Should we put up with poor service?

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No!  It’s that simple.  There’s too much of it about and it’s got to stop.  Whether I pay for the service directly or through some strange indirect route, it shouldn’t be rubbish.

As consumers – where there’s no contract or service agreement in place – we often think we have to put up with poor service, because it doesn’t appear there is any other option.  Add outsourcing to this where suddenly the English (in my case) the other person is using can be a challenge, and this can get even worse.

There are many reasons why the service might be poor – even though for me (a true believer in nothing but great service – at home and at work) it goes against everything I’m about – and they include:

  1. Misunderstanding – for either or both parties
  2. Communication problems – related to above
  3. Someone’s had a bad day – it happens to us all but it has wide impacts
  4. Lack of accountability and responsibility – just reading from scripts
  5. Unable to think for themselves – those providing the service (unable = not allowed)

These all happen and we can understand how they can impact service.  And they can be changed and services improved.  But when there’s lack of thinking or planning into how the service will work, or even what service is all about and not having the people with the right attitude in place that’s not right.

Some examples this week of poor service – both from the same company but different people at different times – that I’ve experienced in preparation for starting a new working life up in London and on the lovely London commute are below…

South West Trains – who provide the train services for my commute into London – scored badly twice this week.  And it’s not just me who’s had bad service from them recently.

Having spotted a Twitter handle for South West Trains recently and seen them use it very well, I was impressed and their service looked to be headed in the right direction but no!

On Monday I needed to get a monthly ticket for my journey.  Easy or so I thought.  I headed to the local station at about 11:20am but hit my first hurdle there and was told you can’t put it on your Oyster pass there because they’re not Transport For London (TFL) – who run the London Underground.  Now for non-Londoners this gets complicated now.  Oyster cards are PAYG or stored value tickets for the tube within London but also London travel zones 1-6, which can include trains, if that train company takes part.  Oh the joys of privatisation of the national railways!

But you can use the Oyster card at the local station.  Ok so someone’s not really thought this through.  TFL tickets and South West Train tickets can be used there and provide the same service.  I’m just a customer and just want to travel into London.  I don’t care who owns the route.  That should be transparent to me when it comes to simply buying tickets.  Maybe it’s down to system integration at the back-end.  Poor service example number 1.

Ok – so we now need to go to a local TFL (tube) station.  The image below shows the complexity of London train and tube travel if you didn’t know already…

It’s a big map, there’s lots of stations and some of it is over 100 years old!  But the ticketing should work – the trains do, on the whole.

We now get to the tube station and Mrs. Noble pulls up in the car outside.  In I go now confident that this will work.  Monthly ticket please on my Oyster – “No you can’t get a new one until after 12pm” – Say what?  Why not? – “ATOC rules!” – Huh?  A tweet to South West Trains to see if they can help but no it’s the rules, that’s it.  No reason why.  No understanding, point blank no and no other help.  Example number 2.

Both examples of 4, 5 and 6 in my points above.  They could have dealt with either request very differently and provided the same end result but the customer happier.

  • Example 1 – sorry sir, we’re not able to sell that here and I’m afraid you can’t buy a new one of ours until after 12pm, as it’s new.
  • Example 2 – sorry sir, for new ones you need to wait until after 12pm.  Oh I see it’s nearly 12pm now, let me check and we’ll sort that out for you.

Now I’ve got started I’ve got more examples of bad service to come.  Do take a look at the @My6Percent site – it’s a bit harsh but fair and you can see how bad the service can be!  As a London commuter, I just accept most of it but then that goes back to my first point – I shouldn’t.

Do you put up with bad service?

A 10k PB the day after the race

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Having run a very frustrating 10k last Sunday in the British 10k, and spent pretty much all of the race not running as well as I knew I could and weaving in and out of lots of walkers, I decided to go for broke and do another 10k – on my local route – and go for it, the very next day.

No this wouldn’t normally be do-able after running a good race and pushing yourself but no normal post race DOMS or anything even close this time.  After all my other races – 1/2 and full marathons – I’ve not been able to walk or do stairs for a good few days, never mind run!  10k is shorter sure but you should still feel something, if not at least very very tired and in need of a rest.

My local route is out 5km and back 5km with only a couple of roads to cross so no big issues being forced to drop pace.  And avoiding the gate into Bushy Park – which saves a good 10 seconds in and out.

I set off with a great pace – sub-7 minutes per mile and managed to maintain it until the dreaded turn around.  It then dropped back to around 7:08 and hovered there until the last mile or so.  Then I picked up a bit more and finished with a pace of 7 minutes per mile and time of 43 minutes and 30 seconds.  A whole minute better than my recent PB on the same route and 3 minutes better than the British 10k the day before.  Nice!

