I’ve been sad to read in the newspapers about protests surrounding the Olympic Torch relay.  The people who are demonstrating at the relays are upset that the Olympics are being held in China.  The reason that they are upset that the Olympics are being held in China is that China has a really poor record of human rights violations.  When the Olympic Committee awarded the 2008 Olympics games site to China, China promised it would make improvements in its human rights problems, and it has not done so.  Because of that broken promise there are protests following the Olympic Torch where ever it goes.  Some people are calling for boycotts of the Olympics completely.  I hope that doesn’t happen; the athletes have been training for years to be in the Olympics and shouldn’t be caught in a political battle.

Posted: April 18th, 2008 under Issues, Life, News, Politics, Sports.
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With the Internet age upon us, more and more people are using the Internet to promote their businesses.  And more and more people are using it to air their grievances against what they perceive to be a bad thing.  Some of those are justified, and some of them are not.  People and companies can quickly and easily become the target of a negative campaign by bloggers and other sources on the Internet. 

So, what’s a company to do to protect themselves against the consequences of this type of negative campaign?  They will be well advised to enlist a company that specializes in Internet Reputation Management.  That is where Reputation Hawk comes in!  They specialize in generating positive publicity for your company that will neutralize the negative campaign.  For more information on that service, visit their website at  www.reputationhawk.com.

Posted: April 18th, 2008 under Computers / Software, Internet, Life, Shopping, Technology.
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For special occasions, I like to eat at the restaurant at The Senator Inn.  The name of the restaurant keeps changing, so my hubby & I just call it The Senator Inn because that is the name of the hotel that it is located in. 

The reason I like to eat there is that it is decorated very elegantly, and when we dress up in our “get gussied up” clothes, it makes us feel special.  They have a really good seafood alfredo dish that I like to order.

The only thing I don’t like about the restaurant is that when we go there, I always see people who look like they just came out of the woods from chopping down trees and they didn’t bother to go home and change their clothes before going out to eat.  Flannel shirts, ripped up blue jeans, and baseball caps still on their heads.  I try not to look at them, as it spoils the “romantic ambience” that I try to enjoy when we go there.

Posted: April 18th, 2008 under Food and Beverage, Life, Shopping.
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My hubby tells me that his company is going to sign up for a new internet service that puts a “web callback box” on their website.  When a customer fills in the box and clicks on the button that says “call” a text message will be sent to their sales center’s mobile phone.  That way the sales center can quickly call back the person who filled out the website form that wants to talk with them.  They think that this service will increase sales and improve customer satisfaction.   

Here is a press release my hubby gave me about the service from http://www.procallback.com:

Too many companies make the mistake of getting a fantastic, and often costly, website, and leaving it unattended. The lack of human interaction and the inability to get specific information quickly results in missed selling opportunities, poor customer service and abandoned shopping carts. Successful selling over the Internet will require new customer service strategies and methods.

Web sites can now become more than interactive advertisements. Placing a web callback box, enables customers to “click to talk” to an agent, creates direct connections between consumers and your company’s customer service and sales professionals, helping improve service and boost sales. Visitors simply enter their phone number into a strategically placed box, click the button, and within seconds, they’re off the Web and on the phone speaking with your most powerful assets – your people. Providing a service like this used to be prohibitively costly, and outside the scope of many businesses. However now its now within the reach of even the smallest businesses.

For building relationships, delivering information, creating up-selling and closing opportunities, adding web callback boxes is a fast, effective way to improve your Web site’s productivity. Some companies spend huge amounts of money to generate web site traffic and fail to adequately service customers. A typical enquiry via a web callback box costs pennies and can result in a substantial improvement in service.

The use of web callbacks are in widespread use in the USA, using a costly method involving a remote call centre making outgoing calls to the website business and the browser, which are then automatically connected together. However Mercia Networks is proud to announce its new service available in the UK which provides a comparable service, but at a fraction on the cost. The service is called ProCallback.

The ProCallback mechanism is simple. When a customer clicks on a callback button, a mobile phone text message is sent to a mobile phone in the business sales or customer service team with the details the user entered. They can therefore call the user back, while the user is still viewing the web site. The system can automatically filter out bogus messages such as invalid phone numbers or missing fields. Special fields can be added which are particular to the business, which can either be mandatory or optional. For example, identifying a particular product or service, so the sales staff can be aware of the potential customers area of interest before the call is made.

Currently, consumers are online looking for good reasons to buy products and services. ProCallback delivers information and opens relationships that are critical to buying decisions.

ProCallback technology could be compared to using freephone numbers, but it holds several advantages. A typical freephone number will get a caller to the main company switchboard, or worse, into an interactive voice response (IVR) system. By contrast, ProCallback boxes can be established for every department or sales representative, so the mobile phone text message can be sent to the particular representative who is best able to satisfy the customer. Also, freephone numbers work only from UK landlines. Customers calling from mobile phones, or who are outside the UK will hesitate before personally paying for an expensive call.

Most important, ProCallback offers customers a simple way to do more than browse a company’s electronic catalogue. It offers an easy way to do business. Impulse buyers are more likely to click on a “call” button than dial a freephone number. If you spend money advertising your site, prompt surfers to call you before they click out of your site and you lose the sale.

Web callback boxes convey the message that your company is staffed and ready to accommodate customers. It announces there are real people at your company who are available to assist online customers. If your company has made a commitment to provide excellent sales and customer service, Web callback can be a valuable key to on-line success, If your company spends cash to generate Web site visitors, don’t let them leave without taking their order, one-to-one, over the phone.

ProCallback is available at www.procallback.com which is a website run by Mercia Networks. They have been providing web site solutions to businesses since 2001, including Jaguar Cars.

Posted: April 18th, 2008 under Computers / Software, Internet, Online, Shopping, Technology.
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My hubby and I went to the The Last Unicorn Restaurant with a group of friends.  There were about eight of us.  We had heard that it was a good restaurant, so we were looking forward to a nice meal.  I have to say that I had a hard time picking out something from the menu.  I was really scared that I wouldn’t like what I ordered.  The restaurant was crowded, so I thought that might be a good sign.

Because we were a large group, our meals came out sporadically, which was a disappointment.  It’s nice to get all our meals at the same time.  I know that is difficult to do with a large group, but it’s still nice.  When my food comes before everyone else’s comes, I feel that it is rude to start eating until everyone gets their food.  Some of the people started eating immediately and were finished before some of us got our food at all!

After we finished eating, we sat and chatting, waiting for the check to come.  We waited and waited.  We waited for 45 minutes!  Finally the waitress came over to our table and said “I don’t mean to be rude, but we really would appreciate it if you would leave so other guests can use your table!”  I said “We’re just waiting for the check!”  Boy was the waitress embarrassed then!  She brought us the check, we paid (not a good tip because the service was not good) and left.

Posted: April 18th, 2008 under Food and Beverage, Friends, Life.
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