Daniel Pink has a big compelling statement to make:

Pink is the author of the best-selling book ‘Drive: The Surprising Truth of What Motivates Us’, a study that argues long-held conventional beliefs in human motivation are actually hampering effective, high performance.

This is a continuation on my series of posts that discusses the intrinsic needs of employees in a new social environment that is increasingly connected through digital means and how businesses can relook its stance on employees’ engagement in social media and derive positive branding opportunities along the way. Pink’s works and ideas have been a huge recent inspiration and motivation for me to continue discussing the need of social engagement through digital means, especially within organisations, in achieving business objectives.

Now what exactly does science knows and business is doing wrong?

Monetary Rewards Do Not Guarantee Performance for 21st Century Work

Here’s the gist of Pink’s argument on what really motivates us, based on scientific findings from a Dan Ariely study sanctioned by the Federal Reserve Bank of America :

The Scientific Solution

In brief, Pink argues the solution to better and effective performance from modern employees are rooted, not in increased monetary rewards, but in providing the right conditions for these three intrinsic motivational factors to take shape:

There are a lot more discussions that can be had based on Pink’s arguments and these scientific findings, including parallels that I am developing in my mind for my own arguments that social connectivity through digital means will aid in providing these intrinsic motivations for employees (for eg. social media providing us with the control to direct our personal and professional communications (Autonomy) and the abundance of real-time information on social media and on the web that can help all of us get better at our work (Mastery)).  But let’s keep that for later.

For now, what better way than to have Pink explains his argument to you in person. Here’s Pink’s hilarious talk at TEDGlobal fully discussing the inspiration behind Drive with case studies and anecdotes.

This next video is a helpful rendering of the same motivation argument made by Pink. Using ‘on point’ caricatures, this visualisation is a great tool to easily understand and absorb Pink’s refreshing perspective on what motivates us.

Connect with Pink on social media via Twitter

Sometime in 2006, I started to frequent a Malay barber guy in Race Course Road, close to where I used to live on Petain Road. Operating out of a shop underneath a HDB block, the joint has probably seen better days; it is now sparse and functional. Three of them (all in their 50s) worked out of the same premises and it took me a while to get comfortable with one particular guy. Other than being cheap (SG$8 per trim), a haircut at the barber gets the job done quickly and efficiently, none of the fussiness of the salon and its army of stylists.

My Malay barber’s a quiet man. Apart from pleasantries, Vespa stories and the weather, we hardly got personal. But all the same, my sessions with this guy had been very pleasant. We had a well-established, mutually-beneficial relationship. His colleagues knew that and respected this relationship well to never court me to sit in their chairs, even if the place was swarmed. I was this guy’s regular and loyal customer.

Loyalty is Painful Sometimes

I have loyally continued to patronise this place all these years, even after moving back to my folks in Pasir Ris (briefly before marriage) and now in our matrimonial home (Toa Payoh).

Yesterday, I made a Sunday morning trip to the barber shop for a haircut. I was looking forward to the occasion because a while ago (the Saturday before my convocation on May 22, to be exact), I had gone there wanting a trim. Unfortunately, he did not turned up as per usual and did not answer any calls to his mobile. I waited an hour for him to arrive (I really didn’t mind waiting at all) before reluctantly letting my hair to be trimmed by one of his colleagues. Yesterday, I had wanted to ‘playfully chide’ him for making me wait.

On arrival, I saw his spot remained empty and enquired if he’s late again. The news that greeted me at the door left me stumped and speechless.

My Malay barber guy had passed away on 6 June 2010.

A long-term loyal relationship has ended for good. And there was no opportunity to say goodbye or to express my deep gratitude for all these years.

What Made Our Relationship Great?

Nonetheless, I still needed a haircut yesterday and I received one from the same guy that stood in the last time. In all honesty, I wasn’t terribly thrilled with my haircuts, not that I wanted something fancy (my idea of a haircut is merely getting my hair trimmed to a length that will allow me to style it any way I want later on).

Unfortunately, I did not receive a memorable experience with this guy. It was just not the same.

So what really made the difference? You might say a haircut is a haircut.

Well, the difference is my late Malay barber guy listened. And again and again and again.

From the first time and every time since then, he would ask once before each session what I wanted (despite knowing very well what I wanted), listened to my request and proceeded. If I thought my hair needed a little more trimming (just like my dad’s, my hair burst into life and starts growing wildly the moment I step off the barber’s chair), I would make regular requests (in a single session) to have the sides trimmed to the length I wanted. He would listen, never let out a sigh or complain and gave it to me every time.

I also have a (call it peculiar) belief that buzz machine-cut hair do not grow out well and had insisted on a traditional scissors-cut the very first time I patronised his services. All these years, he remembered that very first request and never gave me a full haircut with a machine (only touch-ups).

The new guy left me disappointed. Crucially, he did not ask what I wanted or listened close enough to what I had to say.

All Great Marketers Listen to Their Customers

First rule of marketing: Give what the customers want. And that is only achievable by listening to what they really want.

That, in essence, is what my late Malay barber did. He asked what I wanted and continued to listen every time. He was a marketing guy in the most simple and effective way. He did not put forth fancy hairstyle ideas or suggest a new hair colour. He did not lavish me with in-store perks or loyalty points. He never called me by my name.

But he listened and listened. And gave me what I really wanted.

Truly a hallmark of any great marketer.

Farewell

I regretted knowing and calling my late Malay barber only as ‘Pakcik’ (Malay for uncle) (I’d love to give you a name here). I probably knew his name at some point but we had gotten on so comfortably, we never did have a need for names. Nonetheless, he’ll be greatly missed.

May God give strength to his family and friends and bless my Malay barber’s soul in the ever-after.

The simple guy who listened and listened and listened.

Full disclosure: I admit I am a technology geek and, unabashedly, a Google fanboy. I am always fiddling with my gadget of choice (my Google Nexus One phone), customising my Google Chrome browser and I constantly try to outsmart the office’s laptop and its ‘restrictions’. You may ask why do I spend valuable time and effort on activities like these?

