December 2, 2011 5:21 pm | Leave your thoughts
Free entry to the Natural History Museum has boosted visitor numbers by 190%
Are you looking to attract more customers? Then you need to follow the example set by some of the UK’s museums and give your customers something for free.
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November 7, 2011 5:25 pm | Leave your thoughts
Gary Barlow - now Scarborough pantomime's biggest promotor
When Gary Barlow said to one of the X-Factor contestants that his act was like ‘a bad pantomime in Scarborough’ the audience lapped it up in the usual way. Criticism like that is, after all, just part of the X-Factor experience.
But for some Scarborians, the comment meant far more than the throwaway line it was intended to be. According to the local paper the comment has sparked outrage and fury.
However, I was impressed when I heard an interview with the head of one of Scarborough’s pantomimes on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Breakfast show today. Because rather than complaining about Barlow’s comments, he was thanking him for bringing attention to the town and already had promotional posters being printed with the slogan ‘As criticised by Gary Barlow!’.
I loved that – not only was the getting national news coverage for his production but he was going to milk the opportunity even further by playing on Barlow’s comment with his posters around the town.
That is pure opportunism and should be applauded. If those kind of opportunities come your way in business, you have to take them.
The only thing he didn’t do was get in a plug for his website or give out an 0800 number to enable people to buy tickets. Maybe there will be a next time to rectify this, but I doubt that Gary Barlow will give them a second chance…
November 4, 2011 11:25 am | Leave your thoughts
With the BBC celebrating 75 years of broadcasting this week, it brought into focus the massive change in TV that we have seen in recent years. From a few programmes a day, we now have zillions of channels to choose from which are broadcasting 24×7 (but some would argue there’s still nothing to watch!).
And the same is true with communications technology. We all know about the proliferation of communications channels with social media and mobiles on top of face to face and traditional telephony.
But this abundance of choice can bring its own perils, because the old adage that ‘its not what you say but how you say it’ holds true but there is now a third dimension…the medium you use to say it.
Choosing to send a Tweet or a text rather than call someone suggests brevity – which some admire, but others will take to mean ‘you couldn’t be bothered’.
Emailing large documents when someone is out of the office might get the information to them but is it in a format whereby they can read it and get to the bits they need. In this case a text message might be better.
And then there is the case of mistaken medium whereby you mean to text someone from your phone but end up Tweeting them instead and what should have been private becomes all too public. In case you are wondering, this wasn’t me, or indeed the classic ‘friend’ but a BBC Radio 5 Live presenter. Thankfully the content of her message to her husband wasn’t anything too embarrassing but I’m sure it amused her 9000+ followers!
Sometimes you need technology to help you, so if you run more than one business, you don’t want to answer your phone with one company name if the caller was expecting to speak to another. Using call whispers is the answer as it announces the source of the call before you speak to the caller, which helps to avoid those embarrassing moments and makes you sound ultra professional.
October 18, 2011 9:31 am | Leave your thoughts
There can be few people who didn’t hear about BlackBerry’s massive service problems last week. A faulty switch at a datacentre left customers unable to use the messaging and web browsing services on their handsets.
Initially, BlackBerry tried to play it down, giving little information to the press and customers except short statements saying that they were sorting it out. However, the longer the problems went on (over 3 days!) and the more people that were affected (millions of users worldwide), it became clear that this was a big deal and the company was forced into crisis management mode.
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March 14, 2011 4:17 pm | Leave your thoughts
Chris Moyles - ranted about Radio 1's 03 number
Driving into work this morning, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and, as usual, I had the Chris Moyles Show on the radio. Now, Moyles likes to talk but one particular link caught my attention when he had to read out Radio 1’s telephone number so that listeners could call the show.
Now it isn’t unusual for him to have a bit of a rant, but in this case Moyles vented an opinion that he thinks Radio 1’s phone number is, frankly, rubbish. And he’s got a point because most radio stations use a phone number that has something to do with either their broadcasting frequency or the name of the station. But Radio 1’s number is 03700 100 100.
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