Angry People

Sat in work long after I could have gone home…

Like many days when after 11+ hours work, I cannot do any more, I find I can’t leave work because I have much more to do and leaving feels like dereliction of duty… WTF!

I need to go home and… do what?

How sad is this.

Oops! My blog has died…

The captain and I recently engaged the services of Tucker Designs to complete a valuation on a boat we wanted to purchase. Other surveyors/valuers were recommended to us but they were all busy, as is to be expected of professionals. However, in our enthusiasm to move things along, we went the the first bloke that could get out and do the job within a few days.

He initially tried to force us to get a full marine survey, which we did not need, before finally agreeing to complete the valuation. Now, I don’t have a lot of experience in this area but the boat traders we spoke to say that approaching £200 to carry out a valuation on a narrowboat is expensive. It’s very detailed and lists all the equipment in the boat, but then discounts it all from the valuation?

Prior to being purchased by the current owner, in March, the boat was advertised at £26,000 more than Tucker’s valuation.

The boat is currently advertised at  £12,000 more than Tucker’s valuation, as the current owners circumstances have changed.

We have had an offer accepted which is still less than the current asking price for this boat, which is comparable in equipment and price with all the other boats we have looked at, in marina’s and on canal moorings. However, Tuckers valuation is so low we will not be able to get finance to buy the boat. Either that or we wait for a professional boat valuation and pay again.

What is Tuckers problem? We have a survey and we know the boat is good. Tucker Design’s valuation says the boat is good, it just undervalues it. We are satisfied, from our own research and experience as well as the advice of other professionals, that would be getting a good boat for the price we have offered.

So, don’t use Tucker Designs for a valuation if you are looking for marine finance or marine insurance. They have a reputation in the trade for undervaluing boats (and I’m doing my bit to make it accessible.)

Living in Exeter, my coffee was purchased almost exclusively from The Boston Tea Party, which is still the top local independent coffee shop. Although once the main destination for good coffee, 3 Costa’s, 2 Nero’s and 2 Starbucks sprang up within the last few years, exacerbating Exeter’s claim as England’s worst clone town.

Having moved to London I soon learnt that many Londoners do not in fact like the taste of coffee. When I say this I mean along the same lines that if someone adding milk to green tea, to take away the bitterness, could be said not to like the taste of green tea.

My grandparent’s have always been what could be described as ‘coffee snobs’ so that is my history, and the Captain and her family have the same ideas. Now, I’m all for personal choice, and if you want milk in your coffee that’s fine with me, although I would probably make the seeping assumption that you also like ketchup on your curry! My issue is with coffee houses that fail to provide the choice, and that’s not the worst of it.

Shortly after moving to London I learnt that asking for an americano, unlike at Boston’s or any reputable coffee shop, would more often than not result in receiving a white coffee. So, lesson learned, the issue was easily remedied. (I consider myself reasonable smart and adaptable). I soon learned to ask for a black americano.

Here is the crux of the matter - I can only assume that coffee shops are so used to serving coffee with milk that I frequently get a white americano even after expressly asking for it black! That and the high number of flavoured and dressed up coffee’s for sale makes me assume we don’t like coffee. Maybe it’s just that the marketing has sold us coffee drinking as a lifestyle choice, that everyone feels the need to participate in some way whether they like it or not. (Obviously this is all good news for the coffee retailers.)

There are now quite a lot of places I won’t go back to, but those nearest my places of work have been educated. In my local Italian cafe, following my correction several months ago, I am always offered a ‘black americano with no milk’ along with a smile.

Long time no write - so much to do and so little time. When the weather is good, the Captain quite rightly drags me away from my toys and makes me go out in the world, with people n stuff. My tolerance is improving, I can now do several hours with the support of bacon sandwiches and beer.

So, we went to Somerset for a week, including a visit to Weston-Super-Mare on Friday. As you can imagine, it’s a little shocking to see that it burned down this morning! I’m absolutely sure that it was nothing to do with me, but like a small child I can’t help from feeling guilty.

What else is new? We went to see Forbidden Kingdom, before it goes off the big screen - The Dark Night can wait for the Imax!

