Anyway, here’s part of the content extracted from the web site.

WHAT IS A TURTLE BLOGATHON?
A Turtle Blogathon is an event where we blog non-stop for 24 hours, about matters relating to marine and freshwater turtles. We will be staying up all night, researching, writing and publishing one blog post every hour, even when you’re asleep. And for staying up all night, we collect donations.

The name “Turtle Blogathon” is adapted from the original Blogathon where bloggers update their websites every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight to raise funds for their chosen charity.

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?
The main objectives of staying awake all night and doing the Turtle Blogathon are:

• to raise funds for the Turtle Conservation Centre (TCC) because we are a new turtle conservation organization and we are starting from zero in terms of funding. What we do have is experience, lots of experience
• to disseminate information about marine and freshwater turtles because we realize that the general public doesn’t know much about the turtles, despite these creatures being on earth since many years ago. Did you know that the earliest known turtles date from 215 million years ago, making turtles one of the oldest reptile groups and a more ancient group than lizards and snakes?
• to spread awareness about the plight of these turtles, because they are fast becoming extinct. And if we do not do anything today, our future generations will not know what turtles are!

So there you go, some basic information you need to know about this.

And yes, you can play a part in this too. Simply help to spread the words around or go to their web site HERE and have a read..

Hope it helps.

For example, a customer needs to claim for a medical fee. It would help if the business concerned can make the entire process of approving the claim as simple as possible. Things like 12 hours or even 24 hours approval certain help. Imagine what would happen if the claim process is 1 month long and the customer is required to provide not only photocopied receipts but also original ones, handed to the company’s office by the customer himself. To make things worse, the company’s offices don’t operate on weekends.

Talk about helpful customer service

Another example, a customer recently lost his wallet to a robber. He called company A to cancel all his cards, and also to ask for an insurance claim (to cover the cost of the card replacement). Company A said yes, it can be done. The customer was relieved and thanked company A for it. Few weeks later, the claim was rejected. Why? Because the customer did not provide the original supporting documents (including the official bank statement which is required to cover the cost of the lost ATM card – worth RM 12). The customer was furious because he still could not get his credit cards back and he, who has been the customer for 5 years, was forced to show so many documents for something worth RM 12. He called the company up, scolded them and cancelled the membership on the spot. The company lost a very loyal customer who used to spread the good words about this company to his friends.

The above 2 examples, I believe, might have been experienced by many of you before. When we’re in trouble, we expect the companies which we’ve paid to help us, to…well…help us. Instead, what we get is processes and unnecessary procedures, which only give us more headaches than help. I must admit that it’s not wrong for these businesses to have processes and procedures, but they need to abstract them from the customers and not troubling them.

Look, if your business is giving me more headache than helping me, then I will just go to another business and you most probably won’t see me AND my friends. End of story.

It's important to network with other people

People always say that it is important to have good contacts during good and bad times. And I believe so. After my recent experience, I’ve realized that having a good list of contacts is a very important asset. A priceless asset.

After the announcement from the bosses, I immediately sent out SMSes and Instant Messenger messages (YM, MSN, etc) to my contacts that I need help and maybe ideas. I’m glad that a lot of them have replied me with kind messages and some offer to keep a lookout for opportunities for me, and some even told me which company is hiring.

And for those who prefer to keep to themselves (some geniuses are like that), maybe it’s time for you to get to know more people and spread your network.

Last but not least, a big thank you to every single one of you who have offered to help out. Whatever the outcome, I’m just glad that most of you have responded to my ‘SOS’ message.

Spoon-fed by a customer…? Hmmm.

Actually, this kind of incident happens a lot. These people have no idea that they are dealing with the customers, and they are supposed to be the one providing solution, not the other way round. If you can’t give me solution and expect me to teach you how to do it, then what’s the point of paying you? Isn’t it better to just hire a maid?