Well, I demand technology to work for me, to get the most value out of pieces of technology I own or paid good money for. But most simple technologies are made available to me for free, so being Singaporean, free is holy. But, above all, the driving motivation for this is to increased productivity and efficiency, both for my personal and professional uses. (Particularly useful when I was studying too).

Consider these very simple examples:

And there are many more little tricks and simple tools that are waiting for to be discovered and used daily. Technology (even weaponry) are meant to help us in some way or another to improve our lives. The computer, the telephone and even the humble toothpick (care for a twig?)

All This Is Fuddy-Duddy to You?

Are you saying these to yourself “That is too difficult!”, “Oh, I don’t think I am savvy enough”, “I am afraid of the Internet”, “I don’t have a smartphone”, etc.? Well, heard about the 99-year old grandmother with an iPad? Or the 1-year old iPhone-savvy baby?

Believe me, you too can take advantage of simple technologies like these and make your life a little more productive and efficient. As long as you have a computer, work with a computer or simply surf the web on a computer, you deserve the opportunity to harness the power of simple technologies.

Everyone has a right to simple technologies to enhance their lives. Every second saved through being efficient really adds up. (In a year, how many hours do you waste in total waiting for your favourite news website to load every morning?)

The Truth Hurts

To be frank, I keep company with young and technologically-savvy people (maybe an old-age inferiority thang!) Many of them understand the power of simple technologies and use this knowledge for their own benefits. They are school-leavers (could possibly be your child, nephew or niece), below the age of 26, equipped and exposed to iPhones and iPads and also totally understand and exploit the value of online social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

In a few years’ time, they will slowly and collectively change the culture in your workplace: they have Twitter on their iPhones so they are getting news as it is breaking. They have placed their trust in cloud computing because they know it is efficient, timely and cost-friendly. They will make lightning-quick and well-informed  decisions and will be the main driver and steward of a real-time and social economy.

Where will you be then? Can you catch up?

My working experience in the world’s biggest enterprise software company has been quite telling. Despite the technology-driven environment, a large majority of my former colleagues are not taking advantage or leveraging on simple technologies to help them in their work and learning. Even for something simple and efficient like RSS for reading. If folks from a top technology company are ‘not getting it’, what about the rest of us?

No one I knew in school (I used to attend part-time classes) uses RSS for reading or research.

The digital divide is alarming. And here are my plans.

Why Am I Doing This?

I will write a more in-depth post soon on my future objectives and my conviction on why I should set out and do this. But here’s a short explanation in a nutshell.

Recently, I did some thinking and had a ‘A-HA!’ moment that totally changed my focus and perspective.

An empowered and enabled employee will do more wonders for an organisation than state-of-the-art software or a roomful of high-end servers. Period.

Throughout this blog, I have written about how businesses should adopt and adapt the ‘open’ business model through social media and online marketing.

I was totally missing the point.

It is people that should matter first. Develop the people, then develop the business.

Didn’t they say the most efficient and productive workforce keeps the economy running smooth and healthy?

I leave you now with one of my inspiration. Watch this (a little dizzy at times) video to understand what I mean.

Video Credits: Dan Pink’s animated talk: ‘Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us’

Thanks for reading this post. If you have any comment or would like to share your ideas, thoughts or even to give input on how I can improve on the survey and study, do feel free to use the Comment space below.

Being the avid foodies that we are, the wife and I are always on the lookout for new food joints to satisfy our cravings. Our problem is, being Muslims, finding halal establishments in Singapore can be quite a challenge. The halal foodie depends heavily on word-of-mouth recommendations, googling the Web and physical ‘stumbleupons’ to discover new food places (sometimes food blogs such as ‘Yok Makan!’ offers great recommendation). But most times though, halal food places remains top of our Google search list.

Not for much longer though. The mobile web will save us all.

Introducing BuUuk: The Mobile Foodie App

Things have gotten easier since we discovered BuUuk for our Android phones (Nexus One FTW BTW). BuUuk is a restaurant guide utility application available for free on the iPhone App Store and also for phones running on Android (get it from Android Market on your phone or click this to dowload .apk file and install). Interestingly, BuUuk is a homegrown, Singapore-made product and has also been featured on CNN Go’s list of ‘11 Crucial iPhone Travel Apps’.

Key Features of BuUuk You Should Know

- BuUuk is a location-aware app. Wherever you are (local or overseas), BuUuk uses your GPS or AGPS location to provide you with Nearby food recommendations. This, I think, is a really cool feature, saves travel time obviously. BuUuk even tells me that I am ‘142m’ away from the Toa Payoh Bus Interchange’s McDonalds outlet (I am at my workdesk at home right now).

- BuUuk currently has a database of restaurants in 50 cities in Asia and Pacific and Middle East (including Seoul, Langkawi, Osaka, Vientiane, etc) Wherever you are, BuUuk will come to you with information.

- BuUuk has both ‘Featured’ (paid listings?) and user-added restaurant listings. You can also add a new discovery to the list. A great way to recommend your favourite chef to friends, family and all foodies out there.

- BuUuk has Best lists. Cuts decision-making time efficiently and more time to enjoy your food.

- BuUuk provides a restaurant page for the food place you are searching for. What’s great here? Cuisine info, contact number, address and directions (running on Google Maps engine). You won’t get lost for sure.

- You can also vote for your favourite foodie hangouts (or find out which joints you should avoid)

- It also looks like BuUuk has an active ‘mobile forum’ section called ‘Ask BuUuk’.

- Here’s the great bit for the wife and I: BuUuk shows if a restaurant is Halal or not. There is also a Categories feature for us to check out all the Halal food joints in Singapore and travel out to these places. ( Other categories are Hawker, German, Filipino and even Dutch among many others.) Note to the Halal Foodie: Please do a quick Google search or ask around to find out if the place is indeed Halal. As a fair bit of the information on BuUuk are user/customer-generated, error in highlighting a place as ‘Halal’ might occur. As with all user-generated recommendations, do a little more search. Start with Google.

