I swear most days it feels as if the vendors who supply products and software for my day job are in a competition to provide us with the absolute worst service ever.  They seem to go out of their way to take our money quickly and provide the absolute least in return.

I hate that and would fire many of our vendors if I could. Maybe that is why they treat us with such crappy service.

Recently I had a different experience but before I tell you about them I must include the details of my problem.

The Problem

I was trying to order access cards for our building access control system.  We had been using a local vendor who was supplying us with the usual piss poor service. In late August I called up my dubious vendor and ordered the cards I needed.  A month later I called back and no one knew anything about my order and we would reorder. This happened FOUR times.

Finally I decided to stop being insane.  You know doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I started trying to find a new vendor online.  It turns out our system uses proprietary cards.  I contact the proprietary manufacturer who informs me I cannot buy direct but that they will have some one call me with resellers in Utah.  I wait a few days no call back. I call and leave a message on the sales rep for my area. No call back.  I don’t understand either of these companies.  I have a $500 order with cash in hand.  All you have to do is provide the product.  Finally I send an email to the sales address on their website.  A week later I get a response with four local vendors who can help me order these cards.  At the top of the list is the company that I had tried to order from originally. I sent a short email reply thanking them and informing them of my bad experience with the top supplier.  For kicks and giggles I cc’ed the head of the bad supplier.

Amazing how fast a negative email to a wholesaler about a reseller will get a response.  My phone started ringing and my email box filled up with questions from my original reseller.  I simply responded you failed and I found another supplier, a small piece of justice in my mind.

Now the whole reason I told you about this is to highlight my new supplier.

The Solution

The email I received with the reseller information included a company I had used before at Sundance. The company is Mountainland Business Systems.

So I placed a call to Mountainland Business Systems.

Ben Ashby answered the phone and told me he would gladly help me out.  He ordered the cards we desperately needed.  He asked me to email all the card information so that he could find the correct ones.  He responded to every email immediately.  He quickly had our account set up with our tax free information and he had our cards ordered.  He gave me the price upfront and an estimated time of arrival.  Something my ex-vendor didn’t ever provide.

The best part about this was that when my cards arrived Ben didn’t call me and tell me to come pick them up.  NO!!!  Ben drove out and delivered them in person.  He brought swag as well.  He also brought a coworker who is a Photo ID consultant. He asked about our operation and what other possible needs we have.  I am stoked to have them as a Fargo printer shop.  It will help with my hate/hate relationship with that damn printer.

Ben did an awesome job for his company. He did what he said he would.  He went the extra mile to provide us great service.  Ben became a hero and a valuable asset to me.  Ben exceeded my expectations and because of this I will continue to do business with him.

Kudos to Mountainland Business Systems and Thank You Ben Ashby.

So if you need help with your AMAG Access Control System or with a Fargo ID Printer Please call my new BFF  Ben Ashby at Mountainland Business Systems.

Ben Ashby –Access Control  & CCTV Consultant

Mountainland Business Systems -http://mlbs.com/

180 West 2950 South

Salt Lake City, UT 84115

801-487-8508 EXT 1214

When I lived in Denmark, the Danish work week was 37 hours a week or . It made me ponder if American’s were successful because of their education, intellect, natural resources or because their workers just put more time in.

What do you think?

* Typical practice among large U.S. companies
Source: Mercer’s Worldwide Benefit & Employment Guidelines, 2009

I am not much of a book reader.  Most of my reading is from the web. I read a lot from the Internet and I mean a lot.  This is a collection of some of my favorite articles/blogs I have read.

How Will You Measure Your Life? By Clayton M. Christensen

Mr. Christensen is a professor at Harvard’s elite business school.  The gist of the article is: business skills will get you so far but creating a strategy for your life is much more important to help you create success.

Over the years I’ve watched the fates of my HBS classmates from 1979 unfold; I’ve seen more and more of them come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. I can guarantee you that not a single one of them graduated with the deliberate strategy of getting divorced and raising children who would become estranged from them. And yet a shocking number of them implemented that strategy. The reason? They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center as they decided how to spend their time, talents, and energy.

The choice and successful pursuit of a profession is but one tool for achieving your purpose. But without a purpose, life can become hollow.

