Customer Service Experience Part 2

17 November, 2009 in Rant | No comments

With the world growing smaller and smaller and with the mobility of our labour force we are using services that are not in the same country that we reside in and without the expected results.

I have had a recent problem with my web site. And of course my host is not in Australia. I found that with customer service it is better to avoid talking to customer service reps (After Sales Service…) so it is much easier to use email as you will get an answer you can follow and also avoiding accents, I am slightly tonal deaf so I have trouble understanding sometimes.

I could not get access to my website. My mistake I actually rang the help desk, ha! I hung up feeling without any satisfaction from their answer. It was, “We can see it, so it must be your ISP”. I fiddle around with the computer and find something called trace route, this looks good. It shows that it gets all the way out of Australia and into the secondary country then to the host and then times out and goes somewhere else.

I send these details to help desk to generate a ticket number. I get a reply, “we can see it and says that it is going through our server, please print the error message you are receiving”. I mean you know the error message you get from IE, “Internet Explorer cannot access the page”! I send and get no reply. I speak to my ISP and send another note with another trace route attached. No response. I go next door as they have a different ISP and cannot access website and send another note. After my initial call, 8 notes and 20 hours later, I received a response “due to the complexity of the problem, it has been relayed to our advance technically team”. Another 5 hours later, “Service will return to normal as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we are unable to give a specific time frame for this resolution… Due to history of this ticket we are offering you the opportunity to be called directly…”

Over 36 hours later I finally have access to my website. I do take up their offer of a phone call because I want to understand what happened so it does not occur again. The customer service rep starts going through all the times and the notes I had sent to them. What is the point of that? I know what I sent to them and when, I had a very frustrating day trying to get through to them. Then he says it was a server issue. I know that, I knew from the beginning. But what was the issue? He starts again, repeating details I already knew and already repeated. He would not stop. I had to rudely interrupt him as I did not want to hear the same thing again. I asked him what was the issue with the server? He starts repeating again. “There was an issue with the server”. Yeah, but what? “There was an issue with the server”.

What is the point of offering a customer a call when they are just going to irritate the customer by telling them that they had a frustrating day and no answer to the question asked?

And then, “Is there anything else I can help you with, ma’am?” No.

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Operations Dashboard for a Matrix Organisation

1 November, 2009 in Data Analytics | 5 comments

Seth Godin recently wrote “When data and decisions collide”. Over the next posts I will describe a model where decisions and data do not collide.

 Organisations make decisions for the business based on reports from various sources. The long term objective of any profit-organisation is the business must be running to profit, otherwise no reason for business to exist other than for passion.

Revenue and costs are the key drivers to this objective. These decisions are made within the operations of the business to ensure the business is running to profit. Marketing strategies, supply and demand decisions and to service customer while running the business to long term strategies.

Most decisions are made reactive. The first question management asks “Why?” Everybody jumps to ensure at the current point in time that the business is not going towards plan. Usually means the sales team has to work harder or we cut costs to deliver the product to the consumer so people may lose their jobs.

This response to data does not take into consideration the reaction the decisions may have an effect on other parts of the business. There is no correlation between the market segments and the different products.

The following model will show that the data will allow the organisation to make concise decisions for the business without affecting other parts of the business. This model will use investor flow value and profitability analysis as inputs to decisions and then the decisions measurable on the profit and loss statement. This model only takes into account what is measurable in the profit and loss statement and does not take into account the outside the business environment intrinsic decisions stakeholders must take when making decisions, though these decisions will be minor with the analysis.

Measuring Operations

A dashboard is a set of metrics showing a business’s performance at a particular point in time. The model must be able to roll up and drill down to all levels of line of business, market segments and line items on the profit & loss statement.

An operations dashboard is to mitigate risks resulting from decisions in an organisation’s short term strategy for product, delivery and service without affecting the business’s long term strategy and profitability.

An operations dashboard for a matrix organisation is to ensure decision made in one customer segment and/or line of business will not affect the long term strategy of the business within market segment and line of business.

The following set of diagrams will show the theory in creating an Operations Dashboard, drilling down from the business model to the dashboard based on the investor value flow of the business’s decisions and profitability analysis.

The colour index code can be followed as we drill down through each diagram in the model.
Purple – Investor interests
Aqua – Decisions made by the business from investment to customer
Navy Blue – Profit & Loss metrics
Yellow – Decisions and Metrics related to Operations
Light Blue – Decisions and Metrics related to Line of business
Orange – Decisions and Metrics related to Market segment
Dark Green – Operating Divisions

Figure 1. Investor value flow from investment to customer to return on investment.

Investor value flow for business model 

The investor will invest capital in a company based on a long term strategy of the business and their products. The right side triangle is the “decision side”, showing as we build the product to the customer the business makes decisions on the end product. As the decisions are made the money from the capital investment which is now an operating expense is reduced as each step of the product is delivered to the customer.

The left side triangle shows profitability analysis using the profit and loss statement. The business generates revenue from the customer. Decisions for product, delivery and service made from the right triangle have costs associated with profitability including depreciation and amortisation on capital.

The business will make decisions on their capital investment based on long and short term strategies related on the customer and line of business which has an affect on profitability which in turn affects ROI for investor.

Figure 2. Investor value flow based on the individual components of business operations for a matrix organisation.

Investor Value Flow for Matrix Organisation 

The ROI is based on the flow of decisions made by the business on individual components within business operations.

Decisions on capital expenditure, product costs are made by line of business. Decisions on delivery and service to customer are made by market segment. But these decisions are not independent of each other. Long term strategy and mitigating short term risks are interrelated to the market segment and the line of business. 

