As much as a mobile phone is a high tech device, it doesn’t necessarily mean everybody who uses one is also high tech. In most cases, that is not the case. When I heard T-Mobile, who is my mobile provider, is going to start charging for paper copies of bills to be sent, I was honestly surprised. I heard about it in a tweet from CBS2 Chicago, and responded with my stance.

Shortly after I was asked if I would like to be interviewed about the story, to which your humble and definitely not camera-shy writer quickly obliged. The accompanying photo is a screen shot from the interview today on CBS2 with reporter Vince Gerasole, and by clicking on the picture or this link to the CBS2 Web site you can watch the story.

Maybe I am hyper sensitive to such issues in my capacity as a Web architect and developer, but the ultimate goal of any use of retail technology is to help those using it. As much as online billing is alive and flourishing, not to mention my use and support of it, I also understand that we are “not there yet” as a society when it comes to being completely paperless. Some people prefer a paper bill, especially for those who are not online continuously as others are. T-Mobile is charging $1.50 for a non-detailed bill (not listing all calls) and $3.50 for a bill listing them all. I can see if they wanted to impose a charge on a detailed bill, as they tend to run long (in the news story, the bill I printed was 18 pages), but charging even for a basic bill makes no sense to me.

Rather that starting with the charge, T-Mobile should incentivize people by offering them a credit, say US$5, to go paperless. That may cover most people. For those remaining, this should have already been worked into your pricing structure to send bills in some form. Rather than sending bulky envelopes with all kinds of inserts, perhaps send the statement in a self-sealing sheet, similar to how some checks are sent? There are other options – explore them!

I must admit I am a very satisfied T-Mobile customer, and I have stated that before here on The Hot Iron. However, one issue I do have is with billing. Where I get my bill online, I never get an email or even SMS alert that my bill is available. I have to rely on my credit card statement to see a new bill has been cut. Also, the T-Mobile site offers an HTML version of the bill and not a PDF version, so someone would need the software to make PDFs in order to save it digitally. Most other vendors send email alerts and offer PDFs.

I’m interested in how this issue plays out, and if other providers capitalize on it, or if all others start charging for bills. In any case, we all need to be aware about what is showing up on our bills. For this issue, I thank CBS2 Chicago for letting me know about it.

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As it comes up in conversation many times as to what my process (or dare I say, methodology?) is for writing blog posts on The Hot Iron, I thought it in itself would make a great post. Whether I am working with clients of Dunkirk Systems, LLC for whom we have developed blogs or having a conversation with colleagues, there is a method to the madness.

First Comes Inspiration

Ah, the true magic of blog posts. Ideas usually come to me when I am not at my desk, so I am usually leaving some paper or digital note for myself. These range from something I am passionate about writing to fleeting thoughts that could become something worth writing. Those that don’t get written up right away get added to my idea list, and on occasion I go to it for inspiration.

Pen to Paper

You read that correctly – pen… paper. Call me old school, call me low tech, but I find the best way to write is literally to write. Well, in my case print in my poor penmanship. I don’t write all of my posts out long hand (for example, likemind announcements). And I make no apologies for this, especially after reading James Whatley does the same, and he is much more “wired” than I, not to mention younger than me too.

Type, Post, Promote

Once written, I type up the post in Word, spell and grammar check it, then manually mark up with HTML tags including images and a footer message (see below). As I have been coding HTML since 1993, it works best for me.

At this point I log into ExpressionEngine, the power behind The Hot Iron, and preview and submit my post. I also tag it to categories and set a date and time, especially when I write blog posts ahead of time.

From there, Feedburner, FriendFeed and Facebook do their thing to promote my post. I will also manually tweet on it depending on the topic, as well as submit to social bookmarking sites.

So Far, So Good

And there you have it. This process has worked well for me over the past 2.5 years plus, and now through 500 blog posts!

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Several weeks ago I ran a quick poll on The Hot Iron asking people if they have a mentor or not. I tried to keep it to a simple “yes” or “no” but the wiseguy in me drove the 3rd question of “what is a mentor” but in hindsight, it may not be that crazy of a question.

This post and survey initiated a lot of dialogue in the form of both blog and Facebook comments and some direct questions from people. It got people thinking. As well these folks asked me why I was posing this question.

My reason was a simple one - I do not have a mentor.

My Definition of a Mentor

Before I go into the “problem” I thought I would define it first. My general definition of a mentor is a senior, non-compensated, action-oriented individual who works to ensure your career thrives! This is someone who does not have a financial stake in your success, rather a personal and emotional one. No goods and services outside of a cocktail or meal are ever exchanged. They are not there to tell you what to do, but to provide wisdom and guidance for you to use in your decision-making.

