I’ve been following Microsoft’s $300 million dollar counter attack on Apple’s “Mac vs PC” campaign with interest. And whilst it’s taken some time, it’s good to finally see Microsoft on the front foot. Here’s a snippet of their ad creative.

The disappointing thing is that this new campaign has a snowflake’s chance in hell of actually working.

Here’s why …

5 Reasons Why This Vista Campaign Is Doomed

1. The “Mac vs PC” Campaign Speaks Directly to its Demographic.

   Apple’s “Mac vs PC” campaign worked because it leveraged a sentiment that already existed — the appeal of being a little bit different, a lot more fun, and a lot less “suit and tie.” They (very cleverly) positioned a Mac as being a “PC for real people” and executed a stellar campaign consistent with their brand. The campaign spoke to us with a voice we’d expect from Apple, so when they told us why the Mac was better, in their own cheeky and humorous way, we believed them and people lapped it up.

   On the other hand, Microsoft has worn the grey suit-and-tie of corporatism for years now. Many people see Microsoft as a corporate giant, while Apple is viewed as a regular company. Like it or not, people generally don’t like being told what’s what by a big corporate, and amongst those people are a bunch of vocal influencers who will scream their disdain for Microsoft until they’re red in the face and can scream no more.

   So when Microsoft tries to tell us that Vista is great (and does so in a way that is unexpected from the corporate giant) those dissenters will be rebutted with cries of “We once believed the guy who told us the earth was flat! We’re not going to make the same mistake again!

2. Tit-for-Tat Tactics Rarely Works for the Retaliator.

   Apple got in first with a great campaign — going into a tit-for-tat battle with them on their home turf will take a lot of money, a lot of time, and some seriously good technology to back them up. Whilst $300 million may sound like a lot for you and me, in the battle of big business it’s a drop in the ocean. As for the technology, well the jury’s still out …

3. It’s Just Taken Too Long to Respond.

   The slow moving beast that is the Microsoft marketing department needs to realise that if they’re going to counter attack, they need to do it fast before their enemy has established a stronghold.

   Oh, to have been a fly on the wall during the raging debates at Microsoft over whether they should piss in Apple’s pond to beat them at their own game! But the hesitation they’ve shown in addressing “the Apple problem” will cost them …

4. Microsoft Doesn’t Have the Brand Advocacy It Needs, and This Campaign Won’t Change That.

   I was born into a Microsoft world, as were many of my friends and colleagues. Perhaps you were too? Our first computers ran MS-DOS and Windows, as did our schools, and our offices. We embraced it as part of the personal computer revolution — we didn’t change because we were too ignorant to care, or too cash-strapped to seek alternatives. Over time, Microsoft products became part of our lives.

   Today, those of us who remain Microsoft users do so simply because it’s comfortable. Changing to another operating system seems like too much hard work.

   Translating this mindset into brand advocacy terms produces key influencers like “it’s in my comfort zone”, or “it’s forced on me through work” rather than “this product is something I really believe in”.

   But those who do make the switch to a Mac (or even to Linux), regardless of whether the decision was the result of marketing hype or because of thorough research, made that choice themselves. This is a key difference affecting how that user describes their operating system to others.

   For example, if you’ve switch from a PC to a Mac, but your Mac experience is actually much the same (or worse) than your experience on the PC, then you’re likely to keep your mouth shut. You wouldn’t want to admit that you made a poor choice and show everyone how wrong you were!

   If, however, you rate your Mac experience as the best you’ve ever had, then you’re going to tell anyone who will listen just how good that product is, to show them how smart you are.

   Once again, if we were to translate this into brand advocacy terms, you’re operating either out of fear of admitting a bad choice, or from an association of a shared experience of pure elation. So those who are unhappy people keep their mouth shut, and the people who are excited, make sure it’s known. No wonder we read so much good press about the Mac.

5. The Product Just Isn’t Good Enough.

   I’m a simple PC user. I barely tap the surface of my computer’s potential. My satisfaction from an operating system is based on three simple things:

   1. Does it work when I need it?
   2. Does it help me complete the tasks I have today?
   3. Is it easy to learn how to complete new tasks that come my way?

   I’m sad to say that so far my Vista experience has been a resounding “No” for all three of these questions. And I’m the fan boy.

   Given that I feel this negatively about Vista, and that the majority of people with whom I discuss this topic also seem to feel this way, I can only conclude that there is something very wrong with Vista.

