Where Is My Pizza?Written by Pamela Heywood
Customer Service starts with customer ... in applying just a little thought. Let me try a scenario ...You see an ad in your local newspaper for a new home- delivery pizza service, so you decide to give it a try. You call them, you order one with all trimmings and they give you usual response that your pizza will arrive in 10 minutes. Sixty minutes pass slowly and still no pizza. You're getting hungry, so do you? A. Call pizza parlour B. Call newspaper that ran ad If you answered B, then you have chosen what a LOT of people are, increasingly, doing online. Would you expect newspaper to be able to tell you where your pizza is? Of course not! Even if pizza parlour's phone was engaged, or out of order, you still wouldn't call newspaper, I'm sure. Then why do people expect publisher of a newsletter to be able to answer questions about an order placed at web site of an independent, third-party advertiser? Perhaps it is because publishers are accessible? Whatever reason, it's an inattention to details that really matter and a pure lack of thinking. Most publishers I know are very willing to help, but I think you'll agree that they can really only be expected to answer questions about their own products and services, ordering processes and other technical what-have-you. A minor point, you say? The publisher can just pass your message on. Yeah and they probably have to do EXACTLY what I'm about to describe to be able to do so. Maybe they could tune your car and sweep your yard at same time? Self Service Solutions ... Do you FULLY read what you are responding to? Do you really look at site (and it's location), from which you are buying? Do you even look for contact information? (If there isn't any, you should SERIOUSLY question whether you should risk making that purchase in first place.) Remember, ads are just that, ads. In all cases it is up to YOU, BUYER, to beware and do your own due diligence. Even if you trust person who made recommendation. Often a simple remedy, if you are at an internal page of a site where there isn't a direct link to contact folks at site you actually purchased from, is to go to front page of that site and look for information.
| | More bread and butter for Graphic DesignersWritten by Alec Ellis
As a graphic designer myself, I know benefit of regular studio work, sort of work that keeps studio alive, not most exciting, usually referred to, in designer's terms, as ‘bread and butter' work. In Graphics world bread and butter work takes form of regular, heads down, non-award winning briefs: a daily stats sheet, club newsletter, monthly report, stationery updates, shopping mall news papers and prices catalogues, with all weekly bargains. These are just a few examples of what keeps us in business; we also love to pass this work on to junior or ‘newby'; regular work that brings in probably 80% of years income, for an average design studio. These jobs are quickly finished, mindless at best, and are able to be billed and paid within 30 days. The bread and butter job doesn't just exist in ‘offline' world, as many of my fellow designers have found with introduction of Internet. Though websites are becoming smarter many graphic designers are becoming aware how to control and create them. As with introduction of computer to design world, everyone became an instant designer, "give me a computer and I will design my own leaflets", said businessmen. That lasted about a year, when graphic designers started to take back banner and businessman became a client again. You can only take so many identical leaflets. The graphic designer has now become new ‘web designer'. Web graphic programs have evolved from web editors, they are easier to use, with web support software and technical help plentiful. This leaves creative spirit as only inconstant, ‘once again'. Graphic designers are producing master pieces, all they had to do was learn about ‘medium', in this case, Internet, Web, software, programming, and more. Once technical side had been mastered (these days you don't have to be a main-framer), creativity took over, as a new artist introduced to oil paints, watercolour, wood, metal, coke cans, urinals, and six inch nails, for very first time.
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