Figure 3. Profitabilty analysis based on long term strategies by line of business.

Profit & Loss statement by Line of Business  

The profit & loss metrics are based on the market segment and line of business. Figure 3, line of business dashboard, shows investor value flow to net profit based on capital expenditure. This is an indicator of long term strategies. Showing total operating profit based on mitigating short term risks and total profitability for the reporting period.

To seperate data and decision the business must also be able to seperate the cost by line of business to deliver the goods & services and the revenue stream by market segment.

Operations Dashboard

The metric used to measure operating performance is EBITDA as the depreciation and amortisation deals with the initial capital expenditure based on the line of business. The driver of EBITDA is revenue, revenue is generated by market segment.

Figure 4. Operations Dashboard by Market Segment.

Operations Dashboard  

The operation dashboard is an indicator of short term strategies are in line with the business’s long term strategy and will give a clear indicator of operating costs by market segment. Metrics are a combination of market segment and line of business.

Figure 5. Level 2 Operations dashboard by Market by Line of business.

Enterprise Dashboard 

The business is now able to separate decision and the metric by market segment, by line of business and by operating division.

The dashboard will allow each solid block in Figure 5 to be drilled down further into individual line items of the P&L of market segment and of line of business.

The dashboard will also allow the metrics to be roll up to Figure 3, by Line of business. Figure 6 shows the P&L to net profit. The operations is the consolidation of Figure 5.
 
Figure 6. Profitability analysis based on long term strategies by Market segment and Line of business

Profitability Analysis for Total Operations by Line of Business 

Conclusion

The operations dashboard will analyse decisions made by market segment and line of business to mitigate short term risks in the operating divisions using profitability analysis. The dashboard will be able to identify all items related to the goods & services provided to the customer and analyse of the mix of market segment and line of business.

The further analysis below will add further depth into the dashboard to be a management reporting system.
 

Further Analysis

1. Cost analysis
- Cost allocation
- Shared and dedicated cost
- Incremental and fixed costs
- Capacity Costing
- Cost recovery of capital expenditure

2. Key performance indicator analysis
- Revenue units
- Costs units

3. Budget, Target and Forecast analysis
- 5, 10 year plans
- Annual budgets
- Quarterly, monthly, weekly

4. Historical analysis
- Business Plan
- Year to Year
- Quarter to Quarter

5. Strategic analysis
- Long term
- Short term
- OPEX vs CAPEX

6. *** Management reporting system ***

 

Next post for Dashboard ->  Internal Transfer Rates

 

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Data Analytics?!!

27 October, 2009 in Data Analytics | 22 comments

Can data analytics stimulate your imagination?

A blogger writing about data analytics. Where to begin? I start researching the subject that has come so easily to me in life. Why do I like working in data analytics? After many false starts, I came across the “Did you know?” series on YouTube. There are many versions and different themes. The first, “The progression of information technology” researched by Karl Fisch and the second by AndromedasWake’s Channel.

Now after looking at that with eyes and mouth open with the pumping beat in the background, let’s take a breath and look at what we found out in the last 5 minutes. (Additional information has been updated from teachertube, Social media revolution)

The People
China total population 1,300,000,000. (Imagine an auditorium with 1300 people and then imagine another 1 million of these auditoriums :-o )

US total population less than India – 25% population with the highest IQ’s

Technical information doubling every 2 years

Today learner will have 10-14 jobs by the time they reach 38yrs old
¼ people employed < 1 year
½ people employed < 5 yrs

2010 - top 10 jobs did not exists in 2004

1/8 married couples in the US met online

In the last 5 minutes, US – 67 babies, China – 274 babies, India – 395 babies

The world is changing as it should. We won’t be able to say to our children “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And the first touch with our life partner may be over cyberspace and not in person.

The Technology
Text Messages
1992 - First sent
Today - Sent everyday exceeds the population of the planet

Google searches
2006 – 2.7 billion a month
Today – 31 billion

Years to reach 50 million
Radio - 38 years
TV - 13 years
Internet - 4 years
iPod - 3 years
FB - less than 9 months (100 million users)
iPod apps - 9 months (1 billion hits)

FB  a country it would be 4th largest between the US and Indonesia but China Qzone larger with over 300 million using there services

Internet devices
1984 - 1,000 (Remember where you were and what type of computer you were using)
1992 - 1,000,000
2008 - 1,000,000,000

Data transfer – 14 trillions (short – 10^12, long – 10^18) bits per second
CD’s = 2,660 per second
Phone calls = 210 million per second

2013 – computer with the computational power of human brain
2049 – computer with the computational power of the entire human species

In the last 5 minutes, 694,000 songs downloaded illegally (I can honestly say I have never downloaded a song illegally :-) )

Technology has made us find different ways of reaching out to more and more people in a shorter time. We no longer have to wait for the news, the news now comes to us. I did not know about MJ’s death until well into the late afternoon when we knew in the early morning. So goes to show if you do turn everything off you may never know but you will eventually find out using one of the mediums, it was FB.

The Knowledge
Words – 540,000 (English language)
                 5x more than in Shakespeare’s time

New York Times – one week is more than information than a lifetime in the 18th century.

Unique information this year 4 exabytes (4×10^19) will be more than the previous 5,000 years.

Wikipedia – 13 million articles
New articles - 156.23 per hour

Blogs – 2,000,000,000 (Can you hear me?)
               54% post content or tweet daily

The people and the technology have given us an amazing knowledge base. Everybody wants to share information, even me! ( makes you wonder what did all the ADD people do before the internet?)

