Hi all,
On Monday, I wrote about why I switched blog hosts. Although not my best post thus far, I felt my general sense of frustration about the problem and my bafflement at the inconsistencies I encountered came through clearly.
Still, I do not consider the problem I described on Monday to be a good enough reason to switch hosts. Let's face it, the log in problem I encountered was likely 100% my fault. It may be that the problem was described to me in the terms and conditions I did not read very carefully. Or perhaps I selected an option at sign up which protected my account from spamming or hacking by locking up automatically whenever a new sign-on attempt was made while the log in was active elsewhere.
Even if I never received a list of 'no-nos' which would lead to an account lock out, I am certainly on my high horse if I feel that the FREE account I signed up for somehow entitles me to have my own personalized set of expectations met at every turn.
So, with that perspective in place, why switch? I analyzed my thought process a little bit and came up with the following.
First, I think a great way to uncover a company's priorities is to look at their approach to customer service. Applying this rule is not always going to get a thumbs-up from me since exposure to customer service is generally infrequent, the sample size is too small. It is more a rule of thumb. But, over the years I've started to get a feel for when my business is important to the company and when my business is merely welcome (1).
One recent example comes from my switch to a new cell phone provider. Dan Carlin (2), one of my favorite podcast hosts, often runs an advertisement at the end of his shows for a cell phone provider called Ting. Their 'pay as you go' pricing plan generally saves infrequent cell phone users money and their 'no-contract' policy is a welcome change for those sick of feeling locked into their annual plans.
But these details, although positive, are also trivial. After all, any company could offer better rates tomorrow and the idea of no contracts is easily replicable. So, why Ting?
The factor that Carlin stresses which differentiates this provider is customer service. I experienced it first hand when I required assistance to activate a phone that was sold to me by a competitor. In fact, even before I spent a single cent on Ting, I had all my questions answered within minutes of logging onto their website by live-chatting with a customer service representative.
Ting's approach to customer service works. It is not just because you can 'talk to a live human' almost immediately, although this is a nice touch and reads well on an advertisement.
On Monday, I wrote about why I switched blog hosts. Although not my best post thus far, I felt my general sense of frustration about the problem and my bafflement at the inconsistencies I encountered came through clearly.
Still, I do not consider the problem I described on Monday to be a good enough reason to switch hosts. Let's face it, the log in problem I encountered was likely 100% my fault. It may be that the problem was described to me in the terms and conditions I did not read very carefully. Or perhaps I selected an option at sign up which protected my account from spamming or hacking by locking up automatically whenever a new sign-on attempt was made while the log in was active elsewhere.
Even if I never received a list of 'no-nos' which would lead to an account lock out, I am certainly on my high horse if I feel that the FREE account I signed up for somehow entitles me to have my own personalized set of expectations met at every turn.
So, with that perspective in place, why switch? I analyzed my thought process a little bit and came up with the following.
First, I think a great way to uncover a company's priorities is to look at their approach to customer service. Applying this rule is not always going to get a thumbs-up from me since exposure to customer service is generally infrequent, the sample size is too small. It is more a rule of thumb. But, over the years I've started to get a feel for when my business is important to the company and when my business is merely welcome (1).
One recent example comes from my switch to a new cell phone provider. Dan Carlin (2), one of my favorite podcast hosts, often runs an advertisement at the end of his shows for a cell phone provider called Ting. Their 'pay as you go' pricing plan generally saves infrequent cell phone users money and their 'no-contract' policy is a welcome change for those sick of feeling locked into their annual plans.
But these details, although positive, are also trivial. After all, any company could offer better rates tomorrow and the idea of no contracts is easily replicable. So, why Ting?
The factor that Carlin stresses which differentiates this provider is customer service. I experienced it first hand when I required assistance to activate a phone that was sold to me by a competitor. In fact, even before I spent a single cent on Ting, I had all my questions answered within minutes of logging onto their website by live-chatting with a customer service representative.
Ting's approach to customer service works. It is not just because you can 'talk to a live human' almost immediately, although this is a nice touch and reads well on an advertisement.
It is because cell phone problems require immediate
attention and Ting's customer service approach is designed to field and resolve
urgent issues quickly. This approach means Ting's ability to resolve
problems immediately is fully aligned with their customers' interests in having
cell phone problems solved immediately.
