CES 2015 - Internet of Things, M2M, Internet of Wearables and stuff

This year the IofT, IofW and m2m has taken off for personal and business use. Look at Nest with their smoke alarm, camera and the thermostat and others with light controls. Also how many fitness trackers are now being sold and business is embracing the new M2M technologies to improve services.

A lot of new stuff for sure but where are the standards? It will be the VHS vs Beta battle all over again.

IofT Standards

The Allseen Alliance is backed by Microsoft and LG as the heavy players.

The Open Internet Consortium is really Samsung and Intel.

Interesting how two potential appliance makers have differing and competing views. My LG coffee maker will not tell my Samsung Dishwasher that the coffee is ready and to expect a coffee cup soon.

CLASSIC PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

CLASSIC PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE

Making pizza dough is very easy, it just takes some time and a little bit of effort.

500 g Caputo Type ’00’ flour

320 ml warm water

 10 g sea salt

   6 g of dry yeast (use 5 g if cold proofing)

   2 tbsp of olive oil

This recipe will make enough dough for 5 pizzas

      1.    Mix water, yeast and oil. I use warm water at 35-36°C. Any hotter and it will kill the yeast

2.    Sift the flour with salt into the mixer bowl

3.    I knead the dough using a Cuisinart Mixer with a Dough Hook. Start at low speed and slowly add water. Mix for 4 minutes. If you are going to do this by hand then figure on 10 minutes. You want the dough to be stretchy.

4.    Once they’re mixed, I’ll time 4 minutes on the same setting. If you’re hand kneading, knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is stretchy and velvety.

5.    Cover the dough and let sit for 20 minutes and then knead again

6.    Now you can cut the dough into 5 balls, cover them with cling wrap and a kitchen towel. Let them proof for 2 hours in a warm place. A better proofing method is to let them sit in the refrigerator for at least 24 – 48 hours. This proofing method provides a better flavour as there is more time for the sugars and yeast to do their thing.

7.    Once the dough has proofed you can stretch it out to the desired thickness and shape you want. Top and bake and Enjoy!

Help! I've got an RFP

Help! I've got an RFP

Step 1: Read the RFP

Read the RFP and understand what is required, if you have a solution and if you can win it.

Step 2: Engage The Technical Resources

Engage your Systems Engineer , Design Engineering resources and product specialists. Provide them with a brief overview and your thoughts on the bid response.

Step 3: Complete the Mandatory Bid Review Form

If your bid response requires to go through a formal process then start right now and schedule a conversation with the bid review team. Ensure you complete the document fully and provide a better response than “we need to win this and must win this”. If that is the actual case then provide facts to back up your requests.

Step 4: Request Additional Support if Needed

 

If you have access to a bid response team then engage them right now. It is easier to cancel their need after the bid review decision than ask them to help later based on scheduling.

 
Step 5: Engage Your Support Organizations For...

Determine what additional resources are required to complete your response, such as:

• References
• Professional Services
• Special Bids
• Maintenance / Services
• Account Manager
• Contracts
• Unique deliverables

Step 6: Proposal Manager

If a Proposal Manager is assigned, that person will read through the RFP but is concerned about deliverables and time frames as they will not be providing content or pricing. Their task is to ensure the different participants are delivering their inputs on time.

You should be prepared to help the Proposal Manager complete the Bid Assessment by analyzing factors such as:

 
• the bid timeframe
• the scope of the proposed solution
• the potential revenue
• the positioning and probability of win
• your strategy for winning strategic
• our value of the customer
• our competition
• the incumbent vendor

Step 7: Kickoff Call and Task Assignment

If the decision is to proceed with Bid response, then a Kickoff Call will be arranged. The resources that you have engaged to support the opportunity should be present or represented on the kickoff call if possible. You should be prepared to discuss the customer opportunity, the strategy for winning, and your proposed design. The project timeline will be established and agreed upon and the Proposal Manager will analyze the bid and make task assignments during this call.

Step 8: Answer the Bid

The Proposal Team typically does not provide responses to all of the questions. It is the Sales Team's responsibility to secure the resources to answer the RFP. This is not where a sales executive tosses the RFP off to a team of people and walks away. Sales owns the response.

