The Darkest Evil

I have a belief that certain businesses should definitely provide wireless Internet services to it’s clientele. These are businesses where it’s either expected of the business to carry wifi or it’s necessary based on the type of business and/or the clientele served by the business. Keep in mind that most of the businesses listed below provide services to people who MIGHT be travelling. Travellers may find it harder to find specific services in the area for which they are travelling without prior research.

Cafes and Coffee shops - All cafes and coffee shops should provide free wifi services to their clients. In fact, providing wireless Internet service is actually a staple to compete in the coffee shop business. It’s no longer solely based on the flavour of the beverages you serve anymore. But it stands to reason, coffee shops are mainly frequented for their ambience. They are pretty popular with business people and college students alike. There was a coffee shop in Lethbridge, Alberta I went to called the Penny Coffee Shop (I think) and while the hot chocolate was pretty steep on the price, it provided me the power to talk with my lovely Becca. This is invaluable. And I am pretty sure the services were well used by the many college students that walked into and out of the coffee shop.

Long-haul transit services - Companies such as Greyhound and Amtrak should provide wireless internet services simply due to the fact that they are long-haul transit providers. These should generally be provided in their customer lobbies for customers who are waiting copious amounts of time for things such as lay overs or a line change. Like, for an example - when you get to the end of the line for a route like Empire Builder in Portland, Oregon - it would be a great idea to provide wifi services while waiting for a train to take you on the rest of the route. And it would seem that for Amtrak, it would also be feasible to integrate it into the cars. I mean, they have found a way to integrate a snack bar into the transit service - how much harder could this be?

Motels - I don’t care what anyone says about this - wifi in motels is a NECESSITY. It allows you to remain in touch with your loved ones, friends, business associates and family. Therefore, to reduce the level of homesickness, it would definitely be a good idea to integrate wireless services into Motels. Most motels are picking up on this fast - the proof being that the smaller motels like O’Haire Manor Motel and Sherlock Motel in Shelby, Montana. But there are still motels like the nasty biker motel just out of the United States border in Sweetgrass, Montana.

Restaurants - Depending on your location and the nature of your clientele, this could go either way. Most likely, if this is just a family restaurant, this is not really a necessity. If this is a romantic kind of restaurant, you might want to stay as far away from providing wifi as possible. But if you get a lot of business people visiting your restaurant, do them a favour and provide wifi services in your restaurants. Your business will probably be frequented more by business people if you provide great food and a way to show a presentation without necessarily needing it onto their hard drive.

And to everyone else, think about your clientele and their needs carefully and you might find that it would actually be in your best interest to provide wireless internet to your clients.

I hate calling the customer service department of a business. Generally, it means being transferred to the right person/department/whatever more than once, hopefully getting the support you need and tolerating that horrible hold music and “hold advice” that they give. I am going to talk to you about a couple of my pet peeves in how a business runs and hopefully, this will inspire you to run your call centre in a more efficient manner. And know that until I can afford to take these measures, I am not going to run a call centre. In fact, I only give my number out to clients or possibly prospective clients. (more…)

I think I may be getting a content writing job with eleven2 soon. For those of you who don’t know, eleven2 is a hosting company that I used to be a customer of in late 2005 and is run by my friend from High School, Rodney Giles. I mean, it’s great to get a job that I can do from abroad. A little extra cash in my pocket and toward my upcoming marriage to Becca. On the surface, this seems like a great opportunity and it is something that I would love to do. But the thing about this job is - do I want it? Can I live with myself writing the sales and support content. Possibly. Let’s look at the facts, shall we? (more…)