Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

If builders built houses the way programmers built programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization - Gerald Weinberg

People are more likely to complain than give praise, it’s a simple fact of life. Just open a newspaper to see for yourself and the Internet is no different.

My posting has been a bit all over the place over the last two weeks because work has been busy, but more importantly my Powerbook has been in for repairs. Yes my beloved Apple actually broke, it was constantly restarted and I ended up forking out €100 to get it fixed. So should I take this moment to complain that it broke, the fact that no matter what you want repaired Apple keep asking you for a serial number for your Powerbook even if you tell them if it’s about a power adaptor or customer service call centres (they really should be known as merry-go-rounds) in general?

In a word - no. The fact of the matter is my Powerbook broke because I left it constantly running and it was banging about in my bag while I cycled home. I could complain about the whole affair, but at the end of the day I only have myself to blame. So while the world harps on about CGM, I would urge people to relax. If you’re going to respond to every single piece of criticism on the Web then you should also respond to criticism in mainstream media. At the end of the day you can’t keep everyone happy.

Am I saying that Dell should ignore Jeff Jarvis et al? No. What I’m saying is that you shouldn’t buy into the hype that once somebody says something is wrong that you should jump into the Batmobile, fly A-list bloggers to the batcave and start putting up signs saying ‘Wham!’, ‘Biff!’ or ‘Boff!’ around the office. What companies should do is monitor various channels like the Internet or customer care lines, spot problems and put mechanisms in place to fix them. There’s no reason to go to red alert, especially if it turns out that its a grumpy customer who won’t admit that pouring coffee over his laptop could have caused the problem in the first place.

So apologies to anyone who I have contacted over the past two weeks, things have been hectic and the PCs in work wreck my head. Everything will be back to normal from next week I hope.

Thanks to Image Supply Systems who let me off €10 on the total repair bill.