If you seriously don’t know how to fix it, then just seek assistance from your seniors or something and don’t let the customers know that you can’t fix it. Always know your role and where you are. It won’t benefit you or your employer if you allow the customers to know that you can’t fix the problem (and pestering to teach you to fix it will certainly make things a lot worse).

As for the guy allocating resources, always know who are your main customers and the skillset of your people. No point sending a lazy rookie to the front line of a warzone. You’ll just lose more people and give the impression that your squad (company) is weak. Try to allocate them under some helpful seniors and put them elsewhere.

Remember that if I’m paying you to fix the problem for me, and you can’t do it…then the least you can do is to spend some time figuring out how to do it (and not asking me for help!). If you still can’t do it, I’ll just find someone else.

While moving and packing our things, my sister and I talked about the past….the incidents experienced by us in that house. After all, we’ve been staying there for over 20 years. Surely, there are some feelings left for the house. The quarrels, the pets, the playing sessions (yea, i used to play masak-masak aka cooking game with my sister. I know it’s sissy but well, she has nobody else to play with), etc. We miss all of them. And at one point during those conversations, my sister cried because she was sad that we have to sell the house …and we might not be able to go back ever again.

I’m sad too (i’m not heartless). But I told my sister that we HAVE to sell the house. Due to our hectic work schedule, it’s pretty hard for us to go back to Johor so often and thus, our parents have to help us to go back and clean up the house (and sometimes fixing it since old house tends to be quite problematic). And they’re no longer as young and energetic as they were many years ago. Furthermore, it’s very expensive to maintain that old house and we wouldn’t want to burden our parents in terms of financial too.

Thus, it is necessary for us to sell the house off no matter how much we hate to sell it.

It’s for the sake of our parents – which is good enough a reason to sell the house.

Those reasons actually helped to prevent my sister from crying again (she’s very emotional and sentimental).

That is my story. I’m sure most of you have encountered something similar before – something which causes an extreme emotion. Maybe it’s due to your loved one leaving you for work purposes, or your kids going to another country to further their studies, etc. Whatever it is, I feel that it can be overcome if we managed to find strong reasons to convince ourselves that “it is going to be fine”.

This does apply to other things as well such as when you want to buy that ultra expensive bag. All you need to do is to try and find some good reasons NOT to buy. Just like when we’re selling the house. It’s easy to find reasons not to sell the house but for our case, we want to find reasons why we should sell the house so that we will not feel that sad. Remember that finding a positive reason is always more encouraging than finding a negative one which can be quite damaging.

So the next time you face such a situation, maybe you can spend some time to find some good reasons to overcome such an extreme emotion. Hope it helps.

Or more like, what does Alvin Lim really want? LOL

Anyway, the topic here is Security. Everyone wants security especially during economy crisis like this. People want cheap and lasting stuff so that they won’t have to spend money to buy a replacement. In other words, they want to get something which is gives good value for money, or good return of “investment”. Why? Simply because buying a replacement can be very expensive. Imagine buying a new 32 inch LCD TV to replace the 2-year-old 32-inch LCD TV. With the combined price (which is very expensive), you can easily get a 42-inch Full HD LCD TV (I think…but well, it’s just an estimation).

I wonder if there's any company giving this kind of warranty coverage?

I know that few years ago, when people are still spending a lot, some of the cheaper stuff do not come with warranty period because it’s just too expensive for the businesses to offer that. Still, people will buy because if it doesn’t work, they can just buy another one. But now, situation has changed. More and more people are starting to feel the heat from the economy downturn and they are not willing to risk their hard-earned money on something which is not “secured” or without a warranty……unless it’s dirt cheap…like 80% off the original price.

Funny thing is, most businesses do not realize this and they still think customers are willing to risk their money to get something which can break down anytime.

This happened to me today (start of rant). I went to IKEA to look for an office chair and I found a RM 350 chair which is the type that I’m looking for. But it was over my budget. So I went to the furniture shop near LDP (Kelana area) and found an office chair which is pretty similar but RM 290. After some “discussion” with the sales guy (kudos to my mum who is very ruthless when bargaining for cheaper price), I managed to get the price of RM 260. Here’s our conversation after the “discussion”:

Alvin : So if I want this chair, do you think my car can fit in the box?

