by Sue Horner | Mar 7, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Here’s another tale from the customer service (or should I say, disservice) files, this one from my internet service provider. I was away for five days, and I mean AWAY — no laptop, tablet, not even a cell phone. My voice mail message was clear that I was out of...
by Sue Horner | Feb 27, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
E-newsletters and blogs have a lot in common, as Nick Usborne describes (in an e-newsletter about writing; subscribe here): 1. Good newsletters and blogs seek to engage your attention at a personal level. 2. Good newsletters and blogs both deliver timely information....
by Sue Horner | Feb 24, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
If you want to read a refreshing perspective on customer service, read “Seven steps to remarkable customer service” by Joel Spolsky, a software developer in New York City. Reading what his company does about customer service made me want to buy the software, and I...
by Sue Horner | Feb 23, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Ragan Communications’ free monthly newsletter, Grapevine (“Tips and tactics from the world of corporate communications”), shares a beef of mine this issue. Among the tips in a story called “What do you want from a Web site?” is avoiding my pet peeve: downloadable...
by Sue Horner | Feb 18, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
My 20-year-old son is home from university for reading week, and I notice that every time he takes the car out, he changes the radio to CD mode. He says it’s because he has no patience for radio. Two reasons: The stations don’t often play what he wants to...
by Sue Horner | Feb 12, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Now here’s a word you don’t run across very often: bedeguar. I had to search many places to find out it means “a gall produced on rosebushes,” gall being a type of fungus. Looking at that definition, you might be surprised to find out the word was not used in a...
by Sue Horner | Feb 8, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Just had to share another book that recently showed up at my local library (I was 29th on the “hold” list!): Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. I had read an excerpt in a magazine and found it hugely funny,...
by Sue Horner | Feb 7, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
An e-mail newsletter to which I subscribe (Writer’s Web Watch, now called Communications Concepts) recently recommended “improving your vocabulary” and using resources such as a thesaurus, grammar book, style guide and dictionary. I do have all these books on a nearby...
by Sue Horner | Feb 5, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
When I run across a book that’s highly recommended, I check if it’s available at my local library and put a hold on it. Quite often I have a number of books lined up, so when the call comes in that my “hold” is in, it’s always a surprise to see what’s waiting for me....
by Sue Horner | Feb 2, 2007 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
The Beach Boys are apparently playing at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto tomorrow night for “the most successful fundraising gala in Canada.” It’s the SuperGala put on by the Grocery Industry Foundation…Together (GIFT), with half of the proceeds going to...
