Sales, Social and Tech

Singapore Health Promotion Board (HPB) is currently running a campaign to get Singaporeans to start on a health rivalry with each other.  However, a Tweeter conversation between HPB and the acting minister for Manpower probably highlighted that the latter did not get the memo from HPB.  When asked again if the Minister had taken the HPB healthy lifestyle index, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin said nope.  The conversation ended there without any commitment from Mr Tan to take the HPB healthy lifestyle index. Then again, it was the long Easter weekend and Mr Tan could take the healthy lifestyle index over the weekend.  Or as they say, "There is always tomorrow".

"Patience and understanding" - These are just two words that describe how the staff at a Chili's Grill and Bar treated a autistic girl in her demand for her "perfect" burger. Such act of kindness has gone viral with 800K+ likes on Facebook. Anna Kaye MacLean, from experience, always expected her outings with her autistic sister to be difficult. But the staff at Chili's Grill and Bar proved Anna otherwise. Anna's sister refused to eat her favourite cut cheeseburger because to her the burger was "broken". Wrote Anna , So I asked her, “Why don’t you want it?”. She replied, “It’s broken. I need another one thats fixed.” Then it dawned on me why she wasn’t eating it. It’s because it was cut in half. Being a child with autism, she has to have certain things in a particular order at all times. One slight change in her routine can change the course of the day instantly. When Lauren came back to check on us, I asked if we could order another che...

If you thought Parisians are rude, wait you read about the administrator of Les Deux Garcons Malaysia Facebook Page. A customer visited the Les Deux Garcons Malaysia shop but was disappointed in the services. So naturally, she turned to the shops' Facebook Page. This customer even made a suggestion to the shop to label their macarons for their service staff felt they did not have to answer queries from in shop customers. How did the Facebook administrator respond? Well.. this Facebook administrator to go to Paris and face the wrath of real Parisian as this customer has too much to complaint. The next step that came naturally for the administrator was to delete the pst. When this customer put in another post, the Facebook administrator replied "We have no time for bitches". You can catch the drama unfolding between the administrator and Fans here .  The management of Les Deux Garcons Malaysia has since apologi...

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. It is no different in social media. If you are being attacked online, you respond online. Jollibee Singapore was recently flamed for opening its first shop in Singapore and only looking to hire foreigners in the store. This accusation came about of a wall post on its Facebook Page looking to hire staff for its store. Photo: EDMW loves Singapore Facebook page In a respond to inSing, Jollibee Singapore shared that they have removed the post because it was not longer necessary. Wrote InSing , Jollibee explained that the post had “served its purpose already as it was during the time when we were recruiting qualified Singaporeans/permanent residents to form part of our store team”. “We regularly update posts contained in our official Facebook page (and that includes removing posts which are no longer necessary) as part of our content management plan,” the spokesperson added. Removing the post only adds fuel to fire that the company...

Singapore Business Review removed a commentary by STEFANO VIRGILLI about "5 things 'Ang Mo' people dislike about doing business in Singapore" and cited that it did not "has been removed for not being in line with the contributor guidelines for sbr.com.sg". Thanks to Google Cache, the act of removing the article is just an act of something worth hiding and is easily available with just a Google Search. Stefano's commentary can be found here . I reread the commentary and this 5 things are what my Ang Mo bosses and colleagues have shared with me through the years of working.  Why did Singapore Business Review find it not in line with the contributor guidelines is a mystery.  Did the commentary offend an advertiser?

The Straits Times was found to have made use of a photo without the explicit permission from the photo taker. The photo was taken from STOMP, Singapore Press Holdings' citizen journalism site, which also chose to publish on the website without proper attribution. Singapore Press Holdings is also the publisher of The Straits Times. Wrote Lucian in his email to The Straits Times' photo editor, Stephanie Yeow, "...All I can say is that this is a straightforward case of intellectual property theft from an organisation that ought to know better. I believe in the openness of the Internet and have contributed a significant amount of content via Creative Commons licenses. SPH is a for-profit company that cannot beat on the intellectual property drum with one hand, and use online content without attribution or proper compensation whenever it feels like it. This is gone on for far too long, and I am appalled at the lack of ethics. You had my name, my number, and I ...

When Rock and Ash opened its doors at Marina Square Link (Singapore) in July 2010, the owner, Mr. Chua Koon Teck, was already looking for a customer membership program. His initial loyalty program was the traditional method which requires customers to fill out membership forms and carry cards. Only a handful of customers signed up. Then Chua discovered Taggo’s Fan Club solution, which makes it easy to use the restaurant’s existing Facebook Page as a loyalty program. Customers join by “liking” Rock and Ash and simply give their mobile number to the cashier whenever they pay. “Since launching our Fan Club in December 2011, I now have more than 1,000 registered members ,” said Chua. In addition to making it easier to sign up new loyalty program members, the Fan Club also dramatically increases fans on Facebook. “Prior to the launch of the Fan Club, it took me six months to get 200 likes and I thought it would take a few more years to reach a thousand fans. With ...

A SUV in China was stolen and the baby in the car was also abducted. The sad part of the story was that the man responsible for it confessed to "strangling the baby and burying him in the snow". A depressing story to start the day, but brandchannel reported that a dealer at China Buick Cars decided to take advantage of this tragedy as a marketing tool. Wrote brandchannel, "As events were unfolding, one of Buick's dealers in China decided the Changchun tragedy would be the perfect subject to tout features on its new model cars. Liaoning Tianhe Buick, a dealership in Jilin's neighbor province, posted the following (now deleted) on its Weibo page (as a reader points out, before anyone knew the baby had been murdered): "A few thoughts following the Changchun stolen car incident: When buying a car it's completely okay to choose higher technology. Tianhe Buicks carry the OnStar GPS system, allowing the lockdown of a stolen vehicle at any time and place...