....... It May Be Your DISC Style Black Friday came and went. Shoppers perused merchandise to the steady sound of cha-ching as harried clerks rang up purchases. Most people are pleased with their decisions. Others are not. Tell me. Will your customers rant or rave about your service? A few weeks ago, you learned through this column that 73 percent of Americans with a product or service problem are extremely upset with how companies handle serious complaints. Customer Care Alliance, the survey publisher, dubs this unfavorable response “customer rage”. What would turn these enraged people into satisfied customers? Curiously, it’s not a “freebee” or some other form of compensation. First and foremost, dissatisfied customers want a flawed product to be repaired, serviced or replaced. Then, 78 percent of these customers want to know why the problem occurred; with an equal percentage seeking assurance that there problem won’t reoccur. More than half of complaining customers need to vent their dissatisfaction dog cats nd believe an apology is in order. Here's the problem: Dissatisfied customers did not get what they wanted. A mere 38 percent of survey respondents believed they had ample opportunity to vent, with a scant 25 percent receiving an apology from the company. Less than a quarter of the respondents received assurance that the problem would not reoccur. There is a gaping chasm between what it takes to keep customers satisfied and loyal and what actually happens.

We live in complicated times with complex problems, challenges, and questions. Each topic has its proponents who would move it to the top of the list of current concerns. "If we could solve this one," they imply, "all others would soon fall in line." For instance, the doctor said that the reason my arm hurts is that I have tendinitis (aka: tennis elbow). So, he gave me a brace. After two or three hours I had a deep insight into how it works: It feels so good when you take it off. It is a change of focus. Where should our focus be? If we address one pivotal concern will all others pivot with it (say it fast and it will sound clever)? "All you need is love," we used to sing. "What the world needs now is love, sweet love; it's the only thing that there's just too little of." What about public morality? Personal morality? Will one lead to the other? Which crisis is most threatening and thus, most in need of our attention? AIDS? Terrorism? Moral decay in America? Sleep disorders? medical files he Diabetes epidemic/ Global Warming? And given that Christ is preeminent in all things, what does that imply in relation to our problems? Are we crisis driven or purpose driven? Most of the issues of our day are so complex, complicated, timely, and intense that we could start digging about anywhere and hit a mother-load of sewage. We live in a leech field of unwanted complications. And like an onion, we keep peeling back layers to find more.

So Ron Forman’s brilliant new idea for the mayor’s office is that he will have 4 deputy mayors, 2 black and 2 white . This, he claims, will help unite the city. Bullshit. First of all, how is adding 4 new executive positions going to help New Orleans get out from its looming bankruptcy ? Ron’s used to pulling down over half a million dollars per year . The past two years the Audubon Zoo has lost scads of money (this, all before Katrina). Now, he’s supposed to be the guy in favor of fiscal responsibility? Also, who’s black and who’s white? Is Tiger Woods black enough to hold one of the two black positions, or is he out of luck because there’s no Thai deputy mayor? What about any representation of the Vietnamese part of New Orleans East? Would C. Ray Nagin or Marc Morial be black enough to be a black deputy mayor? You gonna have a Creole deputy mayor, too? Where do you draw the line , Mr. Forman? If part-time New Orleans resident Lenny Kravitz wanted to be a deputy mayor, would mesothelioma asbestos lung cancer e have to be a white deputy mayor or a black deputy mayor? What utter fucking nonsense. I guess next, he’ll tell us how having 2 Blacks and 2 Whites will prove that he’s a uniter, not a divider . Having 4 deputy mayors will “ free him up to travel the nation to solicit aid for the city .” Bullshit. I want my mayor to be here , not soliciting aid in Jamaica , or Vegas, or whatever other boondoggle he wants to pull on my dime.

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This article appears in The Times today . The struggle against Islamist terrorism will probably extend for decades, and what might have been designed as emergency measures need to last. So we need to find a way for a protective State not to become an intrusive one, a way to keep the public on side. A fascinating approach to the problem comes in a new book called The New Protective State , edited by the historian Peter Hennessy. It makes the case for an ethical basis for intelligence work just as there are ethical criteria for war: to defend the institutions of a free society, to limit the dangers of restrictions on individual liberty and maintain public confidence. One proposition is based on the experience of Denmark’s intelligence service, which produces for public consumption an unclassified version of its annual assessment of threats. If the exercise were copied in the UK, then the experience of the British government “dossiers” before the Iraq war might make it hard for the public to trust such an annual intelligence report. But that may come, provided that it was clear technical seminars ho wrote the report and who authorised it. It would explain to the public the grounds for security policy while distinguishing between political and intelligence judgments. There is also a need for a proper process of authorisation for the gathering of sensitive intelligence, and judicial scrutiny of the activities of the intelligence services.

This article appears in The Times today free spam blocker The struggle against Islamist terrorism will probably extend for decades, and what might have been designed as emergency measures need to last. So we need to find a way for a protective State not to become an intrusive one, a way to keep the public on side. A fascinating approach to the problem comes in a new book called The New Protective State , edited by the historian Peter Hennessy. It makes the case for an ethical basis for intelligence work just as there are ethical criteria for war: to defend the institutions of a free society, to limit the dangers of restrictions on individual liberty and maintain public confidence. One proposition is based on the experience of Denmark’s intelligence service, which produces for public consumption an unclassified version of its annual assessment of threats. If the exercise were copied in the UK, then the experience of the British government “dossiers” before the Iraq war might make it hard for the public to trust such an annual intelligence report. But that may come, provided that it was clear who wrote the report and who authorised it. It would explain to the public the grounds for security policy while distinguishing between political and intelligence judgments. There is also a need for a proper process of authorisation for the gathering of sensitive intelligence, and judicial scrutiny of the activities of the intelligence services.

So Ron Forman’s brilliant new idea for the mayor’s office is that he will have 4 deputy mayors, 2 black and 2 white . This, he claims, will help unite the city. Bullshit. First of all, how is adding 4 new executive mac telnet ositions going to help New Orleans get out from its looming bankruptcy ? Ron’s used to pulling down over half a million dollars per year . The past two years the Audubon Zoo has lost scads of money (this, all before Katrina). Now, he’s supposed to be the guy in favor of fiscal responsibility? Also, who’s black and who’s white? Is Tiger Woods black enough to hold one of the two black positions, or is he out of luck because there’s no Thai deputy mayor? What about any representation of the Vietnamese part of New Orleans East? Would C. Ray Nagin or Marc Morial be black enough to be a black deputy mayor? You gonna have a Creole deputy mayor, too? Where do you draw the line , Mr. Forman? If part-time New Orleans resident Lenny Kravitz wanted to be a deputy mayor, would he have to be a white deputy mayor or a black deputy mayor? What utter fucking nonsense. I guess next, he’ll tell us how having 2 Blacks and 2 Whites will prove that he’s a uniter, not a divider . Having 4 deputy mayors will “ free him up to travel the nation to solicit aid for the city .” Bullshit. I want my mayor to be here , not soliciting aid in Jamaica , or Vegas, or whatever other boondoggle he wants to pull on my dime.