No Opportunity to feedback 1+2

In a soulless 2 * travellers' hotel in Zurich we were well treated - On checkout I asked to speak to the manager - The 'have a nice day' smile slipped as the receptionist asked 'why?' 'We enjoyed the experience - I'd like to say how good it was - have you got a feed back system?' 'Er - no and the manager is not at his desk - You mean you'd like to say thank you?' -'Well Yeah' - ' that's a first' - 'Iyou don't have a way to do it I'm not surprised'.

Marketing Issue

An international hotel group without a systematic way for customers to record their comments??? Beggars belief - Adroit-e undertook a research project on behalf of the Finnish Authorities to find out just whether Hotel Groups take customer comments seriously - in short we discovered hotel managment took fire-fighting comments on board but most didn't really have a systematic way of benchmarking comments and views. But it's coming - The waves are rolling in - there's are loads of hotel websites who now allow you to rate the hotel experience - Do it! - it's not perfect but for instance, it's helping me decide which hotel to choose in New York over New Year. I always try to create a situation where the automated question from the automaton waiter 'Was everything OK for you?' is met with a deliberate response - 'It was just OK,' or 'Not as good as last time.' and see if they are willing to get into a conversation'. It develops their customer facing approaches and might even in the longer term lead to better service!!

Mistake #1

It was the late sixties in Glasgow -sometime before it became a European City of culture Glasgow was still unclear about who it was - In the teen scene, a strong but fading Clydeside shipyards feel on the one hand, mixed oddly with new found hippiedom. On the music side we were part of a folk revival - guys with pullovers sticking a finger in their ears singing 'Fine Girl ye are'! or trainee accountants strumming their Les Paul singing proudly about having 'been a wild rover for many a year.'
I was a drummer - 'allowed to play with real musicians' - 'drummers are like Johnnies (condoms) - you know you should have one but it's mair fun without' - I played hand drums occasionally with some of the big names, Archie Fisher, Matt McGinn, but mostly I played with ma Chinas playing Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger songs on the one hand and Middle Eastern tunes on the other - we were quite good as enthusiasts, though not all that technically pure ( Right, in the key of L Minor, let's rip it up!).

Beginning to make it up the pecking order and overtaking us, was a duo called the Humblebums, Tam Harvey a good Mandolin player and a guitarist and banjo player, William J Connolly the Third, otherwise known as Billy. He was not that great on the banjo - 'but whit a comic - laughed till ah peed masel'.

So in business terms, Billy Connolly had already differentiated himself from the less talented herd, following in the tradition of great Glasgow comedians but with his own unique take.

We saw each other socially from time to time and singing a few more times - acqaintances not real buddies.

One day, when I was walking along Argylle Stree opposite Lewis's Department store a 'Hey John Brull' came from the other side of the street -
'Hullo Billy How's it goin?'
'Great man - Ah'm goin pro.'
'No big surprises there - you 're good enough '
'Ah doan want to be just in Scotland - wider mebbe - ah'll need a manager - interestit?'
'No Billy - Sorry - Bad timin - back to uni in a couple of months.'
'Nae bother - see ya.'

To be fair I didn't think much more about it at the time, but once or twice since over the years.

If I hand't gone to do a second University degree would I have worked with Billy and been Mr.10% for years and that's 10% of a big wedge.

Would I have mis - managed his career to such a degree that the world have been starved of one of its great entertainers.

Marketing Point

In retrospect I think I should have been calmer, researched and evaluated what may have been just a casual on the spur of the moment offer with no real substance.

I'll never know - youth is wasted on the young.

Feedback Regardless - the Prologue

I think best in the shower - I've been puzzling about how to organise my thoughts - Randomly, a key phrase popped up - 'Not a job for life but a lifetime of jobs' - maybe 40 all found in my case - some in the real world like now - some in public service (the unreal world) some in the voluntary world - all of them fascinating ( that's a fib).

All of them required marketing and market research - so what follows will be organised week by week into a description of the job, some context of the era and with luck, genuine insights starting in the 60's. Mistakes - more than a few - some colossal, almost on a par with the man who failed to sign the Beatles

The stories should build up into a thought - provoking compendium of market research/marketing case studies. Not chronologically, not thematically - we'll just try to get to the nub of the matter in hand - you can make the connections.