“Pet Peeves in Customer Service” looks at common annoyances with customer service. Considering it takes me longer to make phone calls using the relay, I probably get annoyed faster than the average user. Pet peeve #1: Calling a customer service line, an automated voice asks you to enter your account number or some other identification … Read more
Management using jargon like blue sky thinking, brain dump, thinking outside the box, get our ducks in a row confuse staff more than encourage them. We may have heard “thinking outside of the box” for years (I met that term in my first job out of college), but BBC News reports these terms don’t go … Read more
Many grammar geeks tend to be snobby about corrected incorrect grammar. I try not to be. It depends on who the person is and my relationships to them. If I’m writing a general article to an open audience, I try to have fun and in some cases, come across as the grammar police. ChangeThis features … Read more
SitePoint Newsletter and forums have an interesting discussion on clients who don’t respond or are slow to respond. Almost every freelance and small business can count on this happening. It happens to me once in a while. A client wanted me to write his web content and we went back and forth on that. She … Read more
My parents returned from a two week trip to the Orient and reported the trip was grand and tiring. They brought back maps, tickets, papers and documents for us. One thing caught my eye: a card printed with English and Chinese phrases. I ask Mom about it. She said that taxi drivers don’t speak or … Read more
I worked in process management for ten years, some with the federal government and most of it in the telecommunications industry. I’m a supporter for having processes because: * Avoids reinventing the wheel * Ensures you don’t miss a step * Helps others know what to do * Simplifies improving the process But there’s such … Read more
Have you received a request from a newsletter or a blogger asking for your vote in a favorite, best, or some other contest? How about a request to “Forward This” newsletter in the subject line or at the top of the newsletter before you get to the goods? Does it bother you? Or am I … Read more
While earning my degree in education, I learned about the Fog Index, Flesch-Kincade, and other ways to measure comprehensibility. This helped us understand how to measure content to determine its reading level. Along the same lines, Denny Hatch introduces colleague Bob Scott. Scott uses Robert Gunning’s Fog formula to make writing clearer and more comprehensible. … Read more
I was unsubscribing to emails and notifications from an email account I no longer use. One of the web sites used “Cancel” to mean unsubscribe. This could confuse the visitor because it could be mistaken for cancel the whole process and leave things as it is. “Unsubscribe” or “Remove” do the job. Another newsletter that … Read more
Last night, I was shopping on the jcp.com site because I saw a few items on sale in the store’s ad that came with the Sunday paper. According to the ad, the sale applied to the online store. JCPenney marked ALL blankets at 40-50% off. In looking for the blankets, I noticed they were not … Read more