word of mouth | Cooler Insights

My Family’s Car Accident – A Tale of Service Excellence

October 7, 2007 • Blog • 32 comments

Yesterday afternoon, my wife together with my son and maid got into an accident along CTE (I was attending a work lunch then). What happened was a tale of God’s divine providence mixed with extraordinary service excellence.

My wife was driving towards the city and encountered the usual Saturday afternoon jam. Traffic was extremely heavy and crawling at a snail’s pace. Unfortunately, a slick black BMW driven by a young 19 year old guy crashed into the rear of our car. He must either be driving his dad’s car or distracted by his girlfriend.

The shock was so hard that the beamer’s airbag popped up. Fortunately, my family didn’t suffer major injuries although my maid had a swelling on her head (currently under observation) while my wife’s back hurt. Both cars stopped and my wife took down the driver’s full particulars (NRIC, license plate, hand phone photos of damage, insurance company, car model).

How to Brand and Market Yourself

July 25, 2007 • Personal Branding • 11 comments

Richard Branson’s personal brand is synonymous with that of Virgin.

Was reading Steve Rubel’s post about The Golden Age of Individualism which pointed to this decade old gem by management guru Tom Peters. In Tom’s article on the “Brand Called You”, he wrote about the need to establish oneself as an authority on the matters which one is passionate about, the importance of influence and visibility, and the need to have BOTH style and substance.

In the age of social media and the democratisation of information, all of us become more important than ever before. I am sure everybody would have read or heard about Time Magazine’s Person of the Year : You. Everybody’s vote now counts more strongly than ever before in the world of business and commerce.

Let’s Go Green 2 – Using Recyclable Bags

July 10, 2007 • Blog • 9 comments

Have you started using recyclable bags for your shopping needs lately? It isn’t that difficult to tote a few grammes of light woven bags wherever you go. Not only does it help to burn a little more calories, they are also easier to carry around compared to lots of plastic bags. Most can be slung around the shoulder and you can look fashionably chic while doing your bit to save our world.

The damage caused by plastic bags and other non-biodegradable items are far too huge for us to ignore. Just look at this example here. Plastic makes up 80% of the volume of litter on roads, parks, and beaches and makes up 90% of floating litter in the ocean (BEC). Each year, an estimated 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide, with billions ending up as litter in landfill sites. What’s more, it takes at least a century (yes 100 years) to degrade them!

Let’s do our part folks.

Word of Mouth Demystified

June 20, 2007 • Blog • 12 comments

Ian McKee, CEO of Vocanic, shared at the recent PR Academy Conference about the importance of Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing. Anybody who has spent time on the blogosphere will probably have heard about this term. However, what does it truly mean?

In his presentation, Ian shared some startling findings.

Service Excellence without Frills

May 21, 2007 • Blog • 12 comments

A contender for SPRING’s Excellent Service Award?

Many of us would have heard about Singapore Airline’s legendary service. Or how every employee at Ritz Carlton, from GM down to housekeeping maid, is taught to resolve any guest complaint. Must quality service only exist in premium establishments?

The answer is no.

Lessons from TCM

March 17, 2007 • Blog • 9 comments

Our new ritual every Saturday noon is to drive up north to Yishun to visit a popular Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) shop there. My wife has been going there quite regularly lately, upon the recommendation of her boss, and has also brought my son to treat his runny nose and cough.

Despite the place being fairly ulu (out in the boondocks) at Yishun Street 71, there was already a queue when we went there recently.

A Chain of Bloggers – Z-lists

March 17, 2007 • Blog • 9 comments

Ok folks, yet another link-love-list, this time courtesy of eastcoastlife. Apparently, this was started by Mack Collier of The Viral Garden. Yeah, I know I am very late in doing this, but well better late than never right? 😉

So How Do I Do It?
Write a post, and copy and paste my list from below into it. Make sure the links are active and correct. If your blog is on that list, remove it because your post isn’t about self-promotion. Don’t worry, because if your name is on mine, it’s on others and will spread. Add your favourite deserving blogs to the top of the list (not compulsory). Publish the post.

Step by Step

Foodie Bloggers

March 15, 2007 • Blog • 8 comments

This post is dedicated to my friends who bake, cook, prepare cocktails and generally help to make life sweeter and more sublime for foodies and drinkers like myself.

Being a true-blue Singaporean, I love to have my carrot cake and eat it. Yes, we are a nation of foodies and many people live and swear by their hokkien mee, satays, roti pratas, and mee poks (a flat fettucine like egg noodle) here. There are also many food guides around (many with online counterparts) like the venerable Makansutra which has become a national institution for many here.

Tag: word of mouth