I remember.

I remember getting milk delivered every day, first in glass bottles with alfoil lids that birds used to peck through and then in the new fangled tetra packs. I remember the “milko”, who was often a surfer because he had the rest of the day off, coming by at the end of the week to collect his payment from Mum. Not that I’d tell my mother but those milk bottles, especially the neighbour’s, sure came in handy on those early morning returns from the night before. I also remember if you didn’t get up early enough and it was a hot sunny day, the milk wasn’t worth drinking after 3 hours on the front step.

In the day, that was considered the height of convenience and when they added the baker doing a bread run we wondered if it could get any better. We knew the suppliers by name and the relationship was such that the occasional late payment or a request for extra buns was all taken in stride, after all they knew where we lived.

Then corner stores with funny American names got more prolific, the “servo’ started selling milk and before we knew it, convenience meant walking to the corner or jumping into the car to go to the mall because the “milko” and his bread bearing mate were out of a job. Where did they go? Are they still at the beach waiting on a call to come back?

I’m all for convenience, in fact I’ve just moved into an apartment above an underground shopping centre, but there was a loss of connection with the people we used to do business face to face. Are we missing that?

So isn’t it interesting that Aussie Farmers Direct, are working towards daily delivery of milk and bread to households? With 55,000 customers in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane I can see the ubiquitous “milko” doing the rounds with his surfboard in the back of the van. Everything old is new again!

Of course the technology required to make this happen seamlessly has improved and no doubt, you can order online or even via your iPhone, no matter where and when you desperately need some milk home delivered. Is this the start of something? What else can we expect? What about house calls from the doctor, trades people actually showing up at your house or someone to pump your petrol and clean your windows? What about service with a smile?

Technology can accomplish great things but sometimes it just can’t replace people and I’ll certainly be giving the local “milko” a big wave when I see him next. I just don’t know how he is going to get to my front door via the various security gates in my apartment complex?

Is nostalgia the next great innovation?

Computer Games.

In high school I joined the Air Training Corp for a couple of reasons, the most important being the uniform that really worked on the opposite sex and the other thinking it would be fun to fly. As so often happens you change directions and I left the ATC when I found out one of our group had been promoted to corporal because he had two left feet and couldn’t coordinate his marching. He did look great though, in that uniform barking out orders from the sideline.

The urge to fly remained but monetary constraints put paid to the actual culmination of that dream. So I did the next best thing and joined the Travel Industry and let someone else fly me around instead. It’s taken a long time but I did finally get to fly with the help of a brand new $22 million 777 flight simulator on a recent trip to Auckland.

So now I’m waiting for the flight stewardess to come running back from the cockpit, with an anxious look on her face, telling the passengers that the Captain and crew had collapsed from food poisoning and was there anyone onboard who could fly the plane?

I casually get out of my seat and push the pimply 15 year old Play Station Champion back down and announce I’ve just completed my first simulator flight and I’m ready to save the passengers. Okay, so one bumpy landing at Heathrow doesn’t quite qualify, but I didn’t crash and the technology onboard nowadays, is so sophisticated that my Mother could probably land the plane, with my help of course.

The days of “Flying High” and “Airport” are long gone and in its place are aircraft built to fly through the toughest conditions with computer software that almost makes human intervention obsolete. The “cockpit joystick” has only honorary significance as a mouse with a click wheel would be just as effective flying today’s aircraft.

So like many things in travel, the romance has gone out of flying by the seat of your pants for many pilots. Sure I would want someone up front if we had to fly through a volcanic cloud but how often does that happen? What’s left if the volcanoes stop erupting? The longing looks from cougars at the bar as they walk through the lobby of their 5 star hotels, the natty uniform and of course the perception of total control over the aircraft.

So where to from here?

Perhaps having a 15 year old remote fly a plane with the latest Sony aviation software or just software alone flying a plane from A to B. After all we did send men to the moon over 40 years ago by just aiming straight up and that worked out okay. Would we even know if there was no one up front? Perception is a powerful emotion and just seeing someone in uniform could allay our fears that someone was in control, even if they weren’t flying the plane.

So get those kids back inside and onto the Play Station. Pilot training was never easier.

Disclaimer – Please do not try to fly a plane by yourself without professional help from a 15 year old.

i NZ.

