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Poor Customer Service…

So, if you follow me on twitter… you’ll have noticed, that a company has ‘fobbed’ me off recently.

Have to admit, extremely disappointed with the whole experience of their so called, ‘customer service’.

Bal, who are they?

Yep – the ones who sell GAMEs.

Bal, what happened?

Basically… we went in there for some advice. Cut the long story short… we were mis-sold an item. It was an activation code for a games console.

When I rang their customer service, and emailed them – they’ve just ‘fobbed’ me off. Nothing they can do. We can’t exchange. Nothing we can offer. The usual…

What disappoints me the most is, they didn’t even try to make it up to me.

They didn’t even ask me for the details… They didn’t even try. That’s the worse thing about it. Not. Even. Trying.

Well.. guess what, they’ve lost a customer.

Not one customer. Several customers. My family. My friends. My blog readers. And.. many more.

It did make me think about the Enterprise advert… remember this?

How should customer service be?

That’s right- the power of customer service should be turning that frown, upside down!

Make the customer happy. They parted with hard earned money… and if they’re not happy… do what you can to keep them on side.

Have them on side – they’ll part with more money.

Don’t… and guess what, you’ll lose them.

Can I be the first customer they’ve done this to? – Probably not.

So let’s look at their share price…

Well…. look at that. Like most high street stores – share price has drastically dropped from January 2015 to July 2017… then just slowly decreased to date… (today it’s at 25).

I reckon… their poor customer service must play a part in their decline. Obviously there’s other factors… but poor customer service = less customers. Simple.

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Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

Many times… we’ll look to the past. Look to why things didn’t work out. Why didn’t it work out. How didn’t it happen. Why did things change…

But the problem is… why consume energy and time looking back? – because that’s the time you take your eyes of the road in front of you.

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Fitness and Airpods

Rumors are… there’s some new Airpods coming very soon!

I know – some folk will be thinking – why the excitement? What’s new about them? What else could you do with them?

Well.. for starters, we know that Apple are serious about fitness.

We’ve seen this in the iWatch. We’ve seen this in all the latest Apple gadgets. And we’ll see it in the new Airpods! That’s right – they’ll have a wellness sensor which adds to the whole Apple Fitness Ecosystem.

There’s also wireless charging, Siri functionality and a few other tweaks – mainly to the speakers to make the sound, sound better.

We are becoming more ‘wireless’. We are becoming more ‘fitness’ and health aware. With new devices, they encourage us to focus on the right things in life. Our health.

In the future – we’ll see more and more devices monitoring our health – and I don’t just mean our steps, which yes – are important but there’s more to us.

There’s reports of glucose levels… which would be awesome for diabetic folk. There’s reports of other readings that could be taken that could help folk with other conditions that need monitoring.

And how much will they be? – indeed… they won’t be cheap!

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Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

Who do you think you are?

No, seriously… when you look in the mirror – what do you see?

Whatever you see… Whatever you notice… That’s exactly how and what you can be….

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Children Technology

Has Tech made you a better parent?

I’m a father. And the other day, I was asked by the BBC about parenting – how I differ from my father… and from my perspective with a ‘technology’ lens made me think about it.

I would say – I am different. Same values, enhanced parenting.

Why, do you say that Bal?

Well… firstly, we have Social Media. Good and bad – however, I’ll take the positives and one of them is that, there’s some excellent advice for parents.

Yes – there’s a lot of content out there – but you can join various parenting groups… I’m sure other friends out there have similar challenges as you – and you can learn from each other. It’s easier. It’s quicker.

There’s also the messaging platforms. Take Whatsapp for example. I’m part of a few ‘dad’ groups. One of them is excellent – great advice, some funny jokes – but overall… we’re in the same boat. There’s a fitness guy, sharing great advice to get rid of the ‘dad belly’, there’s a ‘history’ dad, that shares some great insights and history to what’s happened previously… so you get the picture… various dad’s, lots of different professions – sharing lots of great insights and advice.

Back to the question… we’re busy these days. Travelling. Meetings. People… and often can be difficult to be with your children in the evening. Technology has helped again. Skype and FaceTime. Talking to the kids in the evening face to face for the time your away can be so valuable to the children.

So my values are just like my dad. But technology has helped me carry them on in this modern day we live in.

Obviously… technology helps everyone. Every father (and mother!). Even if you differ from your father – I’m hoping you’re using technology to be a better father to your children. To be able to listen to them. To talk to them. To teach them. To advise them. The educate them. To empower them to make wise decisions. To let them be…. anything they want. As long as they are happy.

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Uncategorized

How old do you feel?

