Category: Commentry

I had cause to contact IT support by chat line recently. This is the second time I have had to chat to them with separate problems and I feel stupid and clumsy in an environment that I do not understand. They mention a couple of fix’s and I respond with a question that means I haven’t got a clue. In fact, I apologise for my ignorance and place myself in the position of a supplicant rather than a customer who has a problem and wants it fixed. I can almost hear the sigh from the ‘consultant’ who has to change down a gear to accommodate the simpleton who shouldn’t really have been allowed to buy the product in the first place. I hasten to add that they were very polite and I acknowledged this on the questionnaire that popped up as I exited the chat line. I gave them full marks for their knowledge and courtesy but the question that was missing was, ‘did they resolve the problem?’

I am always ready to give an opinion, as you can tell from this site and it is also reflected in the fact that I have signed up to answer questionnaires with a leading market survey company. Occasionally, they are interesting and relate to social or, political issue but they are mainly concerned with marketing spend but are framed in such a way that they dodge the hard question. For example, there are lots of questions asking you to rate one supermarket against another but you have no experience of three out of the five alternatives but there is no option to state this. ‘ Rate the shopping experience with X. Is it A) better than the others; B) a great experience; C) A shop for my type of people; D) I wish I could move in and live there.’ Well no, I go there because my car can drive there by  itself and get parking. The pricing is competitive and I can be in and out in an hour. Where is the button  for that?

I hope that great marketing strategies are not made on the basis of my replies and investments made or, people laid off as a result. In most cases the marketing surveys are made by marketers’ to justify advertising spend and do not ask key questions especially for everyday products.  I am sure that we are all influenced by advertising, although at this stage I have built up a pretty effective filter which means I always fail in matching the advert with the product bit of the questionnaire. The survey company that sends me questionnaires has a very good reputation and is often quoted as the source of statistics in national debates but by contributing to some of the surveys it has made me question the methodology used and conclusions drawn from some of the  data.

Isn’t it odd how you half listen to something on the radio and  suddenly realise that something was said that tweaked your sub conscious . The conversation has passed it by but there was something. So it was that I was listening to the Economist Podcast that had an item on the World Cup. I say,’The World Cup’ but the commentator had introduced it as the ‘MENs World Cup’. I am pretty sure that there wasn’t another World Cup that had slipped through the media net and that nearly everyone would have associated the term The World Cup with the tournament that the French team won only a few days previously. If the addition of the word men to the title did not add anything to the listeners understanding of the piece, then why add it. At a time when a President has demonstrated how a small change in a sentence can change the meaning, what are we to make of the Economists addition?