Unfortunately the capitalists don’t want you to download a free copy.  I love Harvard Business Review but what sucks is that its free for a while then the article becomes pay to play.  I strongly suggest that you print to pdf if you want to save it for later.  If you want a copy of the above article send me an email and we can figure out a way to get this to you.

Steve Jobs: Career Advice for Tough Times By Carmine Gallo

The main keys are Put a dent in the universe, Kick-start your brain, Say no to 1,000 things, Master presentation skills and Don’t let bozos get you down.

Innovation sits in a lonely place because very, very few people have their courage of their convictions and the self-confidence to tune out negative voices. Perhaps the greatest lesson Steve Jobs teaches us is that risk-taking requires courage. Believe in yourself and your vision and be prepared to constantly defend those beliefs. Only then will you be able to lead an “insanely great” life and career.

Why do we fail? And how do we fix it? By Harvey Mackay

I love to read Harvey Mackay.  He is a seasoned business owner and a great writer of ideas.

Lack of persistence. More people fail not because they lack knowledge or talent, but just because they quit. It is important to remember two words: persistence and resistance. Persist in what must be done and resist what ought not to be done. We all have had setbacks in life. Failing does not mean we are failures!

Lack of conviction. People who lack conviction take the middle of the road. But what happens in the middle of the road? You get run over. People without conviction go along to get along because they lack confidence and courage. They conform in order to get accepted even when they know that what they are doing is wrong.

Rationalizing. Winners may analyze but never rationalize. Losers rationalize and have a book full of excuses to tell you why they could not succeed.

Not learning from past mistakes. Some people live and learn, and some only live. Wise people learn from their mistakes. Failure is a teacher if we have the right attitude. I’ve always said experience is the name we give to our mistakes.

Lack of discipline. Anyone who has accomplished anything worthwhile has never done it without discipline. Discipline takes self-control, sacrifice and avoiding distractions and temptations. It means staying focused.

Poor self-esteem. Poor self-esteem is a lack of self-respect and self-worth. People with low self-esteem are constantly trying to find themselves, rather than creating the person they want to be.

Fatalistic attitude. A fatalistic attitude prevents people from accepting responsibility for their position in life. They attribute success and failure to luck. They resign themselves to their fate, regardless of their efforts, that whatever has to happen will happen anyway.

Go to his website and read the rest of the article.  It’s brilliant.

Today I saw this clip thats just as priceless. Bernard Marcus is the founder and former CEO of Home Depot.

The other day I flipped on the TV and saw an interview with Donald Trump and his was bagging on the current President.  He said I know 10 business guys who could turn this country’s economy around immediately.  The problem is our President isn’t a business man. He is academic.   I love it. Donald Trump spells out the case.

Trump lists our economic enemies. OPEC and China are the two biggest.

I tend to agree with him. Our President isn’t leading an economic recovery by boosting business.

I thought I would write a few thoughts about employment. It’s easy to forget that as an employee your are a commodity easily bought sold or traded.  An employee can be upgraded downgraded or completely replaced.  Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we are replaceable.  I have been laid off five different times and here are some thoughts about keeping and or finding a job.

Become absolutely essential in your workplace.

If your company is struggling the owner will probably cut non-essential employees first.  It’s like a sinking ship.  First you throw out the items that are not 100% needed to keep the boat floating.

Too many workers do only what they are required to do, and nothing more. You can instantly increase your value to the company by going above and beyond what is expected of you, such as being willing to take on duties that others refuse to do.

Any employee can create an excellent opportunity by doing their absolute best all the time.  Make the best out of any situation, volunteer to do more and expand your knowledge and experience beyond your current job.  Take the opportunities to learn and be a better employee.  The ability to survive a downturn in the economy is the ability to adapt.  Learn a new skill, get the extra education, work on “other” projects.

Perform your duties of your job as if you owned the company.

Today often employees fail to take ownership in their jobs.  Creating ownership creates a sense of purpose and pride in one’s job. When you treat a company as if it were your own you will treat it better and the customers will notice.  Create ownership by embracing change and tackle all problems easy and hard with passion of owning the company, you will create a place for you in the future of the company.

With millions of people looking for work, remember to become the solution to the problem.