Okay, how old are you?

Well Bal – I’m not going to tell you… but I feel 21!

It’s not fair me asking how old you are. But great to hear you feel 21!

The folk that read this blog – are a great age range! No, honestly, there’s some young folk… and there’s some old folk. And some of the old folk struggle with modern day technology… we’ve seen the video’s, we’ve seen with our own eyes probably…

And let’s be honest – technology has advanced so much in recent years, it can be difficult to keep up on occasions.

But ever thought, how a 17 year old would react to an old device?

It’s funnier than you think! – that’s right… watch this video where two youngster are asked to use an old phone and dial a number… (Finally a chance for the senior folk to laugh at the youngster’s!)

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Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

What desires do you have? What makes you smile?

It’s difficult to often follow our passion… But whatever sets your soul on fire… you should pursue in some form or shape…. at least in some capacity.

Bal’s Kitchen coming sooner than you think….

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CES 2019

It happens every year. I reported on it last year. And I’ll share some of my highlights from this year.

Yep – it’s CES 2019!!!! – the biggest, baddest and (one of the) best Electronics show in the world.

Happens in January of every year and all the top electronic companies around the world come to Vegas to show off what they’ve been doing, what’s coming in the pipeline and what’s going to be the future!!

Ok.. let’s get started… for me, first up…. TV.

Well, when I say TV… I mean screens. Screen technology.

Panasonic turned up with a very good, 4K screen (in various sizes – going up to 65”). Then we had Sony… showing off their 8k screen. Samsung with their inter-connecting screens (basically, tiles you connect and it forms a large screen). But for me, it was LG. The rolling screen!

That’s right! – it’s a sound box, screen… everything in one! The screen roles out of the box! How brilliant is that.

I saw the rolling screen at LG a few years back, in their Innovation Lab. It’s great to see what they’ve done to it and how they’ve applied it.

Ok… up next…. Food related!

That’s right folks… 2019 is the year of ‘Bal’s Kitchen’. And what better way to ensure I’m sure the latest technology in my kitchen!

So we have… Pepper! – A connected food scale!!

It can be connected to Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant which claims to detect the nutritional value of every ingredient… how awesome is that?!

Now, this is very new… and they’ll be starting their crowdfunding campaign on kickstarter very soon….

Now there were lots of robotics… Samsung had an air purifier robot, there was a mouse robot for cats to play with, and much more.

Being an ‘electronics’ show… and we now have ‘electric’ cars… we have a number of manufactures showing of their latest offerings.

Ford, GM, Kia, Tesla and many more were there, showing off their latest and greatest vehicles. There was also Harley Davidson showing off their electric bikes…

The final item… for this blog post… and to share with you, that was on display at CES was from Lamborghini.

That’s right. The Italian car maker turned up, with a few cars.. but also this,

That’s right folks, it’s a chair. Not any old chair… one that will totally transform you as a person. Totally relax you… and let’s be honest, you wouldn’t expect anything less from these crazy Italians!

So I leave you with some highlights. Technology is great, isn’t it…. transforming how you watch your favorite shows, how you cook in the kitchen and how you sit down… or rather, what you sit down on.

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Podcast - Bal’s Tech Talk

My Second Podcast!

I should really become more adventurous with the titles!

But here you go… my second podcast!

That’s right folks! – On this podcast I talk about Jobs. Not necessarily how robots are going to take over – but how jobs have changed and are changing…

Lots of new jobs are appearing…such as YouTubers, Data Scientists, etc… that didn’t exist 5, 10…15 years ago!

So what does this mean for the future? – well it means that there’ll be more new jobs. Will the ‘accountancy’ profession remain the same? Will traditional jobs dissapear?

I also share a few questions I asked Inquisitive – I asked him about success, how he turned a passion into a business and how is it that someone could turn a hobby, something they enjoy… into a full time profession.

Hope you enjoy…

There’s various links available… Here’s the one for iOS Apple Podcast..

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/think-lean-get-digital/id1447639190?mt=2#episodeGuid=8339d584-76db-116b-9507-dd8074039070

And it’s also available on Spotify, Google, and many more – find your favourite platform, search for Think Lean Get Digital…. and subscribe!

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Bal's Friday Thought

Bal’s Friday Thought…

As you know… I travel a lot. 2018, I travelled a lot. And it seems like it’ll continue we me in traveling already to Paris and Berlin in January!

But that’s fine. I get to learn. I have the opportunity to understand. I try to take time out for myself – to look around, see what’s happening and make a note of ideas.

In essence, travel is an investment. In yourself. Go and do it. It’s a big world out there…..