Sheepa is 17, or 82 in human years. As his life winds down and he sleeps more and perhaps eats less, I thought it prudent to take him to the vet for a blood panel to see if his kidneys or thyroid are to blame. Now normally you can’t get me out of the house early on a weekend morning but the clinic was kind to offer me a last minute appointment yesterday for this morning, at 8:30am. I set my Blackberry to turn on at the time I needed to get up, and as email filtered in I checked it.

I looked around and ensured myself  I was in my own home, I didn’t send this email at 5:30am yet it came from my account:

Hello!
I’m sorry I didn’t inform you about my traveling… am presently in London, on short vacation and as i write to you now.. its unbelievable am stuck here,got  mugged at gun point on my way to the hotel and my money,credit cards, phone and other valuable things were taken off me at gun point, thanking Almighty God for save keeping my passport., i really need your urgent assistance quickly ? I JUST NEED SOME FEW HUNDREDS $$$ TO SORT OUT MY HOTEL BILLS AND i promise to refund it back to you once i get home cause i still have some cash in my account but i cant access any here right now ‚already canceled all my cards immediately after the muggers took my things off me!!!  still at the public internet library where am making use of the free internet access,  i will forever be grateful  if you can help me,Waiting to hear from you quickly cos my flight leaves in few hrs but need to  sort the hotel bills and please me from been embarrassed.
Thanks,

I don’t posses that level of English grammar either, something was phishy.….…  As the minutes passed and people were  checking their email I was flooded with inquiries via text, phone, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Skype asking if I was OK.

My friends and contacts around the world (literally) deserve hugs and gratitude for being there for me. As inconvenient and frustrating as this little terror session was, it was very comforting and meaningful to me to know that not just one but several tens of friends (many I have never met in person) would have helped me had I truly needed it. My friends in the UK would  have come to my aid in person.

I tried to log into my email account and couldn’t. It didn’t recognize my password. My email account was compromised. Someone had figured out the password, changed it  and was using it the account to try to scam my contacts for anywhere from $850 — 1,500.  Sheepa was going to be late for his appointment…

As we drove to the clinic I talked to Sheepa about the beauty and pitfalls of technology. I also conveyed my thoughts on how as desperate or poor a person might be , taking advantage of others just doesn’t cut it. He acknowledged each thought with a soft meow. He’s the last of the Cozumel rescue cats to share my home.

Back at home, honorary Special Agent, Mike VanDervort, was chatting with the hacker. He let me know. I was outraged. I asked what he said. He was getting the same pity plea about being mugged and stuck in London. I decided I wanted to talk to him too. I logged in to another account; our chat was rather unpleasant. He wanted a ransom for liberating my account. I was having none of it. He ended the chat rather all of a sudden, just as I was warming up with verbal karate.

I sat there with a numb left arm. He was having fun at my expense. He wanted to rip off my friends. He wanted to rip me off too. All the while I was working with Google tech support to resolve the situation. They didn’t let me down. After a stringent and thorough exercise in proving I was the rightful account holder, they booted the buffoon out and sent me a reset link to an alternate account to get back in. I’m still crazy about them. I don’t care if they spy on my bathroom habits, I’m all theirs.

I spent the next few hours answering all the various messages in the various forms they arrived to let my friends know it was over… The mission was accomplished and the the account was recovered. I reminded them to change their passwords and to make them complex and challenging to hack. Now go on, you do it too.

Hey, ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend?
People can be so cold.
They’ll hurt you and desert you.
Well they’ll take your soul if you let them.
Oh yeah, but don’t you let them.
You just call out my name and you know wherever I am
I’ll come running to see you again.
Oh babe, don’t you know that,
Winter Spring summer or fall,
Hey now, all you’ve got to do is call.
Lord, I’ll be there, yes I will.
You’ve got a friend.
~ James Taylor You’ve Got A Friend

A short Twitter conversation happened on Friday, sparked by Laurie Ruettimann’s revelation that she “received feedback that “google it” as an answer to a question is rude.” I recall my father telling me to “look it up” plenty of times when I was a kid.

I would understand if someone needed information that couldn’t wait and didn’t have access to the Internet or a phone directory or 411 (how often is that really the case?). However, it was hard for me to understand why a certain person calls me every quarter to ask the local unemployment rate so she can complete her report.

My quarterly response has always served to qualm the curious  mall lady. Except for this time…

“That doesn’t seem high enough, are you sure” she asked?

I told her I googled it and got the graph.  Then she did it… She asked if it wouldn’t be better to get the information from the government. I explained that indeed it came from there but rather than having to know exactly which website to go to I just googled it..

I explained how she could go to www.google.com and enter the search term to use and eventually the conversation ended.

Keith McIlvaine asked the burning and seemingly logical question, “if you have a questions, why wouldn’t you “Google It” first then ask someone if you don’t get the answer” but it was Maureen Sharib who made sense of it all…

It made me stop and think. The mall lady called from her desk and she was using a computer to do a report, but where I have an igoogle dashboard as my homepage — tracking reputation of the organization I work for (and mine too), the weather, feeds from BLS and other data important to me, the mall lady doesn’t even remotely understand the power of search.