Whether or not you believe the numbers is a totally different question (and won’t be discussed in this forum). What we have done here is all to do with the numbers. We are comparing where we are now to where we once were. Another title for this series is called “Shift Happens”. We are comparing our population change, our technology growth, our extensive knowledge and how we transfer this knowledge all around the world. The numbers show that we have been able to achieve so much in such a short time and the ability to achieve so much more.

 

The AndromedasWake’s version of Did you know? This one made me think about the variances we have in our numbers.(The last 1min 15secs are pretty pictures)

The Universe
Age – aprrox. 13.7 billion years
Size – expands 93 billion light years, 3 dimensions - it has no edge or centre, Matter & energy - less than 5% is detectable (What is the other 95%?), 100 billion galaxies, septillions (short, 10^24, long, 10^42, so many zeros :-| , doesn’t matter which scale) of stars
Birth – can be reckoned to 10 tredecillionths (short, 10^42 or long, 10^72) of a second before time began (Can we fathom that amount of time?)
No one knows what happen prior to this time (nothing to measure :-( )

The Knowledge
Sun – light generated takes 10,000 years to reach the surface from the centre.
Exoplanet - twice the size of Jupiter and orbits its sun in 3.2 earth days. (All 4 seasons in 3.2 days)
Shooting stars – millions occur everyday
Neutron star – rotates at 716 times per second, the equator surface achieving 24% the speed of light
Gammar ray burst – releases as much energy in a few seconds than the sun in it’s lifetime
Milkyway – 15 satellite galaxies orbiting
Venus – one day is longer than its year
Saturn – density is so low, the entire planet would float on water
Pluto – water ice is harder than steel

In contrast to the first Did you know, no thump, thump, thump in the background. And also the contrast in the numbers and how much we don’t know. We only know what we can measure and compare to what is known here and now.

Imagine the time light being generated from the sun’s centre today and reaches the surface. What amount of knowledge will we have accumulated? Will we be able to harness all that energy out there? Will we be able to transmit as much data as an exoplanet’s orbit or a neutron star’s rotatation? Will we have the answer to the Before Time question? Too many questions, known and unknown, to be asked ;-) .

The numbers I deal with daily, of course, do not bring out one’s imagination as the one’s we have seen today. But, it is the numbers that reveal the questions and it also the numbers that will show our achievements. This is why I am passionate about data analytics :-) . Yes, some call me mad but data analytics is not boring. 8-)

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Online Presence

15 October, 2009 in The Story | 6 comments

LinkedIn is the first social network I joined but not the only one I have joined since then. My public profile is not only LinkedIn, it is what a person finds when they do a search on your name, this is what I learnt at JobCAMP.

I do a Google and Yahoo search on my name. There are so many Colleen Chan’s but nothing on me. The only Colleen Chan in Sydney ran in the City to Surf fun run. Anybody who knows me would laugh as I do not even know the word exercise! Colleen Chan the business analyst does not have an online presence.

At JobCAMP we were taught that if we hit our own links enough then eventually increase your ranking during the searches. But I am nowhere, the only online profile I have is my LinkedIn. I now realise my LinkedIn profile will never rank above any other Colleen Chan’s in LinkedIn in the Google search as my public profile URL is colleenchan and Google searches on ‘colleen chan’ so does not even recognise me as Colleen Chan but Yahoo does, I’m nowhere in Bing.

We were told to create profiles in all social networks and make sure that we create a public URL as it is all free to join. So many social networks out there that it is hard to know where to start. I had read that XXXXX is “to connect with people you do know but don’t want to know”, (probably why they have lost 50% of their market share in the past year). Facebook is “to connect with people you do know and do want to know” and Twitter is “to connect with people you don’t know but do want to know”. I join Facebook and Twitter since then I have also joined Naymz and Plaxo.

Since joining all these networks, I must say I am not a big fan of Twitter, it is all too much for me, can’t keep up. I watch all the tweets and the thousands of followers people have. I am usually a quiet person, I don’t have that much to say, some may disagree ;-) , and these Twitterer’s tweet so much, so much to say. The only tweets you see from me are when I am posting on my blog. My little voice gets lost in the thousands of tweets already out there. It is a different way of reaching out to people by giving their connections short assiduous pulses of information. Many have grown their brand successfully using Twitter as part of their marketing strategy. I am sure there are many people that I do and probably need to know out there but it is just not for me :???: .

Facebook is a totally different kettle of fish. You must realise the only social network I have seen is LinkedIn which is very straight and no bright lights flashing at you when you press buttons. I start connecting to people I already know who are on FB as these are the people telling me I have been missing out. Yes, I have been hidden from the world of social networking, I did not know that if somebody wrote on your wall that a) Everybody on your network sees and that b) you are suppose to reply via comment and not by writing on your wall again, :???: , it’s like ignoring a conversation. Sorry friends.

I start getting these notifications and every time I start something, I have to send to a group of friends. I mean some of this stuff is really stupid, more fool me I answer everything and send to my friends as well. But eventually I realise my friends don’t want to see all this stuff and I see a skip button amongst all the flashing lights. During this time somebody sends me a kiss. So I think which friend of mine is playing silly games with me? When I get through the flashing lights, the name that appears is laughable. Ignore. I go to my wall 2 days later and there it is, I have inadvertently joined a dating site and the application had posted it automatically! :oops: . Mind you it was not the only time I had been fooled by spam, I had also gone into depth about my friends to a new connection as the spam said this person is new so introduce your friends. Duh! I basically ignore everything now, I don’t know where I might end up. FarmVille?!

