Trip to London, etc
1. Last weekend, I got carded trying to enter a fetish store in London. They told me I needed to be 18 to get in. The guy still looked somewhat dubious after I showed him my ID, but he let me in anyway. Everybody else in the store was just fabulous, though. A lady called Anna helped me find the perfect outfit for that night's party, this cute blond boy nicknamed me "kilt man," and the person behind the register was from Barcelona, spoke to me in Spanish, and offered to make a me a photocopy of my ID so I wouldn't have to carry the original with me that evening, although Anna said if they carded me she'd be there working door and happy to vouch for me.
2a. I stayed at a backpacker place. It makes me upset that cheap digs rely on passing privilege, and young trannies face yet another obstacle when traveling. On the other hand, I hope to be able to afford more comfortable accommodation in the future. I am not a fan of shared bathrooms, and my dorm bed sagged so badly that my back was in excruciating pain my entire visit.
2b. Though the bunk beds do make for entertaining prison fantasies. The bathrooms would too, if only they were cleaner.
3. London queers are hot. I might just die from the overload of cute. Plus, they're really nice to me!
4a. You know that old sign outside McDonalds proclaiming "1 billion customers served"? Well, according to a recent article I read for class, business now have more sophisticated metrics for looking at their customers. Going beyond market share or volume sold, one more long-term approach looks at depth of association. A bank, for example, might want to start working on getting more customers using more and more of its services -- in monetary terms, one customer who uses home equity, money market, checking, online banking and direct debit might be worth more than seven customers who only have basic checking accounts. This is partly because the more entrenched a customer is in your products, the harder it is to switch to another.
4b. Another measure that's being used is customer loyalty. If I were Apple, I could probably spend more money retaining a customer than, say, Microsoft. That's because most Apple customers are so loyal that they actually go out there and pimp Apple products. Customers like that are the best sales force a company could have. On the flip side, it's worth spending a fair amount of money to ensure that your company doesn't end up with customers who are so pissed off that they will go around telling everyone that your product sucks, and convincing their friends to run to your competitors instead.
4c. As an individual, particularly in competitive environments, I used to think it was about winning through market share -- getting the most votes from the judges, from the selection committee, from the admissions panel, whatever it is. But I have had occasion to find myself in situations where I've only managed to strike a chord with one or two people, but they were (4a) so deeply invested in me that (4b) they would go to bat for my case. Sometimes that sort of Apple victory is so much sweeter than the Microsoft equivalent.
4d. A heartwarming illustration of the above:
4e. Speaking of such people in my life, guess where I'm going this weekend? *tossing mapleleaf-shaped confetti in the air*
2a. I stayed at a backpacker place. It makes me upset that cheap digs rely on passing privilege, and young trannies face yet another obstacle when traveling. On the other hand, I hope to be able to afford more comfortable accommodation in the future. I am not a fan of shared bathrooms, and my dorm bed sagged so badly that my back was in excruciating pain my entire visit.
2b. Though the bunk beds do make for entertaining prison fantasies. The bathrooms would too, if only they were cleaner.
3. London queers are hot. I might just die from the overload of cute. Plus, they're really nice to me!
4a. You know that old sign outside McDonalds proclaiming "1 billion customers served"? Well, according to a recent article I read for class, business now have more sophisticated metrics for looking at their customers. Going beyond market share or volume sold, one more long-term approach looks at depth of association. A bank, for example, might want to start working on getting more customers using more and more of its services -- in monetary terms, one customer who uses home equity, money market, checking, online banking and direct debit might be worth more than seven customers who only have basic checking accounts. This is partly because the more entrenched a customer is in your products, the harder it is to switch to another.
4b. Another measure that's being used is customer loyalty. If I were Apple, I could probably spend more money retaining a customer than, say, Microsoft. That's because most Apple customers are so loyal that they actually go out there and pimp Apple products. Customers like that are the best sales force a company could have. On the flip side, it's worth spending a fair amount of money to ensure that your company doesn't end up with customers who are so pissed off that they will go around telling everyone that your product sucks, and convincing their friends to run to your competitors instead.
4c. As an individual, particularly in competitive environments, I used to think it was about winning through market share -- getting the most votes from the judges, from the selection committee, from the admissions panel, whatever it is. But I have had occasion to find myself in situations where I've only managed to strike a chord with one or two people, but they were (4a) so deeply invested in me that (4b) they would go to bat for my case. Sometimes that sort of Apple victory is so much sweeter than the Microsoft equivalent.
4d. A heartwarming illustration of the above:
Click to view4e. Speaking of such people in my life, guess where I'm going this weekend? *tossing mapleleaf-shaped confetti in the air*