Living in the land of mass transit I am constantly reminded of the need for personal entertainment. Our society cannot just be expected to sit in silence or engage strangers in small talk. Rather we travel the ‘city of strangers’ with tunes blaring from our ear buds, our fingers constantly on the dog ear of the latest non-fiction or our minds fully engaged in an otherwise boring game of cell phone Tetris. If there is one thing I can count on though it is the amount of people dressed in their corporate uniform staring intently at the morning headlines in the Times or the Post or even the Journal (depending on their social status and obvious need for a sports page). But that may soon be about to change.

Not too long ago Amazon released the Amazon Kindle (retail $399) - an electronic reader that uses electronic ink to do for literature what the iPod did for CDs and their accompanying jewel cases.

The unit itself displays enormous potential and is even easy to read. I know, I checked one out yesterday. It has a sort of ambient light rather than a projecting light. The immediate problem is that it is thereby limited to nothing brighter than a dingy grey; not the bright, vivid colors we have come to expect from our gadgets. But I am not here to review the product. Rather, I am here to ask a few questions about what this means for us as humans and as Technicians.

Eco-friendly attitudes notwithstanding, where do devices like the Kindle leave the book industry? I personally love the smell of ink on never-before read pages as well as that crisp, cutting sound that comes from breaking the spine of a new hardback. I like the weathered look of a favorite paperback and the sense of accomplishment I get knowing I have plowed through its literary offerings. If the manuscript of old is replaced by electronic readers will the print media industry fall apart? Everyone from typesetters to pressman (yes, these jobs do still exist) right down to the graphic designers that are constantly working on new, more legible typefaces will be effected. And my gosh! As technicians, if we are asked to help someone fix their computer because they cannot get it to turn on, how in the world can we expect them to read the manual. The manual will now be on another, separate electronic device that they may not be able to work correctly.

It really just seems to open up a can of worms and I am interested to know if I am the only one who has thought about this or the only one who even cares. In the meantime, I am going to go hug my first edition “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“ one more time.

In my life I have always found that I learn best from the mistakes of others as well as mistakes I personally have made. To this day when I find customer service to be deplorable or lacking in some way I google the experiences of others to see what their potential issues were. From that I find out all sorts of things that annoy mankind about customer service. But why do I bring this up?

Lately I have been having a lot of trouble with IKEA in regards to a sofa I purchased for my new place. I purchased the couch right at a month ago and issued my first complaint two days later. And so now on week four I am left with a couch that is still unfinished and two separate case numbers still being “processed” with IKEA. This whole situation has me googling all over to hear if I am alone in this situation. Apparently NOT.

You can see by this blog that others feel as passionate about IKEA as I. (warning: NSFW language on the post). I would love to hear your experiences with companies or what you have learned or how you deal with the frustration.

Last night proved highly successful as Liz Strauss and her Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers) site hosted an Open Comment Night for MinuteFix. With over 300 comments streaming back and forth, technicians were able to address topics ranging from Linksys wireless PC card trouble to choosing the right chat platform on Macs to how to maintain your PC by defragging.

Thank you everyone who showed up to ask questions and answer them alike.

As a Mac user and an employee of a company that currently services Windows exclusively, I have become quite familiar with the Parallels application. I am sure there are other users out there as well and we may even run into some as Technicians. It’s important then to know our options in terms of dual booting and running parallel operating systems. You can imagine my delight then to see the first update to Parallels that I am aware of in the last year. In fact, the newest version of Parallels supports Vista SP1, XP SP3.

Parallels, Inc. recently released a new version of its namesake application Parallels Desktop (3.0.5600), which includes support for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. It also fixes some kernel panic issues, unusually high CPU usage, and provides improvements to Shared Folders. For those of you who don’t use Parallels, I can attest to the frustration of the overwhelming CPU usage as I have had to reboot on several occasions just trying to start Parallels. I would get a frozen app and a “not responding” error in the Windows…well, window.The point of Parallels is so that Mac users with Intel processors can run Windows apps alongside Mac apps. It works rather smoothly and has saved me on a number of occasions.