My verdict on BuUuk: It is a very promising mobile application with great potential as long as content are fresh and relevant to service users. I would also suggest an editor to audit the restaurant information submitted by users. Nothing biggie there where user-generated content is concerned.

The Age of the Halal Foodies has arrived, rejoice!

Follow BuUuk on Twitter

(Non-marketing folks, perhaps the following might bore you. You may leave if you wish to do so.)

Part II: Why Mobile Marketing Is Important for Business, Big and Small

Can you, the Singaporean food business owner, afford NOT to be on BuUuk?

Here’s an interesting statistic featured in Straits Times yesterday: 80% of ALL phones sold in Singapore in the last 6 months are smartphones.

These are mobile gadgets that allow anyone to access the web any where and everywhere. Consumers have now been freed from the shackles of their desktop to search for content and information wherever they want and whenever they need to. From a personal experience, I have hardly needed to lug my work laptop around or access the web on the desktop computer at home after receiving my Nexus One. The smartphone meets my informational and computing needs adequately.

Where Are Consumers Heading?

Consumers are going to reach out to the nearest businesses they can conveniently reach digitally and those who have taken the effort to market and create presence on the mobile web platform. Those who do will certainly acquire the edge and headstart over others. Consumers are also making specific and targeted search, (such as halal food) and, without online content to optimise search results, businesses might be on the losing end in the long run. With location services such as Foursquare and Gowalla proving extremely popular with the smartphone crowd these days, the consumer retail industry will need to transform itself quickly to cater to these new realities.

No Love for SMS Marketing

Okay, by default, I am going to ignore SMS marketing, be it traditional or interactive. I get irritated by them for interrupting me at the most inconvenient moments. My theory is, advertisers and networks are moving (or jumping in) on the mobile marketing space because traditional advertising has failed. Mobile is just another channel for advertisers to interrupt with noisy commercial messages. I have not seen something I appreciate for ages! (Having said that, markets, such as India or Indonesia, do work and possibly have a need for SMS marketing because of the lack of mobile web infrastructure and slower technologies. Still, no condoning for interruptive tactics from me!)

Mobile Content for Consumers: Utilisable, Reusable and Shareable

The future of mobile marketing should lie in reusable and consumer-utilisable content. Only by developing content can companies capitalise on effective branding (recall and engagement) and generate long-term customer retention. Like BuUuk. I am a fan. And I am sharing with all of you.

More thoughts and ideas on mobile marketing coming to this blog. Watch this space.

This post was inspired by my 3-day attendance at the Mobile Marketing Association Forum (Asia Pacific) 2010. The Mobile Marketing Association is a global non-profit organisation that is leading the growth and adoption of mobile marketing among businesses globally. I fancy what they are doing to keep it sane and do have a read of their Global Code of Conduct (PDF) for mobile marketers. We are in good hands.

Share your thoughts and comments below on BuUuk, mobile marketing and even better still, the best Halal food joints! Let me start, where to find authentic halal dim sum in Singapore? :P

Credits:

Food image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laruth/

BuUuk images: www.pcworld.com, iridianstudio.com

Nexus One image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mackarus

The 2nd annual Mobile Marketing Forum Asia Pacific 2010 (MMAF) is currently underway in Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore. Since 13 April, industry experts and players have been discussing the present and future of the mobile marketing landscape. The focus for this year’s event is ‘Building Brands with Mobile’. The full view of the agenda and topics of discussion is available here. The event continues till April 15.

I will continue to share the latest tidbits and my personal commentaries (in 140 characters!) from the event’s floor. Add me on Twitter at @ismantanuri if you would like to follow the event closely. Alternatively, you can lock your Tweetdeck or other Twitter client to the official Mobile Marketing Forum Asia Pacific hashtag #MMAF2010. Or you can visit this Twitter search page for all the discussion and chatter so far.

And yes! I will be livetweeting the event on my mobile phone. It is only apt and I will be proving that computing and communication can be effectively achieved through the mobile platform. My gear of choice is my trusty Google Nexus One  with Seesmic for Android as my Twitter app.

For fans of Facebook, you can also visit the Mobile Marketing Association Fanpage for the latest discussion and industry news: http://www.facebook.com/mobilemarketingassociation.apac

The Mobile Marketing Association is also on Twitter (@MMA_APAC).

I have been invited to the event by Rice Communications as part of the Community Media team. I am loving it so far and kudos to the team for the fantastic event organisation.

Mobile is the present and the future, folks! The tipple has tipped.

Post Updated: 5 May, see end of post

Are we really a First World country with a world-class service industry serving the economy? Certainly not if our still unresolved issue with Singapore Post (SingPost) is a yardstick for measurement. A simple request for Singapore Post to re-deliver my wife’s parcel (containing online purchases of clothes from Forever 21) has dragged on for almost 3 weeks with no end in sight. Much worse is the customer service treatment we have been receiving at the hands of this monopolistic (we don’t really have a choice, do we?) Singaporean postal service. Truth is: no one at SingPost seems to care!

‘Parcel is Lost in Our Service’ says Singapore Post

The parcel, with a total purchase value of US$385.16, had been declared ‘lost’ by Singapore Post. And this happened while it was in its care! Unbelievable? Unfortunately, this is true, SingPost officially states so in this email and this one too. And for the record, there WAS an attempted parcel delivery to our door step on 30 December 2009 (more on this later). But it seems as though the parcel simply….vanished!

Obviously, we were deeply concerned and wanted this resolved as quickly as possible. As the lost item was a combined purchase between Elisa (my wife) and her friends and acquaintances, it is only right on Elisa’s part, as purchase coordinator, to rectify this quickly. If the parcel is really lost as claimed, then compensation must be made, especially when SingPost has clearly acknowledged losing it. Simple enough? Turns out, not quite.

Ignored by Singpost?

