Not as bad as telephones though...

I just wanted to add to the last entry that email automated responses aren't as bad as when you're stuck on the telephone with automated messages.

And I think this feeling spreads accross all generations. Apparently telephone calling is also the most intrusive so this goes hand in hand I guess.


(on that note too, I'm not a total cold caller at work, which I don't think I could do EVER)

Automated bloody responses!

So how annoying is it when companies send through automated responses?! Personally, I think VERY annoying.

From doing the task this week I actually got a suprisingly painless response from BT when I emailed (via a form) the simple question 'when is the next bill due?'. It took them two days to reply, firstly with a response saying someone will be in touch and then finally with a fairly personalised brief response with the exact information I needed. Great!

Why was I so suprised at this though? I think we have all had our share of awful responses from companies, following on from my phishing experience with PayPal and me leaving a long complaint style feedback comment on closing my account... I have heard nothing. How rude I feel! Also not impressed such a big company doesn't have a UK office.

Anyway all this though regarding automated responses from companies fell on a week where at work (a telesales person at a financial company) I had a customer request I send through the pdfs of the savings plan information via email because after having sent it in the post for the 4th time, it had still not reached him!

So there I was having to write an email to this customer, something we haven't really done before probably down to lack of initiative and not wanting to hand over any kind of power from the marketing manager. Anywho, I crafted a fairly striaght forward email referring to the conversation we had had and attaching all the information required (which thankfully had only just come in). I also added a bit of sarcasm in there about the reliable postal service, but asked me team leader if it was appropriate and she thought so. Obivously being a financial service I had to include some note about the fact I couldnt give advice etc but overall I was pleased with the email and actually felt like I was delivering a bit more of a service to someone.

Let's hope I go in tomorrow and he has emailed back asking me to call him so I can set up loads of savings plans for him and all his family! Wonder if being personalised and able to respond to individual requests will pay off?

I'll let you know...

Blogs on the run!

Quote from article in Brand Republic - Blogs on the run!

"it's likely that millions of users will prefer to "blog on the run" from a mobile phone rather than sit patiently at a computer terminal in order to share their thoughts with the outside world."

Judging by my last two blog entries posted here via my mobile phone, I agree with the comment above and can see how people will be more inclined to blog in this way as they adopt newer mobile phones with the capabilities of shortcuts to blogging.

I also think that personally as I spend the majority of my day in front of the computer doing work, and expect this is what my job will entail, I won't want to come home at the end of the day and think 'oh quick, I must blog my thoughts and feelings from today'.

Being interested in photography as well, I much prefer capturing images on my phone when I'm on the go and sending them to my blog.

Snow!

When in doubt make a snow man!

Gran's garden

Blessed with snow!

Interesting fact on UGC - 1% rule

Thought this could also be applied to the forum for IMC perhaps... hate to admit that I'm one of the passive consumers of it.

The "One per cent Rule" is a concept derived from usage behaviour analysis of user-generated content (UGC) and social networking websites where one per cent of the audience will actively create and submit content, nine per cent will moderate it editorially, and the rest are happy simply to passively consume it.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/13/iptv_vod_briefing/page3.html

End of the road with eBay for time being!

Well my reflections on eBay after having read my emails today have gone right down.

To my shock I had an email from PayPal today asking me to confirm I wanted to pay the $699 to Dell Inc someone in America had registered! A little bit concerning to say the least seeing as I had not been on either eBay or PayPay since November 2006 so as a result I immediately cancelled my PayPal account which leaves me in difficult position to purchase things from eBay.

Interesting that I immediately associate PayPal with eBay as I guess it could have come from somewhere else? There is no activity on my eBay account related to any Dell computers but either way I would rather not hang around and then have to sort out trying to claim the $699 back etc.

I also feel that now I am not at all likely to purchase things from eBay as it seems like a lot of effort to have to send a cheque etc to the seller and from the bits of experience I have had on the site, I imagine sellers would not be that much inclined to sell this way? I would also then run the risk of not getting the items etc and not being able to cancel the cheque in time.

Suddenly it seems like eBay has gone all complicated on me and not so trust worthy anymore!

Snakes on a plane quote for the weekend and perhaps this term...

Time is tissue people!

Rocky Balboa quote...

Let me tell you something you already know.

The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.

You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life.

But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done.

Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth.

But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you.

You're better than that!

I love this! Reflection on MySpace

Well, whilst reading relentlessly for my dissertation which is about current attitudes towards advertising as an institution, I came accross the following quote which is from the view that advertising is perhaps a negative thing inducing materialistic values in society.

On first reading of this, I immediately thought of MySpace... see what you think....

'The objectification of self has been explicitly described in personality theory as a "marketing orientation", where a person is mannered for mercenary motivations and has a detatched view of self as a commodity.

'In this orientation, man experiences himself as a thing to be employed successfully on the market. He does not experience himself as an active agent, as the bearer of human powers. He is alienated from these powers. His aim is to sell himself successfully on the market... His body, his mind, and his soul are his captial, and his task in life is to invest it favourably, to make a profit of himself. Human qualities like friendliness, courtesy, kindness, are transformed into commodities, into assets of the "personality package", conducive to a higher price on the personality market'."

And the most interesting thing I find about this... it was written in 1955!

Source - Fromm, 1955, p140 cited in Pollay, 1986, p25.