How to Be a Lousy General Manager

randulo randulos — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:24:44 -0400

I recently wrote someone to meet about a future project for a customer. The dollar value of a project we are looking at would be around $140K. The email I got back wasn't very enticing. It had a heavy PDF attached with nothing I didn't already know about the company. What's important is what comes next:

I wrote asking to meet, as we're in the same city. No answer. My partner met this person subsequently and the guy confirmed getting my message.

The Ugly Truth about Money Back Guarantees: VMWare

randulo randulos — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:10:44 -0500

When you make a mistake and order two copies of the same DVD on Amazon.com, they offer a simple refund process. Send the product back, and they effectively reverse the charge on your purchase, paying the money back to your bank account. It was with some surprise that I learned yesterday, that after spending two minutes paying VMWare $80 for their desktop product, "returning" the product when it didn't work for me was a lot more complicated.

Comment on Node ant

randulo randulos — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 01:17:42 -0500

My card has just expired. This was a beautiful way to get around Paris and well worth the inexpensive fee. It's a sad comment on humanity in general. Theft, I can understand, but the rampant vandalism that rendered 3-5 bikes in a rack unusable makes little sense. Government is oft criticized, but when they get it right, something like this happens.

In a bad economy, don't put customers off

randulo randulos — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:53:49 -0400

Shouldn't this be obvious? Maybe in this particular technology company, management is made up of former programmers who see how good the product is and act like open-sourcers. In that case, don't expect to get money for what you do. These products depend on discretionary income to be spent, as against your power company or your auto repairs.

Customer support: 56 Channels and Nothing Done

randulo randulos — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:46:52 -0400

The good news is, it's pretty simple to have a human being monitor services like Twitter and catch references to your product or service. The bad news is, adding more channels doesn't make it better or easier for the customer to get satisfaction. Speaking of the rare suppport treasure that is satisfaction, take a look at GetSatisfaction.com which ostensibly seems like a great idea.

Comment on Node ant

randulo randulos — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:06:45 -0400

"Whatever it takes" is good. An arbitrary limit could be set, such as $100 for lower-level agents' discretion and kick up to higher level if over or in doubt. I just can't get the idea that you'd spend thousands on advertising or other communication and then put a potential long term customer off by refusing a $40 refund gesture.

Fast Talk Response -

randulo randulos — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:58:59 -0400

long term: real estate
short term: oil companies
mid term: live well!

Measure the Cost of Customer Acquisition

randulo randulos — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:57:21 -0400

A simple web site that sells products. A problem with one sale, the customer orders a $40 product in error and asks for a refund/credit. Do you train your CS staff to say, "sorry, your fault, no can do" or have you calculated the ocst of customer acquisition and realized that great service will get you more business?

The Fourth Chair

randulo randulos — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:35:46 -0500

Today, I had four chairs that "required some assembly" delivered. The first one took about 20 minutes to put together. The fourth chair was done is about 4 minutes.

Fast Talk Response -

randulo randulos — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:41:15 -0500

Yes, but only they know how at the moment :)