I was out of country for the first two weeks of August and could not keep up with my running schedule. And boy, has it been taking a toll on me on the long runs. If there is one thing, I would advise to folks that want to run a marathon, it is to keep up with the training schedule.
admin
Good/Bad Customer service and it's effect
Scenario 1 : I am waiting in line to check in my baggage for an international United airlines flight. A couple in front of me is trying to check-in their baggage. There is some conversation going on between the agent and the couple regd the weight of their baggage. While the conversation is going on, the agent decides to check in the couple baggage and puts it on the conveyor belt..And here is what happens next
Agent : Ma’am, one of your baggage weighed 69.5 lbs and the other 70 lbs, the extra charge is $150. We charge $50 for baggage exceeding 50lbs and up to 70 lbs, and $100 for baggage exceeding 70 lbs and up to 100lbs.
Couple : !!!%^%&&^.. Ma’am, the second baggage is only 70 lbs, why are you chraging $100.
Agent (in a nasal tone) : Ma’am, the rule says 70 lbs and above.
Couple (intimidated) : Yeah, but is it only 0.5 lbs more than the first one and up to 70 lbs is only $50 right?
Agent (in I make the rules tone) : Ma’am, I am not going to argue over this.. It is $100 for 70 lbs and more.. period.
Couple (nearly in tears) : OK, can we at least take out the 0.5 lbs of weight form the baggage so that we don’t have to pay $100 for it?
Agent (in you dare to speak back to me tone) : Ma’am.. the baggage is already checked in, you cannot take the weight out, you have to pay $100
…
…
..
Couple end up paying $100 because one of their bags was 0.5 lbs extra!!!
Does anyone find this sad? I understand the need to put limits and charge for excess baggage. But shouldn’t the agent have used common sense and made the call not to charge the couple $100 for 0.5 lbs!!! This is a good case of where employee stick to rules and are not given the freedom to make meaningful judgments.. Read Joel Spolsky‘s article about his recent experience at Starbucks and his reaction to understand what I mean :). No wonder United is in a death spiral!! 🙂
Scenario 2 : My second leg of the international trip was on a Lufthansa flight. There was a strike by the ground crew in Frankfurt and Lufthansa couldn’t get the required food into the flight. And here is how the crew handled the issue
- Made multiple announcements prior to the boarding that only 1 meal would be served in the journey and that special meal requests cannot be fulfilled.
- Provided vouchers to customer to get food from the airport vendors if required.
- Make multiple announcements in the flight (pilot, head air hostess and individual air hostesses) and apologized for the inconvenience.
- Apologize while serving the first meal and again when we were getting off the flight..
I don’t remember a single passenger complaining about the lack of the “second” meal. And I will fly Lufthansa again, despite this issue. the lesson here is not to apologize multiple times, but how all the crew in the flight (ground crew, flying staff, serving staff) were informed of the issue and ensured that they provided the customers with an alternative and followed up on the issue..
Disclaimer : The united agent, might be an exception or might have been having a bad day..but somehow I sense the issue is bigger than that :)..
HOW TO : Clear saved username/passwords in Windows
I came to know this method, when I saw one of the IT techs use it to troubleshoot some Internet connectivity issues.
To clear any saved username/passwords (i.e. Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer etc) in Microsoft Windows, do the following
- Click Start –> Run, and type in
control keymgr.dll - Delete any entries you want to from the list
- Click on close
I tried this on Windows XP and Vista.
Week 8 training..
I am in India, on a business trip and haven’t been able to catch up on my mid week runs. Had to settle for a 7 mile run for the long run too. For those that have travelled to India, I am sure you will understand, when I say that India is not the most frendliest place for runners :).. This is in spite of the media attention on the 3 year kid that completed a marathon :)..
Poem : I'll show you the moonlight
My friend, Hafsa, shared this poem with me and I thought more people would enjoy it..
I’ll show you the moonlight but not the moon, the scene but not the crime.
I’ll show you the footprints but not the feet, the ore but not the mine.
I’ll tell you the story but not what it means. That’s for you to define.
I’ll give you the words and the pictures. But the rest of it is mine.
–Poem by McNeney
I am in the Guinness book of records.
And so are 8 million other people!! :). Here’s a picture of the official certificate from Firefox showing that I was part of the world record for the most downloaded software in a 24 hour period.
Week 7 training..
Chart of my week7 training for the marathon. I did better with mid week runs and also improved on my speed. I ran with the 11 min/mile pace group and was feeling really good after the weekend 12 mile run. Think, it is time to move up to 10:30 :)..
Get it while you can..
Thomas Friedman, author of “The world is Flat“, is giving away an audio version of the book until August 4th for free!!
You can register for the giveaway here (http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/giveaway)
or you can go to this link and download the MP3 directly (http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/pop/giveaway/)
The world is flat, an international best seller, describes the authors notion of how we he sees the world becoming a level playing field due to 10 “flatteners”. Regardless of which field you are in, I would highly recommend reading this book, to understand the new world we live in now..