Everyone needs a good competitor to bring out the best in them. The problem in aviation has always been that Richard Branson has led everyone round by the nose, for the longest time. That’s about to change. Innovations, technological and cultural are helping shape Air New Zealand into a leader and influencer in the aviation industry. The thought processes and company culture coming together in such a way as to make even Steve Jobs jealous.

The airport experience with iNZ has had a dramatic makeover, with the onus on technology to free people and help improve the customer experience. This is of course the absolute best reason for technology improvements, not just to act as a replacement for people.

You have to believe that some Apple geeks got delayed at the airport and to while away the time they decided to redesign the latest self check in kiosks available to iNZ passengers. How else to explain the funky design curves and exceptional usability? For a disaster recovery program they have the ability to wheel out check in counters to be operational in 10 minutes to take on face to face check in if needed.

Of the many, my two favourite additions to the airport experience were a small nod to collective group thinking. The first being a “beltway concierge” (my description), where a staff member is available for people collecting their bags from the beltway and being able to help in all situations just like a good hotel concierge. The second gets my “blinding flash of the obvious” award for its simplicity and effectiveness. When I shop (stop laughing) I know exactly what and where my groceries are on the checkout belt because they are bookended by the ubiquitous plastic chock. So why not do the same on the baggage belt and have a bright coloured chock announcing the first bag and another when the last bag has been off loaded? There should never ever, be a reason to stand in suffering silence praying that one more bag will come out of the chute.

The Kiwis have always been innovators on the water along with winning the occasional rugby match. So thankfully the airline used some sailing concepts to help with their design and storage innovations as opposed to the front row. What they have accomplished for their new look long haul interior will be the bench mark for other airlines.

So along I went to “Hangar 9” to view the future of aviation travel. A non descript warehouse sided by a carpet shop and a café. With a little bit of the X Files thrown in I was ushered into design heaven for aviation purists. It looked more like something that Spielberg or Peter Jackson would use for their next science fiction classic with storey boards and models strewn about the place but all the time focusing on pragmatic design innovations to make the end user, you, want to continue their travelling experience.

It's interesting that even though iNZ has scraped First class, they still ended up with a three class configuration consisting of the new economy Sky Couch (cuddle class), Premium economy and a Business class that is all you would ever need on a long haul. The Sky Couch and Premium economy innovations (pictured below) will revolutionise future thinking in cabin design and I don’t think iNZ are finished yet. Along with the on board concierge service and great produce cooked to your liking, there are so many innovations that every nook and cranny (technical talk) is filled with new discoveries.

Rob Fyfe is surely channeling his inner Steve Jobs all the while having the most fun of any airline CEO in the industry.

Richard is surely looking over his shoulder.

P.S. Rob I wouldn’t totally discount the bunk bed idea.

$1 an hour.

I was 14 years old, nearly 6 feet and close to 12 stone (stay with me its pre metric), so passing for 15 years and getting an after school job was easy. So easy in fact that the pub was no longer fascinating by the time I was 18, anyway I digress. My first pay packet (with real money in it) of close to $8.50 for a Thursday night and Saturday morning at Woolies packing and carrying groceries was just the start, to what I thought would be untold riches including yachts and round the world air travel. Well aside from the yachts I did end up with the air travel.

I was satisfied with that pay packet but as I acquired more skills, including how to operate the cardboard crusher, where to stack the bananas so they wouldn’t spoil early and how to slice open a box of beans for stacking on the shelves, it became apparent to me, I was worth more money, lots more money. Interestingly management didn’t share that view and this became one of my earliest business lessons.

So my question is around worth and your view of worth in the work place. What are you worth? What is your job worth? More importantly how can you get the two aligned??

Used to be, you had to know a lot to be worth a lot, but Google took care of that and with it the so called expert. Of course there is no short cut to earning an MBA in financial disaster but somewhere along the line Google will find a way to make even that, obsolete. So if we have Google to collect our knowledge we’ll need to get better at other things to show our worth so that electronic transfer of funds continues into our bank accounts.

I always think people who earn the money that gets you into trouble, should speak only pearls of wisdom every time they open their mouths. Of course that doesn’t happen and we shouldn’t be surprised that they in fact often know less than the workers on the floor. So we see that disconnect with senior management and wonder how they did that and why aren’t you running that company?

Your worth is wrapped up in many layers and contains more than just the work environment. The standing you have within your family, your friends and how they relate to you and the satisfaction of a job well done, all contribute to that self worth. There are so many things the dollar cannot buy you, yet it keeps raising its head tantalising you with dreams of sugar plum fairies on yachts. There are so many reasons lotteries will never go out of style.