It is painfully obvious from our interactions that Singapore Post does not see any urgency in this matter nor does it feel totally responsible for this blunder. Despite countless calls and information request via emails, no single person at Singapore Post took the initiative or claimed any service responsibility over our case. Read on to find out how SingPost tries to ‘tai chi’ this problem away. (Note: ‘To tai chi’ is Singlish for shifting work or blame to someone else)

Since January 11, Elisa had been making periodic calls to Singapore Post’s customer service hotline to enquire about this parcel. The same mantras were repeated countless times: ‘We are looking into it’, ‘Our operation team is still investigating’, ‘The parcel is still missing’, etc. And she kept being told ‘We will give you a call’, but never heard back from anyone. Not a single call-back came from SingPost in the course of 2 weeks. Unbelievable but true.

This perceived ‘lack of interest’ by SingPost is also evident in email communication. A certain ‘Jxcqueline Lim – Senior Manager’ offered to keep a close watch on this case when Elisa spoke to her on January 22. Unfortunately, that did not happen. See the chain of emails that is still unresponded (and possibly ignored by Miss Lim) since January 22.

All Talk, No Action

From January 11 till the 22nd, this case was ‘ping-ponging’ between Singapore Post’s Customer Service team, their Investigation team and quite possibly their Claims Department. It seems like no one wanted to make any decision. If it takes 2 weeks to locate a single physical parcel, then there must be something seriously wrong operationally at SingPost.

Only on January 22, when we demanded immediate concrete action to be taken, was a police report given to us the very same evening (more about discrepancies of this police report later). We deduced it to be SingPost’s way of saying: ‘Yes, we lost your parcel but can you wait in case it turns up so that we don’t have to claim insurance and save some bucks?’

This whole episode, coming hot on the heels of the controversial Singapore Post’s "Acts of Vandalism" publicity stunt that backfired, does make us wonder the quality of decision-making business managers currently helming the company. SingPost is not exactly doing itself any favour here. And to think I had voluntarily proposed a revolutionary business idea to SingPost previously.

Next, I’ll detail a factual rundown of events that led to this blog post.

What Actually Happened

20 December: Elisa and myself left Singapore for a 3-week holiday in the Middle East.

29 December: Parcel arrived in Singapore on 29 December at 3.10pm. View the online tracking report by United States Postal Service for item CJ242179875US (Elisa’s parcel).

30 December: Delivery was attempted on 30 December by owner of mobile no. +6581461087 to our flat in Toa Payoh Central. The following are text messages (signed off as ‘S’pore post’) sent to Elisa on the same day regarding this attempted delivery:

Another text message was also sent on January 2:

31 December: My mom called on my mobile and mentioned that our neighbour, an elderly lady, had contacted her to inform of a postal delivery man at our door the previous day. Our kind neighbour had spoken to the delivery man and that she was ready to ‘make payment’ on our behalf (we found out later that Goods and Services Tax (GST) was due on Elisa’s parcel). However, our neighbour mentioned that the man was nowhere to be found when she returned to the door later with her money bag.

8-9 January: Elisa sent several text messages to +6581461087, but did not receive any reply.

11 January: Elisa made the first call to Singapore Post’s Customer Service to enquire on re-delivering the parcel. She was told that parcel cannot be located and SingPost advised that it will need at least 2 working days to look for the parcel. SingPost assured her that a return call will be made within the next few days.

Text messages and phone calls made to +6581461087 were still not answered. Gave up on that channel of communication.

13 January: No news from Singapore Post. When contacted, SingPost informed that ‘the Operations team is still trying to locate the parcel’. SingPost also mentioned that if the parcel is not found by January 18, a police report will be made in order to initiate claims. We decided to wait it out and requested to SingPost to provide a prompt update by January 18.

18 January: Again zero communication received from Singapore Post. Elisa made a call and told the same thing: ‘the Operations team is still trying to locate the parcel’.

So no police report had been made. When asked when exactly the police report will be filed, the Customer Service Officer  quipped that she had just updated the system for the ‘Operations team’ to file the police report. Ping! Pong! Among other things:

• Was also told that the police report would take THREE working days to complete
• After which the report will go to the Claims Department to look into the matter and handle the proceeding steps Ping! Pong!
• Will be updated via a phone call regarding the police report and claims

I guess Elisa and friends have to wait. Again.

The Singapore Post’s Police Report Mystery!

22 January: Still no update on a late Friday afternoon so we decided to give Singapore Post a call.

No police report had been made! The atrocity!

The SingPost Customer Service officer on the line said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it and will call you back on Monday’. ‘NO WAY!’ we protested. Eventually, by sheer verbal force, Elisa and yours truly managed to speak to Jxcquxlinx Lim (Senior Manager, Customer Service) and she agreed to file the report so that a compensation claim can be initiated as soon as possible.

Do see the chain of emails here on this. Notice an attempt to delay official action again, despite an earlier verbal agreement with Jxcquxlinx Lim. Elisa highlighted this in her last email reply.

A police report was eventually lodged by SingPost on the same evening and we duly received a copy of this report. Please do view the full copy of this police report.

Now, let’s play detective! Notice the following discrepancies in the police report:

1. Police report was made in the personal name of ‘Ayub Bin Hamzah’. Is this normal practice? I assume this is a safeguard so that Singapore Post, as a business entity, is likely to be absolved from any connection or responsibility in case a criminal offence had been committed.
2. No signature or name and details of police officer-in-charge visible in the report. The informant ‘Ayub Bin Hamzah’ did not sign as well. Extremely odd! I wonder what is the real story here. Anyone familiar with police reports?
3. Look again at the following text message sent by owner of mobile no. +6581461087 on the afternoon of 30 Dec when the parcel was still in his/her possession:

Notice the time and date message was sent and received:

30 December, 2.59pm

Now look at the ‘Time of Incident’ for loss of parcel as stated by Singpost in the police report.

30 December, 11.47am-11.59pm

So Many Questions!

