NeilMattingley.com

I listened to a speech last night. It was for a competition conducted by Toastmasters, the international organisation set-up to promote public speaking in the community . It was a good speech. The speaker was clearly passionate about the topic (he’d just written a thesis about it)… He was extremely knowledgeable about the topic… And [...]

We had an interesting discussion in our office meeting the other day. It was about the standards of service we expected of ourselves when dealing with customers. We had the usual stuff. How many times should a phone be allowed to ring? Stuff about taking on board the client problem. The importance of using names. [...]

The other day, I was driving with my two kids, aged 4 and 6, when we stopped at the traffic lights. Because they know I’ve been involved in the real estate industry, they often take an interest in “For Sale” signs. 4-year-old: “Daddy, are they selling their house?” Daddy: “Yes.” 4-year-old: “Why don’t they have [...]

In a recent conversation with a friend of mine, the topic of marketing came up. Like a lot of people, Adam equated the word “Marketing” with “Advertising”. As I explained to him, I think it’s a much broader term than that. And then I started to write… 1. Marketing is advertising. 2. Marketing is customer [...]

Once upon a time I bought a book at Borders Bookshop. The girl behind the counter asked me if I would like to be on their e-mail “Shortlist”…an initiative where Borders email me information about their upcoming specials and latest releases. I received an email from Borders today. The header was for “20% off 1 [...]

I went “Wow” today – several times. The people in the office did too. We were having our first look at Google Street View. If Google’s intention was to do something remarkable – they achieved it. I think the main reason that we were all “blown away” by what we were seeing was our appreciation [...]

Remember the 1998 film with Gwyneth Paltrow where they examine the whole idea of how single events can determine what happens thereafter? In Gwyneth’s case, they compare two different storylines; one where she catches her train to work on time, and one where the sliding doors close and the train pulls away. As a consequence, [...]