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Great customer service on a snowy, Sunday afternoon… and they called me

This afternoon whilst on vacation (and yes, the kids were accessing the Internet after playing in the snow) we had a problem with the DSL connection at the house.  Of course, it necessitated a reset of the DSL modem and wiped the account info and password to the ISP.

Great.  I could imagine the cries as the kids were unable to access their favourite Weird Al videos online.  And having the broadband access allowed me to work with our super folks around the world over the last few days as a South American country decided to change their daylight saving time settings… with only a couple of days advance notice.

So, after scouring the house for an inkling of the account name, password, ISP settings and the like with no success, I fired off a mail to the from my trusty Windows Mobile phone (the HTC 8925)… at least my AT&T Internet access was reading two or three bars…

“We are staying with our family at <a snowed in address> in <a small snowy mountain village>, telephone # <local phone number>. We reset our dsl gateway connected to your service and wiped the account name and password on the modem and are unable to access the ‘net. Could you help us get back on line?”

OK, I thought, perhaps we’ll hear from someone tomorrow after they get down from the slopes and before they head off for a New Year’s Eve party.

Or not. 

Fear of dread and an inability to log on and get the latest tunes for a festive countdown from Zune.net struck me, or more importantly print our boarding passes before our flight

Then, less than 30 minutes later, the phone rings:

“Hi, this is John… I read that you need to reset the settings on your DSL modem.”

I was floored.  Sunday afternoon with still enough daylight to see the ski runs, and a tech is calling me via his mobile to help me out.  How cool is that? 

As he spoke, I typed the information John provided into a Word document and followed along, editing the settings via a direct cable connection to the DSL modem and wireless router.  A few minutes later, after running through the setup, the IP settings and DHCP Server configuration, we were as good as new.  And I set it up so that future guests could access the wireless Internet via a secure key, posted to the side of the router.

As noted, I compiled the directions that John rattled off in a document to leave at the house for our hosts to enjoy the next time their network settings are wiped clean, complete with screen shots.  John noted that the basic configuration and setup information (sans account info) is available on their web site: sure enough, that web page proved a good basis for my brief tutorial.  With that, I have a neat step-by-step instructional document to leave at the house on how to access the internet, coupled with account information… and the telephone number for tech support should it be required.

Great customer service from Vail.net – kudos and my thanks to a super support tech.

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Happy holidays

Happy holidays to readers and those of you who stumbled upon my blog.


 


In this holiday season, I trust that you are able to the time with your friends and family: please remember that time is a precious thing. Never waste it.


http://blogs.msdn.com/mthree/archive/2007/09/30/time-is-fleeting-093007.aspx

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Bill Gates outlines the skills you need to succeed… which includes listening to customers and partners

Thanks to sriram over on channel8 for a pointer to this article from Bill Gates on “The skills you need to succeed.”



This is an article written by Bill Gates himself for the BBC Service,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7142073.stm


Related BBC Report may be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7143417.stm



“This article by Mr. Gates highlights the needs of the workplace. The power of software has made dramatic shift in the way we do business or just about anything else. Collaboration, team work and analytical skills need to be matched by IT Skills for success in your workplace. In today’s rapidly changing business environment, “lifelong learning is a key to success”.


Essentially it comes down to one’s ability to software effectively, including a “solid working knowledge of productivity software and other IT tools,” an understanding of math and science, communication skills, continued education and learning, reading lots of books… and working well with others. 

Says Bill…


“A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code.

“This isn’t true at all.

“Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.”


Innovation is not invented in a vacuum.  It comes through a deep understanding of what customers really want and what they think of your products. 

As I’ve noted in previous posts, we dig into what customers want through semi annual customer surveys (we’re getting in new results now) as well as through continued discussions directly with our customers and partners. Our worldwide Customer and Partner Satisfaction Survey helps up glean what customers form all audiences and segments think about Microsoft.  (You can find more about the survey in this Computerworld article from last May.) Through this research, and combined with other “listening systems” at the company, we identify the top drivers of satisfaction amongst our customers and partners. 

If you are looking for more insight as to what it takes to succeed, there are many books and sites dedicated to the topic.  One of my favourite holiday gifts to give is a book of essays about life by Robert Fulghum, “All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”


“All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.