• The parcel was reported/discovered ‘lost’ between those hours when it is obvious that, evidenced through the text messages sent to Elisa, the owner of mobile no. +6581461087 still had the parcel in his possession. Isn’t this downright fishy? A parcel gone missing while being delivered? Should this not be grounds for a criminal investigation?
• Who is the owner of mobile no. +6581461087 anyway? Singapore Post’s official response to us on this query is “We do not know to whom this mobile number belongs to”. ???
• Singapore Post does not keep track of its own delivery men/women? Inconceivable? Apparently so.
• Could the owner of mobile no. +6581461087 be ‘Ayub Bin Hamzah’?
• If parcel was already ‘lost’ on 30 December, why did Elisa receive another text message from +6581461087 on January 2? What was its purpose? There was no other communication after this message.
• How is it possible that a parcel, in SingPost’s care and ready to be delivered to owner, can go missing and untraceable within the space of a week? Aren’t all parcel shipments individually tagged and tracked?
• There was never a ‘Request for Re-delivery’ note left behind at our door by owner of mobile no. +6581461087 or was there ever an official SingPost call made to Elisa to arrange for re-delivery afterwards. Is this an attempt to cover up something?

25 January: No call from SingPost, specifically from the Claims Department.

26 January: Still no call and no news. So Elisa made a direct call to Jxcquxlinx Lim to ask for status of the claims.

Jxcquxlinx’s reply was: ‘Oh, no staff contacted you yesterday? Someone was supposed to call you. Ok, let me try to get hold of someone from the Claims department and have them speak to you.’

We felt really numb by now. Ping! Pong!

Later on a Fxdilx called, informing Elisa that the claims process will take several days. However, Jxcquxlinx had earlier agreed to resolve the claims process by Monday, January 25. Fxdilx claimed that she was ‘unaware of this’. Com’mon, SingPost, COMMUNICATE!

When asked to speak to Jxcquxlinx, Fxdilx informed that she had left for the day and instead a ‘Miss Umx’ would be calling by 9.30pm that evening. Unfortunately, Elisa missed this call. A return call to ‘Miss Umx’ was, however, unanswered.

The Final Straw: Singapore Post Washes Hands and ‘Tai Chis’ Tasks to USA Post, Forever 21 and Us!

27 January: Elisa picked up the phone and called a ‘Miss Umxmagasvary – Asst Manager, Customer Relations’ (we theorise that the concept of calling back or following up apparently does not exist in SingPost’s operations manual). In the call, the message communicated by Miss Umx simply astounded us!  Elisa asked that this be documented in an email, which was received promptly. The full copy of the email is available for viewing. Reproduced here is an excerpt from Miss Umx’s email:

Dear Ms Elisa

ENQUIRY ON USA PARCEL NUMBER CJ242179875US

Please refer to your conversation with our call center dated 12 Jan 2010.

We are sorry to inform you that despite a through search, we are unable to locate the parcel. As such, the parcel has been declared as lost in our service.

We have reported the lost of the parcel to the USA Post and have requested to liasie with the sender accordingly. We have also informed them to compensate the sender at our expense as in accordance with the UPU Regulations.

As the sender would have the prior right of claim, please advise your sender to file a claim with the USA Post.

Our sincere apologies for the lost of the parcel and the inconvenience experienced

Yours sincerely

Umx (Ms)

Asst Manager, Customer Relations, Customer Service (Business Division)

DID: 65 68456222, Fax: 65 68425114

Case closed?! This is totally unbelievable! MAJOR PING PONG!

This is as good as Singapore Post saying:

‘Sorry, we fxxked up, please help clean the mess after us’.

After 3 weeks of dealing with Singapore Post’s Customer Service and after it admitted to losing Elisa’s parcel, SingPost now wants to close off this matter by making USA Post, Forever21 and us to ‘take care of business’. How much more crazier can this get? There are even more questions now:

• Why is Singapore Post getting USA Post involved in this when it is pretty obvious that SingPost lost Elisa’s parcel in Singapore? The parcel was delivered and arrived safely in Singapore on 29 December at 3.10pm. It went missing under SingPost’s watch, for goodness sake.
• And why is Singapore Post making my wife do their work for them? “Please advise your sender to file a claim with the USA Post”. Not content with making Elisa constantly following up with customer service at SingPost (who lost Elisa’s parcel, by the way, if I haven’t already mentioned that), she is suddenly asked to TAKE CARE OF HER OWN BUSINESS? Nasty.
• “Compensate the sender”: Whatever happened to the person whose money and time has been spent in this? In this email from Miss Umx, there is ZERO mention of claims or compensation to my wife, the paying customer. An oversight? Nah. It is likely that SingPost just does not care. Instead, the email implied as such: ‘Sorry, we tried our best but you are on your own. Now shoo. Leave us in peace.’
• Is this a way for Singapore Post not to claim compensation on its insurance? Or not to fork out any money from its own coffers by making the sender claim from its own insurance, etc.? In the real world, if I were to lose someone else’s property, I should jolly well be made responsible for it.

Answer our questions, Singapore Post!

Elisa and myself have given enough opportunity and time to Singapore Post to ‘play’ nice’ and resolve this matter amicably. Yes, Elisa will probably be fully compensated, albeit in a ‘gazillion years’. But there are still so many questions that need answers, even legal ones.

Thus, we decided to bring this out to a public forum. We decided to let you be a witness and, hopefully, a commentator to this issue. We are always lamenting about our Singaporean service industry and this is probably just one of many cases you’ve heard. Now here’s a platform for your thoughts so that we can all learn from this unfortunate episode.

But above all, we would like Singapore Post to respond publicly to our many unanswered questions and the mysteries surrounding the vanished parcel, police report, compensation etc. Keeping it quiet and under wraps have not worked at all in our favour. We have stopped believing in your ‘stories’ over the phone and now we desire some real deal honesty.

On to you, Singapore Post.