Yes, FB is different and I am still trying to get the hang of it. So much advice about who you should be connecting to in this network. I am still struggling, as I have been told every connection is a good connection, but FB is for friends so where do I stop accepting invitations on networks. Is there not a space where I can keep private? Or does social networking mean that I have to be open to everybody? I want a job, I know having a lot of friends is good but a lot of friends verses a group of friends you know personally? I would prefer a group of friends I know personally and I am sure most people would feel the same way. :-)

I open a WordPress.com account but do nothing with the account for nearly 8 weeks. I don’t even know why I opened the account as I do not know how to write, I did poorly in English at school and had not written anything creative since then but it is to increase my online presence. I struggle for weeks. Do I want to be the 1% of internet users that becomes a content creator? I have nothing to write about, I needed a tag line and I needed a theme. I ran past my ideas across many people but I did not seem to be getting any traction. Everybody was telling me I had to write about data analytics but I can’t write and then trying to put my numbers into words is basically impossible, I needed someone to write my resume, I had to win a competition to get my personal brand done. How can I write about numbers and who wants to know about data analytics?

What I did receive was a good swift kick on the backside by one of my connections who had answered one of my group discussions during the campaign. And for that same person to agree that writing my story would be a good to start for my blog and move onto data analytics when I get the confidence in my writing. All I needed was somebody to agree with me and I was ready to go. So here I am communicating to you through my blog another way of reaching out to people.

I want to look at the numbers from my blog but to do this I have been told to use Google analytics but to do this I need to build my own website. Sigh… This is after I had started blogging. I had already been told I had the skills to do it but I didn’t know where to start. I put up a discussion in a couple of my IT groups to get help. The feedback I receive is very encouraging with new connections happy to help me through my process.

I start building this website, it takes me 3 weeks to get it together. In those weeks I was looking at words and acronyms I had never seen before, extreme headaches and my chiropractor said my body had not been that stressed since I had been out of work. More accounts, usernames and passwords and lots and lots of learning. I now know how to setup my own website and understand all the different layers I have to control and still learning about new layers :-| .

Building my own website for my blog increased my online presence without even knowing it. My blog did not rank in the first few pages before I built my website but once the blog was running from my own site, the blog is ranking on page 1 in Yahoo and sometime makes page 2 in Google. The numbers? I have been told by connections to ignore the numbers as 1. all cool websites do not get massive traffic and 2. I should not be worried about the numbers but an engaged audience. But I do look at the numbers, I can’t help myself. My traffic against benchmarks in GA show the blog is doing above average and I do have an engaged audience. So thank you all for your support. :-)

My online presence is now there. My LinkedIn profile has made No.1 using Yahoo search and my “Check with Chan” advertisement has made No.1 using Google search. With all the other social networks I have been able to make more than 2 of my links to be on page 1 using both search engines. This is due to the blog without the blog my rankings would not be up there.

digitally-distinct_badge120pxDigitally Distinct You are digitally distinct!
This is the nirvana of online identity. A search of your name yields lots of results about you, and most, if not all, reinforce your unique personal brand.

          

           

             

            

There are many social networks to join and many different ways to communicate with your connections. Some of my social networks do not even get touched as they are all linked some how to the handful of accounts that I use regularly. Creating my online presence has been an important part of my personal brand, people can do a search on my name and find me easily. Now all I am waiting for are my long lost friends to find me :lol: .

 

Next post in The Story -> Becoming a Blogger

 

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Stating the Obvious

8 October, 2009 in Rant | No comments

What is it with junk mail and spamming? They fill our mail boxes full of rubbish, they may think it is not rubbish but with the amount we receive daily it all becomes rubbish as there is so much to sort through.

Our poor letter boxes sitting outside our homes or stacked up in towers in front of an apartment blocks. These letter box droppers continually ram paper into the boxes to the extent the letter box looks like it has bitten off more than it can chew so you have dig through the mail to find your the real stuff, usually bills :-| . Or when you see the letter box droppers walking along streets with terraces and their tiny front porches or gardens not even bothering to put the junk into the box but just to walk pass and throw it into their areas which becomes rubbish.

My letter box in the past 2 days, this would be a smaller sample than any other week as we are currently in school holidays. Two department store catalogues, 5 menus, 4 real estate pamphlets, 2 cleaning services, 1 medical centre, 1 hotel, and the local paper, approximately weighing 250gms. I am not working so I have no use for any, other than the local paper. I am one apartment in 2 blocks with over 200 mailboxes, there are also another 4 smaller blocks in the area. How much paper is that just for one area in a suburb? My suburb is high density living, we are looking at lots of letter boxes. How many trees and how much of that goes into the recycle bin?

Since I have been networking I have been able to avoid spammers. Then I started blogging. Initially it was only a few a week and I could handle it, then I added a plug-in into the site to filter the spam but it made it worse I was receiving about 20 a day. I unplugged the plug-in and the spamming slowed again but not back at the levels it was at in the beginning. This continues for a couple of weeks, there are always 2 common links and email. But then it starts getting worse. So I decide to blacklist these sites and email addresses, the ones I had received that day. As I was doing this I was hit by a bot, I had heard about bots some sort of spamming thing. Then I see email coming in, over 30 spam’s all containing more than 2 different URL’s and 1 email address, not one word made any sense, all just gibberish, all received in less than a minute.

Find another plug-in, quickly. Oh… Is that why you have to put in a code for comments? To stop bots. In the time it took me to install the plug-in I received another 15 emails. Majority of all spamming starts at 10pm Sydney time and continues through the morning but then stops and starts up again at 10pm. I had caught this bot at 11pm, imagine what I would have woken up to if I did not put the plug-in. Computer time, bandwidth, generation of email accounts, URL’s, power, time retrieving and deleting and now additional plug-ins to protect yourself from spam. What do spammers expect to achieve?

