What went wrong with Facebook? It grew rapidly as a popular site with fun features and cute little widgets that everyone seemed to like1. I, for one, advocated it to as many folks as I could find just short of becoming a Friend Whore2. With the redesign of Facebook (which incidentally, I do actually like), and with no way of going back to the old version, a lot of people are in uproar about the next generation FB.
I think this is symbolic of what Mark Zuckerberg is getting wrong with Facebook. Here’s are three reasons why Facebook is getting it wrong.
One thing you get used to in Singapore is the subservience to process. In some ways it is very reassuring since you can’t go wrong if you know the process and if you are a cog in the machine. But human beings usually are fallible so they want might not know the process or a situation occurs that is outside of the process. It is then that we expect or would appreciate other human beings to be able to step in and add the human element to a situation that the process cannot accommodate.
Yet another encounter with the typically Singaporean way of doing things. This time the culprit was the muppets over at the Singapore Safety Driving Centre in Ang Mo Kio Street 62. Arriving there, it was clear they had a ticket queue system but alas no ticket dispenser. Politely asking the muppets where I could get a ticket, I was told that they had closed and I had missed the closing time by 5 minutes (it was about 15.50 when they close at 15.45). I explained that could I join the queue as I had driven half-way across Singapore just to enrol for my Basic Theory Test and there were still a few people left to be served. No, they were shut and come back tomorrow.
Right. I don’t think so. Five minutes late and you can’t exercise your own discretion to open it up for one more potential customer? It’s not like letting me enrol would have opened the flood gates to hell and every other demon would be registering to do their Basic Theory Test. You can register online. No, muppet, I can’t as I don’t own a credit card and why would I have driven across town to do something I could do online? Well, come back tomorrow was the reply.
Yes, I was late by 5 minutes but really, a little leeway would have been nice especially since I actually wanted to give them money. I myself run events which have an opening and closing time so I am well-aware of the necessity to close at a particular time as per our timings. However, we are employed as human beings to exercise that at our discretion. Particularly in the name of customer service.
Thankfully Singapore is not that small so there is some room for consumer choice. Come back tomorrow? Sorry, tomorrow you have lost a customer. Besides, it’s not like they are doing any good or providing some exemplary level of service anyway if you look at the quality of the average Singaporean driver. I think I will refuse to give the muppets at the Singapore Safety Driving Centre the satisfaction and choose another driving centre in Singapore.
For those of you who have stumbled upon this post in order to learn to drive in Singapore or convert your foreign license to a Singaporean driving license, I would recommend the following centres (and not Singapore Safety Driving Centre. I am happy to send some business their way to the detriment of the SSDC.
Apparently not the only one who thinks that the Singapore Safety Driving Centre is staffed by unprofessionals - Rude admin officer at Singapore Safety Driving Centre. Hmm, I wonder if I would have gotten a ticket if I had been a happy gweilo.
Upstart mobile operator, M1 Singapore, has a TVC campaign out there designed to take away market share from the dominant big boys, SingTel and StarHub. It revolves around a team of three executives (a Chinese, a Malay, and an Indian) aiming to please their boss (fat white guy replete with young hot secretary who he’s probably banging…). They put forward the most brainless ideas in response to real consumer trends and more importantly, the white guy accepts them because he’s equally as stupid. The end take-out is that some companies don’t get it, but M1 does so. Incidentally, there is plenty of use of red (for SingTel) and the StarHub lime-puke green to represent the two companies as the “stupid” corporations.
So, take for example their latest TVC which has our mentally challenged executives presenting the idea of sharing (as in to share talk plans). Instead, you see a shot of them trying to convince the aforementioned white guy as to the viability of their latest product - a mug with three handles and the idea is that people love to share. Of course with three handles, who will be able to use it? Instead of seeing the obvious, the boss asks “what happens if there are five people?” To which the executives tell him, “that’s why we have one with five” (cue five-handled mug). The shot then transfers to the boss approving this and the M1 “Some companies don’t get it,…” and it promotes the M1 sun-share plan.
What I found amusing was the plan it was promoting can only support up to four users at once as per TVC. A quick trawl to the M1 site showed no info on the “sunshare” plan but did reveal the M1 Multi-Line Saver plan which supports 5 lines. So what if I wanted to share with even more people?
Also amusing was the promotional graphics for the Multi-Line Saver depicting a guy in between two hot girls ready to go clubbing, joined by electrically-charged M1 orange plus signs. Really, do you think this guy wants to share his line with his two girlfriends?