It just shows how bad the race had been for me.  This one felt good and sub-40 minutes by the end of the year is a possibility – with the right speed work!

Some 5k Parkruns to be done next and at a new one at our local Crane Park – less than one mile away from us, so nice and easy to get to on a Saturday morning.

Yoda as a mentor

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Another fine post from GeekWire, again written by Brandon Koeller and this time about Yoda and his not great mentoring skills.  As opposed to Darth Vader’s project management endeavours  – “10 reasons why Darth Vader was an amazing project manager“.

Let’s start by defining what mentoring is…

Here’s what Yoda does wrong…

And the 10 reasons he wasn’t a great mentor are:

  1. Too much micro-management.
  2. Lack of transparency.
  3. No clear goal setting.
  4. Lack of clear and consistent communications.
  5. Not providing authentic and real assignments.
  6. Authority (and relationship) problems.
  7. Not relating training to things you know and your existing experiences.
  8. Forget about cult myths and hero worshipping.
  9. Lack of accessibility.
  10. Learning new things isn’t about magic – it’s about consistent hard work.

Yes I am a huge Star Wars fan – which means I like posts like this by default almost.  But what I really like about Brandon’s posts (and his writing style) is the ability to provide very useful info about topical subjects, that are relevant to most people and wrap them up with Star Wars – something that everyone loves – that makes them fun to read (and remember).

Mentoring is something that many organisations don’t do and so they miss out on the huge opportunities it can provide.  Someone in the organisation helping inspire and motivate others, can never be a bad thing!

Are you a mentor?  Does it work for you?  Do you enjoy it?

The future of games is also mobile

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A great post on PocketGamer.biz from Keith Andrew talking about the new CEO of smartphone studio Kwalee – David Darling – and his recent blog.  David founded Codemasters so he knows a fair bit about games and games consoles and what games’ players want and what they like.

Darling rightly states that the industry is transitioning from boxed to digital games and it’s not just games that are transitioning but all types of content – see my previous blog post on this very topic, “How digital are you?“.

Here’s my big statement – games consoles have a limited lifespan.  They’ve served a great purpose and given millions top quality interactive entertainment in the living room and most of us have grown up with them.  I remember well the Atari 2600 my mum and dad got us when we were 10 and but we then moved to pc’s like the Apple 2 fake (yes fake – we grew up in Hong Kong) and all the delights they brought with them.  Then the BBC Micro at school and IBM style pc’s at home!

A quick detour via the Nintendo Gameboy – the original (that must have been the original mobile gaming computer, with more than one game and great controls).

Then more consoles – Sony’s PlayStation 1, Microsoft’s Xbox, Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 – our current console.  Yes we missed the SNES and others but pc’s were the gaming platform of choice for me at home then.

Console games – and pc games – have always been a bit pricey though and as David points out that’s one of the problems.  They typically cost £40 or more.  Compare that to the £0.69 game on a phone – that’s a huge difference and it’s such a difference that it changes how you view the value of games.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not undervaluing games – not at all.  I know what goes into making them and particularly making the best ones.  It’s just the pricing and models – we need to rethink these.

Now with the AppleTV and the ability to stream games from my iPhone directly to my HD TV in the living room, why do I need a console?  Yes consoles now act as media centres and you can watch movies, play music and mess about with social media but I can do all that on my phone and my phone is always with me.  And yes everybody has a phone.

That’s the fundamental difference – everyone has a mobile phone and everyone now has access to great, and good priced games.  You don’t need a separate games console any more.  Some maybe yes – e.g. the more hardcore gamers – but the vast majority no.

Unless of course they come up with some new killer feature that only the consoles have.  Like gesture control with Microsoft’s Kinect or the Wii before that.

With mobiles the whole experience buying the game is much much easier, the different app stores we use already and know how they work and don’t have to go anywhere to buy the games!  We can also read reviews our friends and peer groups have written for the games, giving critical feedback to the games developers to improve the games.  And new levels, new characters, bug fixes and more can easily be pushed out via updates.

Tablets add another dimension to this but for me they’re still mobile devices just different ones.  They use the same basic technology as phones (operating systems).

Another great dimension mobile games add is the ability to play a game whilst out and about – e.g. on a train journey – and then continue it on the big screen when you get home from exactly where you left off.  This is the concept of content anytime, anywhere and anyhow again and it’s coming.  Back in my Sony days, part of the digital services roadmap I put together was all about this.  It makes so much sense and it’s what consumers want.