First of a series? We’ll see…

This first round of ads looks like the emergence of a series of ”false-belief” analogies. I’d be very surprised to see them get to round two. Perhaps Apple will come up with its own marketing campaign to counter this approach, thus putting the nail in the coffin for Vista?

What do you think? Can Microsoft save itself, or is it too late?

Balls.

Multitasking is great if you want to fill your time doing a lots of things not very well, over a long period of time. Sure you can: flicking between checking your email, Twittering, writing a report, trying a new web app and chatting on Facebook. Are you busy? Probably. Are you productive? Probably not.

As I see it, there are two key problems here:

1. Doing non essential tasks
   Due to procrastination and self-distraction you are putting off certain tasks, by doing everything else but, the task you are supposed to be doing.
2. Task switching
   The other often overlooked issue is that of task switching — moving between one task and another. This is the issue I want to draw your attention to in this post.

Task switching

Your conscious mind effectively works like a single thread processor. We do things best in a linear fashion. One thing followed by another. Multitasking is like trying to make yourself a multithread processor. Unfortunately, evolution hasn’t caught up yet, so you are stuck with your good old fashioned single thread brain. Sure you can sort of do multitasking, but it’s a bit of a hack and doesn’t really work.

The problem with multitasking is you keep changing backwards and forwards from one thing to another. This means you need to switch your thoughts from one task to another repeatedly, and then repeatedly having to recall all the pertinent information about each task, before you actually do the task itself. This all takes time.
When you multitask you are effectively (to put it in computer terms), opening a file, doing something with it, closing it, opening another file, doing something with it, closing it and opening the previous one again, doing something with it, closing it again etc, etc. This is obviously inefficient. Infact depending on how often you switch between tasks. You can waste 40% plus of your productive time just in task switching!

Could do better

There is also one more good reason not to do it: quality. It has been proven that, trying to do more than one thing at a time generally leads to a poorer performance of each task, compared with doing each task separately.

Of course, having said all that; it is not always possible to work on things in a linear manner, but generally, if you want to get more things done and to a higher standard: stop multitasking. TTFN.

I use this analogy because, as anyone who’s been to a nightclub knows, on that dance floor you have a very precise view of a small area. On the balcony, your field of vision is wider, but it’s much less detailed.

It’s important to appreciate this different perspective when working with your team to develop customer service strategies. Remember, your customer support team members will bring a very precise picture of what’s happening in their place on the dance floor, so listen to what they say. If you’re a manager, it’s your job to take a broader view of the situation and make decisions and changes that benefit the entire group.

Don’t question what your support team tells you — listen, research, and take action!

One of the best initiatives I’ve seen to ensure that people on the balcony don’t forget just how real things are on the front line is exactly what goes on here at SitePoint.

Now, I can’t take full credit as this initiative wasn’t my own idea (hat tip to Luke, our General Manager), but here’s how it works: we have a policy that every single employee of SitePoint must do a full day of Customer Support about one day a month. This includes our Co-founders, our Managing Editors, Programmers, Designers, and even me.

Having the whole team involved in customer support on a regular basis ensures that every single person in the company understands just what sort of impact an error or a flawed process has on our customers, regardless of whether they are directly involved in the customer-facing parts of our business or not.

It’s one thing to show an employee or a manager a report listing ten customers who haven’t received their books on time — it’s another thing entirely to ask that person to personally respond to each and every one of those customers. I bet the next time our customer support team mentions “we might have a shipping issue,” they’ll have a vocal ally to help champion their cause.

In virtually any role, in any company, your customers are your lifeblood. Even if you never get close to having a conversation with them, it’s important to never forget that what you do does have an impact. And while you might not hear it directly from your customers, if your support team tells you that there’s a problem, it’s a pretty safe bet that there is!

So should you ever find yourself forgetting about your customers, regardless of whether your business sells a product or service, consider getting back on the dance floor and checking out the action for yourself.

Photo credit: Brian Barnett

One style of coverage that very hard to miss is when your compared against the competition. What’s even harder to ignore is when you’re ranked number 1!

So what does this tell us? Perhaps that just one person, on one blog thinks we are the best, or maybe that generally we’re heading in the right direction.

The real lesson here is that you must find time in your day to actively seek and listen to what your customers are saying. Look for trends and be prepared to change. At the end of the day if you’re offering a product or service, what YOU think doesn’t matter. It’s your customers that will ultimately drive success.

