racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

One of my favorite writers and bloggers, Joel Spolsky writes an interesting piece on customer service. He says you won’t have to deal with irate customers, chargebacks, and bad reputations if you find solutions to problems early on, so you solve these at the root, and not when everyone and his uncle is already calling in to complain about lousy service. He also says that if you go to great lengths to please your customer, the return will be tenfold (or more).

We treat each tech support call like the NTSB treats airliner crashes. Every time a plane crashes, they send out investigators, figure out what happened, and then figure out a new policy to prevent that particular problem from ever happening again. It’s worked so well for aviation safety that the very, very rare airliner crashes we still get in the US are always very unusual, one-off situations.

One striking statement Joel makes is that in-house customer service is best, because outsourced customer relations management will not be able to adequately address issues at the source having no direct ties to whoever is developing the darn thing. Joel even specifically mentions the Philippines (along with Bangalore).

This perhaps will get negative feedback from those in the BPO industries, particularly those in my country. Believe me, I have several friends and relatives who work in call centers and other BPO firms, and I can say it’s been a boon, especially to people here looking for a decent living. They’re sort of the dream jobs of this generation.

However, I do agree with Joel that there’s something wrong with the concept of outsourcing customer relations. You’re basically letting someone else be the spokespeople of your company to the public. Never mind hiring PR firms for marketing. Never mind blogging about your stuff ’til kingdom come. If you don’t handle customer concerns personally then you’re probably only able to address their concerns on a superficial level. Then the problem will keep on happening, again and again, like a weed that will keep on growing unless you grab it by the balls roots and burn it to ashes.

Take for instance this recent issue with HP support that Technosailor Aaron Brazell wrote about. What about the PLDT CSR swearing incident? These things give your company a bad rap. And even if it’s only one customer that you end up losing, it’s the loss of goodwill that will ultimately kill your business one way or another.

So what saves you more money? Being stingy with costs but losing a bit of customer trust? Or being all out with customer relations and gaining more clients because of goodwill? It depends, of course, but it matters when it comes to what image you want your company to project.

One good solution would be to offshore, but still keep development and customer relations teams within the same company. Or perhaps you can be selective with the concerns that can be handled by the offshore customer service centers (like billing or other minor, non-critical stuff).

I’m not against business process outsourcing. Believe me, I consider BPO as a Godsend, too. I’m in sort of an outsourced business myself, since I blog for foreign-own sites and blog networks (which is in a way different from outsourced customer relations). But it’s a reality that companies and BPO providers will have to contend with sometime.

There are more. Joel writes seven–no eight–steps to remarkably good customer service. Read on. I hope you enjoy.

Remember, greed will get you nowhere.

I got a pleasant surprise via SMS this evening. Gelo Ancheta texted me that I’ve been featured on the November issue of “Entrepreneur Magazine”:http://www.entrepreneur.com.ph (Philippines). I had actually been corresponding with contributor Justine Castelleon since late July, but I was able to send her my response to her interview questions only this late September. I was thinking the mag would no longer accommodate my interview since they already had a feature on _online consulting_ in the August issue.

So off I went to the Mini Stop convenience store just a block down our street (at 1:30 a.m.!) to get my own copy. True enough, it was there. The _Entrepreneur_ feature wasn’t as extensive as I expected though, and it was mostly focused on the online aspect of consultancy work instead of problogging.

I also took the opportunity to browse other magazines available, and I chanced upon Abe‘s article about earning from blogs on PC Magazine. I saw a screenshot of a familiar website, and it turned out to be The J Spot!

How I wish I were one of the top 10 entrepreneurs of the year (and how I wish I were earning like them, too)!

Holiday tech guide: Buy Angelo a MacBook Pro!

Blog screenshots. Mine’s at the upper-right.

Some Excerpts

From Entrepreneur,

Online consultants target clients who are comfortable transacting information online … To put up a good blogsite (I have an aversion towards this term. I prefer to “blogs” or “weblogs” -Ed), you must first pick a domain name that’s memorable, short and easy to spell, and usually reflects your business purpose. Your site must contain your business portfolio and contact information … Your site should be easy to navigate with a good search function.

