So...What's Next?!?

Not a way to run a business OR a blog

I launched my online training classes. I decided to use PayPal for credit card transactions since attendees need to pay prior to attending class and checks could take too long.

I sold the full training series and ran the payments through PayPal. I went into PayPal to transfer the funds to my bank.

The next day I was informed that my transfer was reversed and for 4 days PayPal has been holding my money to review the transaction with absolutely NO communication to me about what is going on.

I have spoken with a kind representative once when I called and all she could do is take "my side of the story" (no this is not a customer dispute - PayPal is suspicious of the transaction).

So I looked online to see if there was any contact information/email address for an executive. Nope -

But I did find their blog. Overall it is a pretty useless blog. They do have some guidelines;

We value your thoughts, ideas and suggestions, but please keep comments on-topic and do not use abusive language. If you like our point of view, let us know. And if you don’t, tell us why.

Fine - I will comply - I looked for a post that might be relevant to my issue. Obviously this is a security policy and they MUST have a blog post about it....The closest thing I found was this post about a payment notification issue. Eh..close enough - I will post my question and concern there - respectfully....

No - no I won't. For this post the comments have been closed.

Well - so much for conversations with their customers. So much for transparency. Oh - comments are open for their fluff posts.

Being in as many rooms with executives and PR professionals discussing social media as I have been in the past few years, I can just imagine the conversations at PayPal of "controlling the conversation" and not wanting anyone to say anything bad about the company.

Well - guess what - you can not control it, but you can manage it. First - speak to your customers - ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE NOT ALLOWING THEM TO HAVE THEIR MONEY! Second - let customers speak their mind on your site. It is much easier to find and respond to ...i.e. manage - then when we get so frustrated and blog on our own site.

For the record, I will no longer be taking payments via PayPal.

Destroying Humanity Through "Process"

Today I googled "Xbox Live, Rock Band, Drum Pedal" to figure out who I needed to contact to replace our broken drum pedal .

I came to the XBox site and called them first. You probably already know that XBox is a Microsoft product, and so I was dealing with the Microsoft "process."

What this means is that through the automated phone system I could not find an option that would get me the help I needed, so I opted to speak to someone. The gentleman whose fate it was to help me today was obviously not in this country. I have no problem with outsourcing, except for one. Any part of a company that is outsourced has to have very specific processes in place in order to ensure quality and consistency. Imposing such strict processes on something that involves human interaction dehumanizes the people involved.

As an example, here is the tale of two companies.

Company 1

When the gentleman representing XBox answers the call, he cheerfully greeted me, asked me my name, asked permission to call me by my first name, listened to my situation, and repeated my situation back to  me - just like his script told him to do. He then assisted me in locating the serial number on the XBox, noticed that I had not registered it, took my information so that it was registered and then proceeded to check the database to find a solution to my problem. When the database informed him that I needed to contact the manufacturer, he cheerfully attempted to give me a long explanation of the situation. At this time his accent was starting to get a bit thick and I could barely understand him, so I asked him to simplify his answer, can they get the part for me, if not who do I need to call? The simple answer was no I needed to call the game manufacturer. Once we had the answer he wanted to provide me with a case number. I asked him not to, that already 15 minutes of my time had been spent to get a very simple answer. I explained to him that he was very nice, that I understood that I needed to call the manufacturer and that was not a problem, but my patience was already spent on the process it took to find out that they could not help me.

Company 2
I look at the box the game came in, notice the web address http://www.rockband.com. I visit the site, find a phone number and call. My call is  promptly answered by a kid who was probably in the middle of playing Rock Band. I explained the situation to him, he apologized in a tone that suggested he was thinking "bummer!" He then allows me the time to brag that it was my 7 year old son playing songs on the hard level that broke the pedal. He tells me about his nephew who is a video game genius. He takes my information and assures me a new pedal will arrive at my house in 7 business days. By this time I am driving to an appointment, which he realized and asked if I wanted to write down the confirmation number or just have it emailed. I told him to email it to me which he did.