Sales guy : What box? This is cash & carry. This is the unit you’ll get.

Alvin : Oh.. display unit eh? Then is there any warranty period?

Sales guy : Aiyah, won’t break down one. It’s brand new.

Alvin : How would I know? Maybe you’ve put here for many months. So, is there a warranty period?

Sales guy : Nope. We don’t give warranty period for something this small.

Alvin : Ok, then I’ll get from IKEA.

Seriously, I rather fork out the extra RM 100 to get something brand new and also to buy the “security”. I don’t think I want to spend another few hundred buying yet another chair if the RM 260 breaks. It’s just too risky and certainly not a good investment.

That’s why if you’re trying to sell something to your customers, you must remember that most customers want security or some kind of assurance that the item will not break. If it does, at least, they want to know that they can replace the item with zero fee. Either that, or give them an extremely cheap price which will allow them to buy another new item if the existing one breaks.

As for me, I will still prefer to pay that extra money to get that “security” or warranty. No security, no deal. No assurance, no deal.

P/S….not sure if it is Assurance, or Insurance, or.. ? Ah well, I know “if” statement more than English now.

Why is that so? Here are some of the factors which I can think of for now.

• Agendas and things to be discussed in the meeting or discussion are not set. People do not know what to talk about and most probably end up talking nonsense.
• Most people are just there in the meeting room for the sake of being there, without actually wanting to solve the problem. Their bodies will be there, not their souls.
• The person chairing the meeting and discussion is not experienced enough or he himself tends to talk something unrelated to the objectives. Or worse, the person does not know what he wants from the meeting and just want to get it over as quickly as possible.

In my opinion, if you don’t have the willingness to achieve the objectives of the meeting (which, most of the time, is to solve problems), then don’t conduct a meeting or discussion in the first place because any meeting which fails to achieve the objectives is regarded as meaningless and a waste of time.

I think this kind of meeting is pretty popular

And if you conduct a meeting for the sake of coming out with ANY solution….then please…..don’t start the meeting at all. No solution is better than a very bad solution which might make things worse.

I started this topic after my sister told me that a customer service officer of a company called her up and changed her (the officer’s) statement from “Our company products’ warranty period is only 3 days”  to “After confirming with our senior managers, we have to inform you that our company does not provide warranty coverage to the toys AT ALL“. See the difference?

Call this irresponsible, or whatever. To me, it’s lousy management and leadership. If you can only come out with such lousy solution (it’s actually a worse answer than the first one), then at least, don’t tell me “After confirming with our senior managers”. You are giving me the impression that your whole company, including the senior managers, consists of a bunch of idiots.

Louis Vuitton (LV) bags

But to me, we will never understand why people spend on those things unless we are in their shoes. Guys will never understand why girls spend so much on cosmetics and fashion stuff (LV bags…omg… =_= so freaking expensive bags). And girls will never understand why guys love gadgets so much.

So the next time you want to comment on other people for spending a lot on something that doesn’t make sense to you…..think again. It might not make sense to you….just like the things you buy don’t seem to make sense to other people.

I think in the end, the most important thing is for you to know what you are spending on and your own priorities especially during recession period. Is the thing you buying really worth it? Can you live and enjoy life WITHOUT it? Will the value depreciate a lot after you’ve bought it? Ask yourselves such questions and hopefully the answers will be able to help you in making the right decision.

P/S… by the way, I don’t know how much it cost to go to Timbuktu. I assume you’ll need at least 40k in order to come back alive.

Source : http://earthguide.blogspot.com/2008/06/angry-customers.html

That’s why if your business is not helping the customers to fix their problems…then you should really start to be afraid of losing them. And if your business is actually giving customers more problems than they already have, then forget about “you should really start now”…instead, it should be “you MUST change your business now”. Otherwise, you will lose your customers. No doubt about that.

