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Download: Spiceworks IT Desktop really works (but not on Vista)

This is a very cool and free utility, Spiceworks IT Desktop, which PC Magazine calls in a recent article one of their favourite free small business tools. If you have a number of IP devices in your home, this is also a good tool for creating catalogue of what’s on the network.


Spiceworks IT DesktopDid I mention it’s free? If you don’t mind the display ads, it’s a good choice.


Did I mention that it works on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server… but not Vista.



“You want IT management software that works for you, not software that makes you work. You wish you could have it… without spending a fortune. Your wish is granted.

“Introducing the free Spiceworks IT Desktop. Designed, tested and used by 60,000 IT pros in 180 countries. Spiceworks has the everyday IT features you need:

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Article & Video: BusinessWeek on “Customer Service Champions”

Of interest is this video clip from BusinessWeek on “Customer Service Champions” from their report earlier in the year, a ranking of the top companies that put the customer first. 


On tap in the report is a look at how the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain (number 11 on BW’s list) focuses on service values and how to engage the customer.



Video still“From hotel chains to retailers, BusinessWeek reveals the companies that do the best job of catering to you. We’ll take a closer look at a luxury hotel company that made the list and show you how it’s taking personalized service one step beyond.”


“In BusinessWeek’s first-ever ranking of the best providers of customer service, we set out to find the service champions, but also to dig into the techniques, strategies, and tools they use to make the customer king. To launch the process, we created a list based largely on brands in J.D. Power & Associates’ database. In addition, we polled 3,000 of our readers, generating a pool of names most associated with treating customers well. We then asked J.D. Power, which, like BusinessWeek, is owned by The McGraw-Hill Companies, to survey customers about the brands that were nominated by readers but not already in its database.”


In BusinessWeek’s top ten…



  1. USAA Insurance

  2. Four Seasons Hotels

  3. Cadillac

  4. Nordstrom

  5. Wegmans Food Markets

  6. Edward Jones

  7. Lexus

  8. UPS

  9. Enterprise Rent-a-Car

  10. Starbucks 

What makes a customer service chapion? BusinessWeek says that it’s a combination of great people, great products and great execution.


Of interst: Apple is #18: “Despite frustration about iPod battery replacements, Apple’s customer service phone support ranks tops among electronics providers. In particular, customers rate its automated phone system as easy to navigate and good at resolving questions.”

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Readers respond to InfoWeek’s question: “Does Customer Service Still Exist?”

Following up on my earlier post this week on InfoWeek’s question “Does Customer Service Still Exist?” I was not surprised to see the volume of comments added to the blog posting.


I also agree with several positive comments, in particular on HP, and this one on the etailer NewEgg.com:



“Newegg – ROCKS. rarely ever have an issue, but the one RMA I had with them was as easy as could be. Since I don’t use Dell or any other commodity box pusher for my systems (custom build them myself), I need a reliable source for my PC parts and one that takes returns. Newegg does that perfectly. And for less then anyone else I know.” 


Newegg recently accurately (and courteously) responded to a mail query I sent to them on a new product in less than a day.


In short, my favourite comment came from one comment on Customer Service: “It is work, but it is not Magic.” And I’ve found their fulfillment and delivery to be stellar.


(here’s the URL… http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/06/does_customer_s.html)


Tags: Microsoft, loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service.

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Good Customer Service is Sooooo Easy… Not

In William Herman’s post Good Customer Service is Sooooo Easy, he tells the story of how one United Airlines captain’s attitude and direction elevated the level of customer service and ultimately delighted his passengers (and crew, too).  All in the face of relative adversity, complete with (as the author describes) stinking lavatories and poor maintenance. 



“What he did to make this happen – at least the stuff I witnessed – was simple, cost virtually nothing and took little time.  While the passengers were waiting in the boarding area to get on the plane, the captain took the microphone (uh, oh, I thought, this is gonna be bad) and gave us the complete low-down of the flight plan, the plane’s status, the crew and what was happening at both the departure and arrival airports.  No bad news.  No delays.  It’s not like he had to be out there for bad news, he was essentially out there for no news – just for the customers.  He told us that it might get a little bumpy over the Midwest and that they’d try to skirt the storms that were creating the turbulence. 


