…And access for all

2460092 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:00:00 GMT

As you may have read in a previous post, our house is currently a building site and we’re living in temporary accommodation. Although the flat is nice enough, the family and I are all starting to miss our creature comforts: my wife and I the garden and the Sky Plus HD box, the kids their trampoline. But we’re united in yearning for broadband which we’re all struggling to cope without.

My youngest daughter is a fan of the Bratz website (about dolls and accessories, for those of you without young girls), my son his Xbox live gaming & my eldest a constant stream of YouTube - let alone all their homework requirements which seem to demand internet access these days.

As well as for work, broadband access is vital for my late night binges on iTunes & paying the builders. We’ve experimented with 3G cards, but can’t seem to get a good enough reception out in the sticks, so the whole experience becomes frustrating.

We know that around 90 per cent of people who’ve just moved home would chose broadband over a microwave if they could only have one installed in the first month. How consumer behaviour has changed in the last few years. And I hope there are no doctors reading, but I read that 40 per cent of us would rather give up fresh fruit and veg than our broadband connection!

Whatever the industry’s thoughts on Digital Britain, we can applaud the decision to give as many people as possible access to broadband. Not only will it feed my families’ needs & obsessions but it’s great news for the UK’s agencies and advertisers as it expands the vibrant marketplace that the internet creates, as well as delivering consumers all the public service information they need.

Customer service and brand reputation. Ah-haa!

2460092 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:04:00 GMT

Apologies for not blogging over the last couple of weeks, but we’ve got builders tearing my house apart - and finding a temporary home for the family has been taking up a lot of time (outside of work of course)!

I’m writing this from my 'Travel Tavern,' where we’re currently living Alan Partridge-style until the builders complete their business - or we find another house - wondering what all these other sad people are doing in a Surbiton hotel without access to Champions League football on a Wednesday night. My kids are screeching and screaming - rather than sleeping - next door, which leads me to believe that perhaps they too are becoming increasingly irritated by the broken air-conditioner noisily blasting chilly air around the place. I’ve complained several times about this to the manager, but to no avail. Of course, each time he has quoted from the customer services handbook, assuring me that they’re "looking into it," that it'll be fixed "as soon as possible," but it's been four days now... Yes, he can placate me this way in the knowledge that I’m probably not going to go through the hassle of moving the whole family to another hotel mid-week, but it doesn’t really solve my problem.

Which of course got me thinking... brand reputation and customer service are even more important now that the world is digital. Opinions, views, reviews, comments – both positive and negative – can spread like wildfire across blogs, networks and websites (see Mel Carson’s post about Ryan Air for a topical example of this). As most of the web is open, this kind of information is no longer locked inside 'walled gardens'; these points-of-view can be searched for, linked to, and replicated very easily.

Taking that concept a step further, even if experiences happen offline, they are quickly written about online. In other words, even offline brands have nowhere to hide from a modern consumer. If the air-con issue isn’t sorted tonight, perhaps I’ll add my name to the list of disgruntled bloggers seeking redress for bad customer service... and if anyone has a couple of spare rooms they want to rent out, do give me a shout.

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…And access for all

Customer service and brand reputation. Ah-haa!