When I had my log in problems last week, I did not get the feeling that my interests aligned with those of Wordpress. That is not Wordpress's problem- like I concede at the top of the post, nothing changed between the day I signed up and the day I ran into my problem. This misalignment speaks more to my needs for a blog host than it does to anything going on at Wordpress.
In fact, to mirror a sentence in an above paragraph, I'll say that Wordpress's approach to customer service works. It just does not work in a way that suits me (*).
When I had my log in problems last week, I did not get the feeling that my interests aligned with those of Wordpress. That is not Wordpress's problem- like I concede at the top of the post, nothing changed between the day I signed up and the day I ran into my problem. This misalignment speaks more to my needs for a blog host than it does to anything going on at Wordpress.
In fact, to mirror a sentence in an above paragraph, I'll say that Wordpress's approach to customer service works. It just does not work in a way that suits me (*).
*To clarify, I am a user who pays $0 annually, who has no interest in building a proper website, who has no interest in HTML programming, and so on.
The way the help forums are set up, I speculate that their problem
resolution mentality aligns best with users interested in coding part or all of the solutions to their own problems (3).
Perhaps the problems are best described as 'medium term'- they need a solution,
just not during the same user session as when the problem was discovered.
Users experiencing 'medium term' problems is not a group that I am a part of but
likely make up the portion of the business that turns over the most revenue,
generates the most profit, or aligns most closely with the type of customer
that the website was founded to serve.
Once the misalignment became clear to me, I needed to look at the situation clearly, understand my role in the problem, and take the step that was most appropriate (*).
Once the misalignment became clear to me, I needed to look at the situation clearly, understand my role in the problem, and take the step that was most appropriate (*).
*It ain't you, Wordpress, it's me.
The conclusion I eventually reached is that, if I stuck around on the site, I
would always inevitably encounter some version of the 'log-in limit exceeded'
problem. It does not mean I would always have log-in problems, per say.
What I realized was that the underlying problem is a misalignment in
my priorities for the site and the site's priorities for its customers, so the
only way the problem would resolve itself would be by a change to my
priorities.
In other words, certain problems grow from clear sources and resolution involves simply addressing the core issue. Other problems are symptomatic of unfixable underlying conditions and these conditions will continue to generate new symptoms while the condition remains unchanged.
In other words, certain problems grow from clear sources and resolution involves simply addressing the core issue. Other problems are symptomatic of unfixable underlying conditions and these conditions will continue to generate new symptoms while the condition remains unchanged.
I needed to make a change because I did not see any chance that I would adjust my priorities or expectations in the near future to make fixing up problems worthwhile.
I switched over to Blogger simply because I have used it quite a bit in the past (for my fantasy football league (*)) and never encountered any problems (**). The posts are not as easy to read, at least as of this writing, but keeping posts organized is far simpler and my guess is the site will minimize the time I spend troubleshooting in the future.
I switched over to Blogger simply because I have used it quite a bit in the past (for my fantasy football league (*)) and never encountered any problems (**). The posts are not as easy to read, at least as of this writing, but keeping posts organized is far simpler and my guess is the site will minimize the time I spend troubleshooting in the future.
*Actually, I still do. This is the link to the my fantasy football league's blog. It is sporadically updated but still considered somewhat useful. Currently, I am working on a rulebook which I am posting to the blog in sections- those should start appearing sometime next week. Check it out, if you like:
http://nffl-blog.blogspot.com/
**Plus, since Blogger is on Google, I should have a far easier time resolving any issue by simply Googling it. I wonder what Google employees do when they have a question no one can answer at work? Yahoo search?? Bing??? Go to the library??!?!?
So, welcome to Blogger, I suppose. I really doubt I will be moving again,
unless it is to a different (proper?) domain.
Thanks for reading. Next post on Monday (4)- quarterfinals of the Lost In Translation bracket.
Tim
Footnotes...
1. What is the point of a business tangent
Thanks for reading. Next post on Monday (4)- quarterfinals of the Lost In Translation bracket.
Tim
Footnotes...
