The futures bright the futures grey

ee shopI don’t get down my high street as often as I should but last weekend found myself ambling through.

It may be that as a Hutchison Telecom person who saw through the launch of Orange I had always had a strong brand affinity. But it hard to love your brand when it grey.

It may be one of those moments where grey is an in colour, I remember more for a sketch from Porridge and the characters assassination of John Major on spitting image. Perhaps Wolff Olins felt as the brand creator of Orange it had to do something far away from its original creation. Only time will tell whether other people will fall out of  love with it to.

 

 

 

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Banking Service – That’s £5 please

Been an interesting, several conversations on various topics relating to research methodologies including behavioural economics. As people that know me have seen I have a bit of attitiude towards service delivery, 6 years building and managing the  customer service structure at Orange created that.

So off to pay in couple of cheques at HSBC at lunchtime, not a good start at the cheque paying in machine doesn’t like my cheques nor that of the most of the customers in HSBC judging by the size of the queue.

Forgotten how slow queues can be so 25 mins later I am finally at the front,  hand over my cheques and look to the left and there is a A4 sign which read something like:

As this is a busy branch between the hours of 12pm and 2pm HSBC reserves the right the charge each non HSBC customer £5 for being served at this branch today.

So universal bank access is no more, I can understand why they have done this, drive non HSBC customer elsewhere at a busy time.  What angered me was imagine being one of non HSBC customers waiting for 30 minutes to get served and then finding out you had to pay £5 for the privilege.

Don’t let people get to counter before finding out,  at least have floor walkers get to them first, these are your future prospects you are alienating.

Even better get the paying in machines to work on cheques which are slightly creased then the queue wouldn’t exist anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

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The taxing issue that won’t go away

http://news.sky.com/story/1017273/morrisons-boss-slams-foreign-rivals-over-tax Its beginning to look like the non payment of taxes by amazon and starbucks amongst other particulary as the uk based corporates are now keeping on the pressure. Even the bastians of fairness john lewis are joining the fray. Be interesting to see which of the tax avoiders breaks ranks first and starts to pay.

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Have you got my size in this?

http://news.sky.com/story/1014249/smartphones-to-become-virtual-tape-measures Another form of passive data collection on mobiles Be interesting to think one day you could approach a clothes store and see what they have in stock in your size.

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Open Source Hacking!- The Business Model

I am always interested in understanding what is happening both in markets I am directly connected with and those that I am not.

Whilst following a link on banking security I came across this article.

What struck me wasn’t the issue that people had developed a fairly sophisticated way of getting me to part with my banking details it was the business model of company, I would broadly call them a company though I doubt they pay more corporation tax than a few well known international companies.

So they sell their hacking software on a open source basis and for the subscription fees a hacker gets access to support and the thoughts and ideas of other hackers.And they say that open source doesn’t pay.

I suppose this makes me less trust the internet, when thinking about hackers one had a picture of loner sat in bedroom, not perhaps being sat in a their open plan office, table tennis table in reception, account at Starbucks. Certainly not being so organised.

If I trust the internet less perhaps those we ask to complete our surveys may do so one day also?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/citadel-trojan-tough-for-banks-to-beat-a-5282/op-1

 

 

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Man, Dog and Skateboard

One of the joys of working in London, outside of commuter delays, general rudeness, expensive food and temperature on the underground is the never ending new and exciting experiences, things you might see, observe, taste……

So today I was heading for lunch, out early to avoid the rain, just generally minding my own business walking across the crossing on Clerkenwell Road , when something came past me.

Did a double take, reached for the mobile phone but not fast enough, it looked something looking like this.

 

Yes man on skateboard, dog on lead, dog pulling man at speeds that cyclists couldn’t keep up with. Fantastic.

They stopped at the lights, not sure whether the dog knew it had to stop, that would have been more impressive. Dog waited patiently for lights to change and off they went down the clerkenwell road undertaking the taxis,  dog running a straight line at some speed, cyclists trying to keep up.

Imagined them speeding past a police car, is   it illegal to exercise your dog on the road in traffic?  Am sure someone will find a way of taxing it if it takes off.

Now I have dog, a springer spaniel which does pulling but does not do straight lines. Could I imagine myself weaving on the main roads of London going between meetings?

One thing I will do is the next time I leave the office for lunch is my camera will be ready for the next thing London has to offer.

 

 

 

 

 

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Is he a mystery shopper?

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For those that read my previous post you will know I have recently purchased a new phone, no smartphone.

Its been a while, for technology guy that has spent all of my working life around technology I have rarely been part of the early adopter category. I suppose its my knowledge that issues generally coming within first phase of a product launch, Iphone4 antenna springs to mind and an inherent fear of ever over paying for anything, short arms and long pockets is a phrase often used in Yorkshire.

So carrying my 4 year old blackberry I drifted into Phones4U in Bedford. Must say outside of those stupid questions about how many minutes, “Dont know just dial and talk” how many sms a month do you normally use, “ahhhhh” it was one the better purchase experiences I have ever had. Even found myself leaving with a couple of free gifts.

And this is where the paranoia starts. Free gifts, Nothing is ever free. Ok so it must be I
looked like a mystery shopper. Imagine the morning staff briefing. Be on the lookout for an old looking bloke buying a Samsung. All the alarms bells must have been going off when I walked in.

Perhaps its not that, perhaps the service in mobile shops its getting better and that those companies have finally worked out that for some one like me buying a mobile phone is a complicated decision and requires a degree of conversation beyond have we got it in stock and how many minutes.

So a big congrats to phones4u, I just have to wait another 4 years to go try out one of the other providers and see whether everyone gives out free gifts to put to bed my paranoia.

 

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New phone – can I touch it

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Not since I stroked my first ipad and allowed others to do it also have I had so much interest in a gadget. My samsung note, looks massively oversized and in a market where generally small is better this goes against the flow.

Big enough to type with two fingers, can read my kindle books and watch videos without
binoculars.

Can’t help but feel that samsung have got there before Apple. Actually feels more like something Apple should have done, teaches us something about our expectations of Apple.

What’s its best feature, the wordpress blog app that allows me to capture these thoughts.

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