This junk that fills our letter/mail boxes must employee many people, letter box droppers, printers, marketing, designers of all sorts from graphic to web and writers. We have a businesses based on annoying people. The return must be beneficial to these companies otherwise it would not be done. But what a waste of resources and the carbon footprint left from these activities.

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The Campaign

22 September, 2009 in The Story | 8 comments

It is Friday evening and I am feeling very anxious. I had been an extremely private person in the past and was very reluctant in the beginning to even join LinkedIn and now I was having a complete campaign focused on my personal brand. :-?

I start uploading all my stuff on to my profile. My new head shot, new headliner, my personal brand and my resume has been summarised into my LinkedIn profile.

Now I am ready to post a new discussion on all my group boards. You can imagine how nervous I was feeling. I was already overwhelmed with the response to my original discussion and now the whole campaign was going to be there for all to see. My stomach was churning. You know what I really wanted to do was to turn the clock back and be a vegetable about the whole situation but no chance of that happening. You can see how my brain was not functioning correctly through this blog and all the emoticons.

My discussion announcing the launch of the campaign.

Over the past few days some of you would have seen my discussion on personal branding. Is it going to work? Will I have a career self destructing moment like an Australian football star? Will I get my 15 minutes like the British lady on a reality talent show? Or will I float away like a leaf in the autumn breeze?

You be the judge.

Tomorrow, 23rd May, there will be 2 campaigns running concurrently.

1. Paper campaign. There will be an ad in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald, general news section.

2. Digital media campaign. From Saturday through to Monday (local Sydney time), the campaign will be on the home page of www.MyCareer.com.au

I would like thank Job Camp, ‘Getting Australia Working” for inspiring me to think differently about my career and work, The Face Euro RSCG for the campaign and to the sponsors MyCareer.com.au.

And thank you to all who have taken an interest in my campaign.

Please check out my campaign, “Check with Chan”.

The online campaign was to begin at midnight which means the rest of the world is still awake or even just starting their day. I wake in the morning and head to the corner shop for the weekend paper. I am excited wondering what the campaign looks like in the paper and the placement of the ad. This is the whole of the SMH page 4 for the 23rd May. The young man says, “This is only the beginning, you will be on page 1″, yeah right :-| .

The email inbox is next. I am not overwhelmed there are a few comments on my discussions and they were all new people, nobody from my previous discussion. I start getting emails, text messages from my friends, a couple of recruiters and a call from one very excited gentleman from our southern highlands who was very animated about the ad in the paper. I now had 2 online ads, a paper ad and my online discussions but compared to the posting of my first discussion the response was quiet.

Saturday passes, Sunday comes along, something is not right but I don’t know what. I feel like I am floating away like a leaf in the autumn breeze. Sitting, waiting, waiting for something to happen. It is late Sunday afternoon, then, it all of a sudden dawns upon me, OMG! 8O I know it was the dumbest thing I have done since being on my journey. You know when they talk about people talking to themselves, well, the swear words just flowed. I could not believe want I had done. I had deleted the first discussion! So all those people following my discussions were all gone! :x

I don’t know what was in my head when I was deleting the original discussion. I had stopped at one stage but thought ‘why do I need this first discussion?’ I did not think about when I posted my first failed comment I received email for comments following mine. What was I going to do! :cry: I pace and pace and pace then I realise I have the LinkedIn emails from those who posted or wrote to me offline, I can save some :| .

I spent Sunday night sending a personal LinkedIn note to all those who posted a comment or sent me a thread offline. The following grovelling personalised email was sent to everybody.

I must apologise for deleting my initial discussion. It was very rude of me especially when you had taken an interest and had gone into the effort to write something on my discussion.

I am very new to networking no MySpace, Facebook, Twitter or anything else like that. LinkedIn is the first network group I have joined and only since the end of March. But have now realised the benefits of connecting.

I did not realise the payback of adding onto my original discussion and how it would always be on top if there was enough interest, hits or comments.

So please accept my apology and I hope you still get a chance to catch my campaign at www.mycareer.com.au , homepage, the ad is in an advertisement box on the right hand side, the ad may take a bit of time to stream through.

I would love your feedback and thank you for taking an interest in my campaign.

Since the campaign was running until Monday midnight (it was only extended a further 24hrs on Monday), many people would not see the note until after it had finished. So I had a strategy, if they answered and saw the online ad, they got a generic invitation and then a thank you note afterwards.

Then there were those who answered after the online ad ended. I sent them a following note but it was even more personalised with their name in the middle of the paragraph and a generic invitation to my network. I start copying, pasting, send the notes and then the invitations to my network. Copy, paste, copy, paste, copy, paste, then I realise I have personalised the note in the middle as well. So all these people are getting notes with the name ‘Tim’ in the middle of the paragraph :oops: . So I have to send another apologetic note, saying this is what happens when you do a copy and paste.

Out of all the notes I sent, only 2 did not accept my invitation. I realise now I should have sent a personalised invitation after they answered but because I was new, everybody answered my note accepted my invitation. How do I know this? I was told by many. But since then I have accepted many generic invitations myself, I believe in expanding my professional network and sharing my network with others. Though I do like the personalised invitations, it does make one remember who one is. :-)

I have sort of saved the connections that I have reached out to through my discussions. But where are the people wanting to hire? Was it because I stuffed up the original discussion note. This should not be a reason as the original campaign was only based on the local paper advertisement. The week begins and I get further feedback from those who saw the ad in the paper. I also have a couple of interviews with recruiters but none with direct leads :-| .