Now For The Analysis

I cannot pinpoint why exactly I do not have a mentor. I am certainly not alone in the world, as I have a great network of friends, colleagues, partners and clients with whom I collaborate and seek advice from regularly. But this network is more of a peer group. The fact I come from the technology field may attribute to it, as many techies prefer to be alone and many do not seek out anyone, with the exception if they need help troubleshooting their code. My entrepreneurial timeline is going on 5 years, so maybe this is too short?

Over the years I have worked for some good managers that I learn much from. When I worked for a large consulting firm I had several “staff managers” who were supposed to oversee your career growth within the firm. Some were decent, and some sucked and I got nothing from them at all. In the end, the advancement of the firm came first, as the one time I sought my staff manager to get me out of COBOL and into the Web, they didn’t even pretend to make an effort to help.

On the flipside, I have been told by people I have been a mentor to them. Whether it was people on my team, peers within a company or interns, I was told I provided good advice and support above and beyond whatever formal working role there was. I have enjoyed this role and have accepted any mentoring or advice requests from people over the years. I also serve on the Board of Advisors for 2 firms.

So What To Do About It

In life you can’t go back and change things. Even if you could, my guess it you would probably make pretty much the same decision. Where I can’t go back and change whatever I did or did not to do, I can only go forward and effect change.

But how?

Thus I am writing this post. Just today I read a great article on mentoring by Jason Jacobsohn , so I am inspired to engage in this process. I welcome any insight and advice from those who have sought out mentors on what worked and what didn’t work. Or if you have a mentor or are mentoring someone, how did it come about?

I’ll report progress - stay tuned.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Has this ever happened to you – you have a bad customer service experience and when you complain about it, the person you are dealing with doesn’t know how to respond to you, and finally asks, “so what do you want?” It has happened to me, and where it has worked to my advantage in the past, it is not something I want to happen to me.

When a company asks you what you want, they are in essence throwing their arms in the air and asking you for your mercy. I can only attribute this to one thing – employees are trained neither how to respond nor to sense when there is a customer service issue, and how to react to it. Throwing it back to you may seem like a natural reaction; you brought the issue to their attention, so you should have some resolution to it. Right? Well, not exactly, as you have been put on the spot and are probably in some disbelief at their query.

A Tale of 2 Sheratons

Two incidents of customer service issues come to mind, both involving Sheraton hotels. One was in Phoenix back in the early 1990’s when I was staying at the Sheraton Crescent for a month while on a consulting assignment. It was in December, and as this is a quiet time for the hotel, they were performing maintenance on the hotel. Though this was a while ago, I still recall plumbing issues, from water not being on for long periods of time to fire alarms going off as a result of the plumbing work. I liked the hotel, but these issues were a pain, so I called and spoke to a manager.

When I explained to him my issues and that I was basically on expense account, he offered me free meals and nights at the hotel. Um, didn’t I say I was there on business? When I repeated this, he proceeded to ask me what I wanted. As he said that, in the background the CFO of my client was handing out Phoenix Suns tickets to his staff. So I asked him how one could get Suns tickets. When I returned to the hotel that night, there were 2 front-row balcony tickets waiting for me, which was a treat for me and my manager.

Before moving to the Windy City my wife and I stayed at the Sheraton Chicago. As we were there for a few nights we had asked for housekeeping to empty the beverages from the refrigerator so we could use it, something they never did. The morning we checked out we heard a crash in the hallway and upon inspection there was a broken picture on the floor. Though housekeeping was in the halls, it was never picked up, even hours later when we checked out.

Upon checkout, the staff asked how our stay was, to which I apparently hesitated and said, “ok.” I say this as he right away asked if there was something wrong, and I told him about the above issues. He told me it was hotel policy not to empty out the fridge, but acknowledged we were probably not told that. He then proceeded to check us out, and when he handed us the bill, he noted he removed the charge for the movie and late-night snack in return for the issues we had. We never asked for anything, but he was proactive in addressing it.

What We Want Is Caring

I believe that people, upon raising an issue, want it to be acknowledged and some sign that they have a legitimate concern. Granted, there may be those trying to get something for nothing, but even in that case a sign of genuine caring should be offered as well. When it is not received, we are left with a bad feeling, and then fulfill the saying about telling 10 people we had bad service. Or today, we tweet about it or post it to Facebook.

Things happen. How we react to them hopefully will be the positive coming from the negative.

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The next likemind will be Friday, August 21, 2009 in dozens of cities around the world.

In Chicago, it will be at Argo Tea, 140 S Dearborn St. at the corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets in the Loop from 8:00 am to 10 am.

I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, social media, et. al. For more information on likemind, you can read this great article on likemind from the New York Times.

No RSVP is required. You are also welcome to join the likemind Chicago Facebook group.

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