So can you believe in self worth while still chasing that dollar? If you keep it in check and use it to motivate and aspire to greater things, all the while trying to make a difference, the dollar will align itself to your level of worth. Make a difference with your business relationships and you will discover other areas of satisfaction that no dollar can buy.

Your relationship portfolio is not something that can be bought or traded up for an extra dollar but brings with it a most important aspect of self worth, that of belonging and being able to influence thinking. Something that the top dogs at the root of the GFC were missing as they chased the dollar.

I figured this out when after many grueling hours of training in the liquor department along with doing lots of favours, I was finally allowed to carry out the slabs of beer to waiting customers over the long hot summer, all the while being the coolest kid in the fridge working for a $1 an hour.

Exclusive Club.

I recently caught up with a longtime colleague to discuss the structure of our 2011 supplier contract. Nothing unusual in that, aside from Jenny (her real name) and I having known each other for nearly 30 years. Across a range of occupations for both of us and many different business scenarios we figured out early, that it would be fun and successful to continue the business relationship no matter where we worked. A lot of this had to do with respect, integrity and a transparency of thinking that allows us to be honest with ourselves before we discuss any business.

So I ask you, how many people do you know in your business life, that have remained a constant over the longest period ?

I was always a believer in people before product and brand. This has stood me in great stead, and surrounded me, with a network of people bound by trust that has lasted my whole business life. Products and brands will come and go in profile and profitability but the people you can trust with your reputation and credibility are few and far between.

Jenny and I are a good example, as we have both worked for companies that either don’t exist anymore or are no longer trading in Australia but that never stood in the way of a continuing business relationship. Working in an industry with a perceived transcience it is too easy to cut ties, especially if people end up in opposition camps. It takes work to keep the ties close and the the rewards speak for themselves.

So the great long term business relationships aren’t there just to be tolerated and used when appropriate, like some members of your family. I’m sure your Uncle Charlie comes to mind with his insistence to play Stairway to Heaven on the accordion at every family gathering.

These relationships form the cornerstone of good business, are to be cherished and held in the highest esteem, going beyond being Uncle Charlies. We spend an inordinate amount of time at the workplace, so it behooves us to work with like minded people of integrity to make it worthwhile on a business and personal level every day.

Again I say, you can always earn another dollar but you can’t get back the last ten minutes, so spend it with the right people. Thirty years seems a long time but who’s to say the next person you meet won’t join that exclusive club, starting today.

I recently formed a great business relationship via a professional online network ( who knew !). I can see it will grow to be long term and both of us will enjoy the benefits regardless of where we work or what business we end up in.

Be open to ideas and people, work at the relationship and you might be surprised what you get in return.

Blur.

A recent study of information technology workers (Melissa Grigg University of Sydney) showed that sending work emails first thing in the morning or last thing at night was no longer considered work. Huh? We talk about lines being blurred but I’m not sure there are any lines left to blur. When was the last time you said no, to doing something outside of work hours?

Okay, what are work hours?

Factory workers and production line staff clock on and off and are paid accordingly on an hourly basis. So there is still a 9 to 5 mentality of sorts. The big question of course, is when was the last time you or anyone you know worked to rule, i.e. clocking on and off? My wage receipt says I work a specific number of hours per week and has done across all the positions I’ve held, yet I can’t ever remember sticking to those parameters. Why not?

Is it my work ethic born of that pragmatic German ethos of getting the job done? Is it living up to the expectations of management and the higher service levels that can only be achieved with extra hours? Is it the peer group expectation that you won’t let he team down? Is it the use of technology and the ease of working remote, so work no longer has the walls and desks to tie you down to specific hours? Is it sometimes feeling like a department of one and really needing 27 hours in the day to successfully do your job?

I think all of the above, plus more, and with that comes a notion to renegotiate what your work hours entail. After all 24 hours is not a lot of time when you throw in 8 hours sleep, leaving you with little time to spend outside of work for the important things in life.

This can become extreme and a friend of mine who works very late every day but spends all the work hours socialising, lunching and thus catching up at night is not where we want to head. So those extra hours you work daily could be a bargaining chip. Is it time to do a negotiation course with Scotwork?

So you do the work but what would you to get back for spending all that extra time?

