antoin@eire.com

There is an interesting (though slightly hard-to-believe) case study in the Irish Times today, with some interesting observations from experts. It’s strange, some of the observations seemed quite good in the print edition, but seem quite lame on the Internet. Part of the reason for that is that the full details of the contributors aren’t given on-line and these are really an integral part of the article.

Anyway, the important lesson from the article is that service is something that can be designed and improved, and many problems can be solved or at least reduced without always needing more resources.

Fergal Quinn on Crowning the Customer and providing great service

David Allen on  Getting Things Done (via Damien Mulley)

No free wi-fi in Dublin. No surprise there really - using state money to undercut commercial operators is just not a great way to spend money, even if you have it, which Dublin City Council simply does not.

There is still no reason why Dublin City Council could not help with deploying FON. Plenty of other local authorities have in important European cities, and there are others in progress.

Come for a spin with me on the Swords Express on Saturday 24 November at 11.30 from Eden Quay. It would be great to see a few people from the blog there. You can come back to town at 1pm or 2pm, as you wish. I will pay for the tickets. Intention here is to show non Swords people what the route is all about although if anybody wants to meet us in Swords they are welcome to as well. Let me know if you are coming so that I have an idea of numbers.

My company has launched Swords Express. We have a blog, in fact, our whole website is a big blog, and our customers can (and do) leave comments. Most of them are positive, but some of them are a bit less so. But we post them all up there nonetheless. I will be on the radio over the weekend talking about some of this.

A boards.ie poster says that he lost his parcel when the courier company left package in the bin. Now, this points at a big problem with home delivery. You aren’t always home to receive. But imagine if your courier (or tesco delivery guy or whatver) could let himself or herself in, under controlled, observed conditions? Would that make life easier?

The design of the new Sherry FitzGerald website is something I had a hand in with Image Now. It has a nice distinctive look. There are a couple of UI and search engine niceties that have to be looked at, but I think it’s looking pretty good.

Bernie reviews my book, and says very kind things. You can buy it on Amazon.

From the footer of the easyhotel.com confirmation email:

Intellectual Property: The easyGroup of companies has built up a significant reputation in the name “easy” and has a number of trademark applications and registrations in many countries. easyGroup cannot permit others to use the “easy” name without the group’s rights being prejudiced. It follows that no use should be made of the name “easy” (or anything similar to it) without our consent.

That’s easyToUnderstand. They’re definitely not looking for easyMoney. I know it’s easyToForget to capitalize your company name too.

My book just arrived in the post. I am very happy to see it. Finally, the Internet is a safer place for small businesses.