Apple are making great strides in this space – they don’t need a separate console.  They’ve got iOS on the iPhone and iPad and then the AppleTV and the actual Apple TV (note the space there) – when it’s released.

Add GPS location tracking, multi-player, game centres where your ranks and scores are stored, cameras (and video cameras), AR (augment reality) plus more mobile innovations and this gets very very exciting.

The future is not about consoles, it’s about mobile.

The British 10k race report – or how not to organise a race

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From what first looked like a great race, past all the great sites in this great city – London – the reality was a little different!

An early start yesterday and a train journey up to London with the Noble gang.  As normal for any London races on Sundays, the trains and tubes were full of runners, which is always a nice sight!  And a painless journey up to London.

We arrived in plenty of time so managed a little walk around to see some sites – flags up all down Regent St. ready for the Olympics and our own Noble Bolt (me).

Lots of people around Picadilly Circus all heading to the race, so we wandered along in the general direction that everyone was going.  The heavens opened briefly – as forecast – but it didn’t last long and didn’t seem to worry anyone.  It’s only a little rain!

Then a very convoluted route to walk towards the start, over a mile away and lots and lots of people.  Nic and the kids left me in the queue and headed back – for a coffee and to find a good point to cheer me on (which they did but didn’t get to see me as it took me a lot longer than planned to get there and by that time they’d headed back to where we were going to meet after – see below).

I must have been 2/3 of the way back in the pack and the start was a long long way away with a huge crowd of runners queuing up.  The photo below shows what it was like…

An amazing monument – the Bomber Command Memorial – and great to see to it.  The start for the race is actually opposite on the other side of the road, so you have to loop round very slowly.

Once across the road you can start running and then cross the start already going.  Then you realise that it’s not going to be fast.  Despite entering your predicated finish times on the entry forms, it served no purpose and everyone starts wherever they want with no time pens.  Surely this is a school boy error – every other race I’ve done sets you up in order of predicted finish times so you can at least give it your best shot and go for a PB.  But not here.  Even those crossing the start line only a minute after the gun went off, complained of the same problem.  It took me about 25 minutes to cross the start line after the official start.

The whole race is then weaving in and out of people, a lot walking, only 1km in.  What’s that all about?  Not just a few, but a lot.

Still a nice route, though you don’t notice much as you’re watching out so you don’t trip over other runners.  A bit more rain on the route just crossing Westminster Bridge but the finish wasn’t too far away so time to pick up the speed – if I can…

Managed a nice last 1/4 mile finish really picking up the speed but didn’t feel I’d put everything in when I crossed the line.  Frustrating way to finish as I’d high hopes to get a PB for the distance.  But the sheer volume of runners at all speeds, meant this was never going to happen.

My official finish time was 46 minutes 34 seconds.  So 2 minutes over my recent PB.  My Garmin time was 43 minutes 39 seconds.  How that can be 3 minutes different I’ve no idea.  The Garmin also said I’d still got 0.17 miles to run.  That I can understand as it loses the signal in the tunnels (x3) but the time should still be correct.  So around 45-46 minutes I think.  Which given the much slower pace is ok.  Placing was 1195 out of 25,000 ish – maybe even near 30,000 – so not bad…

A couple of other photos from the race…

A few shots of the elite guys – 29 minutes to finish.  Awesome stuff…

 

And me after meeting my support crew, at Trafalgar Square, complete with my finishers medal…

Now the bad bits and looking at race reviews and reports from previous years, this happens every year.  That’s a bit shocking and how they’ve not listened and sorted these problems out is anyone’s guess.  Sponsored by a big name like Nike, surely it’s in their interest to get it right?  Just do it?  No?

To kick things off some reviews – from Runners World readers – of the 2010 and 2011 races…