What about some days off for the weekends worked? An oldie but something that never seems to happen. A real lunchtime and not just crumbs on your computer keyboard. A red Ferrari. Flowers and gifts for that extra effort, without the finance department giving you the FBT grill. Do florists still have corporate accounts? A red Ferrari. Some serious one on one time with the boss to speak your mind without repercussions. A red Ferrari. A new computer monitor bigger than the 1997 version of large screen. A red Ferrari. Recognition in front of your peers. A red Ferrari. The list goes on and it’s up to your management to work with you on how you structure some kind of payback (I just got a flashback to growing up in the ‘Gong and talking unions) for the EXTRA you give.

I think it’s an easy solution as long as you agree the most precious commodity in your life is time.

How many of those emails couldn’t wait for the next day? Were you good at your job before emails? Did you succeed in business before emails? Did people think less of you for not returning a call until the next day?

You can always earn another dollar, but can you get the last ten minutes back?

So what are you going to ask for?

You already know the answer?

Best Manager ?

How often do you ask yourself about the best manager or leader you’ve ever worked for or with? I was asked recently and I named a few people but I think I may have answered too quickly for it requires more thought about how long and who I have worked with over my life.

The initial answers came easy because I hadn’t had many jobs and names like Garry Muirhead (my first business partner who introduced me to this industry and taught me a lot), Sharyn Schick (the first person I worked for in 20 years and who turned out to be a guiding influence for my future thinking), Leith Mills (always mentoring) and finally to people like Janette Davie who motivates me in the best possible ways.

Yet my thinking should have more structure and consider strategy, KPIs, reporting, innovation, relationship skills, SLAs, salesmanship and integrity and credibility. All the things considered important in today’s business environment from a leadership, management level

So who was the best manager, leader I ever worked with?

It was someone who was expert in dealing with remote staff on a daily basis so that I was always set up properly to handle whatever the day threw at me. Someone who made sure my reputation and credibility remained intact while keeping up my training for interpersonal relationships. Who made sure that I adhered to my KPIs and that the SLAs I had agreed to, became the benchmark for others in my group. Someone who encouraged innovation and the ability to fail without consequence, all the while working within a flat reporting structure that engendered trust.

My SLAs were centred around cleanliness, that included teeth and behind the ears, on time arrivals, in bed before 11 and no drugs. The KPIs were just as stringent and test scores, homework, along with sporting achievements and parent teacher nights, made sure I was working to maximum efficiency. Innovation included things like a flannel poncho made from my bedspread to take part in the school Christmas play when someone got sick four hours before the curtain rose and I was the next alternate shepherd.

Relationship skills were honed daily and I was always armed with the right tools (a lunch consisting of Bavarian ham with smoked Gouda on thick Rye with a pickle) to negotiate and trade my way past the tomatoe and devon on white bread brigade, looking to upset the status quo. Reputations made on the sporting fields were honed and practiced and then leveraged for maximum effect at school dances.

As long as I was able to sustain the above I was allowed to push the envelope and even fail on occasions, as long as I learnt from those mistakes. A rare call to the kitchen table for explanations on strategy and aspirations usually led to a full on mentoring session.

So in the end it was an easy choice for the best manager, leader I have ever worked with.

Thanks Mum.

Insurance.

When I was younger and someone besmirched your honest name, you went out the back and had a punch up. In those days, this was known as first call resolution. If you were lucky enough to keep all your teeth in the resolution discussion about your reputation management, you could continue to drink your beer uninterrupted knowing your good name was safe once more.

And you all thought I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. And no they didn’t say besmirched either.

Fast forward to now and it becomes difficult for individuals and companies to take everyone out the back and work on that first call resolution if they have been attacked, especially in the new world of social media. It has gone from singular combatant to thousands, to tens of thousands and no one is in that good a shape.

So when companies talk about reputation management and brand integrity being paramount to their continuing success and how difficult it is to keep the barbarians from the gate, they often refer to the inherent dangers of dealing with axe grinding social media individuals? The net has become a powerful arbiter of taste, opinions, thoughts and communication channels with dire consequences for negative feedback.

There are a number of ways to combat the negative attacks and the easiest is not to get involved. That works well for Jerry the corner barber with one chair, no waiting. It doesn’t suit the rest of the corporate community who work hard at keeping their integrity and credibility in tact while trying to maintain a moral high ground under attack from the denizens of the net. Pulitzer stuff right?