 

Step 9: Final Production and Delivery

 

The Sales Account Team  will be responsible for delivery of the final hard copy (and/or electronic if requested) document to the customer including printing, assembly and binding of the required number of copies, burning CDs, emailing, hand delivering, and/or final shipping.

You must allow time for the production process, which can be extensive depending upon the size and complexity of the RFP response, number of copies, etc.

Good Luck and Good Selling!

Toronto TTC Apps to make the Commute Easier

While in San Francisco and Tokyo, I found some transit apps to be highly useful as a tourist in navigating the city. Back home, I am not a daily user of TTC as I live in the suburbs but I having been enjoying discovering Toronto via walkable and transitable options but waiting and waiting for a streetcar to show up had me wondering that there must be apps for this...no?  Well Yeah there is Red Rocketeers and Blue Busers out there.

Transit App

Its endorsed by the TTC and works on my iPhone and on my Note 3 (sorry no Playbook edition). There are a lot of features on this app with the easy one showing the closest routes available. You can save your favourites, scroll around the map and it also shows all the transit types available including Uber.

Rocketman

This one has been out for a while and I love the Near Me feature which shows the arrival time of the next buses at my transit stop. This is a clumsier app and refreshes seems to be slow and more cluttered to use and does have ads at the bottom of the screen. Upgrade and they will be removed.

Moovit

This is a great app for the GTA commuter because it includes maps and info on the other transit systems out there. I found the trip planner to be very easy to use. I think this app handles service alerts a lot better.

What could be interesting is how location based adverts can be useful to the commuter. While waiting 15 minutes at a stop could mean that a local small business may want to push out a coupon to you to entice you to discover or shop their store. If someone wants to give me a half price espresso while waiting for the 504 streetcar then why not save a buck or two?

Hello BlackBerry Classic - Old is new Again

The Blackberry Classic is for the legacy user that needs to replace their older Bold with something newer. They want a secure device but also one with a keyboard so they do not need to resort to a stylus and a screen based keypad. Its natural for a keyboard to be more effective in entering emails or text.

Whats the best part of the new shiny?

• Its a bit taller to accommodate a bigger 3.5 inch clear, bright Goruilla Glass screen. Yes touch sensitive
• Improved 8MP camera
• The control "belt" is back - answer, end, menu and mini trackpad
• BB10 OS gives you things like the Messenger HUB
• The keyboard is backlit
• 2 day life with a 2500 maH battery
• Its a bit heavier but is balanced
• WiFi, GPS and additional sensors
• Bluetooth 4.0
• 16GB storage built in and you can a micro SD card for more
• Blackberry Assistant improves the voice control experience

So Waterloo has been busy with this device and it is the ideal device for the legacy BB user and for those organisations that need to better manage with BES.

The busy executive is typically using the BB for business and a iPhone or Galaxy for personal use. Its because the BB is a secure business device that's a charm to use leaving the other ones for game and social media activity.

Take a look at BBM Meetings which is better play on mobile collaboration

How to be a better call center agent and improve service – Supervisors take note!

Call Center supervisors and Management need to take their eyes of the reports and look from the eyes of the consumer. Reports do not tell you the mood of the queue or the conversations that occur. The only way is to be an agent for a day to gain insights. Many consumers resort to the call center to resolve issues so let’s start with a better conversation. The most frustrating is billing issues. Take the SVP from billing and have them be an agent for a day. The common billing issues will be resolved quickly.

Now that the SVP has taken his suit off and put on his track pants and a t shirt he can now enjoy a day in the call center and here is what he will not say in order to be a better agent. 

Remember, a bad call center experience means consumers then buy from your competitor.

Here are some gems I have heard from callers:

1.    “Hey Calm Down”

If the caller is shouting because she is angry (especially after waiting 20 minutes in the queue) then you will make things worse by telling them to calm down. It is better to say “Hey, I can solve this problem for you, but only if we can discuss it calmly.”

Sometimes they are shouting because they cant hear the agent properly or they are at the far end of a leased line (with lower volume).We then naturally talk louder.

2    “That’s not my Department”

Telling the customer that it is not your department will anger the customer that was misdirected to you or old calling patterns stuck the call in your queue by mistake. A better response is “It sounds like you need department X and I will transfer you with a priority sequence”. A smart voice menu will have "Press 3 for Billing"

“If you keep yelling at me, I will terminate this call”

If you actually do hang up on an angry customer that person will  call back, and will be even more abusive and demand to speak to management. If you are really unlucky that same person will be presented to you again.