Word of mouth is still the best way to market this business, according to Racoma. This is done by linking to other sites and writing comments on other sites linking back to one’s own. “Signing up with website networks, communes, directories, or even advertising on other blogs or sites,” are also ways to advertise your online business, he says.

From PC Mag,

J. Angelo Racoma has been a fulltime problogger since January this year: “I get to experience a more flexible work/business arrangemet. Now, I have more time to explore options and opportunities that weren’t available to me before when I was working nine to five. I get to watch over the kids, too!”

That’s pretty much the meat of it–at least with regard to what was written about me. Go grab your own copies if you’d like to check out the other great reads. Unfortunately, neither mag puts up all of its printed content online. _Entrepreneur_ retails for PhP 125 while _PC Mag_ costs PhP 100.

Remember my post about why Celebrities should blog? I mentioned that this is a very cheap and effective public relations tool, particularly in addressing pressing issues and controversies, or just even enhancing mindshare on the Web. We know that scandals and rumors spread fast through the Internet–be it via email, forums, chatrooms or blogs.

It probably goes without saying that it’s not only celebrities who should blog, but also any person or entity with a reputation to protect. For instance, big companies in the west like Microsoft and Dell are doing it (MS seems to be doing well, but Dell is not).

The Jollibee Scandals

Now here’s yet another issue that I think needs immediate attention. This past week, I encountered two posts about Jollibee that can potentially hurt the fastfood company’s reputation.

First is the _Jolibee and Twirlie Scandal_, as posted by Jepoy and Yuga on their respective blogs. In the video (which I won’t re-post here), mascots Jollibee and Twirlie are doing naughty stuff. This was likely done at a party with adults-only guests, and probably at the request of the party guests.

The guys behind the mascots (and the staff handling the party, too) would’ve probably been safe had this video not been circulated around the ‘net. Now I wonder what’s become of them.

Second is the Open Up and Say Yumburger post by American blogger pamie.com, who visited a Jollibee branch in the US along with a couple of friends (via Torn and Frayed).

Here’s what she had to say about Jollibee’s Yumburger.

Meanwhile, Ty was staring at her Yumburger. “This isn’t something we can eat,” she says. “There’s a pink…sauce… and it’s pink?”

I tried being positive. “Do you think it’s still Thousand Island dressing?”

She put the burger in her mouth and then instantly winced. “No.”

“What’s it like?”

She shook her head slowly, sadly. She whispered just one word to describe the taste of her cheeseburger: “Sweet.”

“It’s like Wendy’s took all the goo that comes out of their burgers when they’re done cooking them, pressed that down into a mold, froze it in a patty shape, and exported it to the Philippines, where they put it between some bread, put pink sauce on it and sent it back here.”

I think I do agree with her on some points, if you ask me. Anyway, there’s more to the post than rantings about the Yumburger. There were nastier things said about the Chickenjoy, Jolli Spaghetti, and Banana Langka Pie. One of the blogger’s friends concluded that “Fast food is nasty, no matter what country.”

Implications to Jollibee

Do a Google search on “Jollibee” and you will see the pamie.com post and various other blog postings about the mascot videos on the front page of the results page. And these scandalicious (to use the Jollibee nomenclature for their “delicious” stuff) blogs have the potential to taint Jollibee’s rap, if not locally, in the international scene (what will foreigners think of Pinoy food, then?).

Mike Abundo cites that some comment-posters on Yugatech are asking for the blog entry to be removed, and speculates that they might be from Jollibee. I agree that in this case, Jollibee needs to learn smarter blogging. If they want to address this effectively, they should also learn the medium.

Jollibee’s corporate honchos have apparently responded to the mascot video by sending out an email in an attempt to clear this mess. But this is clearly characteristic of corporate PR–carefully, well thought-out wording and not immediate. It took them about a week to come up with a response, and by this time the scandal has already spread all over the Internet.

The _Yumburger_ post, meanwhile, has been online since January this year, and much has been said in other blogs and comment threads about Jollibee’s food, freedom of speech, tastes in food. Still, I haven’t heard a word from Jollibee itself. Of course, things like these are not likely to be addressed with a corporate press release (any company would look silly if blogosphere issues are responded to with press releases).