5 May Update:

We thank you, visitors here who have found our story, for reading and sharing your thoughts on the SingPost issue and also for giving us your encouragement and support. We are happy to update that we had received compensation directly from SingPost for the full value of the lost package.

There are still questions that remains unanswered, including what really happened with the lost package and the conclusion of the police investigation on the matter. However, we commend SingPost for taking up our issue directly, visiting us to discuss in detail, leaving comments on this blog and keeping the conversation open. Please read Peggy Chong’s reply to us on this matter.

We hope in some ways we have helped institutions like SingPost and other exasperated consumers find a way to communicate better in resolving similar issues. Technologies and communication platforms that allow a much closer interaction between businesses and consumers have evolved greatly with the Web2.0 revolution. We hope opportunities like these will be fully utilised on both sides of the commercial divide.

Thanks again for visiting and do leave your thoughts and opinions for the benefits of others. I also invite you to read the rest of the blog if you have the time. Cheers!

The Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 came around last Sunday. I eventually ticked another item off my New Year’s Resolutions list by completing the 21km half-marathon, my first ever, but not without pains and frustration. Despite being able to run continuously for 90 minutes and feeling strong and tireless at the 14km mark, I had to switch to brisk walking because of a prior niggling injury to my right ankle. That meant shifting my weight to the left leg, and soon I was cramping out on that leg. One thing led to another and soon both legs were developing muscle pains.

Thinking is a Painkiller

I began writing this blog post in my head for the next 5km. That somewhat took away the troubling thoughts that I will not reach the Finish Line in 2.5 hours (my goal on the outset). In any case, many of my blog posts had been written while on my daily runs. The experts do say that running makes you smarter. I certainly like the tone of that.

As I have been reading Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail lately, naturally my mind drifted there. Observing the massive throng of people (well, mostly folks speeding past me), a theoretical connection clicked, from which more thoughts poured in.

Here’s the result of killing pain with brain juicing.

The Marathon is A Long Tail Business

In his book, Chris Anderson generally explains the concept of The Long Tail as the explosion of niche products and customers. With the digital revolution and easy access to choices, consumers are buying extensively from a range of “non-hit” products and non-traditional retail sources. We were too smitten with buying branded products, undoubtedly shaped by popular culture in the ‘70s-‘90s, but now we are buying deep into catalogues of obscure products. Amazon.com and iTunes are examples of The Long Tail business, retailers who offer unlimited product choices. Many other small- and medium-sized businesses are also thriving in the Long Tail economy, catering to an extended range of niche market segments.

In marathon running, The Long Tail theory holds water too. At the front of the pack are the well-oiled professional runners whom we can imagine as the corporations and big businesses of the world. These are the runners who will lead far ahead of the competition, dominate the race, first to the Drinks Stations and eventually winning the money prizes. But what about the rest of the competition? (Imagine sole proprietors, small- and mid-sized businesses as runners that make up the rest of the competitive field)

This is where the Long Tail kicks in. There are enough opportunities for everyone else at the back. Everyone gets an opportunity at the Drinks Stations or a banana treat. Everyone gets a path ahead to run along. Even the last competitor in the field gets a medal eventually.

To illustrate, earlier on in my career, then-girlfriend (now wife) and myself started a music label business together. Fruit Records, the label we own, was too small to compete with the bigwigs of music distribution, such as Warner Music or Sony BMG. We were also a wee player in a network of thousands of independent music labels around the world. Getting prominently ahead of competition is a tough proposition.

We decided that we needed a niche business strategy to complement our niche product genre (in this case, independent guitar pop bands) and we were very successful with it (view my Fruit Records’ portfolio.) We found customers and distribution all over the world, in Poland, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Peru, Finland, New Zealand and many other exotic locales. Our bands travelled the region to perform and, to our surprise, the long-tail fans appeared in huge numbers! When we put on concerts in Singapore featuring foreign artistes, we were equally-bewildered at the breadth and demographic make up of our audiences. It was certainly an unforgettable experience in the Long Tail economy.

In essence, just as in marathon running, as long as a business attempts to stay in competition, the Long Tail will bring its niche rewards and satisfaction, personal or commercial. Businesses must be willing to develop its own niches and audience in spite of fierce and numerous competition. Perhaps winning or dominating the marketplace is out of the question for most businesses but if they stay focused and strategise for the long-run, there are enough opportunities to grow from strength to strength into a sustainable enterprise.

Personal Learning and Business Lessons in Marathon Running

Before the 14km mark, I was pretty sure of a good finish. I felt good and my aggregate time would have put me in good stead for a sub-2.5 hour finish. Then the pains started and all plans went awry. So a new strategy was required: a run-walk trot and my goal was adjusted to a sub-3 hours finish.

If you look at my official running stats’ analysis, 1541 runners passed by me in the last 7.2km alone. Blah. Every metre of that last stretch was frustrating. I kept trying to increase my ‘trot’ speed to a jog but every 10 metres or so, I had to abruptly stop because either the right or the left leg was on the verge of cramping. After a while, I decided to listen intently to what my body was trying to tell me. I assessed the situation and managed my expectations. I told myself that if I were to get cramps, I might slow myself further and derail any hope of a sub-3 hours finish. I stopped pushing myself too hard. Gratefully, I managed to jog the last 500 metres. Sweet.

When I acknowledged the fact that I was not going to meet my original goal (sub-2.5 hours), I decided to look at the bigger picture. What is my end-objective? To complete the run. Timing became secondary and, in my head, I was already planning ahead to 2010’s Singapore Marathon in my head. Learn from the mistakes of this maiden experience and come back stronger next year.

Before the marathon on Sunday, I was frequently asked “So is this a precursor to next year’s full marathon?” Of course, the egocentric, competitive maniac in me proclaimed “Yes!” to every one of those questions. How humbled have I been since.

I have reassessed and realised that I do not have all the strengths of a marathon runner. My bulky size means I am not built for long-distance running and, because of my age, the impact of constant running may actually be detrimental to my knees and joints in the long run and limit further physical activities. That is a big consideration.

