Kodak introduced the a single-use camera called the Weekender. Customers have called the support line to ask if it’s okay to use it during the week.

The above case is one of those happenings that confirms that we are irrational beings. I found it the book The Dilbert Principle, by cartoonist Scott Adams. The reason he tells that story is to back up his hypothesis, that everybody is an idiot, at least in one topic /field or another. If you think it sounds harsh, remove the noise that comes with the word and you will realize that there is some truth to it. Let me explain why.

Each of us is good at something and bad at another (Adams mentions this in the book). As we progress through our lives, we learn new traits. Sometimes these new skills come in form of using a new tool or service just experience with the world around us, but still we are “idiots” at something else.

Lets say there is a company called WEE tech and they just announced a new product the in a big conference. Since, the weeetator is a new product, only the people at WEE tech can use it. Why? Because they came with the idea, design it, build it, test it, fixed bugs and tested more. In other words they been working on it for the last year, as a result being experts on using it. Everybody else is an “idiot” in using the weeetator, because nobody outside WEE tech has tried to used it and gone through the learning curve.

Sometimes when receiving customer calls or dealing with customers issues, we think that they are not very smart, since they don’t understand how things work. However, we forget that we don’t know how other stuff work, we become very critical about the intellect of our customers, when we do the same thing with other products.

There are people out there that don’t know how to use a iPhone, but hell know how to run a business. Others can disarm and put back together a motor of a car, but don’t know about the Internet of Things.

At the end everybody is a customer, so treat your customers as you want yourself to be treated the next time you have a problem with your phone.

On the weekend, I went shopping for a pair of sneakers. I needed something comfortable for my summer travels, which provided a much needed arc support. This is due to being flat footed and been giving me problems when walking a lot. In addition, they should later be wearable to work and everyday commuting. My decision: the Nike Air Max Classic BW.

I got to the store and when I saw the high price, plus all the colors and similar models, I stalled and wasn’t totally convinced. Still after some browsing and a coffee, I decided to ask for two pairs to try them all. I was disappointed because they didn’t provide the support I was looking for, although they looked cooled than I thought.

Things changed when the salesman got some insoles with arc support, the sneakers felt  much, much better. When he asked me “what do you think”, I gave him the thumbs up. Then asked if the insoles were included, and he said I had to pay extra for them. At this point, I got turned off.

Note: Looking at this from a third view, when you have a price sensitive customer and then you make him pay more for what he/she has already committed too (in this case more than 10%), then the deal breaks up and there will be no sale.

At that point, I said I wasn’t going to buy them because, it was already an expensive product and I had to add more to actually serve its purpose. While he was trying to convince he can’t give it to me for free and they are good insoles and that they have a warranty and “bla bla bla”, I realized something: what I really need was the insoles with arc support, not a new pair of sneakers.

I bought the insoles and left the store with them in my old sneakers. After three days, I assure you: that was the best possible decision I could have made. It will have been a waste of money, to buy new sneakers when most of the non running shoes come with neutral arc support.

Most of the time, customers want to solve a problem and they think that the product/service you offer is the solution. And most of the time we are wrong, that is why is important to find out: WHY they think that is the best solution.

In that process of finding out WHY, you might not sell them anything and the customers just needs to tweak something in their current solution (that being sneakers, network, website, etc). However, a happy customers has a bigger possibility of returning and even better bring it’s friends. But, if he/she is not satisfied with the overall experience, forget about it. you lost them, because is about building relationships and thinking long term, not just selling.

On the first week of march, I started to listen to a recompilation of Antonio Vivaldi’s work on Spotify. My curiosity for Vivaldi was triggered when Google changed their logo to commemorate his birth date (on the 4th of March). I didn’t remember much about him so, I thought it could be interesting.

While enjoying the music and working I suddenly felt goose pumps when I started to listen to Winter 1st Movement of The Four Seasons.

Maybe is because I’m a big fan of the violin and maybe is why I felt how I felt. When I saw which piece was, I decided to go through the other four season pieces. I started from spring to winter, while I was trying to map my memories of the seasons. At this moment I had understood the four seasons. Before I had the knowledge about them. I had read what they represent the four seasons of a year: what people do and climatic events during each season. Each piece reflects this through the melody, tempo and a rhythm.

Because, I had experience them more than once, so they stuck to me, which lead to understanding them. To know is different from understand, therefore once we feel it and experience that feeling more than once, we will understand.