What should Jollibee do? Blog!

Oh, if you think it’s just Jollibee, do check out what Gary Granada has to say about McDonald’s (via Jason).

Image from Rebelpixel.

There’s an ongoing discussion at the “SEO Philippines eGroup”:http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/seo-philippines (and quite an impassioned one, too) about the pricing of .PH domains. Having worked for dotPH, I’m aware of the issues and the arguments from all sides. Of course, with this disclosure, I also cannot just divulge any information I know of that other people might be interested in.

Still, you might find the thread over SEO Philippines a good read (membership to the e-group is required, but is as simple as sending email to seo-philippines-subscribe AT yahoogroups DOT com). Abe has also posted his response on his blog, and it’s from the perspective of his being a .PH reseller.

Also, another bit of disclosure: the company that I currently work with, “Enthropia”:http://www.enthropia.com , has also been active in advocating the “Use com . PH”:http://use.com.ph campaign. And part of this is our giving “free com . PH domains”:http://racoma.com.ph/archives/the-conditions to eligible bloggers. We do recognize the need for Filipinos to be able to carry the com.PH name with pride.

My response to the issue

Here’s my response, below.

Those of you know know me would be aware I used to work for dotPH. While I can’t divulge the exact details about the issue, I’ll share some general insights (the little that I actually do know of what’s been going on).

To tell you the truth, it’s a stalemate. Gov’t wants to take control–or even just reassign–the .PH ccTLD, but dotPH maintains that gov’t can’t just do that since they were first to be assigned registry status by ICANN. The Philippine government can’t do anything unilaterally since it’s also through ICANN that these issues have to be resolved, as it’s ICANN that assigns the administrative and technical management of the registry.

Frankly, dotPH claims ICANN will take their side on this matter. If the gov’t decides to sue, then it will take years and years for the issue to be resolved, especially given the slow pace of the legal system here and the lack of really solid electronic-commerce and IT laws (and do consider that one of the main proponents of e-commerce laws here is Joel Disini’s brother, Atty. JJ Disini–so there might be some difficulty trying to interpret the laws to gov’t's advantage. Though arguably they’re not always on the same side when it comes to IT stuff, when it comes to business they seem to be a strong team).

Perhaps as IT professionals and businesspeople, we can lobby for better dialogue between gov’t and the .PH registry, if what we want is to have more competitive pricing. Do consider that other ccTLDs around the world also still charge $35 per year. The market is different. You can sell CNO domains at $5 and still earn, because of the sheer volume; in contrast, the market for .PH is considerably smaller. Of course, there’s also the basic concept of supply and demand–if dotPH sells for lower then there will be higher demand for .PH domains. The thing here is to find the optimal price at which everyone’s a winner ( i.e., domains are priced competitively and are affordable, and the registry/registrars earn even better than with the $35 prices).

(End of quote)

A bigger issue

Other SEO Philippines members who have far better background on the matter than I have pitched in their two cents’ worth, and there seems to be bigger issues cited, particularly about the .PH namespace not being a “business” and that the registry should be treating their appointment as a trusteeship. If you’re interested in reading about this, then I suggest you head on to the “e-group message archives.”:http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/seo-philippines/messages

One of the benefits of blogging for advocacy is the attention one gets from the movers and shakers. My being part of the PayPal for the Philippines campaign has caught the attention of execs in the electronic payments industry, as well as business owners who are into e-commerce (either planning to start selling online, or already have ongoing e-commerce setups). In fact, whenever I attend EBs and blogger get-togethers I’m usually referred to as the PayPal guy. It’s good to be identified with something.

I had dinner–and a few beers–with the top honchos of YES Payments last night to discuss the possibility of their offering P2P e-payment facilities in the country. This is my second meeting with them, so far, and it was great that we were able to exchange ideas freely. I related the needs of the freelance/problogger/developer community in the country, and they told us about the issues that e-payment providers continually face in the line of their doing business.

It’s All About Risk!

