The text says the operation is complete, the Finish button is now enabled, but the progress bar doesn’t agree.
Archive for December, 2009
Not So Great Moments in UI
Dec 30
The Six Twitter Types by Guy Kawasaki.
I suppose I’m in the Newbie category heading toward the Maven category. I still haven’t found my exact niche for Twitter yet, but do like following others on it.
There Is No Page Fold via Signal vs Noise.
Not too long ago a coworker pointed me toward an article I wish I could find stating that the concept of “Above the Fold” was a moot point. That since users were now familiar with a scroll bar trying to push everything above the fold doesn’t matter for web design. I hope this continues to take off.
Startup Therapy: 10 Question to Ask Yourself Every Month by Jason on A Start Bear
These are great questions that every startup should be asking. To go with #2 and #3 I’d toss in “Why would someone go with somebody else?”. I think it’s good to look at who else is in the business you’re in and honestly ask yourself if you could do business with you or somebody else, what would make you pick them over you. If you’re really honest with yourself #3 would probably highlight this.
There has been much talk lately about backups. Thankfully I have not had to face this too.
Since backups are on a lot of people’s minds lately, and more importantly as Joel restates it’s not really the backup that’s important, but the restore which is!
Do you have everything backed up you’ll need? Have you actually tried to restore from your backups lately?
Or how about this? Is your DR Plan actually up to date? Sure you just did a full restore of your DR Plan two months ago, but what’s changed since then? Optimally you should be updating your DR Plan whenever there are any system changes. But quite likely something was forgotten, that something won’t be pointed out till the next attempt to do a test restore or the real deal hits.
That’s why I suggest doing a review of your DR Plan monthly. I personally set a reminder for the last Monday of every month. I haven’t always been perfect in this. But I have noticed that when I do a scan through it that’s not related to a specific new update that I tend to flesh out the DR Plan more. So that after a few months not only do I have the basics in, but a lot of extra stuff that might be really helpful to standup the system should the proverbial shit hit the fan.
Asking Too Much of Customers
Dec 13
While out shopping today I made a small purchase at Sears for my youngest daughter. Upon arrival at the cash register I was bombarded with questions which quickly had me mentally checking out of the transaction. The beginning of the conversation started like this:
Customer Service Rep: Did you find everything sir?
Me: Yes thank you.
Customer Service Rep: Would you like a gift receipt?
Me: No that’s not necessary.
Customer Service Rep: Are you a member of “some sort of kid clothing shopping program”?
Me: No, no thanks.
Customer Service Rep: Would you like to signup for a Sears Mastercard?
Me: No.
Customer Service Rep: If approved you could receive $15 off this purchase. Are you sure?
Me: No thanks.
All of these questions came before my item was scanned into the register. Once my item was scanned:
Customer Service Rep: Would you like to donate a dollar to Home Town Hero’s?
Me: No thanks.
Then, with my transaction now complete I was then asked:
Customer Service Rep: Would you like your receipt with your on in the bag?
Me: The bag is fine.
Customer Service Rep: Okay, also on the receipt is a web site I’m highlighting. It’s for a customer satisfaction survey about this transaction. If you do the survey you could win a $4,000 gift card.
The $4,000 was also highlighted.
Walking away from the register I stopped and made a note in my phone about playing 20 questions with the cashier. It occurred to me that in that deluge of questions were missed opportunities and over used opportunities.
Overused Opportunity 1 – Detract from the Sales Experience
The biggest over used opportunity to me is how many times do I have to say no to the in store credit card? I’m sure somewhere is a spreadsheet within Sears corporate management, or perhaps at Mastercard headquarters, that shows if you keep asking you will get 1 in 1,000 gullible customers to signup for the horrible deal they’re trying to sell. All to save $15 or to get some horrible piece of tchotchke. By getting the 1 in 1,000 customers they annoy 999 other customers asking the same question over and over.
Overused Opportunity 2 – Depersonalize the Sales Experience
Did I find everything? Yes, sometimes this question is helpful, but generally it feels like they are trying to maximize my purchase for them and not me. What happened to, “Hi, how has your day been?” or “What a lovely beard you’re growing sir!”. Well maybe not a comment about my new beard, but anything to make it not seem like yet another way for them to maximize the money coming out of my wallet.
Overused Opportunity 3 – Securing My Loyalty
Loyalty programs. I’m for them and against them. I like saving money, but often I don’t like the hassle. And sometimes they’re just poorly veiled attempts to garner more information out of me.
All of these overused opportunities simply lead to information overload and the customer checking out from the conversation while they simply try to purchase the goods YOU ALREADY SOLD THEM.
Overused Opportunity 5 – Trying to Sell Yet More “Stuff”, When You Already Sold Them Some!
Really, that’s what much of the above boils down to. And what is the cost of this?
Missed Opportunities
In the middle of the transaction what a quick blurb asking me if I would like to donate a dollar to Hometown Hero’s. I did a quick look around when the cashier asked this question. I didn’t see a single sign about what the program was, nor was I offered even a quick blurb about what it is. Later, further in the mall I saw a big sign about it and thought, gee, that’s a nice idea. In the cashiers defense the name is pretty descriptive.
But by this point I had been asked a bunch of questions with one of them being my biggest pet peeve (the credit card). I had checked out from the transaction, the only brain cells I was willing to put into the deal at this point were to make sure I was being charged correctly.
They missed the opportunity for me to care about my transaction. And that can be dangerous.
Are You Overusing Opportunities?
It’s often tempting to attempt to get as much information from a captive audience as you can. When they’re actually giving you money you know they’re interested in something you offer. Since they’re interested perhaps they’ll be interested in something else, that’s an opportunity to up sell. Or perhaps you’re desperately in need of information about some other area of your business, you can ask them then too!
But should you?
No. And especially no with online sales. The ability to mentally check out of a transaction online, or even stop the purchase altogether, is even easier than in the store. And in today’s information age, where when you call customer service and you’re always selected to answer a customer satisfaction survey, simply being happy that someone wants to exchange money for your services might be asking enough.
Because in the end, if your customer is happy there will be other opportunities. Opportunities you can make use of, but not overuse, and not cheapen your customers sales experience.
SQL Server Build Links
Dec 9
I’m always trying to find out what the latest build, cumulative update, hot-fix is available for SQL Server. Unfortunately the SQL Server TechCenter page never seems to stay up to date on what the latest Cumulative Update is. There are however support pages that do stay up to date. In the effort to help save you and me from having to search for the latest build, cumulative update, or hot-fix for SQL Server here are the links to the relevant support pages.
SQL Server 2008 SP1 Builds: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970365/en-us
SQL Server 2008 Builds: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956909/en-us
SQL Server 2005 SP3 Builds: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960598
SQL Server 2005 SP2 Builds: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937137
I don’t have any links for anything prior to 2005 SP2, if you’re not on SP2 though yet you really should be, it was a great service pack.
SQL Server 2000 SP4 Builds: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894905
In November I was quite disappointed. The DBCC CHECKFILEGROUP bugI had come across in September had made it into the Cumulative Update 8 for SQL Server 2008, but not in the Cumulative Update 5 for SQL 2008 SP1 branch. Being that I prefer to keep up on the service packs I was out of luck. Apparently it had not passed quality control for the SP1 branch.
However, I was told at the time that it would be a forth coming commulative update in January. Not wanting to wait another two months I put forth my business need for it and now a Hotfix is available for it!
If you’ve been stuck without being able to do DBCC CHECKFILEGROUP’s I hope you go grab this and get back to having that warm feeling inside knowing your data files are in good shape.