I’m really independent and I can’t come up with an example of a time I wouldn’t try to figure out something myself before asking, just like Keith suggested. But maybe that’s why we do what we do and we are who we are. When the mall lady calls in September I’ll be ready.

Do you find people ask you things they could look up themselves or are you a mall lady?

I know that numbing pain gradually crept up my left arm with each successive transfer.

I know I was sold the wrong service package.

I know I shut the boardroom door because I was starting to lose my cool and didn’t want people walking by to think they should call the ambulance to bring a straight jacket.

I know in my frustration I resorted to Twitter and all of a sudden with one tweet my problems started to melt away.

Twitter?

My real problems are not technical in nature. Sure, there is either a driver or registry problem that needs to be taken care of, if not something more complex. Yes, I was upset there would be no walking the floor for me because I would be tied to the arrow key during my presentations this week. But, I understand broken, messed up, old and needs fixing. I have an abundance of patience for an inanimate object.

I too have tons of patience for people who need help and instruction. I can do that and not lose my composure. But it gets challenging when a mega colossal company who touts they “care” shows me (and come to find out after a little Google action a bunch of others) they don’t.

So, the fact that 6 transfers later, 6 times giving my name, service tag, email address, phone and alternate phone numbers, 6 times having to re-explain (and in some cases re-explain) a wrong service contract purchase and 5.5 hours later –> NO RESOLUTION…

A tweet

It’s called public humiliation, being taken to task, forced accountability.….. It’s a shame it had to resort to that but I did it because I felt I was at the end of my rope.

It works

What’s missing in the Dell tag cloud from their blog on Customer Service & Technical Support is “customer service”.

What’s missing at Dell is an appropriate CRM system or the enabling of technicians and/or customer service representatives to access it.

What’s missing at Dell is training on warm transfers — where the employee transfers your call and your information SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO REPEAT IT 6 TIMES…

What’s missing at Dell are pre-employment assessments for listening skills and talking over the customer.

What’s missing at Dell is acculturation and training of off shore teams on US customer expectations.

Personal note to Michael Dell:

Dear Michael, if you would like to talk about fixing the type of customer service complaints that are abundantly populated all over the Internet I would be happy to have that conversation. You see, the general consensus is that you make a great product — but the lack of customer service skills your off shore teams provide is a gaping opportunity for improvement. Let me help you fix that. ~Karla

P.S. My new family member is a black cat (haven’t even seen him yet) that was abandoned & I couldn’t be responsible for his euthanasia so instead I gave him a spa overnight at the vet clinic that included vaccinations and a little nip tuck =) Please support animal rescues so they can afford to offer low cost spay and neuter programs and by all means –> adopt from a shelter, do not buy from breeders and stores and spay and neuter your little furry loved ones. We’ll have a pawty when he gets here and I’ll post a pic or 2.

Once a year there is another type of event at the Arena that is totally different. It’s an interactive event that can literally change your life. It’s the NEPA Job Fair. Similar events are held in cities across the country every year. So, if you’re lucky enough to have landed here through finding this blog in a Facebook or Twitter post or Google search it’s for you too.

Now of course, you can walk in the Arena doors and on to the floor and weave in and out of the maze of employer booths like a spectator – that’s what most people do. Then you’ll go home and talk about how it was, “OK but nothing special, there are no opportunities around here.”

That’s the big mistake most people make, they treat a job fair as a spectator sport. Find out how to work the job fair over at the NEPA Job Fair blog…

Johnny, you’re our star Admin Assistant and as part of your “other duties as assigned” I’m giving you a new project. I need to hire an Account Manager and we don’t have a budget to hire an agency to do it for us. You’re always on Facebook and Twitter, do some social networking and find me one…

Here is the job description. I have highlighted the keywords that are important.

Just set up a Facebook Fan Page — stream good stuff about the company, it’s free. Then, create a company Twitter account — tweet about it and search and follow similar people, be friendly and say good things about us, it’s free. Join some LinkedIn groups — post the job in the jobs sections, it’s free. Google free job boards — post it everywhere, they’re free.

Have the resumes sent to you and scan them for the keywords and 3 years of experience. Put the ones that match on my desk. I’ll review them and give the ones I like back to you to set up appointments for an interview.

Do a good job and I’ll take you out for pizza to that place you like down the street.

Does this sound far fetched to you?

The TechCrunch Europe post How free social media beat the recruitment consultants to death gives quite a blow by blow account of how companies are doing it. Though it may sting to read it at first, it brings up an excellent point for discussion.

“I think what the recruitment industry should take away from this is that prospective clients really can beat them at their own game, if they want to make the effort. The recruitment industry needs to recognise this and innovate… find ways of adding value… and justify/rationalise their proposition.”

Get out your value proposition.