The foremost concerns of any business doing e-payments are security and fraud. When money is involved, there is always the chance of one party defrauding another party, or one party defrauding the system itself. So there is always risk. And the issue is determining which party bears the risk, for the system to work. In some cases, it’s the seller that bears the risk. In some, it’s the operator of the e-payment facility.

Fraud can be perpetrated a number of ways.

* Buyer uses stolen card/card details. Card owner disputes. Chargeback is paid (paid back by seller). If the seller has already sent the goods, it’s his loss.
* Seller does not send the goods or goes under. Card owner disputes. Chargeback is paid by the facility. It’s the facility’s loss.
* Buyer uses legitimate card to pay for transaction. Seller sends the goods. Buyer receives the goods, but claims otherwise. Buyer files a dispute. Seller pays chargeback thru the facility. It’s the seller’s loss.

There are even more ways–don’t get any ideas from me! The point is that there are loopholes that can be exploited. So there the system has to consider the trust factor.

For the most part, dealing with the risk is a big headache to the e-payment facility because of regulatory requirements. I never realized that the banking system asks so much of these companies–there are big guarantees, there are limitations, and there are requirements for compliance with several laws, both local and international. And even the card companies like Mastercard and Visa require a lot, such as security of transactions, regular auditing and subscription costs–something in the range of $15,000 per year (or is it monthly?), which, while affordable to big companies, can be a steep amount for small players.

Social Engineering

On top of these risks, there is one difficulty faced by e-payment businesses particularly in countries like the Philippines without a strong judicial system. Fraud is not so difficult to detect. YES cites cases where fraudulent transactions were flagged, but allowed to push through so the perpetrators can be caught in the act. The problem is once the criminals were caught, the inefficient and corrupt judicial system was not capable of warranting adequate punishment.

Hence, perpetrators can expect be let go with just a slap on the wrist. I can also imagine cases where either the judges or the police personnel could be bribed.

We come back to the issue of risk. E-payment facilities may not be so keen on setting up shop here because they know the risk of fraud is high. Even worse, the risk of fraud not being properly addressed by the law is even a bigger threat. Fraud can be minimized if the legal system is good enough to be a deterrent to people planning to commit crime. But if one knows the system can be gamed, then people will go lie, cheat and steal their way to getting a fast buck.

A Problem of Circularity

So which came first? The chicken or the egg? (Sorry for using a cliché–it sucks, I know.)

I earlier made a bold claim that having good e-payment facilities here in the country–particularly PayPal–would be beneficial to the Philippine economy. However, it turns out that most players (probably PayPal included) would only be open to servicing the country if they can be mitigate or minimize the risks of fraud.

Perhaps for large players like PayPal it’s a bit easier. For small players, it could be a challenge.

Facilities for SMEs and Individuals

YES is considering opening a facility for P2P transactions for the purpose of business and commerce. While they don’t have such a system in place right now, they do have YES Payments for SMEs and YES Pinoy for remittance. None of these services can be used by individuals like myself for receiving payments for goods or services rendered, though. YES Payments works for businesses (well, this does not preclude individuals or groups of individuals from registering as a business). YES Pinoy, meanwhile works for P2P transactions between people with existing relationships–you have to prove you’re related to the person sending money, whether he/she is a family member, relative or friend.

I had been mentioning existing services that could do P2P, like Xoom, which fellow problogger Abe has been recommending, and which I’ve also been using. YES is positioning itself as a strong player in the country because of its presence and support. They actually do have an office here, and they do accept support calls. I think that’s an advantage. I actually tried calling Xoom support once thru their 1-800 number, but since they’re based in California, their office hours are quite off when calling from the Philippines.

What’s Next

If–and once–YES gets their planned P2P service up and running anytime soon, would there be people willing to be part of a test group? Just tell me, so we can make the necessary arrangements.

As for PayPal for the Philippines, it’s a continuing advocacy. PayPal may have already set up here, but it’s still very limited. We can only use the service to pay or send money online, and not receive (not even to load up the account). We’re still pushing for full functionality. If you have not yet signed up, please do so. We would also appreciate any support (such as linking to us and/or displaying our banners).