Customer Service and Humanity

In the past two weeks I flew in out of 14 countries, 16 flights in total considering return flights to Sweden… During this two weeks I observed very different levels of service amongst the various airlines.

The best was with Turkish Airlines, friendly and helpful cabin crew. The worse was with Malaysian Airlines with very rude cabin crew especially the flight from Manila to Kuala Lumpur. The low point was when the crew started telling passengers (actually I was one of them) that the toilets are unavailable due to the Pilot declaring emergency situation. However there was no seat-belt signs turned on and no announcement from the Pilot. In the background the crew were chatting and laughing together every time they command a passenger who want to use the toilet to take a seat. Considering that Malaysia Airlines is in a dire financial situation I can clearly understand why, their service is amongst the worst in the world and to make fun of passengers is such a very low point.

 

If Malaysian airline can not improve their service they will definitely go out of business no matter how much money the government will put in to rescue the airline. I have criticized Turkish Airlines in the past but their service have improved dramatically over the years and is now one of the best airlines in the world. What made the difference is putting a touch of humanity to their service…

When we look at customer service, for example in Telecom, each mobile operator would like to lower the cost but at the same time still deliver a wonderful customer experience. This is being achieved by providing customer are in various channels. One channel in particular is the most effective, directly from a customer’s device… where customer service can be automated and enhance but still maintaining the the human touch. Operators like DiGi and Malaysia and Smartfren in Indonesia are starting to implement this improved customer experience programs and are perfecting their user interfaces to give the most complete automated and humane experience possible.

Improving Farming Efficiency Through Technology to Help Local Communities

I recently came in contact with 2 brilliant gentlemen from Ethiopia who wanted to modernize farming in Ethiopia. Having been involved in the farming business, although considered in the upper 1% of farming categories I fully  understand the challenges most farmers face especially in underdeveloped and developing world where traditional farming have not changed much in a thousand years. Their aim is to revolutionize farming to increase yield using modern methods and employing wireless sensors. The question is will this succeed in remote rural areas in third world countries?

Lets look at the problem. Most farmers:

• Are poor, they hardly make enough of a living

• Employ traditional farming methods developed thousand years ago

• Uneducated and lacks knowledge of modern farming methods and techniques

• Can not afford to use modern farming tools even if they wanted to

• Are in debt and in the risk of losing their farms

For large farms employing machinery dramatically increase productivity since one person can tend a large area in the shortest possible time, hence timing planting and harvesting perfectly. For small scale farmers they would rely on cheap labor and their own hard work to tend the farm which affects productivity. For large farms investing in modern machinery makes a lot of sense. However with our aim to provide jobs we mostly employ a large number of people and a mix of manual labor and machine. Our aim is to employ enough people to alleviate poverty in the community. It is always better to teach someone how to fish instead of giving them a fish.

Determining soil composition, water purity, air quality helps in increasing yield from farmlands. This involved having the right measurement tools to determine which crops to plant at a particular season and what fertilizers to use. The only problem is small scale farmers are not able to afford buying such measurement tools. Perhaps a better solution is to establish a cooperating community of farmers who can share measurement tools and analytic to give everyone a good start.

Then there is constant monitoring to determine if crops required more water, better fertilizers. Having said that all monitoring tools are expensive so only large farms can afford to do so. How can monitoring solutions be shared for it to become cost effective enough for small scale farmers to afford?

At the end of the day farming is a business and businesses need to generate returns of investments. Our approach had been focus on changing the way farms are operated and better land use. For example we convert rice fields to fisheries since the returns are better, although the investment are higher. Utilizing sensors to monitor daily progress is good, however the data is useless without expert analysis and such knowledge is the primary driver to fully modernize farming, make it more efficient and improve returns.

Improving Lives One Message At A Time

All my life I have always strive for making the world a better place through technology, through philanthropy, through sustainable food production… When the world started calling with mobile phones I help improved quality of communications through automated planning. When the world of simple voice call changed to complex data communications I help improve quality of delivered services through secured on-device customer experience. Now in the world of Internet of things and converging media I am finding my calling. No longer as a trailblazer in introducing something new but by innovating on what is already available in front of us.

Being a trailblazer is never easy, in a lot of cases in world of technology the timing might be too early, there are of course early adopters but there are more skeptics. I started and sold/exited my companies, some I keep on growing and investing on specially the ones that directly help people to have better lives. Now I am at a crossroad, do I want to continue being a trailblazer or do I want to innovate? How can I make a better difference in the world, in the life of many? How can I be a better contributor to make this world a better place? How can I be of better service to more people?

Looking at today’s world where communications and information makes the world go round, I am inclined to at this moment to help make this world a better place in my own small way where everyone can communicate and have access to information for free whether they have internet connection or not. Internet.org have taken the the stand for free internet for  everyone, following that why don't we aim for free access to information and  communication? At the end of the day communication is free, nature never intended it to be a money making venture…. So why don't we follow the cues of nature and provide free communication and information to everyone….