TV. It is the (not so) secret pleasure of the chattering classes. People who would never watch Big Brother, Britain’s Got Talent or any one of the other 100 reality TV shows, happily converge around the water cooler to argue the merits of different candidates as they try to one up on each other on a weekly basis.

The final comes hot on the heels of one of the more memorable events of the series: the interviews (link only works in UK). In this the remaining candidates are interviewed by top UK business people to find chinks in their armour and lies on their CV. It is compelling stuff because you just know that, at some point, someone is going to be caught out in a spectacular fashion.

Job interviews are something I really do not miss. If I never have to conduct one again, I could not be happier and if I ever get down about running my own business, the thought of interviewing or being interviewed is enough to put me back on the straight and narrow.

I was never much good at interviewing people, but by far my strangest experiences have been being interviewed for jobs. I went for an interview with Enron at one point and was promised an exciting future. Not sure they could have predicted how exciting, but fortunately it came to nothing.

I was once interviewed by a huge company (one of the largest in the world) for a role. We spoke for two hours. I was very honest in saying that I was not sure if I wanted to be considered for the role but wanted to know more. It was a good, honest and motivating conversation. What followed was, well….nothing. No further communication whatsoever. No “thanks but no thanks”, no “see us again”, no feedback, positive or negative. Maybe I was that awful that I did not ever warrant a letter or the price of a stamp. All the same, basic courtesy states that some form of response would have been helpful.

I was interviewed four times by another company for a role. This involved several trips to London and a Sunday morning “coffee and croissant” bonding session with one of the people I would be working with. After the fourth interview, radio silence began for a week. I thought nothing more of it. A week later a pretty angry HR person rang me. The company was annoyed with the fact I had not responded to their offer. I had not had an offer. When the checked it out, they admitted that they had forgotten to make one. At that point I decided to rule myself out. If they did not know if they had made me an offer or not, I was worried they would forget to pay me.

Most bizarre of all was another interview with a well known company. Having been asked to take various psychometric tests in advance of the interview, I was invited in to get feedback on the results. They were (much to my surprise) positive. Apparently I had all the qualities to fulfil the role. Next came an HR interview. All good so far. Finally I was due to meet someone who I would be working closely with. Only nobody could find her. In the end the slightly harassed (and very embarrassed) HR Manager gave up his search and advised that this part of the interview process would not be possible today and would have to be conducted in the future.

I bid my farewells and walked to the car. As I reached the car the HR guy chased up to me. Great news! He had found the person for the interview and it could now go ahead.

Of course by this point I was mentally elsewhere. I had checked out of interview mode and was very much in pub mode. It was not the best preparation for an interview. What followed was a polite but stilted ten minute interview but I had already decided not to pursue this one further.

All this makes me think that the production team of The Apprentice have got it right. Job interviews are a pretty poor way to find out if someone is suitable for your organisation. But watching someone else get interviewed can make for great entertainment for the rest of us.

Unexpectedly good service...

I often write about frustrations with customer services, particularly when the delivery is so much poorer than the expectation and most notably with large companies. 

Last week I experienced the opposite: fantastic customer service from an unexpected source.  My car was due an MOT.  For those outside of the UK, this is an annual, government approved, inspection of the car for anything that would deem that it was not road worthy. 

Most people dread the annual MOT test.  If you know little about cars, it always seems like an opportunity for a garage to point out all of the things that are wrong with your car, and tell you how much it will cost to fix.  Last year I got my MOT done close to home and the company that did it sent me a postcard to remind me that the inspection was due again.

I called up to arrange to get the test done.  I was dealt with promptly and with courtesy.  The test would take an hour and when I dropped the car off I was welcomed by name and asked if I wanted to wait.  If not, I would have been offered a lift to anywhere locally.

I know nothing about cars, other than how to drive one, but during the test the staff provided some feedback on what was taking place from the waiting room, where there was also a digital read out in plain English of the tests that were taking place.  The staff explained what would happen if the car failed and what I would need to do.  There was complimentary coffee and tea available as well as a quiet zone in which I could work.  The test was completed on time and the car even passed. 

MOT test centres have had a bad reputation for being unfriendly, non-transparent and poorly staffed.  Nothing could have been less true of this place.  Someone had gone to the trouble of thinking about all the little things that would add up to making this a good customer experience. 

It came as little surprise to find out the company was expanding in the area.  Good luck to them.   I could go to any one of a dozen places to get this done but the effort put in by the people, along with the consideration to their customers will guarantee that I return.

Been writing...

Most of the writing I do is for clients, but recently I have been asked to write a couple of pieces for online newsletters.

The first was for Major Events International, a site that provides a single international focus for global events.  The title of the piece is 'Mobile Rings Changes' and if you wish to read it, you can search for this on the site.  The site is a registration site, but it is free to register.

The second article was for Marek Pawlowski, the Editorial Director of MEX, the consultancy, blog and event that is dedicated to improving customer experience within mobile.  If you would like to read this article it is available here.  Marek's vision of improving the customer experience in mobile has been gaining momentum for many years and since it is something I also feel passionately about, it was great that he was able to publish this piece.

It is always enjoyable to be able to write something for publications like these.  Most of the client writing we do is to a fairly tight brief (which is a relief) but it is great to start with a blank piece of paper every so often, such as in these cases.

Four letters...

A fairly mundane communication with the call centre of a company that installed double glazing in our house proved to have an unsatisfactory outcome.  I was basically told on the phone that no one could help me with my enquiry.  I asked to speak to a manager and was told that I could not.  I asked what help could be provided and the answer was none.  Nothing at all.

I do not give up easily so I wrote to the Managing Director of the company.  This provoked an immediate response.  Four letters were dispatched to me on the same day.  This would have been a fantastic response had it not been for the conflicting advice given within the letters.  

One letter told me that the company was investigating the matter.  Another told me there was nothing that the company could do: my windows were out of warranty.  A further letter told me that the units were covered with a fifteen year warranty that was still in force.  A final letter told me the warranty was for ten years, that it had expired and that the issue was irrelevant anyway because the problem that I had was my own fault.

Talk about a confusing message.  I can appreciate large companies might have several people dealing with customer services but three of these letters came from the same person. Perhaps the objective is to confuse me to the point that I give up (and to an extent it has worked).

I often wonder if we get the customer service we deserve.  An article I read recently suggested that in a downturn the most effective action is to focus completely on the customer.  Call centres seem a particularly ill equipped way to do this. I wonder if one effect of the current recession will be to force companies into better ways to deliver service to people.