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It doesn’t pay to be a cranky old Blogger.

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I posted my latest fabulous project Fleeting Thoughts and no one read it. In fact, no one clicked on it, and no one commented either. The only conclusion is that either the project is rubbish, or because I’m a cranky old Blogger, with no friends. Obviously the latter, as the idea is fantastic ( if poorly executed by me), it now comes as no surprise to me, the cranky old Blogger, that social networks don’t support the cranky behavior, of cranky old Bloggers!

You have to be ‘Social’

So, if you are doing social ‘things’ on the internet, like Twitter applications, be sociable, have lots of followers, who also have lots of followers, who like to Re-Twit!

The great wall

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 I have commiserated in the past about how making the extra effort in your customer relationships as shop keepers I present you with the correct way to present food.

We have frequently eaten at The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant, mostly because the food is good, and the service is pleasant and prompt. Alway good things at any Restaurant. But the new owners have taken that extra step and created ‘Ambiance’ as the wife calls it, and Pleasant has been elevated in class. What you see is the Seafood combination, and Beef Satay but there are plenty of other Chinese and Thai foods to choose, and we haven’t been dissatisfied with anything we’ve had there.

Idiotic Marketing by Palm

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If this isn’t the most Idiotic Marketing move Palm has ever made, I can’t see how thay could top it. To begin Marketing a second Web-OS phone that is called the Mini-Pre BEFORE THEY HAVE EVEN SOLD A SINGLE ‘PRE’ If there was ever a way to cripple the potential sales surge normally associated with the release of a new Phone, this would be it! Release information about a newer, cheaper version! What were they thinking? Now the ‘Pre’ sales are stunted, as all the people who might have been willing to stretch their wallets in a recession to buy a slick new phone, will now wait for the cheaper model to arrive.

Idiots!

UPDATE: It looks like the Pixie may not happen due to bad planning Palm Pixie Is Real, But May Never Come To Market And not to say so, but I told you so!

That was cute, Keyword SpamBots

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I just got Spammed by an obviously semi-intelligent SpamBot, actually three of them, all keyed on the word ‘Business’. They apparently did a small amount of word analysis and corrected the comment spam to appear to be of ‘human’ origin. Akismet only got 2 out of three of the correctly.

Very Cute.

I never thought that SkyNet and AI technology would first be applied to Spamming WordPress Blogs 🙂

Idiotic Small Business Shop behavior

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I know there is a recession on, I really do. But there are things to do to cut costs, and there are things that you can do to cut your own throat, and you should never get them confused. I’ve seen a recent example of the later, under the guise of the former. Curry’s in the Ballincollig Shopping Center have chosen to close their shop on Tuesday and Wednesday’s of every week rather than pay salaries to idle staff!

In my past experience with the shop I have often observed 4 or more staff shuffling around their premises with little to occupy their time so cutting staff hours would make sense. But why not shift their hours so at least a fewer staff are on hand on Tuesday and Wednesday’s rather than close the store.

Closing the store is a permanent commitment to earning ZERO sales for two days out of the week. Shifting the worker schedule will not alter the saving earned from reduced staff salaries, while maintaing an open store. Closing for two days of each week will close ANY sale, and will put off ANY future sales from people who will go elsewhere to purchase items.

In other words Curry’s is cutting their own throat!

In this market there are two strategies that you can adopt, reduce costs, and increase customers. Funny, those are the same strategies that you have to employ ALL THE TIME! A recession only makes the urgency more poignant.

And on that point, let me call most Irish shops foolish. Think of a coffee shop or Pub that could offer free refills of simple coffee, how far will that go in earning customer returns and loyalty? Would a shop full of coffee drinkers be more inviting than an empty one? Could you maybe offer them a bit of cake to go with that refill?

What would be the benefit to the shopkeeper to stop charging for WiFi and offer it Free to customers who might like to use it with their coffee and scone? Wouldn’t it be nice to have your office have a meeting in that shop and use the WiFi to conference.

What makes to so hard for the average shop owner to shake themselves out of this ‘Celtic Tiger’, greedy take no prisoners behavior, and get back to being generous with quality customer treatment. (that last, wasn’t a question)

What simple difference could you make to the customer experience that would elevate you in their mind to choose your business over another? (that was a question)

Voting with your feet

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It may be a bit premature to talk about the recovery from the recession but it’s not too early to take steps to initiate a decision about the culture and nature of the recovery from the recession. In my time in Ireland I marveled at the concept of the local shop in an estate, and the small shops in general and the culture of such an environment. Now the the incursion of the giant Dunn’s, and the discount Aldi’s and Lidl’s a decision can be made about the nature of the recovery.

Do you save yourself a bit of change and buy cheap, or spend it at the local shop? Do you want to keep that cultural icon of local shops and merchants alive, or support the mass market monster. The application of your food budget to supporting your local may tax us all, but could well to the means of survival for the little shop keeper. The same could be applied to your favorite small cafe or restaurant, voting with your feet may be your only option if you want to continue to visit them.

I’m not saying that it’s the ‘Patriotic’ duty to shop in the Republic, there has been entirely too much disparity allowed to creep in there. But if you have the change, maybe it’s best spent in the local shop, rather than the big chain store,

Windows 7 bait and switch

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A few years ago there was a declaration that due to continuing delays with Vista, that Microsoft would ‘totally rewrite’ the code to complete the task and finalize it’s release. We now know that these ‘rewrites’ never made it into the Vista we see today, and are now part of the Windows 7 kit. We know this by common sense, we know that Microsoft could never have reached a Windows 7 beta in under a year when in fact it’s taken about 4 years to develop this beta.

Now all the paid Windows Pundits are raving about the Windows 7 beta and how much better, secure and fast this is, to any other Windows release. Almost the exact same song and dance that was paraded out for Vista. Does anyone ever learn that marketing does not make software better? I’m sure that Microsoft is aware that if they get this wrong again, corporate 500 companies, same ones that are skipping the Vista release, the ones that keep them in business, will be seeking more alternative desktop operating systems. They have already been tripped up by the emergence of the netbook running Linux, or worse, Windows XP. They are literally being hamstrung by their own base. This could be the end of Microsoft dominance in the office workspace.