Hmm, I didn’t find these before, but they’ve got it spot it.  And there’s more…

  • Charging 50p for toilets along the route is a joke.  They need to be free.  See how the London Marathon or Royal Parks 1/2 do it.  The £50 or £32 race fee should fund hiring toilets.  You don’t need many for 10k.
  • Medals not given as you finish but a mile later when collecting your bags is daft.  With my family there to support me, I didn’t have bags to collect but had to walk to where the bags were to collect the medal.  When you finish, you’re in a good mood, you should get a “Well done” and a medal around your neck.  Not thrown in a bag by some steward 20 minutes later who’s grumpy.
  • The £50 gold place I paid was for 2 t-shirts which I got but it seems plenty of others didn’t and there was other issues with t-shirts.  Not a big problem for me, for me the £50 was to race which I thought was ok.  But if you’re promising certain goodies as well then you need to stick to it.
  • Better signage from about 7km.  Mentioned by others as well.  Not brilliant and difficult to know how much further to go (unless you’ve got a watch / GPS tracker).  And there’s only 10 markers needed, it’s not asking for much.
  • Start pens by predicted finish times or make it clear it’s a fun run and people shouldn’t be going for PBs.  Again everyone else does this and it’s not new!  Or even different starting locations.
  • A more direct walk to the start – getting everyone to walk over a mile isn’t the way to do it.
  • This may just be me, but if you’re going to have Her Majesty’s Life Guard Band playing 3 verses of the National Anthem, encourage people to sing along at least to the first one.  No-one was singing, apart from me – at least where I was in the queue.
  • Plan for enough medals.  Yes they ran out.  Luckily I got one.  How they can run out is beyond me.  Do they not know how many people were expected to finish?  Kind of equals the number who started plus lets add a few extra, doesn’t it?  To finish and not get a medal sucks big time.

Most of these are basic issues and to say this run has been going a fair few years, it’s a disgrace really that the organisation of it is getting stick like this, year after year!  And it’s not just me – I promise.  Sure I’m quick to highlight when service (yes this is a service) is rubbish but only when it’s that bad it needs to be pointed out.

See Runners World reviews for the race this year…

And on the British 10k Facebook page for this year…

Yes it is the first 10k race I’ve done, I’m more used to 1/2 marathons and full marathons, but should the organisation be any different?  No.  Would I run this one again?  I don’t know.  The route is amazing and I get real goosebumps when running through London past all the great sites but the lack of good organisation is very disappointing.  Another 10k definitely and one in London – maybe the Bupa one has a lot of good reviews and feedback.

Is this the future of photography?

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A fascinating post by John Neel at Pixiq about Google Glasses and the future of photography…

How far off mainstream these are I’m not sure.  I’ve seen the ads and videos, read the posts, dreamt the dreams and yes can see how cool they look and the potential applications.  But when?

To quote John Neel from the Pixiq post…

This really is major step.  Additional relevant data and information about things you’re looking at, when you’re looking at them.  The possibilities are endless and what was your mobile phone providing you with computing power, is now strap to the side of your head in your glasses.  The next step – in your contact lenses or implants?  Think Cyborg as John says.

And big data as we know it today is only going to get a whole lot bigger very quickly.

 

Sometimes a phone isn’t a phone. So what is it?

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Well worth a re-blog. Along the same lines as my post earlier today about what mobile is all about. These are no longer phones – they’re very powerful computers, that we can use anywhere we want due to their size and do anything we want to do. And oh yeah, you can still call someone if you want to…

The future is mobile!

Everything will become mobile – fact

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Lots of people are still referring mobile like it’s a different channel these days – be it for computing, retail, consumption, gaming, distribution or anything.  A few years back maybe that was valid but since the birth of the iPhone back in 2007, things have changed and changed radically.  Mobile phones are now everywhere and yes pretty much ubiquitous.  Not just mobile phones but smartphones with technology and computing power in them that we couldn’t have dreamt of back when mobiles first came out.

The slide below says so much.  Think about it.  There’s more – and that’s a lot more – computing power in a mobile phone today (2011/2012) than was needed to send a man to the moon back in 1969.  That’s in my lifetime.  What about the next 40 years?  It’s the first time in a long time, that it’s virtually impossible to say where the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years or longer is going to take us.  Technology is changing so fast and is having a massive impact on our lives!

A nice video showing the evolution of mobile phones up to today…

So what do we do with all this computing power in our hands (quite literally) 24×7?  A lot yes, but no where near as much as we could do.  We listen to music, take photos and videos (and edit them and view and play and distribute them); play games, read books (and magazines and newspapers – if you’re so inclined yet – we’re well and truly getting there now; “It’s official the 6 year olds verdict is that digital magazines are better”), find out where you are and get directions to where you want to go (visual or verbal ones); track a run (or bike ride or swim or any physical activity for that matter) and improve your training times and distances; communicate with friends, family and pretty much anyone else (not just by calling them – yes you can do that as well on smartphones); buy and sell shares; take notes; give and write presentations; write (and publish and sell) a book; buy and sell just about anything to anyone anywhere; send cards (and postcards), control your TV; listen to the news of the hour in any country; make music (with drums, pianos and guitars and lots more); find your away around the tube; figure out which London 2012 Olympic events you want to go to and more!  The list is huge and it’s growing and it’s fast moving away from just consuming content.