So who should ride in wearing the white hat but the insurance companies? Companies such as AON have indicated they are putting together brand damage and reputation related risk policies for social media mishaps.

If only they had been around in my pub days. I could have just exchanged insurance details and avoided the bruises and broken teeth.

So how do they measure the intangibles of integrity, reputation, credibility and ethical standing? With difficulty I assume and with difficulty no doubt, come high policy fees.

Is IBM’s reputation worth more than Coca Cola’s? Is the integrity of the Cancer Council worth more than the Fred Hollows Foundation? What about an individual’s credibility? Mother Teresa Vs Barack Obama.

It’s difficult to see how the insurance companies can come up with solutions to keep everyone happy. Interest will be high amongst the leading practitioners of the social media landscape and I’m sure Facebook, Google and the like will require a lot of input. The obvious question is how do you get rid of the damage once it is on the net? The net never forgets.

Thinking back to those halcyon days at the pub, we did at least resolve the issues so that everyone, no matter how battered and bruised could move on with their lives.

I’m off to the pub, anyone know a good insurance company?

Small i.

A recent purchase of an Apple shuffle gave me a good insight into what Apple does well, besides cool technology.

My first impression as I walk into the Apple istore is always, why are these people doing their emails on the laptops spread across half a dozen tables? Surely everyone has a PC nowadays or certainly access to a local internet café. Still they come to play on the machines. Smart really, if all this random use doesn’t break them, then they pass another test.

So I float up the funky plastic staircase to another row of tables lined with more technology than NASA would have required, putting a man on the moon. It’s funky, it’s nerdy, it’s engrossing, engaging and most of all it’s cool, because Steve Jobs says so. Who wouldn’t believe a man who has changed our technology habits and behaviours so dramatically?

So here it gets interesting, as I decide to make a purchase. I catch the i (get it) of the nearest iperson who hang around in iposses or igangs. These ipeople are proud to be nerds (nirds) because they have the power. They speak magical language and carry Star Trek hand phazers that do everything an old cash register used to and more.

My iperson rushes off to get my shuffle while I wait amongst the worshippers of cool. A quick flick of my credit card and I’m ready to walk out with my purchase but not before he types in my email details to send me a receipt online, because he can and I asked for it, because that’s really cool technology. Why wouldn’t you want to work here with all that power at your fingertips?

The price of Apple products has a parity across many resellers so I could just as easily buy my shuffle down the road at the local Harvey Norman but it’s so much cooler and more fun to buy it direct from the istore and chat with the ipeople. Almost sounds cultish.

Yet the fact remains they have hit on a winning service mentality across their staff, who no doubt brag at dinner parties about where they work.

Looks easy enough and technology is certainly not the exclusive property of Apple, so why aren’t more companies playing in that great service, I want to walk into that store and talk with the staff field?

Couldn’t you be that itravel person? Couldn’t you make the experience of buying travel so easy and so cool that you become the itravelshop? What’s it going to take? You have the technology to make it easy and you can certainly use hundreds of new applications to bring an element of cool into the equation.

You just need to become isavvy and use your itelligence and ixperience (it just goes on and on). The more interesting and engaging you make your services, the more likely you are to attract that next generation of travelers.

I typed this on my iPhone, cool huh?

Who are you?

With deference to Pete Townsend and the Who, have you asked yourself recently, who am I ?

An interesting question, especially when I look at it from a brand perspective.

Why brand you ask ?

Because whether you like it or not, you are your own brand and it probably needs some polishing up !

Your brand is not just your outside look (logo) or your favourite lines (snappy slogan or tag line). It’s the tangible and intangible assets that others attribute to you. Your brand is their perception of you and the sum of all your experiences.

As a brand you need to ask yourself some hard questions, “ Am I valueable to my customers ? “ , “ Can I measure my value ? “ , “ Do I have brand loyalty ? “ “ How do I compete with other brands ? “.

To truly excel as a brand, what do you need to have ?

You need a clear vison or a clarity of purpose and there should be no confusion about what you do, where you work and what you can accomplish. You need to be strong on what you stand for and even consider your own personal tag line (no you don’t have to wear it on a sandwich board). One of my favourites has always been, “ If not me, then who ? If not now, then when ? “. Do you have a personal tagline/personal byline or should you be looking for one that best encapsulates your personality ?