Since, I lived most of my life in Honduras where there is no clear manifestations of the the four seasons, I did not understand them. Until now, that I’m in my third winter in Sweden, I had the experience them, therefore I understand why Vivaldi’s four season sound as they do.

You can know that being a father is difficult, however until you experience it you will understand it.

You heard countless times and read even more, how hard is to have a business, but until you run your own, you will understand.

You might know or have an idea of what your customers want, however until you are your customer, you will understand them. Why do you think (37 signals’ book), “Getting Real”, recommends that you solve your own problems and therefore you will have great web applications? Because, you will become the customer, feel the pain and there understand what it is really needed. However this is sometimes difficult to do. Sometimes we just need to solve other people problems. That is why, in addition, developers that build the web applications should receive the tech support emails. Not as a punishment for writing buggy software, but because they will never be the customer. So, they need (somehow) feel the pain of the customer. That way they will understand what it is really needed.

Once we feel something we will understand it, other than that is knowledge. just theory.

[Image Source]

What are cheap alternatives? In my case is any airplane flight by Delta or Ryanair. Other examples of such products or services are: winter clothing, sport apparel, laptops, designer and architect services. All of them are high in cost (and can’t be consumed periodically), however you can find cheap alternatives, that for some people might be good enough. The big dilemma is not how much you are saving, but are they really cheaper or good enough? Evermore, is how big is the risk compared to the benefit of finding out if they are good? Here is example:

Recently I took a transatlantic flight with Delta (part of it operated by Air France), from Sweden to Honduras and back. At the moment, this was was the cheapest flight I could find. Overall, the services was really bad compared to my previous flights with British Airways. First, the planes that took me from Paris to Atlanta was uncomfortable. Clearly the design of the seats and screens was not for long haul flights. Second the stuartists where not as friendly, however the worst thing is that when going and coming back, my luggage was delayed one day. In Honduras I had to go to the airport and pick it up the next day, in Sweden it was delivered to me. It was pain, it was inconvenient and the risk of me losing my stuff got higher. What will had happened, if my luggage was lost? Means that the trip will have actually cost more than a proven but higher in cost, such as British Airways.

[Image Source]

Was my case a anomaly? I don’t think so. I was warned before about Delta delivering the luggage  a day after. My theory is that this saves them “fuel money”, by sending the heavy luggage with other airlines. However, me elaborating on it will derailed me from the point of this post. Which is:

Companies that offer you a cheaper alternative in a competitive market, generally will  shave indirect costs from other places, which will contribute to providing a cheaper alternative, but lower in quality.You will not be able to find out how bad the quality is, until you used it.  Or sometimes they just sell you the most basic and functional part of it and charge for all extras.  Same happens with winter apparel. Cheap jackets could only last for a couple of winters, then you will have to buy a new one. Also with architects and constructors, sure they can build you a house at half of the market price, but at the end your house or flat will have more deficiencies if you agreed to pay the market price. At the end of the day companies discriminate their customers through prices: you want the good stuff, pay for it, if not then settle for the minimum and any goodies will cost you.

The dilemma is that sometimes you just need a jacket for a winter, or the inconvenience of the Delta service is just for a few hours. Tolerance becomes a habit and we start to make excuses for the companies! We consider them for the next time, instead of demanding high quality service.  Yes! It is also hard to complain to customer service and demand something back. Also, is so hard NOT to save 300 USD in a flight. Or we like to “gamble” and see if we are one for the lucky ones that get the mediocre experience (instead of the bad one). Like once I was told in a Negotiations workshop: humans are not rational beings.

Next time you are juggling with a decision on purchasing a cheaper alternative, ask yourself this: can you afford to buy the cheap one and the expensive one at the same time, because that is what most of the time we end up doing and worst is that we feel unsatisfied.

I have HC600 hair clipper from Remington, bought through Amazon on July 2007. It’s a great machine, water proof, portable, durable, ease to handle, just great. Since it’s made for North America the charger is 120 Volts. I bought at Radio Shack a special converter, so I could charge the clipper when I moved to Europe.

