A litany of woes

I have to do this. My favourite telecom, #Du, is falling off its pedestal very quickly in the way it handles its customers and the level of after-service.

More often than not - they get it right and we have no problems but the last couple of weeks has been a nightmare. Okay thats an exaggeration but definitely not quite as kosher as it should be. 

Woe number one

Someone mentioned that Du have some very cost effective packages for businesses and as a entrepreneur anything that saves money, creates better and more effective communications (especially since we are in that business) with my team, the media, our customers, interests me. So we explored. First try - we went to Du's office right behind our building. Admittedly it was on an off day but it looks like the guy who was on duty was having one too. He was probably one of the rudest sales person I have met. He was so blinkered that if you asked him a question outside his remit, he not only did not know the answer but neither did he know who to refer you to. So much for customer service. That was December 2010.

Thanks to our 'excellent experience' during our office move last year, we had been put in touch with some of the 'senior' management. It was probably not justified going to them but we thought we could use a bit of 'wasta' to hurry things along or get our answers. They 'assigned' someone to take 'care of our needs'. That was more than 6 weeks ago. We goaded them and drawing blood from stone got the packages - which hugely differed from what was advertised on their web site. So back and forth we went. 

A friend (God Bless him) took it over and decided to help us put it together. Thanks to Du and their system we had to cajole them to do part delivery of the business packages.And the sim have not been activated though we were told they were. Tried calling Du customer service and was put on hold for 23 mins (yes we have a phone that clocks the time) and then hung up. So much for our call being important.

Woe number two

My new BB seems to suddenly be sending blank messages. As in I send messages but no one seems to be able to either receive them or they get blank messages. Called customer service and it was a long-winded conversation with someone with such a strong accent who said I would be called ASAP within 24 - 48 hours. Not ASAP in my opinion but obviously in theirs. I thought it would be a quick fix. I was wrong. So I'm not sending text messages. Got a call today that said they were technical support. Turned out to be back end customer service (whatever that means) who were just checking up on details. So now I have another 24-48 hours before another call "ASAP".

Woe number three

Your hotspot is the only one on the Metro and it does not give you enough time to log in the password you send by text to my phone. So my attempt to read or work on my journey was kyboshed.

So much for being connected.

Posted via email from mitauae's posterous

Defending bloggers rights to freedom of expression #BenihanaKUW

This post is in support of Mark Makhoul, a blogger living in the Middle East, who is now the subject of a US$18,000 lawsuit filed by the franchisee of global Japanese restaurant chain Benihana in Kuwait. Mark's crime? Posting a mildly critical restaurant review on his blog, 2:48AM (judge for yourself by reading his review here. 

What is surprising is an ignorance of the value of an international reputation or anything that is remotely mitigating in terms of PR efforts. 

--------------------------

My Benihana Experience .... by Mark Makhoul

A few days back I posted about Benihana opening up at the Avenues and yesterday night I decided to pass by with Nat and try it out. The service wasnít too bad for a restaurant thatís just been open for a few days and the staff were really friendly. The restaurant itself is made up of islands and bars with a grill in the middle of each one. You sit around the grill and the chef will come to your table and prepare the food right in front of you which makes things entertaining. Itís actually why I prefer sitting at the bar in Japanese restaurants in general, since you can talk to the chef and watch them put your dish together. The problem with my experience last night though was with the food, it was disappointing to say the least.

We ordered beef negimayaki for starters followed by an Orange Blossom maki and a Hibachi Chicken. The negimaki arrived looking good and was probably the best thing we had there even though I prefer Makiís negimaki which has a richer teriyaki sauce. The Orange Blossom was very ordinary, wouldnít order it again. Now the Hibachi chicken which is basically grilled chicken, that was the worst. The chicken was very chewy (I could swear it was undercooked if not raw) and tasted terrible. Even after I had the chef add some more teriyaki sauce in hopes of improving the taste it didnít work. I tried to dip it into the sauces that came with the chicken but it was hard to figure out if they were actually making things worse or not. Nat only ate one piece of chicken and left the rest while I needed my protein since Iím on a strict diet and forced myself to eat my whole plate (I can do that) but the after taste was really bad. Even the rice and the veggies that came with it tasted bad AND were under cooked. Once we left I considered picking up a frozen yogurt from Pinkberry even though I hate frozen yogurts but I just needed something to get rid of the aftertaste. A few moments later we ended up at Chocolate Bar ordering the gooey chocolate cake (bye bye diet).

I shot the two videos above of the chef preparing our meal. Benihana are known for the live shows they perform when preparing your dish so I was expecting to see [This] but ended up with the above . Would I go back to Benihana? No I wouldnít. Their sashimi and makiís are pretty cheap (KD1.5 for 5 pieces of Salmon sashimi for example) but there are two other Japanese restaurants at the Avenues, Wasabi and Maki, and I would prefer either one of those to Benihana.

http://www.248am.com/mark/kuwait/my-benihana-experience

Posted via email from mitauae's posterous

Just doesn't add up...

Image via Wikipedia

I do not understand why successful businessmen never make their meetings on time or have the courtesy to inform people that they are running late.

For those in technology and know me, know that I work with an event organiser that hosts several conferences around the EMEA - two of which I work on. Because of the system that is set up at the back end, all the delegates have a very tight agenda. Its based on invitation only, so we're pretty sure of who we're inviting.

At every stage - the team make phone calls. 

Step one: RSVP to the invitation, fill in all the information

Step two: Get your invitation letter. This is especially fraught with problems for the Middle East region. They are notorious for leaving things a bit too late to get visas sorted out. Then they are surprised they cannot travel or use it as an excuse to back out of a commitment. We don't own the consulates or immigration departments. The countries have their own sovereign rules. You are a businessman. Especially surprising, when some of them do it EVERY year. No matter how many times we call them. 

Step three: Please respond to meeting requests. This is a no-brainer. You are here for business and we are helping to set up your meetings so that you can plan your conference. I don't know of any other conference organiser that is as focused on adding value to the delegates.

Step Four: This is not a holiday. Its business. YOU set up the meetings. We have tight schedules. Please keep them. Its courtesy. There are people who have planned their day based on your response - the least you can do is show up. 

Its very simple. If you want to have a longer follow up meeting, then schedule something for later - don't stand up your next meeting. Its bad manners.

Time is precious for everyone and if you're running your own business, its money. So answer those phones, or depute someone to do so. An please stay with your schedule. You're a grown up. 

Zemanta helped me add links & pictures to this email. It can do it for you too.

Posted via email from mitauae's posterous

Outside my comfort zone

Image via Wikipedia

One of the nice things about working outside your office and comfort zone is that, surprisingly, you get a lot of work done. One of these would be the lack of 'meetings'. While meetings are good as a catch up point, I find that I spend so much time meeting people that the real work gets left behind.

For the rest of this week and the next, I will be in Paris (meeting clients and doing EMEA level PR meetings) and next week is a three day channel conference that I attend every year. It all sounds quite glamorous - trust me, it isn't. Its a lot of hard work but to be honest, I love it. 

What is amazing about working in a different country - where neither language nor the weather is quite helpful - is how quickly you adapt to your surroundings. Of course Paris' underground system and public transport is what every major metropolitan city should aspire to be. The signage in this city especially underground along with the well defined route maps is clear, concise - even an idiot like me who has been out of the public transport system for more than 20 years was able to find her way around the whole metropolis. 

There is something about working in strange surroundings that give your confidence and ability a great boost. And Parisiens just make that easier. 

Zemanta helped me add links & pictures to this email. It can do it for you too.

Posted via email from mitauae's posterous