Good or Bad Service issues? Tell Peter!
Thanks to MJ for reminding us about this quirky site www.hellopeter.com. It’s a forum where South Africa’s brands both big and small are named and shamed or praised. So basically if you have received shocking or great service from someone and you really need to let it out you just pop in here and let it flow for free and for everyone to see. The site sends the complaints and compliments t…o the company’s and the rest, as they say, is often a mystery! The site’s owner, Peter Cheales, is a Customer Service guru “A prolific author in the field of management and service, Peter has written 9 best-selling books including I Was Your Customer, Look Out, Passion Makes Perfect, The Whole Works, and Good News for the Modern Manager.” His site . HEROES of 2005 – they received compliments! Standard Bank (223 Compliments), ABSA Bank (159), First National Bank (159), Vodacom (157), MTN (147), Woolworths (121), 94.7 Highveld Stereo (115), Multichoice (112), Pick ‘n Pay (111), Discovery Health (106), Nedbank (94), OUTsurance (91), Spur Steak Ranches (88), Cell C (73), Edgars (59), Kentucky Fried Chicken (47), McCarthy (43), Dial Direct Insurance (40), Wimpy (40), Hi-Fi Corporation (38), Spar (33), Autopage (30), Auto and General (25), Santam (25) – and ALL other Companies Who Respond. Zeroes of 2005 – these brands received the most complaints: Telkom – (382 Complaints), South African Airways (323), Nokia (162), Nandos (151), Renault (131), Volkswagen South Africa (111), Game (84), BMW South Africa (83), McDonalds (79), Citroen (71), SABC (70), Incredible Connection (66), Ford (62), Toyota (53), Virgin Active SA (53), Kalahari.net (51), Samsung (51), Hyundai (50), Peugeot (48), Makro (45), City of Johannesburg Metro Municipality (37), Nestle (37), Daimler Chrysler (35), Dros (35), Motorola (33), Metro Police (31), WesBank (31), Tracker Network (30), Tata (28), Delta Motor Corp (27) – and ALL other Companies Who Don’t. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SITE. If anyone has any stories about their experiences with the Hello Peter site please email the editorista by clicking here....
Interesting: The list of 2005’s TOP 50 minds
One of Represent’s favourite sayings is from the revolutionary thinkers and authors Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell A. Nordstrom – “Rather be a first rate version of yourself than a second-rate copy of someone else.” Makes you think – doesn’t it – the fact is that fakes are easily detectable and very short-lived and not very well liked. You know which restaurant we’re talking a…bout yet? And as for people… We’re delighted to see that these bright sparks come in in 9th place on this years “Thinkers 50 – the 2005 global ranking of business thinkers ” compiled by Des Dearlove & Stuart Crainer. The top twenty are as follows (number in brackets represents their move from last year): 1 Michael PORTER (2) 2 Bill GATES (20) 3 CK PRAHALAD (12) 4 Tom PETERS (3) 5 Jack WELCH (8) 6 Jim COLLINS (10) 7 Philip KOTLER (6) 8 Henry MINTZBERG (7) 9 Kjell NORDSTRýM & Jonas RIDDERSTRýLE (21) 10 Charles HANDY (5) 11 Richard BRANSON (34) 12 Scott ADAMS (27) 13 Thomas A. STEWART (37) 14 Gary HAMEL (4) 15 Chan KIM & Renýe MAUBORGNE (31) 16 Kenichi OHMAE (19) 17 Patrick DIXON (46) 18 Stephen COVEY (16) 19 Rosabeth MOSS KANTER (9) 20 Edward DE BONO (35) So for those of us that enjoy inspiring reads from inspiring thinkers – treat yourself to a few of their books this Christmas and top up your brain ready for 2006. Here’s the buzz on the The Thinkers 50 book: “Who is the most influential living management thinker? That was the simple question that inspired the original Thinkers 50 in 2001. A lot of hard work and number-crunching later, the answer became the first global ranking of business gurus. The Thinkers 50 2005 provides a completely new ranking. Produced by Suntop Media in association with the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), it is the definitive bi-annual guide to which thinkers and ideas are in – and which have been consigned to business history” Click here for more....
Snazzy New Yellow and Black taxi’s for Jozi
We spotted the new shiny snazzy yellow and black AA cabs on Saturday for the first time in Empire road – we thought they looked very chic and never imagined that they would be competing with the usual Skorokoro taxis that one usually sees dragging themselves around. We called the number 083 69 22 222 to get more info on prices etc: From 5am to 9pm the cabs charge R8 per kilome…tre and can fit 4 people comfortably in them. From 9pm till 5am they charge R10 per kilometre. They have a ‘cheat’ free system – which means that they quote you on the phone based on a GPRS system that works out the shortest route to your destination and let’s you know exactly what you will be required to pay. SAVE THIS NUMBER TO YOUR PHONE 083 69 22 222 (083 my aa cab) and get a safe and reliable ride! And click here to go to their website to read all about...
