UK online reputation management
It's not about technology, it's about people!
10 -17 – 25 – 32 – 34 – 40 + 20 (bonus ball)
These numbers courtesty of lottery.merseyworld.com. It’s the #1 hit for ‘lottery results sat 2nd may’. [UPDATE: No, this post now is!]
Why? Because two hours after this week’s draw the National Lottery site was still showing last week’s result. Doh.
That leaves a two hour gap for bloggers to exploit.
Now, what to do with all that lovely traffic….?
If the last few minutes are anything to go by’ bloody hard. Why? Because the WordPress iPhone App doesn’t work with self-hosted blogs, for starters – forcing you to use the iPhone’s built-in Safari browser and the dinky touch screen keyboard.
Oh – and you have to write using the HTML editor
It’s a labour of love for sure. But if you’re blogging in response to breaking news and looking to pull in that traffic, then you’ll probably be grateful that it can be done at all.
Mind you, I’ve not pressed the ‘publish’ button yet 
No surprise really is it?
Sky’s system for creating addtional email addresses for account holders’ family members isn’t working. No-one seems to care. I found that out in a 2 1/2 hour phone call the other day.
So I blogged about it. That post appeared on P1 of Google for the phrase ‘Sky Customer Service’. Oh, the power of blogs.
And today I tried to use their online feedback form to let them know that they needed to fix the problem and demonstrate some good customer service.
So I ploughed my way through their clumsy feedback form which appears to be designed to dissuade and demotivate the average person every step of the way. You know the kind of form – designed by some idiot in IT who has no idea that you’re a real, unhappy customer trying to say what you need to say.
The result is that you spend ages trying to give your feedback only to find you’ve done something else wrong that needs correcting. I wasted 15 minutes writing my feedback before discovering that there was a ’1000 character limit’.
Morons. Like I or anyone else knows what 1000 characters is.
This is a pinnacle of customer service stupidity, designed to disempower the average mortal. Well, when it comes to feedback I’m not your average mortal so I rewrote my feedback.
10 minutes later (and still not knowing whether it was under 1000 characters!) I clicked ‘submit’ again – only this time to be told I couldn’t give that feedback without entering my parents’ viewing card number.
I tried to give you my feedback, Sky, but it’s too much like hard work. You could have had it to yourselves to learn from but you obviously don’t want it. So here’s what I tried to tell you (now for everyone else to read, too):
This is on behalf of my parents – account holder name Mrs. Linda Deeks (see address below)
Your system will not create additional email addresses (it says “There appears to have been a problem. We are unable to activate your Sky Email and Tools account”.
Your customer service is poor – and even more infuriating is your lack of willingness to take feedback. Including this 1000 character limit (which has just wasted another 15 minutes of my time).
I’ve blogged about this (now on P1 of Google for an important key phrase). Happy to also blog positively if/when you fix the issue and demonstrate some good customer service.
I’d like a response please.
The moral of this story is that feedback is difficult to give and hard to take but if you’re not willing to listen, your customers will talk to anyone who is.
If you’re really fed up with Sky customer service, you might like this.
No wonder the legislators, regulators and policy-makers can’t control the internet.
These guys still believe that blogging is just about people reading columns of text like they would a newspaper. (LOL) These same people probaby believe that Google is a philanthropical project to democratise information. (LMAO)
And that Facebook is a public service to connect people. (ROFL)
If you’re reading this, you’re doing so for one of two reasons: either because you’re kind of interested in my point of view and keep an eye on what I write (an exclusive little club) or – more likely – because you’ve come across this while looking for something about the BBC and blogging in Google.
I’ve yet to hear one middle aged journalist, businessman or politician speak about the true purpose and power of blogging: how it works with Google.
The young guns know it – and they’re running riot, safe in the knowledge that the old suits haven’t a clue what they’re up to.
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According to the techies cited on the Today Show, it is. Why? Because the web is now stuffed full with faceless, automatically generated crap. I totally agree with that bit, though I disagree that blogging is dead.
Interestingly, blogging was discussed only from that egotistical point of view; all ‘me’ telling ‘my’ (hundreds of) friends what ‘I’m’ doing now. As far as I’m concerned, from that ego point of view, blogging never got born in the first place.
What nobody talked about in any depth was what blogging actually IS: a publishing platform you can use to create and reach an specific audience (if what you say has some use, interest or other value). Nothing about business, education or politics
Poor old John Humphries didn’t know what blogging was – or Twitter for that matter. Luckily he was helped out by his guests, a couple of thirty-somethings. You know that ultra-cool kind who embrace everything. Unlike teenagers who, like, just embrace the latest thing.
So is blogging dead?
Blogs-as-diaries were dead from the outset as far as I’m concerned. And blogs that exist just as gobbledegook loaded with AdSense Google ads should be.
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