Blogcentric
Listening is Key
Not too long ago, I met a new business contact at the BEC Pub Biz event. As a follow up, I checked out each person’s Facebook Page and offered some free advice through a follow up email. Cool right? Well, it’s OK if the advice is solid (which it mostly was…even if I do say so myself).
For one person, Kim, I noticed that her landing page mentioned “regular” updates in return for a “Like”, yet when I checked her wall, the last update was 3 weeks prior. In the spirit of friendly advice, I suggested maybe the words on the landing page were contradicting the wall content, especially when considering the words “regular updates”. An offer of a coffee and a social catch up to tie off the email…and SEND!
Gave me a good feeling! I was following good business networking practice and following up with people! Yay Brendon!!!
What I got in response, I didn’t expect.
I got your back…
Reality. Sometimes beautiful. Sometimes ugly. This morning some of that ugly reality landed in my email inbox in the form of a “phishing” email. A gentle reminder that there are some scoundrels on the internet who will try to scam you for every cent they can get.
Just so happens I lodged by tax return last week, so when a coincidental email arrives informing me of my tax return amount, it did catch me off guard for a brief moment. But not for long.
Rules of recognising phishing emails, hoax emails or fraudulent emails:
- Banks, financial institutions and government agencies will never ask for your financial details online. If you’re mind isn’t made up, call them to verify first
- These organisations will never send you an attachment of a web page. If they are genuine, they will direct you to their website via your secure login. BUT…be careful to note the web address. Some web addresses can be misleading and made to look like the real thing. The best you can do is NOT click the link, but go to the site yourself (Paypal is a classic example)
- On a side note…there is no hard done by cancer ridden pauper wanting to use your bank account details to transfer USD $340 million into you account with the purpose of leaving you 10% for your trouble
- The Russian beauty who emailed you is not looking for her long lost love. It’s money she he wants…and,
- Email scammers are mostly sloppy. They always leave trails of their stupidity lying around
In this instance, there are some other ways you can explore these emails to see what’s really going on, especially if the email comes with an attached HTML file. Read the rest of this entry »
Creating Sticky Customers
About a month ago I paid a visit to Brisbane (fortunate not to be there now with The Big Wet – please donate generously) and as I normally do, I grab a hire car as it’s more cost effective than cabs.
On this trip, I chose to rent from AVIS. No reason really…all rental companies are mostly the same. Pay money, pay additional insurance premium, drive car, fill tank before returning etc…
However, from that day on, I will always go back to AVIS time and time again for one simple reason.
Customer Service. Outstanding Customer Service.
The dude, “Cain”, made sure that my customer experience was incredibly good. So good that it would want me to think of only one company next time I need a hire car. And he did it with style!
Here’s my version of events.
Book a meeting with me
