What’s your offer?

Every interaction that a person has with a business builds up a picture of that company. Every little thing affects it: how the phone is answered, how bright and tidy the place is, and the quality of any information given out by the shop, such as opening times.

Imagine one shop wallpapered with off-putting rules for refunds, then a competitor that has welcoming notices that tell you about the fantastic service you can expect – where are you going to spend your time and money?

I’d like to discover which offers work for people in the real world of IT. Ones like these: no call-out charge, no fix no fee, free estimates, free data back-up, same-day call-out, free insurance quotes, while-you-wait service, etc. Do you use these or similar offers, and how well do they work for you? Don’t feel you’re giving away your ‘trade secrets’ as I got this list out of the Yellow Pages. If I get even a couple of responses, I’ll share them in this column.

And now for something completely different… Within our high tech world, unexpected things happen to make us laugh. We get funny requests from customers, such as: "I need a scarf (SCART lead) for a PlayStation." Or we have to work with very bad Japlish installation instructions, or get impossible and hilarious Windows messages popping up.

Please pass on your true but funny IT stories and let’s see if we can get enough for a regular feature. Here’s one before I go. It seems Yahoo Groups moderators are being given the power of life and death according to a message they receive: “Pending members require your approval. If you take no action, they will automatically expire after 14 days."

Please send me your feedback by email to geoff@nascr.net.