If you should run into this problem with a friend or a family member or even a customer, the update is free for existing Parallels 3 users, and is available as a 88 MB DMG package.

This just in, my friends. Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers) with Liz Strauss just posted an interview with Diego conducted by Phil Gerbyshak. It is a great read and gives some really good insight to Diego’s vision for MinuteFix and what this new one-click technology is all about in terms of customer service and tech support.

This is a great preface to Tuesday night when the entire MinuteFix community will be available to answer tech questions and talk more about MinuteFix.

The tshirt slogan has been chosen. Our MinuteFix tshirts will say

What can YOU do in a minute?

The winning slogan was submitted by Emilia Hallquist, a Brooklyn resident and Facebook friend of MinuteFix. Originally from Virginia Beach, VA, Emilia is a longtime resident of New York and works as a Project Manager for a well established audio/video company. She is a graduate of The Catholic University of America and maintains her sanity with equal parts yoga and knitting.

For submitting the winning tag Emilia will receive two free t-shirts and a spot in the MinuteFix Hall of Fame (when one is established, of course.) Thank you so much Emilia for the awesome entry!

Please forgive me but I got two separate occasions mixed up.

The interview with Diego and Phil (a prelude) to the Open Comment Night will commence on Sunday night. The actual Open Comment will be Tuesday night. Please accept my apologies and mark your calendar. I will also send out an email on Saturday evening or Sunday morning to remind us all. Thank you for taking note.

It is our great privilege to have been invited by Liz Strauss, one of America’s most popular bloggers, to participate in an Open Comment Night on her blog, Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers) this coming Sunday night. For those of you who have never read any of Liz’s posts or seen her at her wildly popular brainchild SOBcon, I encourage you to check it out and join us in a few days. Each MinuteFix Certified Technician is invited to be part of this virtual panel and answer a host of tech questions from her listening and viewing public. But first, a bit more about Liz.

Liz believes “Relationships are everyone’s business, and every business is relationships.”

According to EatonWeb, “Liz Strauss is perhaps the most influential relational blogger on the Internet.” Her blog –Liz Strauss at Successful Blog — has been called both a destination and an event. Open Comment Nights, a Blog-to-Blog Conversation, a Blogger’s Cafe, single questions, and on-the-blog strategy sessions keep readers returning to conversations that often last for days. Her blog has tens of thousands of comments.

Liz understands and can translate how people perceive a blog, a product, and an experience — how the head and heart engage to make a fiercely loyal customer.

Having worked over 20 years in print, software, and online publishing, and strategized with publishers in Europe, Australia, the UK, and Ireland, Liz has worked with entrepreneurs, small businesses, companies in crisis, and corporate giants.

But How Does It Work
Open comment night is like any rambling conversation. We shouldn’t try to read it all. As Technicians our job is to represent MinuteFix and support Diego and Phil, the on-air voices of the evening. If you can’t make it right at 7pm CST just show up when you can. There will be plenty to comment on. Just go to the end and start talking. EVERYONE is WELCOME. Liz’s rules are simple — be nice. (Why is everyone staring at me now?)

I have read the transcripts of a couple of these night and there seems to always be first timers and new things to talk about. It rather strikes me as something between a live video game, live TV and a bunch of kids with a BIG imagination. The nights usually draw around 300 comments. The record is over 450. Our goal is 500!

I hope to see each of you there and in full form. Take a look at her blog the next couple of days and be prepared to build relationships with potential customers and each other. I think it is a going to be a very successful and outstanding night!

And so it goes that last night at 11:59pm the Tshirt Contest officially ended. Within the next few days Diego and I as well as our customer service guru Phil, will be getting together to choose the winner. While ALL the entries were outstanding a showed a true understanding and creativity towards the MinuteFix product, we must choose one that goes above and beyond the marketing call. I want to personally thank each entrant as we received some great options from Technicians, customers, Facebook friends and even some of our staff. As soon as a winner is chosen we will be posting the name and slogan and proceeding with the printing of t-shirts. In the meantime, if you are interested in purchasing a t-shirt at wholesale (this printing is not to make money but rather to spread the MF message) please comment below and let us know so we will have a good idea of how many to print. Thank you so much for you participation!