“These are the things I learned:


  • Share everything.
  • Play fair.
  • Don’t hit people.
  • Put things back where you found them.
  • Clean up your own mess.
  • Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
  • Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
  • Wash your hands before you eat.
  • Flush.
  • Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
  • Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
  • Take a nap every afternoon.
  • When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
  • Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
  • Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
  • And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

“Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.”


For more details, visit Fulghum’s website at http://www.robertfulghum.com.


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An unexpected letter from Santa Claus at the North Pole just arrived

Yes, children, there is a Santa Claus.

A couple of weeks ago, our youngest son wrote a brief letter to Santa Claus, outlining what he wanted most for Christmas. His list consists of a single toy, and he said that he wanted to send it to Santa’s workshop for consideration this holiday. 

So we gave him an envelope and he simply addressed it to Santa Claus care of the North Pole. On a lark, I looked up the zip code of such a place, and found that the North Pole in Alaska is 99705.  So, our son sealed up the letter, took a stamp and insisted that he mail it himself.

Visions of the dead letter office at the US Post Office from Miracle on 34th Street (can you believe that movie was made sixty years ago?), we watched as he excitedly sent the letter on its way courtesy of a big blue metal mail box.

And he waited.

Then, yesterday, our son received a letter from Santa’s Workshop at the North Pole. In Alaska.

Letters From Santa at the North Pole - Santa's Mailbag

We didn’t pay Santa any extra incentive to have one of his elves send a letter back to out little boy. Turns out that this service has been going on almost as long as the venerable movie of 1947: the elves have been at this in Alaska since 1953. Who knew?

This was an example of great unexpected customer service. Our expectations was that we would not see a letter from Santa until he leaves his expected annual reply on Christmas Eve for our boys, after devouring Christmas cookies and mile left by our children for him next to the tree. It’s like the bonus snail mail that kids receive from Disney’s Toontown every month or so: for the kids, completely unexpected and a bonus to their on-line gaming fun, filled with posters, cards and newsletters.

You can read the complete history of the service here…

Santa’s Mailbag started in 1954, when the city of North Pole, Alaska, incorporated and the United States Postal Service began using the North Pole, Alaska postal cancellation. The idea for Santa’s Mailbag was formulated by six Air Traffic Controllers working at Eielson AFB, Alaska. The plan was to mail letters from Santa to the Children of men and women in the armed forces stationed overseas. Before Santa mailed out the first letter both military and civilian children were on Santa’s list.

During Christmas 1954, Santa’s Mailbag answered about 160 letters from children sent to Santa. Over the years, the number of letters received by Santa and his crew of elves has steadily grown.

The North Pole responds to tens of thousands of letters that they receive each year.  And it turns out that there are different ways to get your own answer from the North Pole, and it’s not too late (as of today, Dec 15).  Check out the way to get letters from the workshop here, either a postmarked letters sent via U.S. Mail (which is neatly hand addressed and personalized… incredible), letters you can print out on Santa’s stationary (Santa and his elves provide a dozen different letters available for download), or even pre-order letters for next Christmas.

To send an email letter to Santa, do so today by going to http://www.santasmailbag.org/writetosanta/.

Santa reports on the site that this year he expects to see as many as 150,000 letters, better than the alternative of all that mail sitting dead lettered in a New York postal warehouse waiting for a ruling on the validity of Santa’s identity. Santa encourages parents to order a letter at http://www.santasmailbag.org, and donations per letter are requested. The site says that “these funds, along with contributions from those who support our effort, go help thousands of children receive a letter from Santa.”

Sounds like a good investment. 

Have a good weekend.

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Cool Zune Art: Zune Originals: Interview with Chris Stephenson

Now this is very cool… this on Cool Hunting: Zune Originals: Interview with Chris Stephenson…

“Zune‘s next move takes their support of emerging artists and literally puts it on their sleeve. Zune Originals is a collection of 27 original works by 18 international artists designed to be engraved onto the back of the device. (Click images for detail.) On the Zune Originals site, launching tomorrow (13 November 2007), visitors will be able to customize their Zune by size, color, illustration and with up to four optional lines of text—all free of charge, at least for the time being.”

PINKZUNE.jpg