Review: What the BLEEP is this movie?
Our resident Represent realist and movie fanatic Aquoibon was urged to watch this movie “What the Bleep do we know ?” . Aquoibon thought the film was a load of k*k getting way too much undeserved media and public attention – what do you think? Lame or Lovely? We warn you he shoots straights from the hip. Review: What the Blee…p do we know? I should have known better, the DVD cover design was threatening enough to warn me. At first, I cursed my TV set, thinking it was switching on it’s own to some Glomail infomercial, but when they started talking about quantum physics, I figured out they weren’t selling vacuum cleaners. Here is a short description from the movie’s website (whatthebleep.com) : “WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?! is a new type of film. It is part documentary, part story, and part elaborate and inspiring visual effects and animations. The protagonist, Amanda, played by Marlee Matlin, finds herself in a fantastic Alice in Wonderland experience when her daily, uninspired life literally begins to unravel, revealing the uncertain world of the quantum field hidden behind what we consider to be our normal, waking reality. The fourteen top scientists and mystics interviewed in documentary style serve as a modern day Greek Chorus. In an artful filmic dance, their ideas are woven together as a tapestry of truth. The thoughts and words of one member of the chorus blend into those of the next, adding further emphasis to the film’s underlying concept of the interconnectedness of all things.” First of all, the plot, cast and directing of this “fantastic Alice in Wonderland experience” could make your Saturday night soft-porn flick look like an award winning piece. Marlee Matlin impersonates an irritating camel-toed photographer, who goes through a very uneventful life crisis, but (warning, spoiler ahead) she turns out ok at the end and she even draws little flowers all over her body because she loves herself so much. Sickening! The “inspiring visual effects and animations” are hard to describe. Oros man meets the under-budget matrix??? As for the “fourteen top scientists and mystics” they interviewed. Here’s a couple of them: – JZ Knight (also called Ramtha) : Leader of the Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment. Ramtha is the name of a being that JZ Knight claims to channel. Knight asserts that Ramtha is a 35,000 year old spiritual being who was, according to Knight, “a Lemurian warrior who conquered the continent Atlantis and later became enlightened.” MORE ON RAMTHA – Dr. Joseph Dispenza : A chiropractor that, strangely enough, belongs to Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment. What does a chiro has to...
UPDATE – a $100 laptop for every schoolchild? Or not?
UPDATE!! Here’s an update on the laptops – looks like we may not get them after-all: Click here for the full article from tectonic.co.za:“According to MIT, the target price of $100 (or R653.66 at current conversion rates) should come down after the initial launch. Integrated prototypes of the Gen-1 laptop are expected in the third quarter of 2… 006, and manufacturing should start in the fourth quarter, with 10 to 15 million laptops expected to be shipped by the first quarter of 2007. Recipients of the laptops will most likely include Brazil, Thailand, Egypt, the State of Massachusetts in the US, Cambodia, Costa Rica and hosts of the last WSIS forum, Tunisia. South Africa was initially included in the list as a recipient of 1 million laptops, but Fantus Mobu from Sita’s procurement department told INET Bridge that SA had no commitment to purchase the laptops. This is despite the fact that one of the MIT professors leading the project – professor of education and media technology, emeritus for MIT’s Media Laboratory, Seymour Papert – was born and educated in South Africa, and was an active member in the anti-apartheid movement.” If anyone knows anymore on this – please do enlighten us…. ******************************************** 7 Oct Thanks to Stoffel for this great story, the MIT have designed a $100 laptop for every school-going child in developing countries – SA has apparently ordered a whole bunch – Fabulous – Can you just imagine what this investment in our children’s education will do for our country – MIT and Google – You rock! This summary is from THE ECONOMIST, however CLICK HERE for a full treatment from the BBC: The idea is as audacious as it altruistic: provide a personal laptop computer to every schoolchild-particularly in the poorest parts of the world. The first step to making that happen is whittling the price down to $100. And that is the goal of a group of American techno-gurus led by Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the fabled MIT Media Lab. When he unveiled the idea at the World Economic Forum in January it seemed wildly ambitious. But surprisingly, it is starting to become a reality. Mr Negroponte plans to display the first prototype in November at a UN summit. Five countries- China, Brazil, Egypt, Thailand and South Africa-have said they will buy over 1m units each. Production is due to start in late 2006. How is the group, called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), able to create a laptop so inexpensively? It is mainly a matter of cleverly combining existing technologies in new ways. The laptop will have a basic processor made by...
Proudly brought to you by:
