SAST Wingees

Southwest gets Customer Service !!!

I was in Seattle SEA-TAC airport last friday trying to get back home. It was a mess there because the airport was locked down due to some security issue.

The whole terminal was full of people and nobody knew what was going on. There were long & long lines to get to the gates and nobody knew which lines were for which gates.

Well, in the middle of all this I could see some Southwest Airlines agents walking around and calming the passengers “There is a security issue, we are holding all our planes till everyone is on board. I know we-Southwest is doing it, but no idea what the other carriers are doing, hopefully they will do the same”.

Now, that’s what I call true customer service. Kudos, Southwest and the Seattle team !!!!

To all the other ‘big’ carriers : You can reduce your distribution costs, promote your own channels, cry to the government for bail-outs, increase price citing higher oil prices and do whatever; But please remember to take care of your customer first, & only then you can be profitable.

Now, I know which airlines to book the next time I am flying.

Searching around, I did find a blog to the difference in culture/people of Southwest. Good one Agile.

The cab driver in Seattle was saying Southwest wants to move out of SEA-TAC into the Boeing airfield. Looks like there is some arguments going on back and forth. I am for it especially if it is for the customer.

RIM Blackberry has an uphill battle ahead

I have been using RIM’s Blackberry for a couple of years now and I can’t imagine how I survived without it. It has been a tremendous productivity booster.  As a customer-facing professional, I am able to be very responsive since I can respond from wherever I am, without having to worry about booting my laptop and looking for internet access. It has indeed changed my life. Unfortunately, beloved RIM is facing some unprecedented challenges. Alex Frankel has published a well-researched article (via Slashdot) in the July 2005 issue of Technology Review chronicling the rise of RIM and how it has managed to survive and grow rapidly.   Alex only briefly touches upon the challenge from Microsoft and does not cover it in great detail. In the company I work for, lot of my colleagues have bought Treos and other smartphones, but since we run Blackberry Server software on the backend,  these  colleagues are not able to use their devices for corporate email as they are not supported.  Given that Blackberry Server software is installed in 42,000 corporations worldwide, it makes for a formidable entry barrier. Enter Microsoft Exhange Server 2003 version which has built-in-for-free Activesync functionality ( that has features similar to Blackberry Server software). To understand Microsoft’s strategy read Engadget’s Peter Rojas and The Register  commenting on this topic. Microsoft Exchange Server is the dominant corporate email platform per many analysts (read this Forbes article covering this topic) and so all the corporations get Blackberry like functionality without having to pay for the Blackberry server software and at the sametime allow many types of devices to handle corporate email.  Both Palmone and Symbian  have licensed Microsoft’s Active Sync protocol that allows this communication to happen and of course, Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile operating system supports Active Sync. That pretty much sews up the entire smartphone market as Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile are the top 3 operating systems in the smartphone world. Therefore this move from Microsoft threatens RIM from both ends – its vaunted DMZ strategy on the server side and its devices strategy on the client side. There is also a third angle to this –  RIM charges a hefty monthly fee ($30-40/month)  for its service which could become uncompetitive with the cellphone service providers data access plans costing half that much ($15-20/month).  So this is a triple-whammy for RIM that strikes at its core business model. Ironically, its the tight integration with Microsoft Exchange that enabled Blackberry’s rapid adoption. It was only later that RIM started supporting Lotus Notes. There are still a few more advantages  that RIM has such as the fact that it offers the entire end-to-end integrated secure service using its own data centers. But the fact is, IT departments of large corporations have been running secure back end environments  supporting cell phones, modem pools, internet access etc. for a long time, so its a matter of time before they master how to run this Microsoft Exchange server add-on quickly. In fact, my company is installing this version over the summer. So I will be able to observe first hand, how it is able to handle the various devices that come in to the network. This will be one interesting battle to keep track of.

Vatan NYC – Gujarathi Restaurant – Does not live up to the hype

Yesteday, we had taken one of our friends  who wanted to eat good Indian food to Vatan, the much talked about Gujarathi restaurant in NYC.  I had been trying to get a reservation to this restaurant for a few weeks now and I managed to get one for yesterday. It is an all-you-can-eat style restaurant, so you don’t have to figure out what to order which is a nice touch. The decor is very nicely done and you actually sit cross-legged on the raised platform as opposed to a chair – another authentic touch. But the authenticity ends with the decor.  When you go to a restaurant billed as Gujarati cuisine, you expect ethnic Gujarati dishes like Undhio, Khandvi, Rotla, Tepla etc. None of these were served. Instead we got samosas and pakoras for appetizers, puri for the main course. I am sure these dishes are served in Gujarat, but would not be considered traditional Gujarati fare. Food did not taste all that great as well. If you want to eat real Gujarti stuff, head over to Jhupdi in Edison, NJ. They have a much more authentic Gujarati menu without any of the pretentiousness of Vatan.

Way too cool Honda Ad – $6MM + 606 takes + looks impossible

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Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith – Master regains his touch + Engrish humor

Watched the Revenge of the Sith last week. It triggered  glorious memories of Star Wars that I remember watching as a kid. Revenge of the Sith scores in every dimension of movie making – script, direction, cinematography,  special effects. George Lucas has brought back the Star Wars magic after making 2 duds (Episode I and II). The scenes showing the volcanic moon Mustafar are out of the world. On a humorous note, Boing Boing posted a link showing some hilarious subtitles from a bootlegged copy. You gotta hand it to them for coming up with such cool stuff.  Go over to the link and read the subtitles. You are guaranteed to roll over with laughter. For those that are unfamiliar with this Engrish stuff, check out  the venerable Wikipedia. You can be sure that this phenomenon is legit when there is a website called Engrish.com. Check it out, laughter  is guaranteed. Legend has it that this Engrish thingy started from the english found in a game called Zero Wing. Makes for another funny reading.