What I do find out though, much later, like weeks and weeks, is that people have written about the campaign. This is what happens when you google your name which I had not done until well after the campaign launch. Mentions in comments on other blogs, and the following and surprising links about the campaign.

 
Bandt.com – cutting edge, must read news that the advertising and marketing professional cannot live without, Jobseeker becomes the brand, on page 3.

Turning Leaf Blog, Fantastic Marketing – Of A Person!

My friend, Dr Nancy Dailey, Bragging Rights, Women and Personal Branding, where I also receive a mention in the Future Women Leaders blog. :?

 
From my friends at JobCAMP :

Raz Chorev, JobCAMP supervisor, Check With Chan – Personal Branding Campaign;

Luke Harvey-Palmer, JobCAMP creator, JobCAMP WIN a Personal Brand Campaign;

The Face, which I only found today, the Check with Chan campaign including complete Sydney Morning Herald advertisement and placement.

 
Notice I have not commented on any of the blogs or any others where I should have to get more coverage. I didn’t know how to. Not like I didn’t know how to type in the square. It was that fact that I had never encountered web 2.0 and just didn’t know what do to. Like what I did with my first discussions :-? .

Time passes, I have learnt from my faux pas and I am still working my network. I have my coverage with the help of my JobCAMP family, I have my growing connections and I have many interviews but no job. I arrive at another, ‘But what now?’ point.

 

Next post in The Story -> Online Presence

 

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My Personal Brand

12 September, 2009 in The Story, Web 2.0 tips | 14 comments

My personal brand has been made so much easier with the help of many people. I have to say a big thank you to The Face for producing a fantastic campaign, to Raz Chorev, My Personal Marketer, for all his support, to Louise Pope and Kim Seeling-Smith for pointing me in the right direction and a ‘Big Cheers’, :-) , to my colleagues and friends for all their support and feedback over the years otherwise there would be no personal brand for the Business Analyst.

My personal brand has slightly changed since JobCAMP as I have been discovering the BA but that is all part of the journey.

My Personal Brand…

1. Headliner
Who am I? What is the first thing I want people to think about me? True to me so my friends and colleagues can automatically identify as Colleen Chan. My second attempt at the headliner was again a very poor effort as noted by the same person who mentioned it the first time, :-| . The headliner is the attention grabber as recruiters scan through many profiles of potential candidates.

Colleen Chan, ‘Colleen’ in Irish means girl then ‘Chan’, Chinese. People who meet me for the first time or I know as a connection, ask how long have I been in the country and where I am from originally. If they have only heard my voice over the phone, then I am Anglo-Saxon with a strange surname or I did not keep my maiden name. This happens often, doesn’t matter who or which continent, it puts a smile on my face. I am unexpected.

One of the hardest myths to overcome is the stereotype of a boring Business Analyst sitting in front of a computer looking at their numbers or being pedantic about some process flow. When recruiters advertise for roles they ask for personality, interpersonal skills and you have to put that through a cover letter and resume. I have a very Australian sense of humour and I like to share my thoughts and sometimes it puts a smile on a face. I like telling stories like this one I am sharing now. Experiences are there to be shared so we all can learn and funny ones are there so we can have a smile.

Raz, introduced me as the Business Analyst with a Difference to his twitter followers.

So here I am,

Business Analyst with a Difference.

2. Elevator Pitch
The one statement that describes what I can do for a business.

I can measure and understand an organisation’s ambiguous and complex data so they can make concise decisions for the business.

This statement is not seen on my profile but if I had only a brief moment to impress somebody, what would I say to them so they would not forget me.

3. Target Audience
Who do I want to work for? I think back at the jobs in the past and find the people I enjoyed working for were C-level executives. I learnt from these people and discovered different views that allowed me to understand the business and added to my knowledge base making me more qualified for my job.

I have a unique career DNA, statistician meets business analyst. This means I am the go-to person for C-level executives who need data transformed into insightful advice right across their business.

What makes me stand out? I have a “Unique Career DNA” as I am a statistician with post graduate education in accounting & finance and have a good business acumen working in the corporate environment.

What can I do for them? “Insightful advice right across your business.” I provide quality information for decisions to be made in all areas of the business.

4. Sell items
Why would a company want to hire me? Will I fit into their organisational culture? The people that know me should be able to see the person they work with on a day to day basis in my personal brand. How do these people perceive me? When I have been given a problem, my conclusions and approach to my work?

I’m a logical thinker and have a heightened awareness. I’m about details and am results driven. I’m smart, confident, nice and personable. My style maybe a bit left-of-centre but I am great to be around and you’ll really like working with me!

How do I consider a problem? “I’m a logical thinker and have a heightened awareness”. As a business analyst I have to understand the data flows where the data begins and where data flows intercept. The end point of the data flow is management where I have to understand the decision they are trying to achieve.

My conclusions are “about details and results driven”. Decisions can be made through the data with the knowledge the analysis can be understood and is motivated to attain business goals.

How do I deliver my work? “I’m smart, confident, nice and personable”. I am an Excel master with a ”Unique Career DNA”, I am logical and detailed so I am confident of my conclusions, I am nice and personable as I am approachable and modest when understanding or explaining the data.

How do my colleagues perceive me as a work mate? “A bit left-of-centre but I am great to be around and you’ll really like working with me!” I am not a typical business analyst but my traits are not a reflection of my work or who I am, you will enjoy working with me.

5. Creative Proposition
What can I do for your business?

I can take complex problems and make them simple. I can understand and measure the ambiguous!

Data problems may come from any number of sources, not digestible in its current format and appears to have no solution. I can take the ambiguity out of the data so precise decisions can be made.

