TELL ME ABOUT "THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE"

What looks good to the customer? Here we will join a prospect on the journey to becoming a loyal customer.

It is about the things you and your customer do together. These are called "touchpoints".

From first contact with a customer, through to final delivery and payment, you meet on specific occasions, called "touchpoints". Touchpoints lie on the consumption process. There are other points where you or the customer must do things - tasks - but they are not touchpoints.

All the touch points, in a line, make "the customer journey" along the consumption process, the "buying journey", from marketing process, to sales, to customer service.

And overall, we talk about "the customer experience", CX, of this journey.

What does "good" feel like for the customer? Because your customer's experience is not just about tasks or a set of actions. It is also about feelings.

How do prospects or your customers feel about your brand?

At every customer touchpoint, you can improve—or destroy—how your customers feel about you.

So there are important decisions to make at each touchpoint, and those decisions have an impact on  your business results.

In all humility, we must recognise that often  one company's products or services are often like another's. So the difference is in the customers' experience of you and your brand.

A good CX might come from attention to matters like:

Does your marketing respond to your prospects' and customers' wants and needs in ways that they can understand and relate to?

Is your website easy to find, navigate through? Is it helping and guiding and assisting the visitor?

Do you have clear objectives, a strong CX strategy, adequate resources, to support the customer on the consumption journey? From this derives the level of customer satisfaction, which is measurable.

Your customer relationship management (CRM) strategy will explain how you intend to marshall resources to deliver an experience that will "delight", meaning that at each touchpoint, the customer will have a valuable, positive and differentiated good time. Front and back office departments will work together to deliver this.

"Good" means the customer walks away from each touchpoint feeling happy and satisfied. Marketing campaigns are well targeted, products and services are clearly explained, buying is easy, no problem to contact someone when needed, a customer's loyalty is rewarded, they feel the interactions have been personally tailored to them.

In the back office, all the data supporting the journey is joined up under the process phases and steps and the company benefits from these interactions to improve the process.

And that is how you create a win-win customer experience.

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NOODLES

Noodles: you can buy a packet for twice nothing. It's got noodles, plus two sachets - one is spices and the other is gravy granules.

Noodles are quick, simple, tasty, nutritious, cheap.

1. Boil the noodles five minutes in ample water, tip out of your wok and put to one side.

2. Fry the ingredients in your wok: like protein, any protein such as shrimps or diced chicken or tofu; and veg, any veg in season that you can cut up.

3  Add in the spices (they come in that little sachet with the noodles).

4. Add a few tablespoons of water and tip in the flavouring sachet (eg chicken granules, this sachet is like Bisto and it thickens up the dish as well).

5. After a couple of minutes it's all done and ready to serve.

TIP I add slices of preserved ginger when frying.

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IS THE EU A MARXIST-LENINIST ORGANISATION?

21 December 2021

Interesting how Lenin, who was chairman of the communist Party, organised the state. 

The economy was 80% rural, 20% urban, 90% of industry was state owned.

All public institutions and some private-sector corporations had a shadow leadership comprised of party officials.

The EU employs a similar strategy. If you look beyond the great institutions we all know - Commission, Council, Parliament, Court of Justice, Court of Auditors - you'll find about 34 EU agencies. 

Each was created by taking over and amalgamating national agencies. These agencies have taken regulatory, operational and policy-related tasks in various sectors -  aviation and space (EASA), banking, chemicals, environment, food safety, pharmaceuticals, policing and many other areas. The "commanding heights" of the economy, to borrow a phrase from Lenin.

The EU offers to give legal certainty to the regulations and to subsidise operations in return for rewriting the charter to serve its political objectives (eg freedom of movement) and the transnational agency accepting political appointees onto its board.

The Communist Party ran the country, there was no opposition, it was a one-party state.

Lenin died in January 1924 after a series of strokes. Stalin took over. 

Collectivisation began in 1928/9 resulting in seven or eight million deaths from starvation and 40 million in constant hunger, in the land of plenty.

The great purges began in 1936. For example, 150 of his 180 military commanders, each responsible for a division of 15-20,000 men, were executed. Stalin signed page after page, thousands of names, for his death squads.

Let's hope the EU doesn't revert to that.