1. What is the point of a business tangent
I struggled a bit to clearly
articulate this idea. An alternate explanation here is that there are
times when your business aligns with the service or product a company is trying
to provide, like when you purchase a coffee at a cafe, and when your business
is simply accepted because it is profitable, like when you buy a souvenir t-shirt
at that same cafe.
What made this idea tough to describe quickly and clearly is every business exists to provide return on capital. If you run with that idea, then it follows that anything you buy from a business fits the 'strategy' of providing a return on capital that might have otherwise been invested elsewhere. Thinking about a business in those terms almost makes the distinction between my dollars being important or simply welcome irrelevant because everything is now considered within a profit calculating framework.
2. Dan Carlin tangent
What made this idea tough to describe quickly and clearly is every business exists to provide return on capital. If you run with that idea, then it follows that anything you buy from a business fits the 'strategy' of providing a return on capital that might have otherwise been invested elsewhere. Thinking about a business in those terms almost makes the distinction between my dollars being important or simply welcome irrelevant because everything is now considered within a profit calculating framework.
2. Dan Carlin tangent
In addition to pointing me to a new cell phone provider,
Carlin also helped me reach this most recent version of footnoting.
On his podcast Common Sense, Carlin occasionally describes the process of creating his two shows (the other is called Hardcore History). One time, he talked about how he started recording a show, got into a tangent, then realized halfway through that the tangent was now a) unrelated to the show he was recording and b) better than the show he was recording. He decided to simply separate the ideas into two shows to keep the concepts organized.
I already kind of do this with blog posts (such as the 'Leftovers' I put together when I write specifically about books) but it was not until I heard this podcast that I realized I should be doing the same with the sometimes confusing and often lengthy footnotes.
3. SQL Programming tangent
On his podcast Common Sense, Carlin occasionally describes the process of creating his two shows (the other is called Hardcore History). One time, he talked about how he started recording a show, got into a tangent, then realized halfway through that the tangent was now a) unrelated to the show he was recording and b) better than the show he was recording. He decided to simply separate the ideas into two shows to keep the concepts organized.
I already kind of do this with blog posts (such as the 'Leftovers' I put together when I write specifically about books) but it was not until I heard this podcast that I realized I should be doing the same with the sometimes confusing and often lengthy footnotes.
3. SQL Programming tangent
Since the programming questions that reach a help
board are unique to the user, all the help pages can do is provide general
problem solving techniques or snippets of helpful code that might address the underlying
theme for a number of similar problems. This is a much more effective way
to resolve programming problems than it might sound to a non-programmer for
three reasons.
First, the user is still required to do the real work of programming- organizing, optimizing, testing- all the help pages provide are hints at what might not work or examples of syntax (specific language terms) to use in a possible block of code.
Second, the approach forces learning in a way that is immediately applicable. From experience, I believe most programmers retain knowledge much more effectively when they can apply the understanding to real code as soon as possible, so I find this to be a major plus.
Third, the act of writing coding solutions on a common space encourages users to reciprocate, building a community of problem solvers who are eager to share their insights or ideas with those who have proven ready to help out in the past. This is vital because programming has a weird habit of becoming emotional once the code starts to get written.
First, the user is still required to do the real work of programming- organizing, optimizing, testing- all the help pages provide are hints at what might not work or examples of syntax (specific language terms) to use in a possible block of code.
Second, the approach forces learning in a way that is immediately applicable. From experience, I believe most programmers retain knowledge much more effectively when they can apply the understanding to real code as soon as possible, so I find this to be a major plus.
Third, the act of writing coding solutions on a common space encourages users to reciprocate, building a community of problem solvers who are eager to share their insights or ideas with those who have proven ready to help out in the past. This is vital because programming has a weird habit of becoming emotional once the code starts to get written.
Getting work out there for
public examination and critique is important, particularly for new programmers, so
they can start learning how to build a mentality of constant improvement instead
of approaching every revision as confirmation that they were not good enough
with the initial programming attempt.
4. Scheduling tangent
4. Scheduling tangent
One guess I have about the insightful reader is that this
person is wondering whether my own inability to post blogs when I promise them is
due to a series of one-off problems that should be safely ignored or the
'symptoms of unfixable underlying conditions' that I stated above.
