Sales, Social and Tech

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) may have scored a  viral hit with its 2017 Chinese New Year advertisement but a bad customer service experienced by a popular Malaysia blogging couple is becoming a social wet blanket to the airline's Lunar New Year party.  Audrey, of Fourfeetnine.com, wrote how MAS "ruined" her family Chinese New Year by denying their 11.15am flight to Penang because it was "overbooked", even though they have tickets in hand. The reason given by the counter staff was they checked-in too late even though Audrey and family was at the counter 90 minutes before the flight. Wrote Audrey  about her husband's conversation with the counter staff, Staff: I’m sorry, you checked in too late. Fatty: Huh what do you mean too late? We’re here 1.5 hours before the flight to check in. Staff: Yea, because check in is open 48 hours before a flight…. Other people already checked in before you so there are no more seats. Fatty: So? I’m not late to check in what...

One of the interesting things I learned working with a millennial is that they are have the Internet easy for them but this ease forgot how "difficult" life was back then. Take hosting a video online. Today, all you need is a smartphone, Internet connection, a Youtube account and viola, you can host a video online for the world to see. As one who grew up in the dial-up generation, hosting a video back then was quite a challenge. You had to buy expensive video equipment and the video was to be captured on VHS video tape. Once the video was ready for to be shared, you had to convert VHS analogue to digital.That wasn't the end. You had to consider the storage and bandwidth cost and the biggest challenge was that you have to handle codes to allow the video to be played. You also had to consider how to disseminate your video.Today, you don't event have to worry about bandwidth or storage cost. Just upload onto Youtube, embed the given codes and you have your vide...

I was inspired by the girl below to take up my own #giveit100 day challenge with both push-ups and a running routine that focuses on intensity rather than distance. A 100 day challenge seems last daunting than a new year resolution. I don't know why but just renaming it a 100 day challenge seems something achievable than aiming to do it for a year. Giveit100 Challenge 1 - 100 Days Of Push-ups I found that the best time to do push-ups is before bedtime. You are all ready for bed and your mind is quite relax. So why not do some push-ups before you sleep? I started the push-ups routine on 2 Jan 2017 and I been doing it nightly for the past 10 days already. It began with 10 reps. On the 9th day, I was able to do 20. Somehow the push-ups gradually encouraged me to do some sit-ups and leg raises before hitting the hay. Guess when you completed the push-ups, your mind just tell you "Hey, why not some simple sit-ups and leg raises?" No harm adding another simp...

There are 52 Mondays in 2017. We just had one Monday off for the New Year. Look at the Public Holidays in 2017 for Singapore below and guess how many more Mondays do you need to work? New Year’s Day 1 Jan 2017* Sunday Chinese New Year 28 Jan 2017 Saturday 29 Jan 2017* Sunday Good Friday 14 Apr 2017 Friday Labour Day 1 May 2017 Monday Vesak Day 10 May 2017 Wednesday   Hari Raya Puasa 25 Jun 2017* Sunday   National Day 9 Aug 2017 Wednesday   Hari Raya Haji 1 Sep 2017 Friday   Deepavali 18 Oct 2017 Wednesday   Christmas Day 25 Dec 2017 Monday For Public Holidays on a Sunday, you will have a official day off on the following Monday. This takes away 4 Mondays which will leave you with 48 Mondays for 2017. Assuming for holidays on Friday, you take leave on the following Monday and for holidays on Wednesday, you take leave on the Monday prior to the holiday, that is a total 5 Mondays to take away from. This leave you with 43 Mondays in 2017. Say you ...

I had a friend who recently took on a post as the PR manager for a company. One of his task was to revamp the website. He wasn't a web designer or knew anything about it, and, unfortunately, had to work with the agency that was previously hired by the ex-PR manager. The problems started when the agency couldn't deliver some of the basic stuff on time. Faced with a tight deadline, he asked me if I could give him a crash course on Wordpress and help out with some Wordpress design for him over the weekend. He was generous with the offer. I had no issue with helping him. During the weekend, I got this technophobic PR friend to get his hands dirty with Wordpress and learning to drag and drop the menus, change some text, By the end of the weekend, he was able to differentiate between a Page and a Post and a Theme. However, he still had one problem. When he printed the website (yes, the boss was still old school and wanted to see printed versions of the website), the URLs would...

   My experience as a salesperson for the second year has shown to me that most deals are closed, not because of the gift of the gab, but because I am often willing to open a relationship with the customers. Though my first year was bad, my second year saw some significant increase in sales numbers. It is in this second year of sales that I built several relationships with channel partners and a few VIP customers to close the deal. That has worked to my strengths. I love meeting people, new and already met, and show that I am willing to do my best to help them solve their problems. Sometimes, it is required to ask questions in order to find out their problem. Once you are able to help customers identify the problem, the selling process can start. Once you open the relationship, like in any relationship, you need to honest and frank with the customers. Even when there is some bugs found in the software, honesty is usually the best policy with customers. After you make the dea...