January, 2009 Archive

The Curve Theatre – Leicester

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Speaking at De Montfort University last week was a joy! The students were good listeners (they had to be as I banged on well over my allotted time) and Diane Taylor, their esteemed doctor of humanities and media, was a great hostess.

I was given a tour of The Curve Theatre, a brand-spanking-new entertainment hub in the town which towered into the mid-day blue sky with a curious infinity-like grace.

I’m not normally in awe of modern architecture but could have craned my neck at it for hours! IMAGE_078

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Swinton Insurance Customer Service – Gotta Love ‘Em

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When you’ve just taken out insurance with a new provider, it’s bad enough to get an email with a subject line saying:

“Customer reminder: You (sic) home insurance is due for renewal in 15 days”

But when you get another one a few minutes later saying –

“Customer reminder: You (sic) home insurance is due for renewal in 5 days”

– alarm bells should definitely start ringing!

This happened to me this week but Swinton were swift to rectify the problem with yet another email with a subject line:

“We’re sorry…”

The emails content was perfect:

“We are very sorry but we have made a mistake in sending you an email informing
you that your home insurance is due for renewal.  This email has been sent to
you accidentally by an over enthusiastic member of our team.
  Please ignore this
and we are sorry for any misunderstanding this has caused.

If you do have Home Insurance with Swinton, please refer to your policy
documentation or local branch for details of your exact renewal date and ignore
the email that has been sent in error.

Yours sincerely,

The Swinton Team”

Nice customer service Swinton!

Just goes to demonstrate the effectiveness of putting your hands up, admitting your wrong with a bit of humour, and setting your customers expectations that they have nothing to action or worry about! 🙂

And The “I’m A PC” T-Shirt & Sticker Winners Are……

You may remember the contest I posted last week? Well the votes are in and I’m please to announce the winners are:

Matthew – AKA http://www.twitter.com/screename for “I’m A Graphic Designer” – good luck with the course and remember, there’s lots you can be learning while you’re working at McDonalds too!!

Gary Robinson – for “I’m A Socialist!” – very clever play on words! Maybe Matthew could mock up some T-Shirts with his new found graphic design skills!

CIMG2200 All I need now are your addresses, so contact me through my contact form and I’ll send the prizes out ASAP!

Thanks for everyone who participated! 

And please….no Kate Winsletesque acceptance speeches! 🙂

 

Woolworths Refund Helpline Number

IMAGE_076 Further to my Woolworths Eulogy a couple weeks back, I was passing a store in Putney which was all boarded up with signs about refunds.

Obviously if all the stores are now closed, there’s nowhere to turn if you bought something in the “Woolrush” and want to exchange or refund it!

There is a helpline number – 0844 8117 112 – if you found something dodgy in your pick ‘n’ mix. 🙂

I wonder how much the www.woolworths.co.uk domain name is worth though?

How much would you pay for it?

NY Competition – Win an "I’m A PC" T-Shirt & Stickers

During the latter part of 2008, not a day went by without someone pinging me for some of the I’m A PC stickers I have adorning my laptop!

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Well 2009 has bought new riches to my desk in Cardinal Place in the form of blue and yellow stickers AND…………………………….two T-shirts!

“I’m A PC” Ts are like gold dust and you can see why from how fabulous I look in one! 😉

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So I’ve decided to give them away in a competition which is tied to New Years Resolutions and Ambition!

The question is very simple:

“What will you be in 2009 and why?”

Imagine what you want to achieve over the next twelve months, and think what you’d want on an “I’m A ???” T-shirt at the end of the year.

I’ll start by saying I want to have a T-shirt saying “I’m A Super-Happily Married Man!”

Why?

Because I’ve started the ball rolling towards the most important day in my life and, although I know the next 8 months will be a logistical and financial challenge, I’ll try my hardest to get through it with as little stress as possible and with a huge smile on my face once I’ve said I DO!

Now that’s a pretty personal one but it can be career or work-related!

Over to you……comment below! I’ll pick the winner next week!

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