Breakthroughs – and they are breakthroughs in how simple (that word again – “How simple should it be?  Insanely simple”) the technology works – like Siri are changing how we use them and what we use them for.  Equally impressive is Microsoft’s Kinect.  Voice control and gesture control are the future!

Apple’s strap line for Siri – above – says it all.  Imagine all technology with this level of intuitive control – it’s coming and soon.

I digress slightly – back to mobile…

Another slide (this one and the one above are from the McKinsey June 2012 web presentation on “Understanding consumer behaviour” – well worth a read) that illustrates the growth of traffic (lets call it data or usage) for mobile and desktop computing over the last 4 years.  So during the time since the iPhone’s been around – and look at the trend, mobile is growing…

Now this is my point – mobile is growing but it’s becoming the normal way we (as consumers and more and more as businesses) interact with content (that word again – and there is a risk that we could over consume it – “Content over consumption coming soon”).  It’s no longer another or a different channel.  More and more of our time with technology and content is spent on our smartphones and yes while mobile – and by that I mean when not at a desk.  We need to think differently about how we embrace a mobile world – both in the workplace and at home – and how we interact with it.

Business strategies need to change and make sure mobile it’s part of the core business – both for your teams and your customers.  Along with mobile comes digital – another word that means so many different things to different people.  But it’s the same – it’s another channel and distribution method that’s fast becoming the norm – and it’s not just marketing.  One for another blog post.

On a similar thread see this post from The Guardian this week…

It asks, why mobile for business and has some good points.  But I think it misses a critical point – mobile is not an option.  This is happening now.  It’s more what strategy should you take to get on-board with mobile and how to best make it an integral part of what you do.

And another post this week by Rene Ritchie…

This one I really like.  Apple brought the computer and the power that brings with it, to the phone.  They fundamentally changed what phones were and how people – consumers (pretty much everyone I know – any age) use their mobiles (and what they now expect from them).  Rene’s last line is poignant and carries a very simple message…

All back to Apple’s drive for simplicity.  Yes I am an Apple fan and love what they’ve done with technology generally, but for mobile they changed the way phones were perceived and used and now everything is becoming about mobile.

The Orange T-Mobile strap line from their merger last year fits very well and this is what mobile is now and the key is understanding consumer behaviour…

British10k only 3 days away – last minute preparation time

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Less than 72 hours to go until the race on Sunday!

Training pretty much all done.  Not too worried about the distance, it’s more doing it in a good time and with 25,000 other people running, not being caught up in the pack and my starting pace not what I want.  Want to get sub-45 minutes which I know I can do.  Sub-44 even better and race day adrenaline might get me there.

The race starts at 9:35am and it’s a 2km walk to the start from tube / rail drop off.  Not a problem, just need to leave enough time.  Still trying to figure out where Nic and the little Nobles can go to get best views of the runners, with a hope of seeing me!

2 minutes before the start, the Band of Her Majesty’s Lifeguards, will be playing the National Anthem.  A very cool way to start.

Sounds like it’s going to be a busy busy start.  25,000 runners is huge and all on the streets of this great city – closed off again to traffic.

Day of rest today after a 10k training run yesterday.  Was aiming for sub-45 minutes but got hit by a car – nice – when crossing a drive.  Nothing major, all ok, just pushed back a little bit and think the driver was more shook up than me!  Forgot to stop the watch though so it meant about 45 seconds extra on the time.

So what to do in the last 3 days to make sure we’re all ready for the big day…

  1. One last easy training run tomorrow – 48 hours before.
  2. Sort out train and journey times for Sunday morning – it’s an early start.
  3. Figure out where the Noble fans will go and where to meet them after.
  4. Pasta action for the next few nights – carb loading.
  5. Plenty of water – hydration.
  6. Make sure the trusty Garmin watch is fully charged and ready to go.
  7. Drinks and Jelly beans (Jelly Belly of course) for post-race refreshments.

And – the big one – don’t forget the Vaseline (to stop chaffed legs and the deadly runners nipples).  Forgot this a few times over the last few weeks – stupid mistake – and chaffed legs (top of thighs) are back.  Very sore.  Daily moisturising needed to fix it.  Lots of Vaseline needed for Sunday.  Go for Vaseline – not the expensive creams.  See my last blog post on this – “Runners nipples the conclusion – I’ve cracked the problem“.

Wish me luck!

Love this quote from Mo Farah…

Don’t dream of winning, train for it.