Don’t just ask for a job or hope that you don’t become the victim of a lay off but instead find ways you can increase revenues for your company or the company you want to work for. There are always jobs for forward thinkers who can improve sales, lower costs and make business more efficient.  Find the hidden prize.

Another way to be the solution is to be a good employee. Show up early for work, stay late, help your coworkers, don’t gossip, don’t spread rumors are ways to be a solution and not a problem.

Lastly… Network

Make friends and contacts far and wide in your path of business. Keep a database of your contacts.  You will never know when this resource will help you find and employee, solve a problem, or find you a new job.  People are an asset make as many friends as possible. Use the tools that are available, like facebook, linkedin, Outlook Address Book or even the old fashion method of a binder full of business cards.

I have a love hate relationship with my internet service provider. I love one thing… the speed but hate almost everything else.

Here are a list of things I would change if I were magically put in charge at Comcast.

Really I need to reboot my modem weekly?

Every week without fail I get to reboot my modem and my router for no reason other than it got confused.

Why does it matter to Comcast?

How the hell could I ever trust you with a business account. Could you even imagine if I had to call my clients I referred to you and have them unplug the modem and wait a few minutes and plug it back in. Now go to your router and do the same thing.  They would die.

How about saving some money by not requiring the novice user to contact you for support.

Upgrading my modem yearly

They expect me to drive to their location and stand in line for 20 minutes just to swap out my modem.

This just sucks. Can’t you mail me one and I send the other one back prepaid?

Payment…

I am a no hassle kind of customer.  Let me pay my account using a credit card or bank account and you will never ever hear from me again.  No need to send me a bill or a reminder just do your automagical bill pay and leave me the hell alone.  If I want to upgrade or buy more I will ask. Until then leave me alone.

I guess back in May my original card expired. I didn’t hear a peep from Comcast. Today I received a bill for two months payment. There was a pay by mail or a pay by phone for the low processing fee of $5.  WTF? Really I have to pay more to just pay my bill. I don’t think so.

I decided to just update my card.  I spent nearly 1 hour on the phone and in online chat trying to fix it. All I wanted to do was change my card info. My login I had record for didn’t work. I called. It took 3 tries to get to a live body.  The guy on the phone while sugary sweet was trying my patience. I was put on hold about every other question.  My time is just as valuable as yours don’t put me on hold. He transferred me and it didn’t work. I called back and the wait was longer than the original 10 minute hold time.

After several tries including putting my information in 3 times I got a live body via chat.

Why does this matter to Comcast?

I am a no hassle no frills customer. It takes nothing but uptime to make me happy. However if you make it a huge hassle to pay my bill I will become a nuisance.  Poor design makes it more labor intensive to service my needs as well as to just take my money. Streamline the process and make it easier for the customer. Don’t transfer me around for a simple billing change.

Do what you tell me you will…

I once cancelled my 2 year contract with Comcast Cable TV because they no showed  on the day of the install. After DirectTV didn’t want to help me get a DVR affordably after 8 years but would if I was a new customer, a Comcast rep came to my door promising me the moon and stars. I asked when he said tomorrow between 1 and 5.  He now showed. When I went to call my rep a DishNetwork rep appeared on my doorstep. I asked when and he installed it within an hour. I called right then and cancelled a $150 a month account.

Why does this matter?

You lost a customer for your services, all because you didn’t do what you promised. How many more are you losing? I know its impossible to please everyone all the time but you seem to constantly disappoint.

What has happened to customer service?

Over the last few months, customer services for products I have purchased and or use in my personal life and or my day job have become terrible.  I have meant to blog about them but I haven’t.

As I was browsing Facebook I saw a video post by a friend who posted a video about poor customer service. The company the video is about is Delta Airlines.

In my mind, the airlines are doing all they can to screw customers over.  And apparently Delta did to one poor guy.

The simple story:

Delta Airlines charged a local guy $200 to check his custom triathlon bike on a flight. During transit and or the handling of the bike, it gets destroyed. The bike is a custom triathlon bike. Delta won’t pay for the bike and won’t even refund his baggage fee despite the fact that the bike is a total loss.

Here is the video explaining why you shouldn’t fly Delta Airlines with a bike.