On one of those days, near the Christmas holidays, I connected the charger directly to the 220 V outlet without the special converter. Yeah, after a couple of minutes I felt the smell and burned it became. This charger is not that easy to replace, since it uses a special plug to connect the charger to the clipper (See images below). So, what will any rational human being will do? Contact Remington and ask them how can you but or get one. However, we humans are irrational, therefore I did it the hard and expensive way. I tried to buy it from eBay or contact the manufactures of the charger (in Hong Kong), no success. Finally, I decided to buy a universal charger from a hardware local store, cut the end from the Remington charger and attached. (Now that I look back, I’m amused by how much unnecessary trouble I went through)

The connector of the charger to the clipper

With the hacked or like we called in Honduras “hechizo” charger, I faced a couple problems:

• Didn’t have the tools needed to determine which is positive and which is negative. So, I kind of guess and it didn’t burned the clipper, it was 50/50 probability.
• The capacity of the universal is 500 mA, compared to the original that is 1200 mA, there wasn’t enough to charge the clipper.

Before I bought the universal one, I decided to contact Remington. Their customer service  replied in a polite and fast manner. But for some reason I felt that this will go no where and ignored the email. I replied until I realized that my hacked version sucked and didn’t had another option. They came back to me the next day, telling me that my warranty was still valid and by sending the defective unit, they will send a new one.

After a couple of days I received a letter by mail with the steps, paid shipping and UPS label for sending the defective unit.  I packed it on a box including the cut tip that I attached to the hacked charger, with a note telling them reason of the cut cable. Still at this point, I doubted that I will receive the replacement because of the cut tip, however I didn’t have nothing to lose.

After a week I got a call from a UPS representative, they had a package for me and  they needed me to be home, because they didn’t have a place where to leave it. Finally, I received the package today (I had to rerouted to the company where I’m doing my thesis).

When I saw the package, it seem odd for such a big box for a charger. By the moment I picked it up to open it, I realized there was something else inside. After a minute It was confirmed, they sent me a complete set with hair clipper and charger. Of course, I look for any notes, message or even an invoice, it just felt to good to be true. What I found was  a friendly letter with the following message:

Dear Geries Handal,

We received your defective appliance HC600 E51 HP hair Clipper with your letter of 19.01.2009. In accordance with guarantee claim, please find enclosed a replacement appliance.

We hope that you will enjoy using this appliance for a long time to come and will choose the Remington brand in the future.

Pretty cool if you ask me, no stupid questions, no endless email conversations, no invoices, nothing, just great service from a company that builds great products.

To the left is the old one, to the right is the new one with the charger

Of course, I’m still pondering on why they sent the whole clipper. My guess is that they don’t have spare chargers sitting around, meaning that they will have to “strip” one out of a clipper and without charger it is useless. Also, it might more expensive to order a charger or to search for one on the local market ( interesting politics and logistics, if you think about it.) More important they know that a happy customers worth a lot, but a extremely happy customer is worth more and that is what they got. Therefore their “wishes”, of me choosing the Remington brand in the future, will come true. In the meantime I blog post will do.

Yesterday, I was looking for some information regarding the “Shrink Volume” Windows Vista utility, and found an article in Lifehacker on dual boot Vista and Windows 7. There in the Opinions section, is a post titled “In 2009, Microsoft Still Underestimates the Web”. The post is a constructive criticism, on Microsoft failure in distributing the Windows 7 public beta Sunday mourning. The author attributes the failure, to Microsoft not taking the web more seriously and being clueless about “how to do stuff online”. That might be true, however lets look it from a different perspective, how about the cause being that Microsoft doesn’t understand its customers and thinks is still 1999.

Microsoft is a Juggernaut in the Software space, like it or not, and can do whatever they want. If they want to waste millions on trying to overtake Google in search, they can do it because they are Microsoft. Their ad campaigns are nothing compare to Apple, but they can spend the millions, get criticized and at the end it creates the buzz they are looking for. And if they want to release a beta of Windows 7 on such date, we will download it, even if we don’t like Microsoft.

This Software Juggernaut failed to understand the Windows 7 customers. I’m not talking about those that have Windows in their machines, or average the user that just wants thing to work, but the ones that want to go with the trouble of trying and testing Windows 7. We are not in those days when you can release a crappy OS like Windows Me and not get a backlash that might generate an effect on revenue. This is not 1999, when people voice wasn’t loud enough to be heard all over the planet. Now with broadband, mobile internet, Social Media and all Web 2.0, nobody is safe.

