Rock Band Party at Hideki’s
Posted on May 20, 2014 by Ching under Games.
Our friend Hideki throws the best Rock Band parties!
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Happy Birthday, Eli!
Posted on May 19, 2014 by Ching under Family.
We celebrated our nephew Eli’s 8th birthday on Saturday.
This is his older brother, Logan. He is taller than his mom Jenni and me. He’ll be taller than his stepmom and his dad before long. They grow so fast!
Our nephews’ dad Matt and their mom Jen.
Matt with Brian. I love this picture because they’re under a sign that says “Mom’s Day Out.” LOL. I love our little family.
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The Effortless Experience
Posted on May 17, 2014 by Ching under Reviews, Videos.
Here’s my key take away from the 2014 ICMI Contact Center Expo & Conference.
Matthew Dixon was one of our keynote speakers at the ICMI Contact Center Expo & Conference. The video above is nearly identical to his keynote speech witout the Bill Rancic jokes. The speech covers the key ideas of their book, The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty
It is by far the best book I’ve read this year. Seriously. It articulates a lot of the things that I’ve been feeling but haven’t been able to articulate. I always tell my friend Darcy that I have all of these opinions and gut feelings but have no way to prove them. I’ll usually make some kind of statement or claim. Sometimes Darcy agrees or disagrees but, since she’s the keeper of our call center statistics, she’s the one who actually crunches the data to either prove or disprove my claim. Besides that, Darcy is really good at running reports and gathering information. But I digress… The authors and their colleagues have actually done the research and their research proves what we have all probably known for a long time: a strategy of delight doesn’t pay, customer satisfaction is not a predictor of loyalty, customer service interactions tend to drive disloyalty (no matter what you do), and the key to mitigating customer disloyalty is by reducing customer effort.
Customer service providers just need to accept that customers don’t want to have to deal with us. They want to take care of their business as quickly and as effortless as possible and be on their merry way.
The book talks about the concept of next issue avoidance, which is something that I’ve been working on for a few years now. Ever since we started collecting data on our repeat calls, this has been a topic of interest for me. I’m so glad that here’s a school of thought now that focuses on next issue avoidance because it’s actually easier for me to wrap my head around that than first contact resolution.
For years I’ve been trying to get at first contact resolution and can’t quite seem to get a metric that makes sense so I started attacking it from the repeat calls perspective. After reading this book I feel somewhat validated. LOL.
Anyway, if you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it. It’s an easy read. I read most of it on the flight home from San Diego. The examples provided are timely and relevant, and it’s just an enjoyable read over all. Kudos to the authors and their colleagues who helped with the research and contributed to the book. I haven’t been this excited about learning something new in a long time. Thank you.
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Dad is So Crafty
Posted on May 17, 2014 by Ching under Home Ownership, Projects, Tips.
My dad recently found a hole under the concrete slab that his AC rests on behind his house. He couldn’t figure out what had been digging that hole. It could be anything. Rather than speculating, he put a camera down the hole and captured video. It wasn’t in there and there burrow had no clues as to what kind of animal had been using the hole for shelter. The animal did not come back while dad’s camera was in the burrow.
Dad removed the camera and filled the hole up. As soon as that happened the animal returned and there’s the hole again. It drove dad crazy not knowing what he was dealing with so he did what any resourceful Pinoy would do. He didn’t want to have to buy an outdoor camera so he rigged his Foscam
Pretty clever, right?
He mounted the rig to a stick staked to the ground and pointed the camera right at the hole. Sure enough he got the perpetrator on video. He posted the video on his Facebook wall but I’m not sure how to share it with you guys because of the privacy settings.
Turns out, a skunk has been making a home under that concrete slab. I suggested calling Animal Control but it seems like dad is having too much fun playing cat and mouse with the skunk. Now he wants to build some kind of one-way door so that when the skunk leaves the hole it can’t get back in. Seriously.
For those of you who someday find yourself in this predicament, there are a couple of options: (1) make a trap, or (2) call Animal Control. I’m a proponent of the latter myself because it’s less hassle. If you are like my dad though, then you think it’s fun to rig things. I’m guessing there will be people out there who will go for the first option. However, think about what you’re going to do after you capture it. How are you going to release it into the wild without getting sprayed? And where are you going to release it? I say go with the second option all the way.
If you are not yet in this predicament and want to avoid it, here are some suggestions.
- Don’t plant fruit-bearing trees. If it’s too late and you already have trees that produce nuts, berries, crabapples, or other fruits, remember rake your yard often so the goodies don’t tempt critters to come over and feast on your lawn.
- Protect your waste. Don’t leave your trash bin out except on trash day. If there’s no room in your garage and the trash bin has to be outside, make sure that it is securely fastened so the smell doesn’t attract skunks and other critters.
- Close off hiding places. Use rocks, fencing, plywood, etc. to close off any potential hiding places. If you have unkempt bushes and vegetation around your house, make sure these are trimmed so as not to appear so appealing to wild animals.
- Install yard lights. Nocturnal creatures such as skunks don’t like bright lights so this may be a suitable and attractive deterrent. Lights with motion detection will probably be most effective because it will trick the animal into thinking someone’s there.
- Use chemical warfare. Okay, not in the grand World War III scale. Skunks don’t like ammonia so soaking rags with ammonia and placing it in potential hiding places is an option. Scattering orange or lemon peels around your property, specifically under your deck or porch is a good option also.
- Install motion-activated sprinklers. If you have the resources and really want to keep critters out, this is another alternative. It’s a nice surprise for two-legged unwanted visitors also. LOL.
I hope you find these tips helpful. I’ll keep you posted on my dad’s adventures.
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Brian and Jay
Posted on May 17, 2014 by Ching under Games, Life.
Here are some pictures of Brian and Jay from last Saturday. Our friends Jay, Becca, Aaron, and Reby came over for dinner. Aaron and Reby called it an early night. These photos were taken after they left.
These two are so hilarious when they’re drinking. I captured some video but I’m not allowed to post them online. Party poopers!
We rarely get to see Jay and Becca anymore now that they’ve moved to the West side of town. Traitors! Just kidding. We were so happy to finally have the chance to hang out.
Originally it was just going to Aaron and Reby and Brian and me for dinner on Saturday night. However, Jay and Becca were available that night and they were picking up some money that Donna had left for Jay for the NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System
Jay and I played checkers that night. I think it’s our first time playing checkers against each other. He had to explain it to me. Filipino checkers, or at least the way I remember playing, is slightly different. I took advantage of the fact that he was already two bottles of wine in. I had a little bit to drink but I wasn’t as far gone as he and Brian were. LOL. After a lengthy match (Becca actually fell asleep while waiting for the game to be over), I won. Oh, yeah!
He didn’t think I would blog about it. He didn’t think I would win either. He doesn’t think that it should count because he had a lot of wine. I don’t think he was as drunk as he said, though. Jay’s capacity to consume alcohol and be perfectly fine is beyond that of anyone I know. Brian had about the same amount to drink and he was being his loud, jolly, drunk self. Jay was far more composed. Although, he thinks he lost at checkers because of all the drinks. We must have a rematch when he’s sober just to see if I can really beat him. Then there will be no excuses.
This just goes to show… Don’t drink and drive. If drinking can diminish your aptitude for checkers then you really shouldn’t be driving. Just sayin’.
P.S. Becca drove home that night and they both safely made it all the way back to the West side of town.
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