Put People First in Business

Businesses are made of people. People do not do business with an organisation, they do not buy from a brand. They do business with other people. Now are you reading anything you don't know? No. Nothing. Not a zilch. Of course you do business with people and any good manual will tell you this.

But you will be amazed at how many people out there don't realise this. They think about internal processes, they think about marketing strategies, they think about company policy and how smelly that person next to them is. What they don't think about is the raison d'etre of their being, their sustenance without which they would wither away. That is the people they serve.

Whether it be in the private or business sector, organisations would not and often end up not existing if they do not meet their needs of the individuals that they serve.

It is to this aim, this one and single aim, that all work should be done. This does not mean provide work unsuited to your talents or abilities. This does not mean service work that is below you target clientèle.

This does mean remember who puts the food on the table...and that wide-screen television on your lounge wall....and that Jaguar out in the drive way....A smart person like your self gets the point.

Everything should be centred around their needs. Processes should be streamlined to give the least hassle to your customers, staff should be singing off the same hymn sheet, and products should be placed on the market on value, not price (the only exception to this is if the value you bring to your client and price are one and the same).

To often a company or organisation could be providing a much needed service or product, and the only thing stemming the tide of happy customers is poor customer service and general lack of etiquette.

How would you treat your friend? Would you not want to tell them about this fantastic product that meets their needs? You wouldn't be rude, abrasive, aggressive or just down right rugby scum pushy. Politeness, an at-ease attitude, coupled with confidence in your range of products, are the winning solution.

But what about repeat sales? A second category of company falls at this hurdle. This is the company that has its products tip-toe, it's customer service friendlier and more accommodating than Wooster ever had in Jeeves, and yet its after care is as rude a bear wrestlers arm pits.

Are you getting the product to the customer on time? Is there a lot of form filling and bureaucracy taking place? How do you handle problems; timely and without hesitation or slowly with lots of grumbling taking place?

Thirdly what thought is given to the customer once they have become a fully fledged member of the I-BOUGHT-FROM-YOU club? Do they get a get a club tie? Companies pass the first two hurdles, but drop at the third. After sales service and communication is integral to maximising the trust gained in your company by the customer, and also by keeping them up to date with what you are doing, what new products or services you have and how you could meet some new needs of theirs.

The question is, do you dump em and leave em, or, like a proper Romeo, do you keep them sweet even after the initial romance had died off? Repeat sales are integral to almost every business. Someone who buys only once is an indication of something having gone terribly wrong. Be nice. Don't ignore them after the one night stand. Send them a letter, even if you know the occasion was a casual one.

And remember, business is based on people. Play to that, and everything else will follow.

Table Of Contents

In the voice of usefull information it is I write this post.

Programming is the name of the game. However there are often those nigley jobs that have to be done. Those secondary, even tertiary tasks that are small, unlikable and unavoidable.

It is in this manner that I hope to make the lifes of everyone who has to write a report that bit easier.

The contents section at the beginning of any report is always best left done to the end. Before i knew this feature of Word, I hated doing this. Every section removal, chapter addition or page change would lead to a slog to the contents section to make sure that everything else matched.

Alas it was pointed out, as is now to you, that Microsoft Word has a nifty feature of generating Table of Contents automatically for you.

Here's how you do it.

Step 1 Go through your document and give each chapter heading you want to appear in the contents a style format h1. Thats right, select the text and go to styles. From there just chose h1.

Step 2: Now inside every chapter, if there is important bits that you also want to appear in the contents, select it and style it with the h2 format.

Step 3: At the page you want to insert the table, choose Insert > Reference > Index and Tables. Click on the Table of Contents tab and then click OK.

Step 4: Edit it to your hearts desire. If you had made changes to the document and the contents is not reflecting this, press F9 for options on updating and editing it.

There you have it. My first usefull information post. I had to give in a report today and this was most useful. Now for you rascals who don't know this get back to work and give me ten lines.

'Insert > Reference > Index and Tables'
'Insert > Reference > Index and Tables'
'Insert > Reference ......'

Lift off Into IT

Flying, I wonder what would make this blog unique. What unique topics could this cover? Software Engineering, algorithms, design, coding standards, best practise, management, development?

Alas they have all been done before. But making my big splash (and do realise I am still just launching of the dive board) will not happen through a pro longed conversation on some pithy points, but looking at the full spectrum that makes up the software development process.

Now now before I hear shouts of 'what ho jimmy that has boat allready sailed', I must counter with a powerful left hook that would make Gordon Brown spasm with envy.

Its not what you do, but how you do it. This blog intends to bring to the masses news, tips, advice, discussion and gossip of the IT world in a new voice.

Now friends reading this will go WHAT! Not that manky, croaky, ruffed by larger, picqued by gin and thoroughed by early starts and late nights voice emenating from a throat that rumbles in such a way to leave women and men alike quaking in the furrows? Surely not?

Well... no. This is not a pod cast and thus my wonderous voice does not carry well over the written form. There are born writers, and born speakers. This will be a test (and ok ramble) to see which am I and what can be done via this median.

My voice will be; the voice of reason, the voice of dreams, the voice of usefull information, the voice of hmm? and the voice of what!

Hello world!

The title of this first post, supplied by a friend, is fitting. As a programmer I get the irony, but for someone dive bombing for the first time into the world of blogging it is also a fitting mantra. The large kid running up and flying through the air, holding his knees in his arms as he prepares to soak all those unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity, would with pride shout ‘Hello World!’ before making the plunge.

Here I am, hoping to make the plunge, and get a few people wet at the same time….