DSA Insights

My gift you to; a post that should guarantee some laughter! What I like about this video is:

1. You’d be lying if you never shook a laser printer cartridge and got some black powder on you. Even gasoline can’t get that stuff off…
2. The ingenuity of trying to photocopy his monitor (makes me laugh just writing this).
3. Not a word is said the entire video.
4. After smashing the copier, he goes back to his desk as if to just sit down like nothing happened. Seems like there should be some PRICELESS reference here…

DSA wishes you a very happy Holiday Season!

Disclaimer: Please don’t try this at home or the office!

Don’t wait any longer to get those Data Visualization or Data Analysis books that are sitting on your Amazon.com wish list.  Today is the day to take advantage of the great bargains on the web and stay as far away as possible from any brick-and-mortar retail store.  Find the books you want, add them to your e-cart and checkout without any hassles.  Plus, with free shipping over $25 you don’t have to waste gas (at $3.00+ per gallon) or time running around.

Click here to get to Amazon’s Black Friday specials!

My top three favorites:

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, E. Tufte

Information Dashboard Design, S. Few

Competing on Analytics, T. Davenport

As mentioned in an earlier post, Decision Support Analytics recently moved from Richmond, VA to Columbia, MD.  This was a move for the business as well as for my family.  Being that I work from home, I contacted my current cable/internet provider [Comcast] at least three weeks in advance to schedule the new services and a date for installation.  I needed to cancel everything at my old location and set up all of the new services at the new location.  Why they couldn’t just transfer the services is beyond me. 

What happened next utterly astonished me.  My appointment was between 12:00pm and 4:30pm on July 2^nd.  Normally, the wide window irritates me, but because I was going to be home anyway, I was okay with it.  Twelve o’clock comes and goes; Two o’clock comes and goes; Four-thirty comes and still no sign of the technician so I call the call center.  If you have ever called Comcast, you normally get a different person each time at which point you need to explain the problem from beginning to end.  Hence, the fiasco begins. 

4:30PM:

I explain to the Customer Service Representative that I had an appointment between 12:00pm and 4:30pm and it’s now 4:30pm and no one has come by.  I am informed that they can only see the appointment.  Once the actual day arrives, the information is transferred to their dispatcher who talks directly with the technician.  They won’t give you the dispatcher’s number so you can talk to them directly, that would be too logical.  They place me on hold for about 10-15 minutes while they reach the dispatcher and they in turn call the technician to see where they are.  The Rep comes back and says they were delayed and it will be around 5:00pm.

5:30PM

No one has shown up yet so I call Comcast back.  I talk to a different person because shifts have now changed, explain the ordeal again, and wait on hold another 10-15 minutes.  They come back and say they are still delayed and it will be about an hour.  However, they reassured me someone would be there tonight to get me set up.  You can see where this is going…

7:20PM

Still no technician and no one has called me at all today to give me any information.  At this point, I’m just a bit irate [hint of sarcasm], so I call them back and escalate the issue.  Now they say it will be another hour, but someone is DEFINITELY going to be by.  I have already explained that I work out of my house and it’s critical that I get up and running tonight.

9:00PM

[Patience shot] I started the process over again and contacted Customer Service.  What happened next absolutely astonished me!  After holding, so they could check with the dispatcher, the Rep comes back and says, “Mr. Rose, that job has been completed”.   Wait, it gets better… After about 30 minutes of me, (obviously upset) explaining to the Rep that no one came by and they obviously lied about completing the job, I suggested that they just get someone out first thing in the morning to complete the job.  That would be the correct solution, right?  Wrong!  Apparently, Comcast already lined up their jobs and confirmed them for the next day, July 3^rd.  Then they’re closed for the July 4^th holiday.  She explains that the next available appointment is July 5^th between 12:30 to 4:30.   I got heated, but never disrespectful, at that point.  I must have said that their solution was grossly unacceptable at least 20 times. 

I share this with you to illustrate all of the things NOT to do in customer service or designing business processes, which is related to an earlier post on good customer service at Walgreens and Ukrops.

I did get service installed on July 5^th and was pleased with the technician they sent.  I told them I wanted action taken on the first technician that lied.  In the end, I have service; with a customer credit of $75 for my aggravation.  That would have covered about 30 minutes of my time…  I probably shouldn’t ever have to pay another Comcast bill for the rest of my life to get over this debacle.

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If you surveyed 100 random people and asked them, “Besides money, what would you like to have more of”?  I would be willing to bet that at least 90 of them would list, in some shape or form, time.  More time to spend with the family, more time to exercise, more time to get a project done at work, more time to play golf, more time to read, more time to relax!  You get the point.

The problem here is that there are only 24 hours in a day.  No matter what you do, that’s not going to change.  However, how you use those 24 hours is manageable. This is where the invention of the DVR/TiVo comes into play.  I have gotten the controls down to a “science”, where I can fast forward through commercials in a few seconds instead of taking minutes to watch.  With my DVR, I can watch a 60 minute TV show in about 35 minutes.  This saves me 25 minutes per show I watch and it only costs me $10 per month.

Using some statistical data from the Bureau of Labor, I put together an example below to illustrate how much time can be saved.  Even though the statistics are from 2005, I still think the point doesn’t change.  Click on the thumbnail to see the example.

Basically, the BLS states that, on average, individuals spent 2.6 hours per day watching TV in 2005.  That average equates to roughly 18 hours per week and 73 hours per month.  If bypassing commercials saves 42% of the time it takes to watch a show, you can save just over 30 hours a month. Save 30 hours a month for just $10!  That’s money WELL spent!  Another benefit of using a recorder is that I get to watch shows when it’s convenient for me.

The VCR could tape shows too, but never had the intelligence to know when a show was new or a repeat, be able to adjust the time if a show went 45 minutes instead of the usual 30, etc.  Who wouldn’t spend $10 for 30 extra hours?  Now I’m off to use some of those 30 hours to work on my handicap…

Source:

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm

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I wanted to share with you a quote I read in a blog at Trusted Advisor.  The article is titled, “Seductive Analytics“, posted on February 12th.  In two previous posts, Start with the little things and 5 C’s to successful management, I mention the importance of integrity.  The quote below is very fitting! 

“Integrity is a lot like being pregnant…either you are or you aren’t…there’s no such thing as being a little bit pregnant.”

I was reading a children’s book to my twelve month old daughter the other night and thought to myself, this is the worst book I’ve ever read!  I would think there are some basic steps that make up a good book for a one year old child.  The first essential step is the book must be visually appealing.  Colors, pictures, and design must be strategically developed so that a child will be drawn to the book.  The second step is the construction must be made using materials that are sustainable and durable so the book can be used repeatedly.  The other night, it took my daughter about five seconds to rip out one of the pages to the book and hand it to me proudly saying, “Da Da”.  Next, the book must tell a story.  A good story is why many books like Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast have sold millions of copies, made movies, and are considered classics.  Finally, the book must be simple.  There shouldn’t be any Graduate level vocabulary.  If this seems obvious, go to your local book store and browse some of the books in the kid’s section and see for yourself.  If these three steps seem like no-brainers, you’re right!  Somebody missed “writing kid’s books 101”…

There are striking similarities between writing a good kid’s book and creating analytics.  Let’s review the four basic steps.  Simply stated, the four are:

1. Visually Appealing
2. Repeatable
3. Tell a Story
4. Simple

When creating any kind of analytics these four steps should be planned out carefully.  Almost anyone can put together a line graph showing a trend.  But, only an expert can build a sustainable series of metrics that can be repeated, are a visual masterpiece, and tell a meaningful story.   Keeping it simple is where many folks fall short.