I am also not equipped with the mental confidence and conviction that I am able to finish a full marathon. Yet. Expectation #fail.

But what I have got going for me is the experience of a first half-marathon and the belief that I can perfectly manage the 21km distance. Knowing my body, I am also convinced that I can do exceptionally well in this category with better preparation and training. Therefore, with all these understanding, I choose the option to excel. So it will be the half-marathon again next year (rather than being mentally-defeated in the full marathon.)

In Summary…

As I have illustrated above, marathon running-style, there are many business lessons to be learned while distance running. In the course of doing business, I believe organisations must be willing to pause and consider the following:

• Listen internally and intently to the business and the marketplace
• Look at the bigger picture and plan sustainable long-term objectives
• Assess situation and re-strategise, if necessary
• Manage expectations and adjust goals, if required
• Understand strengths and weaknesses and use this knowledge to excel in the field, rather than being an also-ran or overrun by competitors

Oh, and by the way, I managed to achieve my sub-3 hours goal. My official finish time for the 21km half-marathon was 2hrs 58mins. Next year’s personal benchmark has been set. Doubly sweet.

So now, who’s taking up the challenge for next year’s Singapore Marathon? If you’re inspired by this post and signing up for next year’s run or you simply have views on this post, would love to hear from you in the comments.

I think we have to agree that traditional offline marketing is still a crucial business initiative even in today’s consumer markets. As much as I am a huge advocate of bringing people online and influencing through great online content and virtual social interaction, digital alone will not cut it. Going out there with road shows, direct marketing with flyers and sales promotions are still expected by the buying public, most especially in Singapore (Great Singapore Sale, anyone?)

Which is great for the economy, especially in the current slumpish conditions. But unfortunately, most businesses want to fast track the route to cash. ‘What is the fastest way to push stock and goods?’ ‘Which shopping season will reap the most money for us?’ Hence, the customer neglect.

Segment and predict the market, yes. Understand the market, NO!

Getting Sticky With It

I am writing this post inspired by Penn Olson’s post: 5 Guerilla Marketing Campaigns Captured on Video. How guerilla marketing campaigns work is by capturing your attention momentarily and then leaving an impression of the brand and its message in the mind (however, viral is unpredictable and should not be an objective but a bonus).

In his book, ‘The Tipping Point’, Malcolm Gladwell speaks of The Stickiness Factor, the specific content of a message that renders its impact memorable. Using this concept at value, it shows how easily being top-of-mind can greatly improve your marketing and branding effort. I personally think being ‘sticky’ does not require huge and blatant impacts. It is the quality of the customer’s attention and learning that matters most and this can be attained by a carefully thought-out marketing campaign. One that bridge traditional with digital.

So I now present to you…‘Sticky Marketing’.

The Sticky Route 2 to the End Point is essentially getting into the mind of the buyer before- or post-purchase by redirecting the buyer’s attention to online digital assets such as a website or social portals (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) Unlike Route 1, where interaction and intellectual exchange is minimal and where the focus is on closing a sale, Route 2 provides a journey for the customer to further understand the brand and products. A sustained exposure and learning of the brand. Is that not sticky?

Watch how this German guerilla campaign is used to market the brand’s automobile paintwork repair services. A pity they did not provide any info on the ‘sticker’ on getting to the brand online, but I am pretty sure they are Google-ready. (This was in fact a viral video project as part of the brand’s engagement with the readers of its blog):

Now replace the above campaign with any of your offline campaigns, be it a road show or door-to-door direct marketing with flyers. Just remember to promote your web portals or your social media channels (please don’t do this mistake). If you are successful in leading your customers to your online assets, it is a great opportunity for sticky marketing  and not merely simple selling. Long term sustainability is always better than short term profit!

So which route will your business choose? 1 or 2? Do you want to get sticky with your customers? If I got this wrong, please do tell in the comments!

Ps. Warning! Sticky Marketing is not an attempt at intellectualism. Just merely saying it simple :)

WYXXZ7XNUUS5

Here is something I received last Saturday morning, what I termed as ‘Door Spam’, leaflets/flyers stuck on the front door grille. It is a leaflet for a condominium development. Which one? I really can’t say. This is the second time I have received this leaflet. I cringed both times.

Observe for a moment. What is wrong with this leaflet?

Absolutely Zero Product Branding

Somehow, the creator of this leaflet had failed to provide a name for the condominium. Apart from a spot of personal branding for a ‘Mabel Ang’ and ‘artist’s impressions’ images, no other product branding element is visible on this leaflet. Perhaps they had deemed revealing the condominium’s name as none-too-important, or keeping it a mystery will entice prospects to put in a call. Wrong move I say.

Or perhaps the condo was so badly named, they decided not to use it after reading the article on the importance of naming condos and its significance.

Cryptic Copywriting

What exactly is the inspiration behind ‘cryptic’ and ‘ambiguous’ copywriting? There is a neglect to inform prospective clients of the condominium’s actual address but instead, ‘Minutes to Somerset MRT/Orchard/CBD/IR’ and ‘Prime District 9’ are used.  Come on! That can be anywhere on the southern part of this island.

Is it a top-secret, top-end location that is only to be revealed once you are funneled through the sales pipeline? To see if you fit the bill of a likely buyer persona first, someone who is flushed with cash to spare? But why then did this leaflet appear on my HDB door in Toa Payoh!? I see that as a failure in market research and a waste of money and paper it is printed on.

Does the whole thing sounds fishy?

You bet. The credibility factor is non-present in this effort. For a $800k product, this leaflet certainly did not help in providing consumer confidence to anyone that came upon this. I find it intriguing that, if this leaflet really does indeed belongs to the ‘Developer’s Sales Team’, why the secrecy and ambiguousness behind the effort?

Perhaps someone from the real estate industry, or close to it, can provide an explanation for this? I’d love to get to the bottom of this! Leave your comments below!

Bonus section for the marketer in you!