• they are incredibly niche
• they are frivolous and of little practical use
• their revenue models are fundamental flawed

New web apps are launching because VCs are throwing money at new startups in the hope that they will get in on the ground floor of the next Facebook or YouTube, and therefore, be part of the next billion dollar sale. A lot of these startups seem to be missing the most basic business principle of — making money! I’m all for startups, but if you are going into business it should be about building a product that can stand on its own two feet without being bought out by one of the big three.

A lot of the current wave of web apps are just time wasters – they don’t do anything useful (IMO). And have a severely limited market (some would say niche). The young, hip and self-obsessed can update their every waking moment on Twitter but, is the wider world going to be flocking to it? I doubt it. Can you see your Gran using Twitter? (Making a lovely cup of tea before the WWF smackdown finals).

And what is with all the ridiculous names? Honestly, have they forgotten the golden rules of domain names:

1. make it memorable
2. make it spell-able
3. keep it short

Most get full marks for number three. But, otherwise it is i-this, or missing letters that, or too many vowels the other. Then there are the completely mis-spelt or the made up word brigade.
I admit, it is difficult to get get a domain name that covers the three rules especially with all the three letter, four letter and dictionary word .com domain names already registered. So there is a need to be a bit clever about it, but the whole web 2.0 naming thing has gone awry somewhere along the track. Just because you have a name mis-spelt like Flickr does not mean your offering is as good or worthwhile as Flickr. Is del.icio.us popular because of the clever use of domain name hacking — No. Is domain name hacking a good idea? That is debatable.

Of course not all web app start up have weird names and no discernible revenue streams. There are some great web apps out there with great name – RememberTheMilk.com and Backpack to name two.

One of the great things about the Internet is, that it has incredibly low barriers to entry. If you have the time, skills and resources you can create and market a web application. This ease of entry also has a flip side –- speed of exit. Competition is savage on the net,the competition can quickly adapt and challenge your market. It is not like the car industry where it takes billions in research and development, and years of work to produce a new model. New web apps can be built in days, sometimes hours. Never forget Internet users are an unforgiving bunch – if they don’t like it or don’t see the point, then there are billions of other pages to explore at the click of a mouse button. If you can’t explain clearly, in one sentence, what your web application actual is/does - then chances are no one is going to hang around long enough to find out.

If you are looking to create the next big thing - make sure it fulfills a need and/or solves a problem and have a better money making plan than Google buying it for a billion. TTFN.

1. Client call during work hours

Pick up the phone. Using voice mail has its place after hours, but during work hours: pick up the phone. An answering machine says to a client – I’m not here and that (in a client’s mind) can translated to, you being unreliable and you don’t care about their business. Think of it this way: a client takes an extra (perceived) risk using you — a freelancer — as you are not as ‘safe’ to use as a company. Therefore, it is vital that the client ‘feels the love’ and can speak to you during business hours. This helps to reassure them that their business is safe in your hands and you are not some ‘fly by night’ amateur.

2. Personal calls during Work hours

It is pretty standard for your mates or family to call you during work hours at home, and it is an issue you will need to deal with sooner, rather than later. Friends and family need a bit of ‘education’ on your work. During normal working hours you are working — full stop. A polite can’t talk now, flat out busy working – can I call you later tonight?, will usually do the trick. It doesn’t hurt to drop a subtle reminder about, how busy you are during work hours and that you can talk more in the evenings.

3. Client call out of work hours

It is not unusual to get client calls outside of normal business hours (I’ve had a late night call on a bank holiday). This is generally unacceptable, unless you provide 24/7 support.

The only acceptable time to call outside of normal working hours (IMO) is if there is a critical business issue i.e. Help. My site has been replaced by a pill pushing porn site or Help. My site is down -– those are critical issues. I can’t remember how to create a link or I’ve forgotten my password, are not critical issues.

So how do you deal with it?

1. My strategy is a simple one: if it isn’t a critical issue, then explain that they have called outside your normal business hours and that you will look into it the next working day. Be polite, but firm. Explain that if they want support outside of business hours, then there is an extra charge. In 99% of cases, the client will respect your privacy won’t do it again.
2. The next working day, address whatever the problem was, and then let the client know by email what you’ve done and restate your support hours.

As you might already have gathered it is all about communication. Let people know when and what it is acceptable to call you about. TTFN.

In reality working from home doesn’t work like that –- well not in my experience anyway. You usually end up working normal business hours plus a few more to boot (though you may still be in your PJs).

Expectations

The main problem with working from home is everyone’s expectations.