“What made this different from the usual pre-flight blather was that he



1. covered a pretty complete list of the stuff a passenger would want to know,


2. showed empathy to those who might be concerned about turbulence and,


3. DID IT FACE-TO-FACE. 


“Instead of being the anonymous voice in the the speaker, he took the time to explain this stuff standing among us.  Simple, good, unique.”


“Then, as we boarded the plane, the captain stood at the door and handed out his business card (which had a phone number and email address) to every passenger that boarded.  I asked him if he should be spending his time doing his pre-flight checks and he told me they were already done.  He said: “I just show up a few minutes earlier so that it doesn’t hold up the passengers.”  I have to hire this guy.”


A quick note on this: Good customer is not easy… it’s hard. If it were easy, then everyone would do it, it would be commonplace. But the effort is not lost on repeat customers — in fact, it can help your loyal customers overlook your small flaws.



“Let me get right to the punch line . . . good customer service is so easy because customers’ expectations are so low.  It’s a relative thing.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, it shouldn’t be that way, but it is and aggressive companies should be taking advantage of the fact that their customer’s have been beaten down by suppliers for so long that a simple recognition of the fact that they paid money is enough to make them happy.  In a world with few initial differentiators and almost no sustainable differentiators, customer service can make all the difference in making sure you beat your competition, get repeat sales and have a customer base that is your best and biggest marketing department.”


BTW, my two most memorable flights (besides the always incredible service on Singapore Airlines and ANA) were two that I took on United several years ago, when I apparently was a passenger on a plance with this same cut of captain at the controls (or at least, two of his kind). We were all greeted by the captain at boarding, I received a business card thanking me for flying United, and he shook hands and thanked each passenger as they left.


Another interesting observation from my flights: the captains were both over 50, and one a year from retirement age (as I spoke to him for several minutes during the flight, sitting in coach). You don’t find that same level of service on many United flights today. Alaska Airlines and JetBlue flight crews also often thanks passegers upon departure and arrival, which is a nice touch, and one of the reasons I prefer to fly them regularly now.


Tags: Microsoft, loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service.

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Blogger compares an Apple Mac Plus to an AMD DualCore PC

In a world of supersized fries and drinks, the blogger Hal Licino (who notes in his bio that he’s an IT expert who “lives for cats, pasta and Harleys”) compares the performance of a vintage 1986 Apple Macintosh Plus to a current, 2007 AMD DualCore computer. In many of the tests that Licino ran, he found that Apple’s System 6.0.8 OS with 4 MB of RAM compares or bested the 1GB AMD DualCore computer running Windows XP SP2.


“… For the functions that people use most often, the 1986 vintage Mac Plus beats the 2007 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+: 9 tests to 8! Out of the 17 tests, the antique Mac won 53% of the time! Including a jaw-dropping 52 second whipping of the AMD from the time the Power button is pushed to the time the Desktop is up and useable.


We also didn’t want to overly embarrass the AMD by comparing the time it takes to install the OS vs. the old Mac. The Mac’s average of about a minute is dwarfed by the approximately one hour install time of Windows XP Pro.


Is this to say that the Mac Plus is a better computer than the AMD? Of course not. The technological advancements of 21 years have placed modern PCs in a completely different league of varied capacities. But the “User Experience” has not changed much in two decades. Due to bloated code that has to incorporate hundreds of functions that average users don’t even know exist, let alone ever utilize, the software companies have weighed down our PCs to effectively neutralize their vast speed advantages. When we compare strictly common, everyday, basic user tasks between the Mac Plus and the AMD we find remarkable similarities in overall speed, thus it can be stated that for the majority of simple office uses, the massive advances in technology in the past two decades have brought zero advance in productivity.”


Hmmm… “zero advance in productivity.”


Perhaps. More than 20 years ago, I recall using an original Macintosh running spreadsheets, accounting software, word processing, email, page layout and graphics, all quite smoothly. (To accomplish these tasks, it had been upgraded to a screaming 1MB, and waited for a year or two for software.) I replaced with a powerful 68030 powered Mac SE, courtesy of a third party accelerator card. Yes, it was a small screen, but Radius changed all that when they brought out their full page displays. (Remember the pivoting CRT?)


Of course, I could then also stay up for nearly two days at a time without any negative impact…


I’ll guess that for most of the tasks, the findings would be similar with a modern Intel processor running on a Windows platform or a similarly configured Macintosh running Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.