Using Direct Marketing Mailers to Win Online

Direct marketing via mails (physical or electronic) may not be the best form of marketing (it is interruptive after all). But heck, since this method is being regularly employed and money is going to be spent, might as well use the opportunity to provide content or more information to the prospective customer, right?

So how to do this on limited real estate on a piece of flyer?

By bringing them online to your website through a printed URL. As long as there is compelling content and relevant information provided on your website, you can be sure your prospects will be happy to devote time and attention to your efforts. It is also an excellent opportunity to build a database of customers who are willing to listen to you on a regular basis. With the permission you have received, you are now ready to start a direct mail campaign online. I am sure that is more cost effective than printed materials and manpower cost for ‘door or letterbox spamming’.

Provide your social media information to direct your prospects to connect with you. This is your Facebook or Twitter pages. The fastest way to connect with you.

See? Your investment in a leaflet has possibly doubled or tripled! Perhaps Mabel Ang might want to take a leaf out of this :P

The importance of online branding is, without doubt, equally applicable for both businesses and individuals. With increased emphasis on branding through digital marketing efforts and social media engagement these days, the need for reputation management and preservation becomes critical. One wrong move or erratic online behavour may spell public relations disaster, brand damage or, worse, the loss of customer/community trust (trust creates loyalty). The following is a case study on Monster.com.sg (or perhaps an “authorised agent”) that highlights an online practice that is both unconventional and inappropriate on many counts.

Writer’s Note: This post is not intended as an exposé. I sincerely welcome Monster.com.sg to provide their point-of-view and comments on this page or to engage me in private (email me at isman.tanuri at gmail.com). I am highlighting this as an opportunity for all of us to learn, understand and navigate the digital web better. Additional info: Monster.com.sg is a global recruitment portal which I personally use and subscribed to.

The Monster.com.sg Story

The other day, I received an innocuous looking email from ‘netsurveysingapore@yahoo.com’ (displaying all of it below).

It was titled ‘You’ve Received a Zoomerang’. Spammy-sounding? Very much so. A quick Google search shows that Zoomerang is legitimate. Wondering what this is about, I clicked on the email. A somewhat abrupt and direct message greeted me, asking for my participation to ‘this survey’. ‘What survey?’, I asked. A Google query on ‘netsurveysingapore’ turned up nothing. Now, let us analyse this interaction so far.

The Importance of Email Etiquette

1. No ‘Hello’ or ‘Hi’: A simple polite greeting would have suffice to rein in my attention, even for a moment more. Your audience, this audience, is a breathing, emotional being.

2. Personalisation: Since I had turned up in the contact database, I am surprised at the failure to address me personally.  Compare the above email to the one I received from Paypal below. Paypal knows me and is not afraid to flaunt it.

3. Lack of Contact Info: No additional return contact other than the ‘dubious’ Yahoo! email address was included. Till now, I do not comprehend the need for the ninja-like secrecy and being almost-anonymous. It pays to brand yourself a little more in emails, your intention becomes much clearer to the reader.

4. ‘No future communication necessary?’: ‘Thank you in advance’ is a hit-and-run strategy. A one-time effort to minimise interaction or simply being lazy? A disinterested intern? I can’t figure it out. So, what value can I, as a customer, give you, the business, if you do not care to prolong or maintain the relationship? It is not a good way forward if the customer laments of being exploited and used.

Surprise, Surprise!

So I took the plunge (in the name of research and adventure!) and clicked on the Zoomerang link (still up at time of writing). Lo and behold! It is Monster SG! Complete with corporate logo and tagline.

Now, this confuses me to no end. An almost anonymous email asking for my participation in a Monster.com.sg survey? This is their corporate communication practice? I still would like to give Monster.com.sg the benefits of my doubt. Maybe it is a less-than-savvy 3rd party service provider? Or a lack of financial resources for a proper campaign?

But inadvertently, the damage is done.

I am unsure how I can trust a brand, who has my personal details and permission to communicate with me, to approach me in such a manner. In my mind, this single activity has cheapened and degenerate the Monster.com brand value. Why? Because consumers tend to compare and others have done it better! Consider these:

To your credit, you’ve done well too, but why not this time?

In the age of social media, reputation management is a 24-7/365 effort I should say, for both business and personal brands.

There’s more!

This baffles me further….

Wow! It is a ‘what do you think of our competitors and us’ kind-of-survey. Gee. Based on this email activity, you have just shot yourself in the foot. The reader has lost all objectivity! Better luck next time, Monster!

As much as I applaud Monster.com.sg for their efforts in getting in touch with their subscribers to understand the marketplace better, this ‘guerilla tactic’ left a bad taste in my mouth. The web is about being open and transparent with your intentions, just as it is in a business meeting or a retail storefront.

Customers are a lot smarter these days in sussing out discrepancies and voicing their opinions. Take the Obolo Cakeshop episode. The backlash from online citizens generated tremendous amount of bad publicity and brand damage for Obolo Cakeshop, that on hindsight, it would have been much better to engage in a more honest and reconciliatory manner.

I welcome anyone to share their similar experiences with brands below for our learning benefits and understanding the pitfalls of lax brand reputation management.

Reputation Management –

Further Reading

1 – Dell is one brand that has recovered from its ‘Dell Hell’ disaster with its reputation intact. Dell embraced and leveraged on social media to repair its relations with customers and is now No. 1 in social media engagement among the world’s top technology brands in this study .

2 – Jeremiah Owyang (the ex-Forrester analyst with an equally-valuable personal brand) wrote on ‘brands that stumbled in social media’.

3 – Individuals are also seeing their personal reputation challenged openly. Read the story on how a keynote speaker was Twitter-heckled in REAL TIME.

Reputation Management Tools

Click on to learn more on how to use these tools will help to manage your online reputation:

1 – Google Alerts

2 – Search Twitter

3 – Addictomatic

(Updated: 20/10/2009)

Online Brand Monitoring Services

1 – Brandtology

2 – JamiQ

3 – Radian6