Maine War Story #3 - Resuscitating a Blackberry

We were using a 12' aluminum dinghy to shuttle ourselves from the public boat ramp on Gardner's Lake to Craig's new boat, which was moored a few dozen feet out. On the second day of the trip, I tried getting in the dinghy, which I thought was firmly braced against a rock. It wasn't. Next thing you know, the boat upended and capsized, sending me into the water and thoroughly soaking everything in my pockets, which included my Blackberry. As soon as I righted myself, I checked the phone and it was, of course, dead. And now, in the spirit of saving soaked mobile devices everywhere, I hereby submit unto you the step-by-step directions for resuscitation...

1. Remove the battery.
2. Start up your car or truck
3. Crank the heat through the defroster and wait for it to warm up.
4. Place your soaked mobile device directly over the vent on the dash, with the battery compartment facing the vent.
5. Wait 15 minutes, or until the condensation disappears from the device's screen (whichever comes first).
6. Re-insert battery and pray.

Thankfully, this worked, although my Blackberry now has a sticky # key, which I suppose I'll live with until it's time to upgrade.

Today's Spin

All about my experiences talking to people in Maine about how they use the Internet. The Bangor Daily News has written a multi-part series about how Maine (north of Portland) needs fatter pipes, and how businesses are in trouble if they can't get broadband that conforms to their needs. Of course, this stands in stark contrast to what we're used to in places like New York City or Long Island, where it's easy to get a faster connection at home than you might have at work.

Net-net? Not everyone in the country can access the Internet as quickly as we do here, and they tend to use the Internet for the low-fi connection it gives them to opinions and conversations, rather than for the latest whiz-bang rich media execution or streaming video. We should always remember that.

Maine War Story #2 - Things That Growl In The Night

At about 3 AM one of the last nights we were out on the island, I awoke to a growling sound coming from outside the cabin window. It sounded almost like when ya dog gets really angry and gives you one of those low growls right before he snaps at you. Since the only wild creatures on the island are the ones that can swim or fly there, I dismissed it as something I might have dreamed. But then I heard it again.

Of course, Craig and Dan were sacked out in their bedrooms down the hall and would have slept through the whole thing. I decided discretion was the better part of valor and woke Craig. He thought it might have been a bear, and he decided to ask Dan if he had heard anything. A half-asleep Dan replied, "Bear? Sure. Okay." Obviously he was still in dreamland.

Craig loaded up the .22 with a few shells just to make some noise and blew off a few rounds into the night sky. We didn't hear from whatever it was again, and my hearing is now suspect, but I definitely heard a couple growls from something right on the shoreline. I'm kinda glad whatever it was decided to take off, since a bear would probably laugh at a .22 bullet, and we didn't have anything else handy.

Accuquote Blog Update

My client, Sean Cheyney at Accuquote, sent me an e-mail link today to a thread on the Accuquote blog that was basically an open invitation for customers to openly discuss customer service issues. Not to toot my client's horn too much, but it takes courage to invite people to post whatever they like to your blog comments. Of course, it doesn't end there. Sean and Denise Mancini are both handling the load right now, responding to each comment point by point. I think marketing in this fashion is a huge step in the right direction. We have to show customers that their suggestions don't simply disappear behind a wall of plausible deniability, where nothing of value will be derived from them. We need to take criticism (and praise) from customers and tell them how we're going to use that feedback to improve. It helps make the process more transparent and trustworthy, and it also makes customers stakeholders in the marketing process.

Basically, Sean, Denise and Byron have become ambassadors to the community of folks who will engage in a dialogue about life insurance and their business. That community might be tiny or it might be huge. It depends on a lot of things - how interesting they can make the subject matter, how many people are already interested in it, etc. I'm not sure that the Accuquote folks thought comments would run past 50 or 60 or so. It's good to see they're still responding point-by-point. And who knows how big it could get?