It’s utter cheese but was worth seeing for Jet Li and Jackie Chan together. Jet Li does play a very cool Monkey!

A recent study, reported by the BBC, details how mobile phone records have been used to track 100,000 mobile phone users movements over 6 months.

One conclusion of the study was:

…patterns of people’s movements, over short and long distances, were very similar: people tend to return to the same few places over and over again.

Are you a creature of habit, a robot, a mindless automaton? Did you choose your actions mindfully this morning when you got up and went to work, or did you do the same thing you always do, possibly while your mind was in idle, distracted by music from your iPod or the daily trash newspaper.

Now, are you ready for this… tracking mobile phones if for our own benefit you know… it’s a dangerous world out there. If you’ve nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear does not wash anymore. It’s a dangerous world - be afraid! To help keep you save from threats like avian flu pandemic’s, we’ll track human movement to predict its spread.

With scientific information like that, and experts to articulate it in the media, we’ll be only to happy to lose our freedom of movement to stay safe.

Expect pandemic and ensuing curfew any time soon folks - in fact, probably right after the economy collapses.

Enjoy the sun while it lasts, sports fans

Seth Godin has written an interesting post about how angry people are different. In it he reminds us that dealing with an angry person is not the same as someone who is not angry. While this may seem fairly obvious I’m sure we can all think back to times when we are speaking with someone at a call centre who, through no fault of their own, can provide you with only a scripted response to your complaint about their shitty product or service.

While strategies for dealing with angry people are useful for everyone to know, if you want to provide the best customer service and see these people as opportunities, you have best make sure your staff are trained. This ignores the fact that they might have a genuine grievance or be particularly attached to their anger. Some people just want to be angry, and these are the ones that should be ignored.

As for the rest, think leading and pacing. The examples Seth quotes, such as:

“You cancelled my flight!” is angry, thus…
“That’s our policy sir, read the ticket,” is obviously a lousy marketing ploy.

Delivered in a calm and controlled voice only exacerbate the situation to for most people. What would be better is a reply matched in volume and tone:

“We cancelled your flight! That’s terrible, goddammit!” followed by slightly slower and quieter “I bet you really want to get treated like a valued customer?”

“Damn right I do” says customer, a little taken back by shouting employee who seems angry but just agreed with him.

“Well just take a seat here and give us a chance to make it up to you.” Hints at a freebie. Now customer is getting attention and maybe what they want.

If you can lead them to a point where they are calm enough to tell you what the real problem is, and offer them something for their trouble, you may be able to turn them from someone who was going to badmouth your business to all their mates (maybe the whole internet) to someone who becomes an advocate of the great service they got.

The opportunity here is not just to create an advocate but to find out what caused them to become angry in the first place - is it something you can do something about, even if it’s not your fault. If people come to you angry and go away feeling good you’re going to get a lot of attention!

The essence of the original post really comes down to this - know how to recognise angry people and have strategies ready to deal with them.

As the “credit crunch” continues to bite, and the daily news carries stories of apparently wealthy, middle class professionals turning to debt advisor’s in their droves, we are surrounded by advertising from all manner of financial institutions asking us to hand over our money.

The four banks that come most readily to mind are Halifax, ING Direct, Kaupthing Edge and IceSave. Halifax are now using their successful television advertising with a savings focus . To tell the truth I find their TV spots great for brand awareness but I can’t remember the specifics of the ads and would have to seek detail elsewhere.

The other three are really pushing savings accounts; Kaupthing Edge, whose high interest savings accounts deliver the best interest rates in the UK, has maintained it’s rates even after the bank of England dropped theirs and states they will remain 0.3% over the BoE base rate until 2012. Their advertising in the UK seems targeted to glossy supplements and magazines and have a clear focus - we offer the best deal.

ING Direct has some high profile television advertising highlighting all their products, and they are pleasant to the senses, as opposed to the slightly jarring Halifax commercials. Their adverts portray their brand as simple and develop trust consumer.

There is a clear winner in mindshare, though to a very small demographic (people using my local station), which is the outside display ad for IceSave which is directly in front of me as I walk to the station each morning. I’ll try and add a picture.