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DO COUNTRIES BREAK THEIR TREATIES?

20 December 2021

Ref the WA and NIP.

It is not really fair to say that the UK is breaking a treaty which it had itself only just signed. There are many reasons why countries break treaties, but let's just look at some historical precedents.

The treaty of Versailles was drafted by the UK and signed by Germany without Russia even being present. Both Germany and Russia were flat on their backs. Some say this treaty was far too harsh and provoked the Germans, while others say it was not enforced as it should have been by the British.

Fact is, from 1922 onwards, the uk attempted to undermine the treaty, its own treaty, and re-integrate Germany. This culminated in Chamberlain's brilliant but failed Munich visit. (Remember, we are told that Chamberlain should have made a deal with Russia, but then as he had said to his sister, "how would I then get the Russians out of central Europe?").

All consider the reunification of Germany. Russia agreed to this and to accepting the debts of its former satellites as well as their now being independent sovereign states, if it could keep its seat on the security council. Of course, it hadn't much choice. But when it did, it reintegrated the Crimea, in defiance of I to law, and is working on the rest.

The UK similarly with this withdrawal agreement and the NIP. The UK government t had little choice at the time, but now it does.

Let's not be too innocent of the workings of great power politics.             

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WHEN ATTACKED BY A DOG

19 December 2021

If a dog bites your arm/leg, you push into their mouth, rather than trying to pull outwards, and it forces them to open their mouth. I've used that successfully with a 100+kg dog. 

If they are attacking rather than just biting and holding, grab the skin at the back of their head, so they can't shake. Hitting them, gouging their eyes, or otherwise hurting them, is more likely to make them double down and start trying to shake you rather than release you.

Covering their eyes can help make them momentarily release, if you can use a towel or t-shirt to cover their head, that works well. But it'll only give you a brief window of opportunity. 

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THE THAI GOVT WANTS TO END MASS TOURISM

18 December 2021

https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2021/12/17/thailand-again-signals-end-of-mass-tourism-thai-examiner/

When change is needed, this can sometimes come if a leadership sees the need to innovate and adapt and maybe it gets inspired; but often it requires a change of leadership. That is the beauty of democracy - the people can overthrow a tired old government, peacefully.

Instead of closing down a successful sector of the economy, mass tourism, as this article from The Thai Examiner suggests, the Thai govt could try first to create a new and promising sector or sectors.

For example, in 1979, Deng Xiaoping visited America to meet Pres. Clinton. He was the People's Republic of China chairman from December 1978 to November 1989. He had seen Japan, S Korea and Taiwan becoming immensely rich and wanted to know more. China was at that time following the Russian USSR ideology.

What he observed was that those three countries were making very high quality goods, at competitive prices, and the huge and wealthy American Middle class was buying them.

In 1980, China was awarded Most Favoured Nation status. A rare and extremely valuable honour.

Under Deng Xiaoping's leadership, China switched from the USSR model to the American, while remaining "Communist". ("Communist", in reality, means a one-party state that controls the economy, mostly through ownership, and the people, through a Ministry of Security, aka the secret police). China started doing the same thing - Deng completely re-oriented the economy from agriculture to production for export.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Now, of course, there is an even bigger and wealthier middle class. And it is not in America.

It's in China.

What does the Chinese middle class want? Well, Thailand could find out and get manufacturing.

Or it could stick with mass tourism. It's up to the PM. 

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ALDOUS HUXLEY

Only the film quality tells you this interview took place over 60 years ago.

https://youtu.be/alasBxZsb40

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BACKGROUND ON PACO

https://youtu.be/eRG1QpM3PR4

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THE PANDEMIC WILL BE OVER BY VALENTINES

9 December 2021

Omicron looks like it could be a busted flush: yes, transmission is more rapid; yes, immune escape doubles number of infections; but no, it is near harmless, Putin called it "a natural vaccine".

Sajid Javid, 10 December : "Very soon, in the days and weeks that lie ahead, if, as I think is likely, we see many more infections and this variant [omincron] becomes the dominant variant, there will be less need to have any kind of travel restrictions at all."

