Pienso que Chile es un gran país. Me encanta vivir y estar aquí, lejos del resto del mundo. Lo único que me tiene de verdad muy frustrado –y a veces me deja casi llorando- es la escasez de mentalidad servicio. Es como si el concepto de servicio y frases como "El cliente siempre tiene la razón" nunca hubiesen cruzado los Andes. Acá los consumidores debemos luchar cada día con una muralla de argumentos en contra del consumo.

Me pasa a menudo que tengo ganas de gastar lucas pero alguna política interna de una empresa sin cara no me lo permite. No me parece que sea algo precisamente bueno para el crecimiento del país. ¿Por qué no hablan de eso en el gobierno?

En los bancos hay siempre colas diferentes. Una para mí y una para otros clientes. La de otros clientes siempre anda más rápido. Me encantaría ser otro…

Muchas veces he estado en una situación con pasaporte y carnet, pero sigo siendo un nobody… hasta que el notario también aprueba que yo, de verdad, sea yo. Mi pasaporte me deja entrar hasta en EEUU, pero con él, no puedo arrendar un departamento en Santiago.

El notario no existe en Suecia, de donde soy yo. Imagínense Chile sin notarios, qué maravilla... O sin tener que hacer cola en el banco… Toda la tecnología existe para el banco virtual (TODOS los servicios), pero lamentablemente el “sistema” manual todavía es rentable y quizá (?) al presidente del mismo no le importa que 2 millones de chilenos corran el peligro de un ataque al corazón debido al estrés diario en la cola para uno… no la de los otros. ¿Quiénes son los otros?

Varias veces en bares acá he tenido casi que “amenazar “a la mesera/o para que me sirva una cerveza o, peor todavía, comida y una cerveza. Como cliente me miran con asco. Como el culpable de su pega, como el responsable de que tengan que levantarse cada mañana. Me pasa que pido un vaso de vino y no me lo venden si no “estoy dispuesto a” comprar la botella entera. La gracia de vender una unidad en varios pedazos para ganar más tampoco cruzó los Andes…

El fuerte odio en la relación empresa/consumidor hace que cualquiera se intente alejar de esas partes de una empresa grande. En la primera línea están las deshabilitadas ejecutivas que cumplen con su papel como una actriz “penca”. No tienen otro remedio. Tienen una descripción de pega y si dicen algo diferente o si se mueven diferente a lo establecido evidentemente se encuentran sin trabajo (yo cacho), aunque el acto sea a favor del cliente, de la empresa y del mundo entero. La flexibilidad como herramienta para ganarse clientes brilla por su ausencia y los chilenos consumidores lo asumen con paciencia o quiza incluso con orgullo. ¡Que me traten mal, por favor, para que me sienta peor todavía gastando mis lucas! Así me siento yo...

A veces pienso que las empresas de telecomunicaciones están firmemente convencidas que los planes mensuales y los equipos telefónicos son mucho menos importantes que el tamaño de los potos de las ejecutivas, para ganar clientes. :-)

Aqui, la guerra competitiva que en otros mercados se realiza en el análisis de revistas con nombres como “el consumidor”, en encuestas sobre la durabilidad de un producto o EN EL TIEMPO DE RESPUESTA CUANDO UNO NECESITA AYUDA... ...a veces parece pelearse en los desfiles de los “castings” corporativos. ¿Hombres en traje, minas en pelota?

El consumidor (en mi caso) no entiende nada y nadie entiende al consumidor. Pero ¿qué importa? Los competidores son iguales y todos siguen en business hasta que alguien haga algo.

¡En Needish estamos tratando!

Am I out of the box… our out of my mind? Or am I just being Needish?

Saludos Consumidores

Oskar

Para quienquiera:

La mejor idea (si la mejor es buena) de un video tipo “guerilla marketing” sobre Needish mandada a oskar arroba needish punto com ganará la oportunidad de junto con nosotros desarrollar la idea hasta grabar y lanzar el video en YouTube. Tu nombre saldrá a la final del video como director, guionista, productor… lo que qeris?

 ¡Cuentales a tus amigos que sean creativos!

 The Needish Team

Is our blog dead? One would think so, considering how few comments are made on our blog-posts, but the truth seems to be a little bit more vivid than that. Every once and a while I bump into people who have read my blog, and they all (of course) claim to like it. People tend to claim to like what other people do. It’s a first step to social acceptance, friends, family and a great life (?) but it makes our blog really really boring. No discussions, no argumentation, no buzz being spread that way. More like a log, than a blog. So, I wonder, what would make our 100 readers actually jump their anonymous comfort-zone and tell me that they love me, or at least to **** off?

Politics come to mind, but it is a sensitive subject. I wouldn’t want to ruin a potential business-relation by announcing to the world that I am… this… or that… and that I feel this… about that… and that the King is ridiculous.