People that download Windows 7 Beta are early adopters and innovators that want to try Windows 7. They want to test it and see if they can find cool features or report a bug. While in this process, they will start a conversation by blogging, tweeting, recording videos and even distribute the copy they got on torrent sites. Microsoft failed to understand who these crowd is and why they want (and need) to download Windows 7. This are the customers of Windows 7 right now and right now, the number is bigger than it was 10 years ago.

By stating that Microsoft doesn’t understand the Internet is like saying “we” don’t understand China. The internet is not just a bunch of look a likes, in front of the computer, connected 24/7. We are people, with different feelings, ideas, ambitions and goals. We connect with each other, based on sociological patterns, using  the Internet as a tool. Western world looks at Chinese in the same way, we think they are the same because they look similar and act similar (the irony is that hey also think we all look the same). However they are a culturally rich and diverse country, with various languages and ethnic groups, with different ideas and dreams. Yes, they all live in China as most of us “live” on the Web, but that doesn’t make us all the same.

Any company that wants to reach its customers through the Internet, has to understand that the dynamics are the same if they wanted to reach a community in flesh and bones. How many times a has the power of a community, country, city or group of people has been underestimated ? How many times, have we been surprised on how people behave in unexpected ways, in regards to specific products, services and events? The social interaction that is natural to us, magnifies and accelerates on the Internet, which is still sociological in nature. That is why, by trying to “understand the Internet” as a whole companies, already have lost the battle, instead they have to look at it granularly.

Neither Microsoft or Google understand this, however they where both lucky to become dominant players in their spaces. Most people have limited choices for operating systems, as well as advertising platform on the net. That doesn’t mean one understands its customers better than the other. Google is less hierocratical than Microsoft, that is why it looks like they are more upbeat with trends and setting the tone. Also that Google’s rise to fame, was part of the “Web 2.0 era” and are seen as more “cool”.

The cause of Microsoft problems is Microsoft itself, from their leadership to their culture. In the case of Google, Google itself will be the cause of their future problems.

Failure to Launch Serve

Microsoft got some heat because weren’t prepared to handle the spike of downloads.  Yes, its Microsoft fault because they initially created the scarcity by announcing that only 2.5 million downloads will be available, however they got their act together, fixed the problem and extended the period of availability until the 24th of January.

My question is how do you prepare for such demand.. or event? How do you know how much your current setup can handle it? Its kind of difficult if you don’t have the right tools and money to find out (in the case of Microsoft is their culture). Some people might suggest, “hey why not use BitTorrent?” The issue with using BitTorrent is that Microsoft are against those networks and have shown their feelings toward trackers and index sites. So, uploading it to Mininova or The Pirate Bay is out of the question. They could use Mininova distribution service, which requires the content to be free. The other alternative is to setup up their own trackers and apparently, they don’t have the competence or interest in using Bit Torrent as a distribution tool. That will be interesting, however their culture will not permit it. So they are stuck with using the traditional way, hosting and managing themselves. Maybe, like I said before, Microsoft is jut to old and doesn’t get it.

All this problems aren’t that bad for Microsoft, they create some buzz, people get interested and they get feedback for free. Also, is not a new thing, its documented that other companies had their problems in the past i.e. Paramount with the launch of the Ironman Blueray live, Apple with their Mobile Me downtime. Even Salesforce which is a company that core business is to “serve” and offer reliable cloud CRM, had some downtime.

The bottom line is that “Serving” is not an easy task and shouldn’t be taken for granted. We will continue to see more service outages, failures, etc. because they think it just takes to put a server online and viola. Companies need to realize that they need to understand the customers they are targeting and communicated with them. You will be surprise how responsive and understating people are, if you provide constant communication to them. They know problems will rise once in a while and will forgive that. However what they will not forgive is that the company that “Serves”, doesn’t prepare for such p
ossible problems and doesn’t communicate efficiently.

Its similar to a relationship with your partner or spouse… communication, communication, communication.

In Tegucigalpa (Honduras) you will find individuals in the stop lights try to make a living by selling you some sort of product or service. In other occasions you will find kids asking for one Lempira* or any kind help. Its common to find kids offering to clean your windshield in exchange for some change.

Couple of weeks ago  some teens where doing some tricks with fire and other kids where cleaning the windshields. One of the last ones offered his services and gave him “one lempira” and told him the front was clean. He responded that he will clean the back and I told him not to worry. The interesting part was that he insisted to clean the back window, even when traffic advanced and stop 30 meters from the starting point. So, I agreed and proudly he clean the back.