News from Guatang 9 December: 

This from a doctor in Gauteng, yesterday 9 December

The case for immune escape and quick spread is well made. The important remaining attribute is virulence, deadliness, morbidity, whatever we decide to call it. Is it sufficiently milder to the degree that it makes up for many people getting the disease at the same time? The data we have from a territory already overrun with infections suggests an overwhelming yes.
The data from the Gauteng province in South Africa, a real life case study of 15 million people, is that the degree to which symptoms are less severe more than make up for the immune escape and increased transmissibility that would otherwise have been a concern. And that is in a much less vaccinated population. Hospitals are still performing elective surgeries at full capacity. I can assure you in Covid waves in SA that has not been the norm.
Case growth has now slowed substantially in this province in the span of a week, indicating that cases are about to peak. Goverment modelling is 2nd week of December, the independent Discovery Group modelling was similar.
That would be the first Covid wave since the start of the pandemic, that has peaked without a surge in oxygen use. The CEO of the largest private hospital group Netcare says with few exceptions, most will probably be cared for in primary care in this wave. His observations are consistent with published data, consistent with Mediclinic (2nd largest group), and consistent with the SAMRC study in state hospitals.
I don't think people let it sink in what that means. As per my other comment below, 1 million cases per day, as scary as it sounds, is not a problem if the difference in severity is what has been observed. Even if all the above on symptoms is complete hogwash, the strain is so transmissible that these measures won't make any difference.

1 million per day is not as bad as it sounds if the reduction in severity is as substantial as it appears to be.
The Gauteng province in South Africa has over 10 000 reported cases per day, if we assume 1 in 20 detection rate as Javid does for the UK (optimistic for SA, but argument's sake let's do), then the province has 200,000 cases per day, 5 times less than a million, in a population that is also about 5 times less than the UK.
Hospitals are far from full, the rise there was was mostly due to incidental positives amongst patients admitted for other reasons. Numbers are still lower than the lows of the 2nd/3rd inter wave period.
Elective surgeries are happening, oxygen demand has not surged at all.
The one link below is the largest private hospital group, the second a study by the SA Medical Research Council in state hospitals. They independently observed the same thing:
https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/545230/omicron-symptoms-are-far-milder-says-netcare/
https://www.samrc.ac.za/news/tshwane-district-omicron-variant-patient-profile-early-features
Case numbers, now almost 100% Omicron, have gone through the roof in Gauteng, not "early days" anymore.
Sage says even with a modest reduction in severity, hospitals will face pressure due to sheer numbers.
The Gauteng province has those sheer numbers. But yet the hospitals are not facing any pressure whatsoever, in fact it does not look like the midst of a Covid wave.
The reduction in severity is not modest, it is an irrational assumption given the evidence. South Africa is not the UK, true. It is much less vaccinated, and it has not had a wave driven by the Alpha variant, which is also the B.1.1 lineage like Omicron, and prevalence of HIV is high. All of these differences, if anything, favours the UK.

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HAS THE EU STOPPED WAR IN EUROPE?

11 December 2021

It's not as simple as political differences that create war. Europe has had nothing but wars- first religious wars and colonial, then liberalism fascist communist, now federalism nationalism, and currently woke gender race sex religion.

It's economic, material, interests and the nature of man (for it is usually men).

The EU are under the illusion that their expensive interfering talking shop defused the drive for military action, but actually it's because democracies don't go to war with each other, NATO keeps the peace and economic integration is so near complete.

The only thing that has surprised me is that the elites lost to Brexit, but that hasn't led to war-war.             

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HOW TO MANAGE A COMPLAINER

9 December 2021

Constant negativity about everything, always wanting to-be more negative than anyone else,

But you know what? She thinks she is the victim of bad things happening in the world - she herself is NOT a negative person!

No point in telling her how lucky she's been in life as she will just tell you more of the bad things that have happened toher, to convince you!!

Maybe find a parable to help her understand?

Better to agree with her. Then when she knows you understand, you can change the subject to something happier. That is the trick.

Someone who complains all the time is someone who finds life full of problems. That is her character and you won't change it. She wants to share, but isn't looking for solutions. She wants you to agree - then she'll feel better.

Of course, sometimes it is a genuine complaint. So then, you can genuinely sympathise and - because it is real - you can very briefly offer a real-world solution.

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