Author: Lisa Jeffries Nobling

This is a {Double Post} from my personal blog, because I believe it’s a prime example of how NOT to conduct your business.

Every morning that I’m planning on being in the office for a bit, I launch Firefox and XMRadio.com so I can listen to The Highway (formerly Highway 16) and whatever else fits my fancy that day.

Today, this is what I was greeted with:

Let me preface this by saying that every single vehicle in my family has either XM or Sirius radio. Thanks to the merger, XM/Sirius has a good deal of business with us. Each vehicle has a removable satellite radio unit so we can use them in the house, on the boat, wherever. Technically, I could do the same in my office, but the reception isn’t great since this is a commercial building constructed of primarily metal. I am however, not above engineering up a solution to avoid being charged for something I’ve always been provided as an included service.

Plus, the online radio service isn’t THAT good anyway. The “what’s playing now” feature (so you can see what’s on other stations before you change the channel) never auto-updates anymore.

Finally, I’m not the world’s best copywriter, but I’m pretty sure I could’ve damn well figured out a better, more eloquent way to say “renew your contract now if you still want this free service of be prepared to ante up more money”. Don’t play games with me XM, I will win.

PS – XM Radio… I HOPE you find this blog post and feel a little embarrassed. I would too if I were you.

[End Rant]

It makes me cringe when I get a “friend request” from a business, organization, or association. I cringe less significantly when it’s a group, but there’s still a little sting.

This is a classic case of jumping right in without a little doing research.

Those who would take a little time to explore facebook and learn about its features would have learned a few things that would make them appear less “new” at this social networking game:

Also, from what I hear… they make you pay to create a profile as a non-personal entity. Throwing away money on something they’re giving away for free are we? Bad form.

/rant. Thanks for letting me vent!

I was just reading up on the Simply Stated: Technology blog this morning where the writer talks about the advantages of predictive text and how it enables smart phones to facilitate faster texting, emailing, etc. It got me thinking about one of my biggest pet peeves: advertisers who don’t accommodate for new technologies.

How many times have you heard or read an advertisement, or even just a supporting document, that instructs you to dial “1-800-TEC-HELP” (or something along those lines), but because you have a Blackberry (and the copywriter forgot to provide you with the 1-800-832-4357 below the easy to remember phrase)… you just couldn’t! Unless you have a traditional keyboard phone handy, chances are you forgot to follow-up on the task at hand later.

As common place as technologies like this are becoming , we are moving away from standard formats. If businesses don’t accommodate for these changes, we run the risk of losing interest and potential business.