The Anonymous Widower

The CEO’s E-Mail Address

It has been reported that the CEO of Nationwide has been forced to shut his e-mail address, because of protests, that they are charging for overseas cash withdrawals.  Apparently, it has now been changed to something like ceo@nationwide.co.uk and you now get through to one of his assistants.

Apparently, there is a web site call ceoemail.com, which gives many of the e-mail addresses or those that run companies and organisations.

So if I was running a large company, how would I organise it?

The e-mail address would be obvious like ceo@megacorp.co.uk and this would then go through a strong spam filter to remove the real rubbish trying to sell me worthless fakes and then pass the rest to my assistant or one of a group of assistants, if the company was large enough or I was getting a lot of e-mail.  The assistants would have software, which by just clicking a button would take action on the e-mails.  Actions might include.

  • Forward to Customer Services or other Departments. These would also go into an e-mail tracking system, so that it can be traced that e-mails have been acted on.
  • Put on a block list as it’s abusive.  The sender would be told and why!
  • Reply with a simple and appropriate e-mail.
  • Phone the sender and say something appropriate.
  • Send them a nice postcard.  I’ve always found that this is a good thing to do, as people won’t throw away a nice picture. But they may pin it to their notice board.

Obviously, you can think of a lot more responses you might use.

The important e-mails would be sent to me for personal action.

Now some companies manage to do this with letters and I can remember receiving a phone call from Sainsbury’s after I’d written in with a complaint to the CEO.

But one thing no company does is to analyse all of the messages and count the occurences of various issues.  So to return to the Nationwide example, if the CEO was getting a lot of complaints about withdrawal fees, the CEO would know about it and could take action.

So in fact, if you get the system right, it’s a very powerful way to find out what your customers are thinking about and satisfy their needs!

September 14, 2010 Posted by | Business, Computing, News | , | 11 Comments

More R101 Pictures

They are small so I scanned them together.

 

 

The house is probably my in-laws’ house in Crescent Road, New Barnet.

September 14, 2010 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | Leave a comment

Was This Pilot Marion Wilberforce?

My post about our use of women in World War II, Why We Didn’t Lose World War II has got me thinking about the Air Transport Auxiliary, especially as a number of people have contacted me after the article.

I can remember in the 1970s seeing a book called something like Ferry Pilots Notes for the ATA, which showed you how to fly everything from a Spitfire to a Stirling or a Liberator with little or no training.  Where was the Health and Safety?  Nowhere, they were just exceptional pilots, even if some of them were amputees, one-eyed or diminutive women like Joan Hughes. 

When I was learning to fly at Ipswich Airport in the early 1980s, I can remember an elderly lady flying into the field in an immaculate vintage de Havlland Hornet Moth.  She used to come for checks on her flying skills. And also to practice aerobatics in a Cessna 150 Aerobat.

The instructor who flew with her, said that she had been a ferry pilot during World War II and was one of the best pilots he’d ever sat with.

Searching for the Air Transport Auxiliary, I found this page, which talks about the first eight women pilots of the organisation.  This is one of the eight.

Marion Wilberforce

Marion Wilberforce was an experienced pilot in the 1930’s, flying her own Gypsy Moth.

In the ATA she rose to become Deputy Commander of the No. 5 Ferry Pool at Hatfield, and later became Commander of the No. 2 Ferry Pool at Cotsford. She served the full 5 years until the ATA was disbanded after the war she purchased a Hornet Moth and continued flying until she was 80. She died at age 93, in July 1996.

I’m absolutely sure, that the pilot was Marion Wilberforce and she was doing aerobatics at an age of almost 80!

At least Richard Poad is getting an exhibition together on the Air Transport Auxiliary  at the Maidenhead Heritage Centre.

September 14, 2010 Posted by | World | , , | 18 Comments

Should We Licence Cannabis?

I have never taken recreational drugs and probably never will.  I also feel that our current strategy against drugs is a total failure and probably just makes things worse.

So it was very refreshing to read the views of Professor Roger Pertwee on the BBC. His views about licensing sales, should be taken seriously.  After all, getting criminals out of the loop, ensuring quality and protecting health are probably more important.

But his views will be totally ignored.  All we will do is go on building more prisons, so we can lock everybody up!

September 14, 2010 Posted by | Health, News | , , | 1 Comment

A Warning About On-Line Loan Brokers

The BBC is today warning about on-line loan brokers, who take up-front fees and then don’t give you a loan.  Apparently, there has been a large rise in complaints to the Office of Fair Trading.

September 14, 2010 Posted by | Finance | | 2 Comments