• your expectations
• your family and friends expectations
• your clients’/ employer’s expectations

All these expectations create their own pressures that lead to longer working hours and a less than perfect work/life balance. To keep your working hours and sanity in order, these expectations need to be managed and managed carefully.

Your Expectations
When you first start working from home you might think life is going to be all rosy — late starts, time to do all those things during the day you would not normally get time to do. Then, reality strikes: if you want to successfully work from home. You are going to have to work. Then, there are insidious extra pressures that come to bear. These are both real pressures and unseen self inflicted pressures:

• I must be available to answer the phone at all times.
• What if they think I’m not here and they think I’m off doing something else?
• I must beat that deadline even though there is no way I can do it in time, (if I work a normal working week). If I don’t, they will think I’m slacking off.
• I know it is late but I’ll just check my email. You know — just in case.

You will end up adding extra pressure to yourself, working longer hours and never getting away from your work. It is difficult to shut up shop and leave when you live there.

Your friends and family’s expectations
Since you are now working at home; can you just fix that cupboard.,
or can give me a hand with this etc. If you already work from home and live with someone; you will know what I mean.

It is easy for other people to forget that you are actually working and not just mucking around on the computer. This can be confronting to friends and family, especially when you are not overjoyed when they interrupt you.

Your clients’ / employer’s expectations
Whether you work for yourself or another business–they expect to be able to contact you during normal work hours – which can be tricky, especially if they are not on the same continent as you.

The Three Golden Rules:

1. Set your working day hours and stick to them
Of course there will always be times when you will need to work longer hours to meet some deadline or other, but, for all other times – stick to the hours you set. Let your family and friends know that within those hours you would prefer not to be disturbed.

2. Delineate your office area
Hide/cover you work area when you are not working. It is important to be able to walk away from your work area and not feel the pressure to just go back and finish this or that. It maybe that you close the door on your home office or if you have a desk in one of your main rooms - cover it with a sheet at the end of the day to visually show you are not at work.

3. Keep your boss/client up to date on what you are doing
Check in with them regularly, whether this be by instant message, email, phone or whatever.

It is possible to have a work/life balance, it all boils down to communication and discipline. Let people know what you are trying to achieve and when you are trying to achieve it and have the discipline to follow the hours you set. TTFN.

As it turns out (not too surprisingly), being a bit “green savvy” with your hardware purchases can save you a fair amount of power and money. So, before you buy your next computer here are a few handy resources to help make your decision:

• The Electronic Product Environmental Asset Tool can help you discover the most environmentally sound desktop, laptop and monitor.
• The energy star rating.
• Calculate the savings in terms of money, C02, trees and cars (Excel Spreadsheet).
• Investigate the efficiency of you power supplies at 80 Plus.
• Calculate your server efficiency using the SWaP (Space, Watts and Performance) metric.

You can also check how your current computer performs, using power management tool like LocalCooling for Windows or monitor your CO2 output on OSX using SusiClimate (both free).

Being energy smart with your next computing purchase will save you money. Go on. Save some cash and help save the planet. TTFN.

Recently the exhaust broke on my car. I needed to get it fixed, but where? Did I take it to the nearest or cheapest place?

Nope. I took it to the place that had repaired the exhaust on my old car 4 years ago — 115 miles (185km) away. Why?

Customer service.

Last time I went there, not only did they do a first class job with the exhaust, but they also went the extra mile with customer service.

• they stayed open past their normal closing time, so we could pick up the car (as we were running late)
• they fixed another minor issue at the same time for no extra charge
• they were friendly and customer centered
• they made the tiresome irritation of a broken exhaust into a positive experience
• they even made our little boy’s day by letting him have a go with a remote control car

At the end of the day - I, as the customer was made to feel special and not like a “walking wallet”. They did what they said they would do and more. I was happy to part with my hard earned cash.

When I returned, was I disappointed?

No — again, immaculate service that went that extra mile.

What does this exceptional service do for that business?

• they get repeat business
• they are actively promoted for free by happy customers (like myself)
• they save money on marketing and promotion
• they get to feel good about making a small, but positive difference to people’s lives

All of this translates to a healthier bottom line. Simply, great customer service makes excellent business sense.

And how did I find out about them?
Someone recommended them to me — Of course.

How do you go above and beyond for your customers?

• Basecamp (project management)
• Gmail (email)
• Remember The Milk (to-do lists)
• Crazy Egg (web site statistics)
• Fresh Books (invoicing and time tracking)

Which business web applications do you use? and why?
Have they improve your business productivity?