Umamiblog

The absolute best “how to find us” directions I have seen on the web. Ever. Once you load the page, click on “Contact us”.

Seen any other good ones?

For the last two days, we’ve [Intergen Interactive] been holed up in a secret bach location somewhere in Raumati. I think it’s really important to take some time out away from the office with your workmates. We had some really productive sessions discussing different issues and opportunities we’re facing at the moment. More importantly, we had a really good time. But how could you not with a sunset like this:

Yep, that is the South Island in the background. Magic.

Got back this week from one awesome trip with S to Samoa. It was absolutely brilliant and I’d thoroughly recommend it. Highlights for me would be the people, they’d have to be some of the friendliest on earth. Driving on the right side of the road in our wee rental Chevy jeep. Big old glass Coke bottles, stacked next to coconuts in the fridge and snorkeling in pristine warm sea waters. Check out the set on flickr.

Consider it for your next holiday!

This coming Monday I’m presenting at the Emerging Web Technologies and Trends conference in Auckland. Run by Brightstar it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun and I’ll be talking on introducing Web 2.0 concepts. It has meant a bit of hard return to work from a holiday straight into getting a presentation together but also quite rewarding at the same time.

On the remote chance someone reading this blog will be there… I look forward to seeing you there!

“I don’t feel safe at this school” Vs. “I want to go to school”.

Education is broken.

S had an interesting experience late last week with everyone’s favourite state-owned postal service. We’ve been living to a bit of a tighter budget lately in an effort to save some dosh. So with S’s younger sister having her 23rd birthday S collected a bunch of wee presents and went to the post shop to send them down to Dunedin.

The task she wanted to complete was simple:

• send items to Dunedin
• but at a reasonable price
• and quickly enough so they would make it by Monday (this was on Friday)

After watching the person ahead of her in line get mauled by a particularly shitty service representative while trying to pay a bill, S walked up and started to communicate what she wanted. Needless to say, she received some pretty crappy service.

S learned for the first time that NZ Post has stopped the “Fast Post” option for packages so she now had two choices. Normal post for $10 which would take 3 days or courier post for $33 which would arrive overnight. So faced with having to choose between the package arriving a day late for the birthday date or paying 3 times the price S decided on the slower and cheaper option. Understandably she was a little disappointed that her sister wouldn’t receive the package in time for her birthday.

S then received a text message from her sister the next day… the package had arrived!

Now, the service S received was hopelessly poor. She left feeling absolutely wild and in no way did the representative try to help S complete her task – she just wanted to go through the motions/process.

So NZ Post technically exceed her expectations. The package arrived early and that meant it was there in time for her sister’s birthday – and this meant something personally to S.

Normally when a customer has their expectations exceeded, they like to tell a few people and spread the word. When they’re not meet at all they’ll tell around 10 people of their negative experience.

Because of the needlessly bad service S received while trying to complete her task, she has told a number of people of her negative experience even though her expectations were exceeded! Having the package arrive early means she feels that the service representative didn’t know her job or what she was talking about.

So congratulations NZ Post, as far as you’re probably concerned you did a great job and got a package to a destination in a fraction of the time you said it would take. But you’ve also just ensured your customer will tell people of a bad experience and you’ve also ensured she’ll never pay for the more expensive (and more profitable) option.

If you want to exceed someone’s expectations and create a positive experience, you have to treat people like they’re your valued customers…

On February 18th, 10,000+ people will run, walk, and roll along Wellington’s harbour as part of the annual Round the Bays run. Last year was my first time and I had an absolute blast. If you haven’t done it before and are contemplating it… JUST DO IT! As a bonus geekiness, this year everyone gets issued with transponders so you’ll get an accurate time for the race too!

On the most part I’ve been fairly impressed with the marketing effort. This morning I received an email from the organisers mentioning the run [good] and the need to get registered soon [very good] and even let me know that there were multiple ways to register [very good]. However there is one major thing wrong with their email. Can you spot it? Here is the text from the email verbatim:

Hi there,

The Vector Wellington Round the Bays is now only 11 days away!

We’ve been receiving an enormous number of registrations which means we have had to make a few changes to the registration process.

Registration Number Cap of 12,000 Entries
With registrations coming in thick and fast we are on track to break the magical 10,000 registrations number. However, this has highlighted a possible logistical problem and we need to put a cap of 12,000 entries for this year’s event. To ensure you secure an entry into the event, register online this week as entries may close at 12,000 next week. Don’t forget to pass on the message to your friends and family so they don’t miss out.

Extension of Online Registrations
The online registration dates have been extended to ensure you can secure a place.

Family Online Entries have been extended to Monday 12th February 1pm.
Individual Online Entries have been extended to Friday 16th February Midnight.

See you on the 18th February 2007!

Regards

Michael Bennington

General Manager
Vector Wellington Round the Bays another iconic Sport Wellington Event

What do you think?

(via)

exceed expectations and take vacations

Kelly Goto on paying your dues/working smarter, not harder

Spotted in a building carpark off The Terrace…

Two more sets added to flickr. I took a few photos from my short holiday in Taranaki. Each year the local council runs the “Festival of Lights” in New Plymouth’s Pukekura Park. Not being from Taranaki, I remember locals telling me I had to see “the lights” because they were “so amazing”. I pretty much thought everyone was smoking crack… until I went and saw them for myself. They actually are amazing – my photos don’t do it justice.

New Plymouth Festival of Lights set »

And last weekend I went to a wedding in Christchurch which was, as usual, a lot of fun to catch up with friends and family. For those of you that know Phil and Philippa, here are the shots I took of their wedding. The 11am flight home on Sunday was wayyyyy to early though meaning I was a complete munter for most of Sunday.

The Phils’ Wedding set »

My all-time favorite scene from my all-time favorite movie.

What’s yours?

(via Swissmiss)