The video also advertises the posters website.  www.triandgiveadam.com. Apparently the video poster is James Lawrence.  James is trying to raise money to build dams in Kenya by doing 20 half-Ironman triathlons in 30 weeks.  His bike was destroyed while traveling back from a triathlon. It was a custom bike donated by a sponsor.

The Cause

“Give a Dam”  Quiet Way is working with the Kenyan government and Kenyan engineers to build approximately 1,000 water retention systems throughout Northern Kenya to relieve drought.  Each dam approximately between $10,000 and $15,000 to complete ($1,000,000-$1,500,000 total). The first two dams have been built, and began filling with water in November, 2009.  Studies are being done to insure that the design is self-sustaining, and effective.

“Famine relief” Quiet Way provides food staples to communities in Northern Kenya, currently suffering from drought and famine, until the “Give a Dam” water retention systems are in place to provide long-term relief.  Costs of feeding these communities is about $5 per person for a week.  (There are currently 3 million Kenyans starving due to drought.)

What do I think?

I think it’s a great cause. I hope my readers all donate at least $5 or at the very least post the video and share the charity website.

I think Delta should replace the bike and donate to the worthy cause as a way of making amends for horrible customer service.

What the hell has happened to Apple?

Steve Jobs and Apple  are acting like the Gestapo.

The background story in short…

An Apple engineer looses the next-gen iPhone prototype at a bar.  Some one finds it and and attempts to return it to Apple. Apple doesn’t realize its missing or whatever.  The finder after realizing that Apple doesn’t want it back, sells it to a tech site Gizmodo.

Apple has a cow…

Apple makes some calls “through its counsel” and the next thing to happen is that Jason Chen, one of the editors of the Gizmodo has his door kicked in, his house searched and his computers taken.  Apparently Apple has the power of Searches and Seizures. However California has a law that a journalists may not have a search warrant executed if the journalist is protecting a source. (see California Penal Code 1524(g) which refers to Evidence Code 1070).

Apple is now THE MAN

So Apple has the power to get the government to bust down a door and search homes in violation of the law?

I understand corporate espionage is a big deal. Businesses lose millions of dollars because of it.  Theft of data and intellectual property happens constantly. It should be stopped but it shouldn’t be stopped by attacking innocent people.

However this time I think Apple has gone to far.  Violating the law is an issue. Apple is appearing more and more like big brother lately.  In recent memory Apple has been extremely controlling over its apps store by deeming many to be “inappropriate“. (Google: Apple blocks apps) Its recent  iPad product is blocking major web technologies in an effort to control content.

I find this all quite disturbing… as does Jon Stewart in his hilarious rant…

Stewart’s best quote of many:

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Microsoft was supposed to be the evil one, but now you guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto while Commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitoes.”

After a 14 year run today was The End of The Chunga Show.

Apparently its been reported at All Access that Citadel the owner of The End has adopted a dj-less format that will focus on 90′s music and Gen X’ers.

ALL ACCESS is hearing from reliable sources that CITADEL Triple A KENZ(THE END)/SALT LAKE CITY is set to change formats TOMORROW (4/21) — the rumor is it will adopt the new jockless Gen X format that focuses largely on 90′s music. The station had been a Triple A since 1996.

Station APD/MD GRANT RUBY is one of many of the staff at the station that was let go today. You can reach him at grant.ruby@gmail.com.

No word posted yet on Grant Ruby’s blog. No word on their website either. Wikipedia posted that it ended today. CityWeekly Announced the demise.

While over the last few years I haven’t been a big fan of the Chunga show this is certainly a loss to Salt Lake City Radio.

A few weeks back I posted the Top 10 Computer Skills the Average Worker Should Have According to the IT Guy.  Today I would like to add some skills that people need to know using Microsoft Word. People often are unsure what Word skills they will need for a general office type of job. Applicants come to my place of employment all the time saying they know Microsoft Office software but they don’t really have basic skills to use it.

The idea behind this post  isn’t to be the end all be all documentation on Word but to get you the shy computer type to go out and figure these simple skills out. These are things that most jobs will expect you to know. If you are having too big of a struggle find  someone who can tutor you or use Google to find a how to.

