You have just got to be kidding me...

It is my strong feeling that when a company makes money, they can make even more by providing outstanding customer service. It doesn't matter what the business or industry. In today's economic environment, you need to present to the consumer value, the user friendliness of your product and a unique dedicated customer service team to back it all up.

So, let's take a look at Verizon. I needed, for the second time in a week, to go into one of their strip mall locations to attempt to solve a product "failure." This was one of many of their "convenient" locations around where I live. But, some of them are not "official" Verizon "authorized" stores or service centers. Of course, the consumer is, at first, completely unaware of the difference.

So my wife and I go inside. The first thing that is very noticeable is - looking around at the wall display of "phones" - that 99% of them are out of date. What I see online is very much different from what is being presented here in the store as new. There was one Blackberry model that is kind of current, the HTC Incredible and two older versions of the Motorola Droid. There are a lot of clearance items and accessories for old model phones. And most of the  "hot" new product, like the Incredible, is, no big surprise, out of stock.

OK, so you meander around wondering what to do and where to go. You know nothing is going to be simple. Everyone, who seemingly works here, is busy. There is a gentleman in the back talking on one of the display phones. He has a clip board in his hand. Since the customers are all in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops and he is wearing a tie and slacks, he must be with Verizon.

Doorbell, be back...

Please enter a username between 4 and 31 bytes...

This is a "requirement" to establish an account with Technorati. You can attempt to enter what you think they are asking for and have your "request" be rejected over and over and over. The typical internet user is still, nor will ever be, savvy enough to interpret technical instructions and translate them into something user friendly. This is clearly a customer service "glitch."

Why, for example, is Thunderbird so "pushed" as an optimal E-mail "service." I have downloaded several versions of it over the past few years and have found each one terrible. The only E-mail "service" that makes any sense to me in terms of user friendly handling and reliability is G-mail.

I used to use Yahoo mail and for every valid entry into my inbox, I would also receive about 1-3 pieces of spam, usually link to porn sites. It used to drive me crazy no matter what settings I would select. Quite honestly, I don't think I have received one piece of spam porno or aluminum siding advertisements since I began using G-mail. That benefit alone has saved me thousands of seconds of productivity time.

Technorati and the entire SEO universe is so foreign to most internet users. How and why Google sorts this and that website or blog is a layman's mystery. And, along with HTLM code, SEO is a process that needs much explaining. It, right now, is like the IRS tax code. The old expression, never defend yourself in court, applies. If you want to see your name up in lights, so to speak, and get the #1 position - on top - when someone searches for what you do, hire a pro.

More later...

The failure of the media...

Watching the nightly news is so frustrating. What ever happened to who, what, where and why? There is a ship registered in Monrovia "steaming" toward the Gulf to assist in the clean up effort. So says the middle-aged frumpy reporter with the bad hairdo. She has the handle of chief environmental correspondent. I believe that was her in the report being hoisted in high in the air to board the vessel.

"It" apparently was transformed from something else into what it is now - a big ship that can "suck in" oil. Why the transformation? Who owns it? Who gave "it" permission to go from wherever it was to the Gulf? Is the Coast Guard aware of its pending arrival? Where was this ship a month ago? Why are we now just hearing about it? Are there others like it? None of these questions were answered in the report.

Granted these "journalists" are under extreme time constraints, but there is no excuse for doing such a sloppy job with such a serious subject. This is the failure of the media today, especially the television news, in this particular case - NBC. It's long overdue to ramp up their inadequate work and revisit the tenets of journalism 101.