Try this “I am sorry that you are angry, but I can solve this problem for you, but we need to discuss it calmly.”

They are yelling because they cancelled their service 3 months ago and the $39 charge keeps showing up on their credit card. I know I know that you just said "Our billing system takes a few bills to sort itself out" which is why they are yelling now.

      “Would you like to speak to a supervisor?”

Sometimes you just cannot help them so the plan is to throw it up to the supervisor.

• Your immediate superior will not appreciate it and now the caller waits in the queue again to talk to another person to sometimes get the same answer
• You should have the confidence and ability to resolve the problem yourself.

If they ask to speak to a manager, then of course you should pass the call on. Many times your answer and your supervisor’s answer should be exactly the same. Agents should be empowered to resolve issues themselves.

 “What would you suggest for us to solve this problem for you?” would be a better response. Sometimes a $10 credit or free shipping resolves the problem quickly and neatly.

“I don’t know”

No one expects you to know all the answers, but you should at least be positive about finding the ones you don’t. I would respond with “That’s not something I know, but I can certainly find out for you. I will have to put you on hold  or Can I call you back with an answer? ”

Now the agent can jump on their internal instant messaging system and seek an answer from the collective pool.

“Buddy”

“How can I help you buddy?” is not the way you should respond and this is better  by stating their name. " Mr X or Mrs X  How may I help you?” However if you are a surf shop in California then this could be the response if that is how your brand works and then its “yo Dude wass up”.

When the agent called me Buddy i reminded him that my dog was sleeping and not talking to him on the telephone...."what?" sorry but Buddy is my dogs name

“I’ll have to put you on hold”

Arrghhh the death phrase to the caller. It is a better approach to indicate to them that you need to get information or approval and they will be put on hold and how long it will be.

"Silence"

Silence or dead air is a no no, but sometimes it is necessary. To avoid the customer yelling “are you still there Hello hello hello?. It is better to respond with “I need to make some calculations or look up the stock level and It will take about 30-40 seconds.

On going agent training is important and some call centers forget that this team is the face of your company. Many times the caller is frustrated and can take out their dissatisfaction on the agent but sometimes the agent makes things worse. Skills training in conflict resolution is mandatory.

A better conversation between the agent and the caller increases CSAT scores and lowers stress levels for all parties.

Do you have any good ones?? Please comment below

Minimun Wage Complainers should Just Stop!

If the minimum wage is increased by $1, the business owners have already started to complain how they will go out of business or lay people off. Going from $10 to $11 is let’s say 10%, that’s not a big jump. If we really want to help the poverty stricken employee then the boost to $16 and has a feel good about better social responsibility and becomes a game changer especially in a dual income family which adds a $1000 extra income per worker, or $2000 for a family. That is per month. A family making a combined income of $40k in Toronto these days is at the food bank a lot. How much is life better at $64k??

The government gets a share, and the employee spends more so the local sales tax coffer gets a boost, and maybe the children get a better breakfast and a tablet or laptop computer to study with. Maybe the extra money supports an internet connection or buying a used car and not having to rely on buses and subways. Let’s go to $16 and make a real difference.

The business owner gets a motivated employee that shows up on time and works harder. The business owner wont struggle finding staff if he pays better than the minimum and helps improve his business. The business owner sees revenue increases because his staff is happier AND MOTIVATED TO OFFER BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE which is a positive improvement for a small business owner.

The boost is 60% so let’s say revenues increases by 30-40% then the other 20-30% can be found in efficiency and more focused cost savings. There are many areas that efficiency can be gained to offset the salary increases and by having a round table with staff will find areas that money can be saved. Maybe you have to raise prices a bit as well but people will pay extra for smiles and better service.

If consumers come to your business and the service is poor because of low employee morale then the consumer might as well go buy on line. The retailers doing the best right now is those that offer better customer service than everyone else.

I have compared the experience in getting a coffee and the one that pays more is a better experience and the same thing for a sandwich shop that believes in a better social index. The cost of the items may be slightly more expensive but you feel better knowing your purchases make a positive impact.

and do not forget your tip could be putting food in a kids mouth as a single divorced mom struggles to make ends meet and continue to instill hope and pride in her kids.