What made this event stick to my head and ponder on the convection of the kid to not receive money for free, but do some work in exchange. In contrast when you buy a service or product from companies today, they tend to not be so eager to make your money worth. Once they see the money, they just relax while the customer stress up because its not receiving what it paid for.

More interesting is that a kid in the streets thought  me two things: something about business and that everybody has something to teach you.

*Lempira is the currency of Honduras

Currently I’m looking to buy a new laptop, the one I have right now works fine, the challenge is that is 17 inch. It’s becoming a hassle to carry it from one place to another, especially when studying a master abroad. In Honduras you will find many places where you can buy a new laptop, especially if its a DELL (I want a XPS m1330). I’ve been looking for places where to buy one with the specs I desire and it has been tough, especially because I want a video card and LED screen with mine. But this is not a post about a laptop, instead is of a remark:

“Honduras is the only place in the world (not sure but it feels like) where the customer has to chace the seller and not the other way around”

Customer service here sucks, and companies and business that provide a good one, tend to be successful. People say they will call you, send you an email with the price, availability, etc. but they never do. It reminds me of “games” some girls like to play here and even some guys. If you think about it, this is a cultural thing, your word here its worth nothing. Thinking more about it, I feel sad, knowing that people who run this country lack commitment to their word or don’t think before they speak out or promise stuff. And trust me, its so easy to get caught up in this “habit” of Chasing people around that should be chasing you around, its easy to just make our word, our promises… worthless. Why? Well somebody said once (can’t find the author):

“the person makes the habit, then the habit makes the person”

I have had this topic on my mind for a long time and wanted to write a blog post about it. It was going to be on how the only good customer service left, can be found in Apple Stores and at my mom’s store. Concluding that Apple some how, found a way to train their staff to provide good customer service (and my mom just rules too much). But all this changed this weekend, the reason: I went shopping for a traveling Backpack (see image bellow). Also, like this blog post, for a long time wanted to buy one, but I never got totally convinced.

Source

I like to travel around and is tough to do it with regular luggage (although I don’t travel as other do, I travel ). I always went to checkout the bags, but never understood this product and is tough to buy a product when you don’t understand it. You may ask yourself, what is to understand about a backpack? Trust me there is a lot, but at first glance the only thing I saw was size, materials and the brand name. I thought this characteristics defined the price, although they have a saying, they share the responsibility with other properties or characteristic of same importance.

I went to InterSport in a outlet shopping center in the outskirts of Stockholm. I went in to the store and like always I helped myself to checkout the bags. After five minutes an a employee asked me if I was looking to buy a bag and I told her, yes. What happened in the next 30 minutes was mind boggling, I got a crash coarse on backpacks. I mean I was amaze by how much is to this bags and she did a very good job. She went around explaining each bag, trying to find out my needs, what will fit me, my type of travel, etc. She made me try them and see how they felt and fit. From that point one can get  a feeling that this person knew what she was talking about. The way she dealt with me was very good, because she sensed in a good way, I was price sensitive and tried to find the best value for me. Also remembered me about the 30 day return policy most stores have in Sweden. So, I bought it and follow her instructions to fill it up with clothing and test it, if I don’t like it I will return it, that simple.

Of coarse this doesn’t make us understand if this is an abnormally or is there something to learn from the shopping experience. And things didn’t click until the cashier commented that she is very experience in this because she hikes and loves to hikes. That was my moment of “ahaaaaaa”. Well it was like an hour later after I was able to digest everything, but it was thanks to the conversation with the cashier. The key word here is love, a word that is used so lightly this days, but still is very important. What does apple store clerks and this lady have in common? You guessed right, Love for what the product or service they are in charge of (selling or helping). Yes indeed they love it. Apple customers are the best sellers you will find, because plain and simple, they love their products and is easier to sell something you love  contrast when you don’t. [Clarification for any smart ass: in the contrary if you sell a person you love that means the opposite]

Finding people that provide customer service and are crazy about a product is tough to find, that is why ladies and gentlemen, good customer service is a rarity these days. And is not an easy task to make people love a product that they own or don’t have a saying on how is made. So there lies the challenge: how to train people to love the product or service they are providing customer service for. Maybe next time you put an ad for new employee, the main requirement: “love our product”.