Creating and Saving a Document

Creating a New Document:
This might sound silly but I have had to show too many users how to create a Word document.  Office 2007 didn’t make the task any easier but instead made it a little more confusing for the computer challenged.  In Word 2007 just click the round Office button at the top and select new and select blank. It ain’t rocket science but it will make you not look like a dork at your next job.

Saving a Document:
What’s the point if you can’t save your work?  Saving seems to come to users a little more naturally than creating but not by much. There are two saves. You can save your document and it will save it where ever the default location on your computer is located or you can choose save as and choose a file type and/or location. Office 2007 lets you choose several formats.  Generally speaking save it in the native format (whatever is the default for your version of Word).

Opening a Saved Document:
There are essentially two methodologies to opening a document.  One is to open Word select open and open an existing document.  The other method is to open up my computer and browse to a Word document (The windows Icon should be a dead giveaway) and the default application for that file type will open. Hopefully you chose a Word document.

Side Note: I am often called out to find lost documents. People save their files everywhere under the sun and expect me to read my crystal ball and find their document.  Windows has search function. Learn how to use it and how to browse through files and directories using My Computer.

Printing

Using Print Preview
Print preview allows you to look at how a document will print out on the page. It also allows you to make corrections to printing related items like margins etc. Play with this feature and you will learn a lot about how Word works.

Printing to a Printer
In an office environment odds are very good that you can print to several different types of printers such as laser, color, copiers and color laser. Understand the printer menu and the different functions.

Print selected Parts
You can print just sections of a document.  Learn to use print selection.

Print to File
This is a simple process that blows the minds of many entry level users. You can print to file. You can print to a text file that you would open using Notepad or you could print to a PDF style document. You don’t always have to print to paper.

Formatting Documents

Aligning/Justifying Text
Many people don’t understand different alignments of text. You can left align like normal books. Or you can center align meaning the document is aligned to the center being equal distance from the margin on the left and right but measured from the center. Lastly you can right align, I recommend learning proper formatting styles.  Justifying is making the margins equal without and jagged edges.

Fonts Style & Size
For some reason many users don’t understand the importance of fonts, styles and sizes. These items are used to organized documents and break up information. It is also used to make the document easier to read and to scan quickly. It is an art. There are hundreds of resources to help you learn this skill. If you master it there are jobs for you.  And no matter what Comic Sans is not a font you should ever use in a business document.

Line Spacing
Line spacing is about readability. Learn how to make documents easier to read by using proper line spacing. I remember my typing teacher (yes I am too old to have had word-processing in High School.) spending days upon days teaching us the proper formatting for documents. Line spacing was mission critical she used to tell us. We had style guide books that would tell us the number of returns for different documents.

Page Orientation
Portrait is when the document is taller than it is wide. Landscape is when it is orientated so that the document is wider than it is tall. This affects printing so learn the difference.

Margins, Headers, Footers and Pagination
These again are all about making the document readable. Margins are the white space around the text including top, bottom and sides.  Learn how to change them and learn what it does when you print a document. Printer cannot print right to the edges.

Headers and Footers are parts of the document that are on the top and bottom and usually repeat on every page. It is important to learn how to use them. Again it’s about readability of your document.

Pagination is a fancy term for numbering the pages in your document.

Editing Text

Cut, Copy, Paste & Deleting Text
These are the most important skills to have when using a computer. There are many ways to do them.  Learn how to do it using right click as well as keyboard short cuts like ctrl+c, ctrl+v.

Use Spell Check & Thesaurus
The spell checker, thesaurus and grammar checker in Word 2007 is really good. It’s not perfect so proof reading is still mandatory but it helps out tremendously. Learn how to use them. No reason to look like a special needs speller when you don’t need to be.

Using Find & Replace
There comes a time in every computer user that search and replace becomes important. Imagine you just wrote a huge 50 page document on the president of the company and your co-worker informs you, you  have misspelled his name. Instead of wondering if you found every mistake you can search and replace the incorrect with the correct. This is an important skill.

Advance Usage

Graphics
Everyone likes to insert pictures into their document. This takes some skill to get it to look proper. If you can insert a graphic and have the text align properly to the image you are ahead of the game of the basic Word user.

These are just some of the skills that anyone who says they can use Word should have in their employee tool belt.