Initially, I thought that my missed deadlines were the former (obviously). But, given what I wrote on Monday about how I am no longer going to post in the next three to four days unless that post is already complete, I have clearly come around to recognize that I need to address an underlying condition.
It brings me to a long and winding story that I originally thought would be the second half of the above post. I suppose this is the first ever 'outtake' from my blog? Anyway, it is about what I've learned from observing people being late to things.
--------------------------
Initially, I thought that my missed deadlines were the former (obviously). But, given what I wrote on Monday about how I am no longer going to post in the next three to four days unless that post is already complete, I have clearly come around to recognize that I need to address an underlying condition.
It brings me to a long and winding story that I originally thought would be the second half of the above post. I suppose this is the first ever 'outtake' from my blog? Anyway, it is about what I've learned from observing people being late to things.
--------------------------
Outtake- 4/15 post
People are late to things, all the time. Eventually, I
came to learn that being late reveals two distinct categories of people.
The first category is people who cause themselves to be late. These
people know what the problem is- they were late because they did not leave
early enough. Next time, they might leave earlier if they want to
guarantee on time arrival. Or, they might not, since they are fully
willing to suffer the consequences of being late (*).
*There is a study that I read about in approximately fifteen pop economics/sociology books that described how day cares often saw parents arrive late to pick up their kids more frequently if they charged a fine. This seems to apply here as an example of how people will definitely show up late if given a clear method to take accountability for their behavior.
The second category of people is much more fascinating. This is the group
whose members are late because Something Happened. In fact, had Something
not Happened, they would have been on time. Those who fail to understand
that Something Happened are threatening to be unreasonable.
This, of course, should not be confused with something actually happening. Sometimes, things do happen, and most people are capable of understanding such cases.
This, of course, should not be confused with something actually happening. Sometimes, things do happen, and most people are capable of understanding such cases.
When I refer to Something Happening, what I mean is something
along the lines of the dog eating the homework. As you reach adulthood,
the dog eating the homework tends to happen more subtly because the events used
to describe the same are more realistic. But the underlying spirit of
'truth by omission' is the same.
These events include but are not limited to-
These events include but are not limited to-
*Traffic
*Construction (creating traffic, sometimes)
*The computer crashed (web traffic)
*The bus was late (stuck in traffic?)
*The weather was lousy (people drive slower = more traffic)
*Hungover (blame drug trafficking, sort of)
*The app said it would take half the time (bad analysis of traffic)
*Could not find parking (traffic was so good, everyone beat me in and took my spot)
*I forgot something at home and had to go back (allowing traffic to emerge in the meantime)
*The alarm did not go off (...can't link it to traffic!)
And so on. Most of these events happen every once in awhile and being late due to their occurrence
is, again, entirely reasonable. Occasionally.
But over time, you begin to spot the
trends. You see that some people can do things on time despite being
exposed to the same forces of fortune as others. At some point, you can
tell the difference between a person who understands that there is always the
chance of traffic and a person who does not.
I reached this point with Wordpress. After this most recent issue, I realized that something is always bound to come up on the site. It might be a log in problem, it might be a problem with their scheduling tool, or it might be a problem that I am not currently aware of existing. It might happen tomorrow, next week, or in a year. All that matters is, no matter what the details of time and place, whatever problem comes up is going to eat up my time that I could be using to do other things.
For me, what I need from a blog host is very simple. I need it to put the post up. That is about it. So sitting around resolving little 'admin' issues becomes frustrating very quickly because each minute I spend playing a make-believe game called 'web developer' or 'IT support' is a minute I do not spend playing a make-believe game called 'writer of blog posts'.
I reached this point with Wordpress. After this most recent issue, I realized that something is always bound to come up on the site. It might be a log in problem, it might be a problem with their scheduling tool, or it might be a problem that I am not currently aware of existing. It might happen tomorrow, next week, or in a year. All that matters is, no matter what the details of time and place, whatever problem comes up is going to eat up my time that I could be using to do other things.
For me, what I need from a blog host is very simple. I need it to put the post up. That is about it. So sitting around resolving little 'admin' issues becomes frustrating very quickly because each minute I spend playing a make-believe game called 'web developer' or 'IT support' is a minute I do not spend playing a make-believe game called 'writer of blog posts'.