The environment is another hot topic now that terrorism seems to have lost traction as a headline block-buster. But who wants to read more blogs about the environment? Think of it. Everyone that has a slightest idea of what global warming even is… is a part of the problem. The more powerful you are in regards of actually being able to change something, the more energy you are likely to spend. Anyone with Internet-access lives in a house where too much energy is spent to warm up or cool down the place. Anyone ever discussing the problem with some good friends over a dinner on the boat is destroying the world as they speak about making it a better place. All the idealists struggling and fighting for the environment, maybe on a trip to the Amazon, are wasting a life-share of gasoline… every trip. That’s why the solution to this problem is beyond current political structures. We live in world where freedom of choice spangles our banners (hallelujah) and where the corporation is central for growth and common well-being. In a world were more is better and less is an example of how you could **** things up if you don’t get your act together.

We must reduce our carbon-oxides spend with 50-80% (different numbers circle around the globe… on inked magazines… in Boeings!) to stop this vicious circle. WE must!! Not they. Problems when I grew up used to be all about they, and those problems seemed easier to handle when I closed my eyes at night: “they must organize better healthcare in order to be a fully developed country”, “they must organize unions to improve labor-circumstances”, “they must educate their youth better”… build hurricane-proof houses… etc. etc.

Now, suddenly, we must! We must reduce our XXX with YYY and how the **** is that going to happen? By the free will and the common-strive for survival of humanity? Can we maybe shop our way out of this (non-carbon-products of course)? I know; let’s create incentives for the people! “More carrot, less punishment”, said brain-dead politician in Sweden a couple of months ago. “Sounds great”, said Swedish-Chilean entrepreneur who jumped on the plane to Santiago de Chile that same week. And that is the problem, politicians need to be re-elected or – even worse – elected for the first time. Imagine Hillary Clinton going to election swearing too reduce the average Americans energy-spend by 60%. “No more cars!” “No more long-distance vacation” And I tell everyone to prepare a warm bed, winter will be cold like hell!”.

Can you see the masses sheer in the streets? Nope, neither can I, but the vision is there. The UN told us so.

Meanwhile… real-estate companies in Sweden are preparing for 50 million Spanish and French to come our way during the coming 50 years, as deserts will conquer southern Europe. No one really believes we will end this climate-evolution. Why? Because democracy is everywhere. A King could actually stop this. A real King, that is, not a fake one like ours. Long live this blog!

Enjoy summer! Its here to stay!

Oskar

Ps, give it a couple of years… global warming wont sell any more and we can all go back to our problem-free lives.

I thought about blogging a little bit about how cold Chile has been these last few days but after having spent 7 sentences complaining I was just tired of hearing my self complain. I shouldn’t complain. I am a very happy man! I have just spent a week in my new role as self-employed in South America. Life has ups and downs and this sure is an up. I think many would consider what I am doing to be a sacrifice, and I do too like 3 minutes in total every day. But those other (24*60)-3 minutes I like it. In fact, I love it. Not loving IT, though. We have some issues with networks, with some technicalities in the system and with this new Windows Vista that I was foolish enough to purchase the other day. It’s like XP in slow-motion, which I guess is a nice feature if you really love XP, otherwise it could be considered quite annoying (read = *** annoying).

Those 3 minutes of mental self-spanking are so far due to waking up on the living-room floor where I… wouldn’t say stay… where I survive during nights… waking up whenever a toe or a similar extremity finds itself outside of the ridiculously thick layer of blankets I hide under. Outside of that, but inside the apartment, you could freeze do death. I would say some 2 degrees tops, that probably is an exaggeration but a justified such... There I went about the weather anyway… sorry!

So what’s new on the Needish-frontiers. For the initiated party it might be interesting knowing that we are working on some exciting algorithms… can an algorithm be exciting? Definitely! Especially when you own a part of it! Those algorithms are not really new to the concept but they were planned for a future version. A Skype-chat with a very nice man – an American lawyer – yesterday evening had us understand that for quite simple reasons those algorithms should be moved from version 2 to version 1. Thank you nice American lawyer, if you read this!

Moving something from version 2 to version 1 means changes in priorities and we are now thinking of what to remove from version 1. I will throw some options out there and let readers vote.

Needish will, in version 1, remove the following feature from its web-service:

1) Help-texts explaining how to use the system

2) A background image of the management team singing Shakira

3) Links to go from one part of the system to another

It’s a tough one! Believe me, I know.

The Shakira-picture will be taken next week and no one knows about it yet. That’s one of the CEO-perks. I can tell people to either make complete fools of them selves on stage or work all Sundays in August… without office-heating!

So, karaoke Kick-off next week. Ale, can you make necessary arrangements?

During kick-off we will also discuss the Gantt-scheme in the tactical plan! How much fun!

Chau / Oskar

After two cold rainy and windy days, Santiago woke up this morning without any sign of smog. The sun rose up over the city and the Andes turned into an awesome and huge white landscape. Needish office is plenty of sun, and warmer. So, no stove needed. The sun enters through the windows and we’ll enjoy that for a couple of minutes more. After 2pm a huge building in front of us blocks the sun. Anyway, here’s the view we had this morning. Enjoy!