***** Beginning of rant *****

And this was what happened to me the other day. I went to Best Denki @ KLCC to shop for my company’s annual dinner lucky draw prizes. I was there for 10 minutes, and nobody actually came forward to ask me whether I need any help. I then approached one of the employees there after running out of patience.

Me : Hi, I actually need some help here.

Employee : Yes sir, how can I help you?

Me : I need someone to serve me. I’ve been waiting here for 10 minutes.

Employee : Sorry sir. What do you need? Maybe I can help.

Me : Ok, I have RM xxxx budget for my company’s annual dinner. I need like 25-30 items, and here’s the breakdown of the estimation.

Employee : Hmmmm.

Me : So for one of the prizes, I need a 32 inch LCD TV. Also, if there’s any other item which can give me more free stuff, even better.

Employee : Okay…I will have to look around. Not very sure.

Me : Also, I will need a digital camera. Do you have any camera to suggest?

Employee : Oh, I’m not in-charged of camera. I’m only in-charged of the TV and the theater system. I can direct you to the person in-charged in the camera department.

…… he then showed me to the camera guy, and disappeared….forever. The same thing happened few times, I was being passed from one person-in-charged to another… and from what I heard from them, all the departments are independent from one another and there’s no cooperation whatsoever. If I were to buy a camera, and a TV, I will have to list down the items by myself and get the best price by myself, and finally, get the final list of items to try and get for more discounts from the store manager.

What’s the difference then, if I were to just go to Low Yat and buy the items separately, rather than buying everything under one shop? The purpose of shops such as Best Denki is to make it convenient for customers to get everything in a single place. I think they got their direction and objective completely wrong.

Of course, I became quite pissed off with the service (and near to 0% discount) and left the store. Today, I went to Harvey Norman to look for the sales guy I know and he settled everything for me. I just told him, I’ve shortlisted few items and I need a camera, an IPOD, this n that, and total up to so and so many items, and I only have this budget. Suggest to me what can I get and which one is actually better than the other. And also give me the best price possible. When I’ve shortlisted everything, I told him to try to discount a bit further so that I can fit few more items in. And he did it after a quick check with the system.

The entire ordeal lasted only for around 2 hours. And the discount was very good.

***** End of rant *****

I settled all my needs in a single place, without any fuss. Problem solved, no hassle and convenient for me. This is how such businesses should be run.

So the next time you want to start a business (or planning what to do with your business), think for the customers. Does your business exist to help them fix problems, or to give them more problems? Erm…if it is latter, then you better close down your business. If it is the former, then you should ensure your business IS practicing the right model – the model which will make your customers happy (fix their problems using hassle-free methods).

Recently some friends of mine told me my comics are not as good as before. I myself noticed that the standard of drawing SEEMS a bit better than my earlier drawings but maybe there are some other issues that I might have missed out.

I need your help to point them out for me. Here are some that I think I should improve:

• The wordings are smaller now than before. I need to make the wordings bigger. I’ll try my best as my comics are limited to the space of the blog. Anything outside width 420 will not be shown. But still, I think the wordings need to be bigger.
• Add more “background” and not just Alvin or Ken standing there.
• Avoid colors if it’s not 100% colored frame (my previous comics looked as though it is work half-done…with some colorings and some plain black n white).
• Avoid excessive shadings to make things look simpler and cleaner (not sure about this. This is suggested by 1 of my friends).
• Come out with newer jokes (this could be the most difficult part).
• Go back to basic drawings (i would try my best to avoid this if i can).

So what say you? I’m not sure how many will reply since not many visitors are dropping comments. I would really appreciate it if you can drop me some suggestions. Maybe some of the points above are not that important or I’ve missed out some very important ones. Please let me know so that I can improve. Thanks!

I’ve included a poll here if you don’t feel like telling me in the comment box. Again, really appreciate your help.

[poll=5]