I do not own a Dell. I have never owned a Dell. I have, however, worked for companies that exclusively run Dell computers and have had to contact customer support on one too many occasions. Each one of those help sessions was, without a doubt, less than pleasurable. In fact, out of the six calls I remember, five of them were downright painful. Between the language barrier between myself and the tech, the lack of basic computer knowledge and the infinite collection of ‘hold muzak’, I would rather buy a new computer than deal with their customer support. Apparently I am not the only one. I gleaned this info from the interweb just today.

Dell is actually hoping that customers will pay more money to speak to an American about their tech problems.

The computer maker recently put out a press release announcing “new premium support service.” The plan is this: For a fee, people get the right to talk to “the same dedicated team each time they have an issue” with a Dell product. The kicker: The service will be provided by “an advanced support team in North America.” Sounds like Dell is going to tap into MinuteFix anyday now!

So the question begs to be asked. Is Dell finally admitting that their regular, FREE customer service is lack luster? And furthermore is a sad excuse to tap into American sentiment and patriotism in order to sell a product?

According to a Dell spokesman, “We try to do the best we can for all of our customers all the time. That said, we want to be able to provide options for customers.”

It will be interesting to see the adoption rate of this pay-for-service and even more interesting to see the people that choose alternative companies such as MinuteFix.

Ok, class. Let’s have a Pop Quiz. I will show a brand and you will respond with their tagline. Ready? Okay.

1. Pepsi

That’s right. The Choice of a New Generation. Great job. Okay. Let’s try another.

2. YouTube

No. Not quite. That’s right! Rock on. Broadcast Yourself! Seriously. Excellent job class.

So, what am I talking about? Well, all good companies have a tagline. It is that one line that represents the brand and becomes a common household saying. For MinuteFix we have Tech Support For Everyone. But some companies go a little further and come up with some marketing campaigns and slogans as well and we feel like maybe it is time for us to do the same. So, in an effort to really have some fun and start marketing ourselves on a host of local levels, I am pleased to announce a T Shirt Contest. That’s right. You have seven (7) days starting at midnight tonight to come up with an awesome slogan to be featured on the MinuteFix t shirt. Thanks to the the suggestion of some Techs we have decided to print a very limited number of tees to give away to some members of the community as including the winner and runner-up of the contest itself. The rules are simple.

Come up with a witty slogan that really plays on who we are, what we do, how we do it, etc. Be creative about it. Some examples might be: Uniforms Are For Burger Flippers -or - Tech Support Without the Stupid Tie -or - Tech Support Without Ripping You Off. You get the idea. Put your top idea in the comment section of this blog post to be judged by Diego, Phil and myself. (You can leave out the Simon Cowell jokes, please….hahahahaha).

We will announce the winner and runner-up at midnight at 11:59pm on May 1. Good luck and have some fun!

UPDATE

Due to the growing creative response of our community and the general public, we have decided to extend the contest until Sunday, May 4 at 11:59pm. You have time to post more ideas. I can’t wait to hear ‘em!

I read an interesting topic that I think is pretty relevant to the community we have built and are constantly cultivating here at MinuteFix. It has to do with who owns the relationships made between technicians as well as between technician and customer. Most workers know that the “information” they collect and create on the job belongs to their employers. But what about the professional relationships we build? Who owns them?

Businesses are increasingly turning to software that searches through employees’ emails and calendars to determine not just what relationships they have, but the depth of those of relationships, according to today’s Journal. For example, if the software saw that an employee exchanged several emails and had a lunch meeting with someone, it would conclude that the two had a close relationship. Coworkers can find out who in a company has these relationships and take advantage of them to make a sales pitch, recruit a potential employee or just solve a problem. That, of course, doesn’t apply to MinuteFix as we don’t have that fancy software and really encourage Technicians to cultivate relationships with each other.

