I had a table pulling in data from different places in Excel, basically feeding into a chart that would be used on a dashboard.

In order to stop people fooling with the formulae, I added a row where they could enter a Y if they wanted a given day to show in the graph. The formula I used was something similar to this:

This basically created an empty string every time a date was not required, like this:

Great, I thought, until I ran the graph. Excel read my empty strings (represented in the formula by the empty speech marks) as zeros, making it look like we were expecting a massive drop off..

After wracking my brain for an answer I came across the solution. The answer is to tell the formula to show an error instead of a blank cell. The updated formula for this is:

The table doesn’t look quite as nice, but it is still just as obvious which days have data populated, and which do not.. BUT the great thing is that my graph does exactly what I want it to: I get my line where I need it to be and don’t have to worry about my formula being messed with..

If you’re anything like me you deal with an IVR system most days. IVR, or Interactive Voice Response, technology is that oft annoying computer that answers your call when you want to speak to someone at the Bank / utility company / company x.

Now, professionally I have had experience putting together the options people can choose, making sure that callers are directed to the appropriate people and the relevant actions are taken. Outside of work, I have clearly used a plethora of these systems in my day to day life.

In all that experience, though, I never really stopped to think about the thoughts around the delicate little areas that were outside of my own little bubble. I’m going to think about it now, though.

To talk or not to talk

Do we make our customers use their touch tone phone to elect an option, or do we make them speak their choice? Interesting question, this, because, believe it or not, both have advantages.

Speaking means that the handset doesn’t need to move up and down from earshot to eyeshot every time a user makes a choice, and also adds a degree of intimacy in the faked conversation world of the IVR. If you have a strange accent (Birmingham, for example), then you’re pretty much screwed because if people can’t understand you, why would a computer?! When machines get it wrong repeatedly, users become very frustrated.

Touch tone means you can do away with the potential for error there. The problem here is that you are limited to 10 options at a time (the numbers 0 to 9 on the keypad), meaning that poorly designed IVR systems (like BT’s) can take an age to navigate.

Even though I’m not a massive fan of Egg, their IVR system is pretty good. Give it a call and have a listen: 08451 233 233. The style is very, very conversational and the options are few and simple. Say nothing and you will be put through to a real person relatively quickly, too.

Here [s]he is..

If you decided to call Egg and have a go at the speech recognition software they use, did you notice that the voice you were presented with was that of a bloke and not a laydee?

The decision to have either a male or a female voice on the line is an interesting one, as is the style that voice uses once you have chosen it.

ChildLine, for example, would be no good if an upset 10 year old called in and Brian Blessed boomed down the phone. “HELLO CHILD! I AM TRANSFERING YOUR CALL!”

If you have ever called the debt collection wing of your bank or a company you deal with, the voice you get on the phone can tell you a lot about their outlook as far as dealing with your debt is concerned. Well spoken male? We mean business. Softly spoken woman? We’re here to help. You can probably take the piss with the latter, and do business with the former.

Thinking about it

Having thought about it I tend to think practically about what the company is trying to tell me with the voice it chooses to represent its contact centre(s). It is naive to presume that there is no motive in choosing one voice and style over another, so next time you’re on the phone have a think about what they’re trying to tell you / sell to you

A few months ago non-geographic telephone numbers stopped being included in my allowance on my mobile. They started to be charged at a standard rate.

I took to using saynoto0870 where I could, but there were still a good few numbers I still had to use.

My bill each month was coming to between £100 and £150 a time, which was shocking. Last month I got a landline extension at work, so resolved to using only that for these calls. The result is that my bill this month is £30.

Now, O2, wouldn’t you rather I make those calls on your network so that you can have the revenue? I’d happily pay £5 for a bolt on that makes 0870 numbers part of my inclusive allowance.

Please think about it. Please.

PS: Also, please could you get rid of those annoying pop-up messages on your website that I get when using Camino? My browser is not out of date, thanks. I don’t want to upgrade it. Your site works perfectly fine in it.

You probably know this already. I didn’t, so I’m sharing. If you don’t use Excel, or don’t care, just click on by.