In a nutshell - process kills humanity and it is human interaction that makes customers feel like they have been taken care of.

I have felt bad for the gentleman on the first call all day today. He is just doing a job, probably for less money than I made when I was 12 and picked strawberries over the summer, and he has to deal with people like me all day, every day and all he has is his script.

In the Spirit of Leonardo Da Vinci

This was one of my early posts - thankfully I had emailed it to someone, so I did not lose this one...Tim is going to see how many posts we can find - sort of an experiment of if someone could really delete their "digital footprint."

I was once asked if I could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be. I did not even have to consider the question for a moment, Leonardo Da Vinci.

He understood that possibilities were limitless and was driven to make others realize, through his personal example, the incredible possibilities that existed. He knew these things because he had the ability to look at things from a different perspective, of being able to make unusual connections and see things holistically.

Who was Leonardo Da Vinci? I am not concerned with his biography, but his approach to looking at situations and finding solutions to problems that others did not know existed. I want to tap into his zealous love of the quest and determination to interact with life and its events.

I want to apply the spirit of Leonardo Da Vinci to the enormous amount of possibilities that exist today, if we choose to look at things from a different perspective, make unusual connections and see things holistically.

Technology has made tapping into the spirit of Leonardo Da Vinci possible for anyone who has the desire to do so. Leonardo said that "the desire to know is natural to good men," and "the knowledge of all things is possible."

Assuming these comments are true, what made Leonardo different was the application of that knowledge. He was not a "specialist," he did not have a job title, he did not sit in a cubicle with a job description - he was an explorer, an inventor, an artist.

I am amazed how companies segment their business into sales, marketing, PR, customer service, executives and so forth.

If the marketing department is not aware of the information that the salespeople are receiving, how do they know how to target their campaign? If salespeople do not get to experience the issues coming through customer service, how do they know what problems to solve? How can PR respond to the public without being in the trenches with the public? How do executives keep fresh and innovative ideas without a constant interaction with the the new hires that are coming in, full of hope, enthusiasm and innovative ideas?

The knowledge of all things is possible if you find how and why each part is connected. With that knowledge you can create masterpieces and uncover the boundlessness of what is possible.

I was once asked if I could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be. I did not even have to consider the question for a moment, Leonardo Da Vinci.

He understood that possibilities were limitless and was driven to make others realize, through his personal example, the incredible possibilities that existed. He knew these things because he had the ability to look at things from a different perspective, of being able to make unusual connections and see things holistically.

Who was Leonardo Da Vinci? I am not concerned with his biography, but his approach to looking at situations and finding solutions to problems that others did not know existed. I want to tap into his zealous love of the quest and determination to interact with life and its events.

I want to apply the spirit of Leonardo Da Vinci to the enormous amount of possibilities that exist today, if we choose to look at things from a different perspective, make unusual connections and see things holistically.

Technology has made tapping into the spirit of Leonardo Da Vinci possible for anyone who has the desire to do so. Leonardo said that "the desire to know is natural to good men," and "the knowledge of all things is possible."

Assuming these comments are true, what made Leonardo different was the application of that knowledge. He was not a "specialist," he did not have a job title, he did not sit in a cubicle with a job description - he was an explorer, an inventor, an artist.

I am amazed how companies segment their business into sales, marketing, PR, customer service, executives and so forth.

If the marketing department is not aware of the information that the salespeople are receiving, how do they know how to target their campaign? If salespeople do not get to experience the issues coming through customer service, how do they know what problems to solve? How can PR respond to the public without being in the trenches with the public? How do executives keep fresh and innovative ideas without a constant interaction with the the new hires that are coming in, full of hope, enthusiasm and innovative ideas?

The knowledge of all things is possible if you find how and why each part is connected. With that knowledge you can create masterpieces and uncover the boundlessness of what is possible.