All of this is not easy to accomplish, especially depending on where you work but the clarity of your purpose must shine through. You can rise above your environment and be seen as clear of purpose as long as you remain consistant and your client expectations are delivered and exceeded.

You will need a message but what kind of content are we talking about ? When conveyed correctly, your content provided at the right moment and when done right, conveys your emotional, physical and visual perspective to whatever situation or issue you are tackling. Is your message calm and calculated or chaotic and frenzied or even intuitive and emotional ? The right attitude (no not ‘tude !) is constantly seen as a backbone of brand integrity and how you are seen by others in company . People will come to see you over time as someone to be recognised if your consistancy of message is able to resolve and tackle their questions and issues.

People will ask for your opinion if they understand where you are coming from and what you stand for. This is always a good indicator of consistancy in message, the fact that people look to you, for guidance and resolution. You are your message, so you better get it right because there are a lot of confusing people out there talking to your clients and unless you can rescue them from that chaos with your message, you’ll lose them forever. Brand loyalty will see your clients constant commitment to you, established via your strong working relationship and consistant message.

You need to make good on your brand promise and for this there is only one constant, backup it up. Over promising and under delivering will quickly tarnish your brand image and make it difficult to having long term success.

Finally you need to be consistant over time. How long ? Forever . You need to retain your core strengths and never allow your brand integrity and quality to suffer. To this point you must have the strenght to stay true to yourself and not become generic in your responses or resolutions. Clients will want to see you in particular arenas of endeavour, localised to their work environment. They don’t want to see you associated with issues they see as counterproductive to your relationship with them
(yes you need to stay out of the strip clubs). You need to have many touchpoints (how many ways can you be contacted ?) for your clients and each needs to show the consistancy of your vison, message and promise.

With all of the above covered, are you able to command a premium in your marketplace ? If you have a proven track record of accomplishments backed by your personal brand integrity your value within your workplace community is assured.

Vroom. Vroom.

I just recently bought a new car. An experience I wasn’t totally looking forward to. Jokes aside, regarding the reluctance to let the moths free from my wallet, it was more about having a good time shopping and staying in control. Like everyone, I enjoying spending money on items that bring me joy and no, I’m not married to my high definition LCD with the Foxtel sports package. It just seems that way.

Car buying is a different endeavour altogether and requires more thought than those impulse buys we talk about over dinner, or is that just my wife talking about shoes? For starters the landscape is littered with options once you have decided on a budget and then there is the final change over number to be satisfied with. As stated previously, I’m always looking to be surprised by remarkable and that extra effort required making me feel comfortable, important and relaxed when making big dollar decisions.

So off we go in Boris the Bora (a good name, you’ll agree for a VW) to check out the 3 marques we had decided on.

I was determined to buy a car before the weekend was over, so I was interested in the radar of the sales people we would encounter. It would be a new car so I was at least avoiding the all consuming, totally harassing and never letting me out of his sight, used car salesman. Phew!

The first dealership let me drive off in a number of cars and I was happily discounting models without so much as a tweet from the sales staff about quality, lifestyle and how good I’d look in one of their cars. Their radar wasn’t even turned on.

The next stop was the best stop of the weekend. It’s always fun to encounter youth, nervous energy and a wanting to please attitude wrapped around a great product. Young Ben (yes his real name) had it figured out and knew he was working at the right place, selling the right product to the right people. Yet with all that behind him, he took nothing for granted and went out of his way to make us feel in control and comfortable with our decision. Interesting how much better we react in stressful situations (spending large is stressful) when respect and control are given and not taken.

In today’s competitive environment, it’s difficult to pick and chose who will buy your product. Everyone is looking all the time, sometimes they just need to be reminded of that and a good relationship, sometimes longterm, allows you to ask the difficult questions. That’s hard work and requires more commitment than most want to sign up for. Ben had signed up early.

Suffice to say the last stop suffered under the expectations already exceeded at the previous stop. So much so, that even though the deal was likely to be better for my moth eaten wallet, I was already sold on Ben.

Of course I took another drive the following day, just to satisfy my tough (stop laughing) executive, never let anyone under your guard, nothing surprises me exterior. It was too late, the decision had been made.

We all know the rarity of a remarkable service experience as the world we live in becomes a commoditised, middle of the road, vanilla. How much fun was it, to find a rocky road, sprinkled with your favourite topping, suits me down to the ground service experience?

Now I can get home even faster to that high definition LCD with the Foxtel sports package.

Thanks Ben.