6. Creative work
Why should your business have me as a part your team?

I am a visual person so I can take all kinds of complex data and make it understandable not only to financial people but to everyone in the business. That makes me a critical part of every decision making process.

In fact, no organisation should do business until they…Check with Chan

I have worked in many areas over my career and many different people with different types of education, engineers, accountants, sales and even doctors so everybody has been taught differently how they perceive the numbers. I can visualise the data in all aspects of the business so everybody can understand, that is why nobody should make a decision until they… ;-)

7. Check with Chan
The online campaign would click through to the full page ad which was also the one that appeared on page 4, Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 23rd May. The online campaign ran from midnight Friday night to midnight Tuesday night on the home pages of MyCareer.com.au and TheBigChair.com.au

Check with Chan

8. Is it Me?
Can I achieve all that I have stated above? Do I have the personality that is expressed in my personal brand? My resume, my profile on LinkedIn, my connections and the recommendations I have from my colleagues prove my experience and who I am.

Am I bragging? Yeah, I’m bragging, :-o . But I have to demonstrate I am the best candidate. My personal brand has to describe who I am, what I have accomplished and what I can accomplish. I am competing against other candidates.

My Personal Brand is an important part of my identity. I must be able to maintain my identity not only to find work and at work but also my friends and my connections must be able to identify with me.

But now I am an occasional blogger and not just a business analyst, :-| . There are two “About” pages, a page for the business analyst, which is why I am here, to find a job for the BA and a page for the blogger with a different profile picture. Hmm… I am sure my personal brand will change over time as my journey into web 2.0 continues. I know if I keep real and true to my personal brand then I will continue to enjoy my social networking experience and all that it has brought me :-) .

 

Next post in The Story -> The Campaign

 

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The Campaign Begins

2 September, 2009 in The Story, Web 2.0 tips | 2 comments

I’m getting ready for my week ahead, listing all the things that have to be done.

  1. My headliner has to be changed.
  2. Daily status updates on my LinkedIn profile.
  3. New head shot as my profile photo was the only recent one I had and had been cut out from a distant sisters’ shot. (Thanks Jai for sneakily taking that photo at Chinese New Year otherwise I would have had none).
  4. Posting discussions on all my group boards.
  5. My Personal Brand.

1.  Headliner
Currently my headliner is boring, Business Analyst seeking Opportunities. I have to make the title so it attracts people to my profile. I take slices out of the introduction that The Face had produced for the advertisement. “Analyst, can take complex problems and data, making them understandable to financial people and to everyone in the business”.

2. Daily Status Updates
I can be a very talkative person but I am not the type of person who is likely to tell all my connections what I am doing on a daily basis. It is to remind my connections that I am around and something is about to happen. So I do daily update status reminding my connections I have won a personal branding campaign and that it will be launched on Saturday in the SMH.

3. Profile Photo
Isn’t it always the way it goes. I am so stressed about the campaign I have a giant pimple in the middle of my cheek! I can’t even remember the last time I had a pimple on my face and it has to come up the only time when I don’t want one to! Photographer, Paul Kennedy, whom I met at JobCAMP, made the session fun. I usually feel very self conscious when posing for photos but we had laughable moments. Ok, I admit to photoshop but only the pimple was removed and now longer exists :-) . Paul would not photoshop anything else as he said it would take the character out of the photo. Oh, so I can’t remove the bags under my eyes and my freckles… ok… :-(

4. Group Discussion Boards
I’m ready to be a content creator, not really. Then I realise there is only an ad in the local paper therefore only the essence of the personal brand campaign will be in my LinkedIn profile and not the complete campaign with the ad. Thought I could get away with it but it was confirmed that MyCareer.com.au who were sponsoring the ad were also going to include an online campaign on their homepage and the homepage of TheBigChair.com.au.

Now I have to create a discussion. I am very scared. I see all the discussions on the group boards, sometimes the discussions get heated and sometimes there are no comments at all. What do I write about so I can get people’s attention and not be beleaguered or left feeling unnoticed.

Below, my very first posting on a discussion board.

Personal Branding. What is it? How does it apply to me?

These are the exact questions that have been haunting me since the GFC. All the recruiters are talking about it, now it is not good enough just to have a good resume but now you need a Personal Brand! But how?

So off I headed to JobCamp, “Getting Australia Working”. JobCamp is the idea of Luke Harvey-Palmer, to inspire people to think differently when it comes to career and work.

The conference was fantastic with speakers including Iggy Pintado, author of “Connection Generation”, Laurel Papworth also known as SilkCharm and the most connected in AP, Stan Relihan.

So what does this all have to do with personal branding? I won my own personal branding campaign by The Face!

So how will The Face give someone in my line of work a personal brand? My job title isn’t the most exciting job title in the world, business analyst.

To see what The Face can do for my personal brand stay tuned, my campaign will begin on the 23rd May.

I was overwhelmed by the response. I received at least one comment online or offline from each group and more than 5 in some, some 50 responses. I had never posted anything on the internet before and did not know what to do with it all. Comments were all very heartening, with good advice, requiring deep thought, asking friends and knowing oneself. I had not thought about my personal brand other than the flurry at JobCAMP. I replied the best I could and very poorly at that, I know now.

There were 2 comments that stood out though. One person sent me a link to Gary Vaynerchuk, Building Personal Brand within the Social Media Landscape at the Web 2.0 Expo. First thing I thought was check out his last name out I am never going to forget that. I watch the video and was left in awe with his enthusiasm, he was so passionate about personal branding and building a business with a good brand. I do occasional go back to watch this video when I need some inspiration.