This week I was given an Excel workbook that was basically a list. The request: Format the entire row based on a condition in one cell. I knew it was a conditional formating thing, but the ‘entire row’ bit got me.

The Solution

Get your list and highlight the area that you need to format. Here I’ve thrown together a random list of finance stuff. Obviously, iTunes made it in there.

Next head over to Conditional Formating in the Tools menu. Usually I’d use the ‘Cell Value Is’ to set a condition, but to highlight entire rows you need to change that to ‘Formula Is’.

The syntax for your formula is easy: =[cell][condition]

For the cell value, ensure that you make the column explicit (add a dollar sign before the letter). This will make sure that Excel evaluates the condition in that column alone.

In this example, I want to make rows with negative entries red. My condition is:

Hit OK and rows are formated according to the formula you entered. Da daa!

I just read this post on Mac OS Hints about getting the keyboard on the iPhone to show a .co.uk button (or .de etc).

I tried it out and it didn’t work for me. To get it to show .co.uk I had to go into Settings > General > International > Keyboards and then activate the English (UK) keyboard.

Incidentally, why isn’t the American version of the keyboard called English (US)?

Now, when in mobile Safari, I am able to hold my finger on the .com button, and it offers up the .co.uk domain ending. Just rinse and repeat for .de, .fr etc

Dear god, no. Please leave it alone!

Mike has been around for a while, but has yet to be introduced.

Boys and girls, this is Mike (looking after the onion).

Taking a leaf from Sam’s book (here,here and here), I have decided to talk about a company that has displeased me, and another that has put a smile on my face.

BTW.. I’m not getting paid for this, but if you work for O2 and are reading this, please feel free to knock some dinero off my line rental

O2: I got my bill today. It was huge. I looked at my bill and there were loads of bolt-ons set up on my account, hence some of the extra cost. So I called Customer Services.

A pleasant gentleman had checked the issue, corrected it, and raised a credit to my account for the error within the space of 5 minutes. He even added a £10 credit on top of what I was owed as a good will gesture. What I did to deserve this treatment, I don’t know, but I was very pleased.

He then went on to remark that my bills had been quite high over the past few months. This is true. O2 are sucking cash out of my bank account as quick as I can put it in. After a quick muddle through my bill, he let me know that the reason for this was that I call a lot of 0845/0870 numbers (business calls probably). I thanked him for the heads-up and then went merrily on my way.

THE GOOD BIT was that within an hour he emailed me to say that following on from my call he had made a suggestion for an ‘0845/0870 Bolt On’ through an employee suggestion scheme.

Even if nothing comes of it, that is great service.

PIPEX / WEBFUSION: I’ll keep this short and sweet. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all (or at least make it quick and vitriolic).

- NEVER reply to my emails
- NEVER open when I am not working
- DIDN’T action my hosting cancellation until I chased it a fortnight later
- BILLED me anyway, even though I’m no longer using their service

Needless to say I have complained to their billing department. No reply to email / any acknowledgement at all.

In all fairness, Webfusion hosting is good if you don’t have a problem. As soon as you do, you’re boned.

Just a quick thought on good ideas gone bad, I guess.

First, read this article from the BBC News website. Its about a council hotline for Manchester residents to let the council know how they think their budget should be spent.

Not a bad idea on the face of it. I’d probably have a few ideas for them. If anyone from the council is reading this, feel free to give me a call to discuss. The problem here is that the idea wasn’t well realised, and as a result the month-long consultation only received 1 telephone call and a handful of written correspondence.

Ooops.

The word never got out there. People didn’t know about this scheme, and those that did were in areas with typically low engagement in [local] government politics. The first I heard of it was a front page article in the Manchester Evening News about its monumental failure.

I agree with Councillor Priest that the consultation was an important one. It clearly was. How often do you get to have a say on things like this? What I’m disappointed in is that the council thought that community centres and the oft recycled council newspaper were the best vehicles for delivering this message. The newspaper has no credibility, and so I don’t read it (if I get it at all). I dare say others think the same thing.

This is an exciting event in participation in how our city is run, and it should have been a high visibility campaign. For the price of a leaflet drop in community centres the council could easily have reached out to a wider audience in a thought provoking way.