So here’s the thing - the media tells us there is a credit crunch and everyone is falling into debt because of ‘cost of living’ type price increases and at the same time, the banks are asking us to give them our spare cash! How does that work out?

It seems that along with the paradox that only people with money are allowed to borrow - now only people with money are allowed to benefit from the best savings rates.

So why are the banks suddenly keen to reward us with interest rates reminiscent of  the late eighties/early nineties? How do the banks make their money - from mortgages and interest on car loans and credit cards… not likely, that’s only pocket change. They need your money because they use it to play on the futures markets to make the big money. If they start getting too many debts and defaults this reduces the amount of money (a multiple of their assets) that they are allowed to play with on the futures markets. To keep their hand in the game they need to get some hard cash in the vault and minimize their risks.

If you have spare cash, and can afford to save, now is the time to get the best savings deals but from my own research I would suggest not putting more than the government guaranteed £35000 in any one account - unless you are banking with one of the truly international banks like HSBC.

Tags: financial

Having a quick squizz at the news over lunch, I found some stories that tickled me enough to motivate me to write. Today we have stories about how TV adverts are only accidentally loud, green issues to support intensive farming and logo recognition to catch criminal hoodies by their designer tracksuits.

The BBC Magazine story, titled why are the adverts so loud reports:

The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP), the body responsible for writing the TV Advertising Code, has published a new rule on sound levels.

From 7 July, “advertisements must not be excessively noisy or strident.”

“The maximum subjective loudness of advertisements must be consistent and in line with the maximum loudness of programmes and junction material.”

This clarifies existing guidelines and encourages broadcasters to use a subjective loudness meter in order to ensure there is less of a perceived imbalance between ad and programme sound levels.

What exactly is a subjective loudness meter?

…brought this to the attention of ITV boss Michael Grade…

…and was told it was unintentional and due to the compressed audio files used in commercials.

So there you go. For some reason a different technical solution is used to provide sound on advertisements than for regular programming. No reason for this was provided.

A spokeswoman for ITV says this change in the quality of the audio means the adverts are not actually louder, although they may appear to be

Which is probably where the subjective loudness meter comes in. No doubt they will be used to the benefit of TV advertisers.

The government is hot on their tails with a Subjective Criminality Meter, otherwise known by its full name:

Criminalisation Of Chavs & Hoodies by Tracksuit Optical Scanning Software, or COCH-TOSS

This software works with existing CCTV, using a system developed for sports marketing companies to measure a brand’s exposure on TV.

This system - called Magellan - automatically tells firms how many times their logo appeared during coverage of a particular event, its size, prominence and the length of time on screen.

It has been adapted for use by the authorities as:

The value to police is that many young criminals wear tracksuits and jackets with distinctive logos, while obscuring their faces with hoods and hats. And they often wear these street ‘uniforms’ repeatedly as they commit different crimes.

So, a poor choice of attire may highlight your daily movements to the police for closer scrutiny but hey, if you’ve done nothing wrong you’ve got nothing to hide, right?

“We say to the machine, ‘there’s a Coke logo, go and find it’,” says David McIntosh, of Omniperception. “The technology is like a bloodhound. You give it a smell and it will go off looking for it.”

Tags: advertisments, privacy

Is hard work.

<Added Tue. lunchtime - by laptop!>

Last night, having attended the first of my Beginners Spanish classes at work (how cool is that?) I was sat on the 20.20 from Waterloo for half an hour, while a cable fire was extinguished outside the station. With this extra half an hour added to my journey I did what all self-disrespecting Londoners do on the train, I played with my phone.

After reading some news, and then realising that I don’t know most of the passwords for my various social networking accounts (which are stored by my browser password manager) I decided to attempt to post something here.

To cut a long story short, the exercise worked as intended in that I quickly passed the time waiting for the train to leave as well as the journey home.  On the downside, 3 words is all I managed before the train arrived at my station.

In conclusion, er… blogging by Blackberry is an excellent way to pass the time.

Tags: blackberry, blogging