The other comment mentioned my headliner which was my first attempt at my personal brand. Hmmm, first attempt not very successful :-(   The person said the title appeared as if I was bragging that I was smarter than management as I could talk to everybody in the business about their business. This is not what I am like at all and actually had a chuckle when I read the comment. I can understand the numbers for you to make the right decisions for your business. Have to redo my headliner before the launch. I suppose without the rest of the personal branding, it didn’t work.

Last thing to do before the launch is My Personal Brand…

 

Next post in The Story -> My Personal Brand

 

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JobCAMP

25 August, 2009 in The Story, Web 2.0 tips | 5 comments

It was the morning of JobCAMP, a beautiful autumnal day in Sydney, the sun was out and the sky was clear and crisp. I arrive at Luna Park, the big smiling face under the iconic Harbour Bridge. The conference room over look’s the harbour water across at the Sydney Opera House. I could not think of anything more invigorating. It was disappointing the rest of the unemployed in Sydney did not feel the same way. There were a handful of people who made the effort to get out of bed at such an early hour to learn something new.

JobCAMP was the idea of Luke Harvey-Palmer, to inspire people to think differently when it comes to career and work. I wanted to learn how to think differently as my current methods were not getting anyway with my job search. He asks “Who has a profile in Plaxo, Friendster, in a blog…?” Who? What? Where? …the list goes on. LinkedIn, finally I get to put my hand up. Have I been missing out on something?

Adam Shay from The Face, steps up to speak about personal branding and to announce the winner of the prize, me. Luke also adds that I was the only one who sent anything in. My first thought was opportunity lost but my opportunity gained. I was surprised no one else wanted to take this opportunity in their hand. Maybe the thought of a half page ad in the Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) had put people off.

So there I am in front of a group of strangers and most are used to talking in front of other strangers. Yeah, I’m feeling really comfortable, not. And I have to talk about myself…

First question, “What type of working environment appeals to you?” I think back to the organisations I enjoyed working for. They would have to be like myself with their work values. The friendships I built while I was working in these environments are enduring. LinkedIn connections, which organisations had I connected the most with.

Next, “5 things your colleagues would say about you?” It’s not everyday you go around asking your colleagues what they think of you, you don’t know what you might get back! I had my recommendations to fall back on and they were all very nice, lucky. I had feedback from my agent, career consultant, interviews and those comments your colleagues make off handily.

Next…, “What can you do for the organisation?” This was the hardest question. I know what I do but it is translating my numbers into words. When I search for job advertisements, what do I look for, what words have to be on the advertisement for me to apply for the role?

It was the end, finally. Adam asks, “Did Colleen sound obnoxious?” No, everybody agrees. Phew… Maybe because I was nearly peeing myself like my nephew the day before.

What I learnt at the 2 days at JobCAMP, speakers: Every connection is a good connection, Keep on moving, Give to get – random acts of kindness, Machine cannot replace man in all situations, eg, my hairdresser and from Heidi Dening, personal health, do anything for 21 days and it becomes a habit. To rid yourself of a habit, don’t do it for 21 days.

Most importantly, I learnt I needed to change my banner title to something that stands out from the crowd. I had “Business Analyst seeking Opportunities”. No. A potential employee will see that I am looking for work in my current work status. Another part of my personal branding that must be included in my profile.

The last speaker of the 2 days was introduced as Social Networks Strategist. (Who? What?) Australia’s top blogger had been blogging before it was ‘hip’ to blog and global power150 blogger, Laurel Papworth, also known as SilkCharm. The first thing I thought was blog? The only blogs I had read were on the news sites and all they did was rant about something boring. What could one write about for all those years? I was soon to learn that there is more to blogging than ranting.

After the 2 days my head is a buzz with all the new information. The personal branding campaign is all go ahead with the ad going into the SMH the following Saturday. I have a week to prepare and do what I said I would in my initial competition story.

 

Next post in The Story -> The Campaign Begins

 

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After Sales Service…

22 August, 2009 in Rant | 6 comments

What has happened to Customer service? Has it disappeared forever? Is it because we rely so much on companies for their services that they can treat their customers with no respect?

I am adverse at using customer service centre for any issues. When you get to the point of needing to use customer service it is a problem you cannot solve by yourself so you want help. But they will give you more anxiety than the initial problem. I have not had one positive customer service experience in the recent past.

Is there anybody real out there? Companies are using computer generated questionnaires to try and solve our problems. You answer a series of questions, “yes”, “no”, “I don’t know”, “when”, “what date”, “what time”…..and the list goes on. You submit your questionnaire. “Was this helpful?” No. Can I write a comment? No. You get a reply that the questionnaire needed more details. You re-do your questionnaire and re-submit. You get a reply saying the issue has been cleared but it has not. Re-do questionnaire, re-submit and still no resolution. “Was this helpful?” No, Can I write a comment? No.

Companies have one contact phone number then you have to speak to a computer for the service you require. “What was it you said”, “I did not understand you”, “Please repeat again”, “What is your inquiry?” When you finally get through to a person, they cannot solve the problem and pass you onto somebody else. This is maybe due to miscommunication or the computer directing to the wrong service area. Recently, after the computer had connected me to a person, I was transferred to 4 customer service reps. After explaining the problem on all 4 occasions, the last one wanted to transfer me back to the first one. This occurred in a single call.

This rant was not generated by the previous issues. It was a bank. Human error that could not be explained which in turn caused a chain reaction in my accounts within the bank. You have one end of the bank kow-towing for their error and the other end chasing you being extremely rude asking why automatic payments have not been made!

We would all like to leave our service providers. But we cannot as we are all so time poor. It costs us financially and mentally to transfer their income. Something is wrong!

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