Think of it as corporate-imposed social networking. One problem many businesses face is that employees willingly share this information about who they know, but they do it on Web sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. It makes sense for a business to try to keep control of this information, or at least try to recreate its own version of it for workers to take advantage of. And as many people have observed, email may be the best untapped social network out there.

Of course, on sites like LinkedIn and Facebook the individual decides what information to share and what information to keep private. A business can choose to install the monitoring software with restrictions that let workers hide some relationships or force searchers to ask the relationship owner for permission before contacting someone. But it doesn’t have to. I think this is the information that floored me. I can’t imagine one of us using a MinuteFix help session to steer a customer to another business or a private session outside the realm of our own great network. I can’t imagine doing it myself either in any workplace; corporate or otherwise.

It’s easy to see how this benefits a business as a whole and workers who don’t have these relationships. But it could come at the expense of workers who have gone to great lengths to build these relationships. In fact, in many professions – journalism, for example, but many others – these relationships can make or break a career.

Any thoughts? I am still mulling over the pros and cons of all this but would love to hear what anyone else has to say.

Great news guys. Telephone support is up and running!

We have heard the requests for proper phone and support and while we always anticipated offering it, we are excited that we are able to do so much sooner than we ever thought. As of now every technician will be able to offer support to customer not just through chat or remote desktop but also through VoIP phone. So, in essence, we can provide the best support possible to each and every customer that appeals to their comfort level, skill level and personal preference.

If a customer logs on and enters their phone number you will now see it in the right of the chat session window. That number will look a lot like a hyperlink. It will say “Call Name”. That number will then engage Skype and call the customer directly. It is very simple and is probably easier than even typing.

Thinking about phone support though. Here are a few tips from my experience to yours.

• Begin the call with “Hello. My name is _______________ with MinuteFix. May I speak with __________________.”
• Restate the customers initial issue to make sure you know what sort of tech support you will need to provide.
• Try using “sir” and “ma’am” as well as full words such as “yes” and “no” rather than “yeah” and “naw”.
• Try to keep background noise to a minimum both for you benefit and the customers.

I think it is going to be a really slick and easy to use addition to MinuteFix and I can’t wait to hear the wonderful ways each of us put it to use! If you are a Certified MinuteFix Technician you can expect an email in your inbox explaining the new support system in greater detail.

Some of you may have received an invite on your Facebook account to join the recently created MinuteFix Facebook group. So, what are you waiting for? Our goal for this group is to reach out to people who may not know about us or have any connection to us. So, join today and then invite all of your contacts to join as well. I have posted some pics and some discussions and will be using the group to update the masses of our releases, new advances, press, etc. Hopefully it will generate some interest and some credibility at the same time. The revolution continues…..

I think we’ve all had those networking moment where we are at a family function or a small get-together and we are talking about ourselves and what we do when that one ‘wall street type’ cousin or uncle asks if we have a card. Or maybe we’ve all been walking about and find ourselves in a place where our services our needed and show our professionalism by scrambling for a pen and a scratch of paper or the back of a receipt or something in order to write down our name, phone number and a web address. In short, no matter how digital we become there seems to always be a scenario when business cards are a must. So, why should being a Tech for MinuteFix be any different? It shouldn’t! That is why we are pleased to offer a template or two for MinuteFix business cards.

You can find your orange or white network goodness by visiting Your Account > Tools and scrolling down to the image of the two biz cards. Just click on ‘download the original photoshop files’ and you will find four editable .psd business cards with optional backs. You can put your name and your email and enjoy a more personal touch to your MinuteFix affiliation.

Where you have them printed is completely up to you, the individual, but we recommend OvernightPrints where you will find a very cheap offer for 100 1-sided business cards for $9.95. The quality is good and the delivery is quick. So, don’t wait. Get your business card printed today and let’s get to some networking!