Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

On my forays through internetland books earlier, I spotted that the author of the Takeaway Secret, Kenny McGovern, who is somewhere in Scotland, also has an Indian Restaurant book in the same style.

I think he might even have signed up to MSE to join the big thread about his book (I could be wrong about that)... and he has a facebook page. Maybe you could contact him and ask if any of his books have the pakora/onion sauce recipe you like.... if it's such an institution he's bound to have either done it, or got it and not published it yet.

That is worth knowing!

PasturesNew wrote: »

My first thought is adverts. You listen to an advert before the call connects, then at regular intervals during the call (say every 2 minutes). That way people could make quick/free calls about important stuff, but they'd not be tempted to whitter on and on as the adverts would p155 them off.

That's another good answer and that model was used in at least one country where people were offered free calls as long as they didn't mind them being interrupted by adverts. I suppose you could increase the rate of them near the end like the advert breaks in American TV, and that would produce the desired effect.

I think that was considered but it could be used against them in their rivals' adverts for example.

LydiaJ

zagubov wrote: »

That's another good answer and that model was used in at least one country where people were offered free calls as along as they didn't mind them being interrupted by adverts. I suppose you could increase the rate of them near the end like the advert breaks in American TV, and that would produce the desired effect.

I think that was considered but it could be used against them in their rivals' adverts for example.

OK, here's my way of thinking this through. If you do anything to disincentivise long local calls, then you end up disincentivising people to use your company's phones rather than somebody else's. So, if you're not allowed to have different phones for different types of calls, perhaps it has something to do with rewarding local callers for getting off the phone quickly (perhaps local calls even cheaper than before, but only for first 5 min, then more expensive afterwards), or possibly even rewarding local callers for making way for long distance callers who are waiting (but I have no idea at all how one would do that).

I'm clutching at straws, though - the truth is that I've run out of ideas.

SingleSue

Blooming nora it is cold....I've resorted to using the borrowed from my parent's, plug in radiator. James had it in his bedroom for a little while and when middle son opened the door (after complaining of being cold...middle son being cold! A real rarity), he noticed the room was lovely and warm.

So, I've nicked the rad back and put it on in the upstairs hallway to warm the rest of the upstairs up (including my bedroom which is currently 13 degrees), my hands are like ice and typing is a nightmare!

Pathways evening went ok, I learnt from last year and moved the cones out of the disabled space so I could park but using my wheelchair (which was needed after I retrieved the plug in rad earlier and hauled it up the stairs on my own) was impossible as the school is as far from disabled friendly as you can get, so crutches and grin and bear it had to be deployed.

I found the first two classrooms ok but the third one proved a bit more of a problem as the map provided was a little errr, crap. It didn't help it was upstairs...don't think the people queued behind me going up were impressed, I had my very own Trulli train, complete with tuts.

We think we have most of the choices in place now but there is going to have to be some talks over the next few days as one, possibly two of the choices are cross site and youngest is already marked down as one of their 'vulnerable' children who are not to cross site. Seems a shame for youngest to miss out on two of his real strengths (geography and graphics) because of a decision to not have it at his school this September.

Hopefully a way forward can be thought of.

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

OK, here's my way of thinking this through. If you do anything to disincentivise long local calls, then you end up disincentivising people to use your company's phones rather than somebody else's. So, if you're not allowed to have different phones for different types of calls, perhaps it has something to do with rewarding local callers for getting off the phone quickly (perhaps local calls even cheaper than before, but only for first 5 min, then more expensive afterwards), or possibly even rewarding local callers for making way for long distance callers who are waiting (but I have no idea at all how one would do that).

I'm clutching at straws, though - the truth is that I've run out of ideas.

OK I think I see what you're getting at. The big issue is that the company is lumbered with a tariff structure that it changes at its peril, because rivals can quote your price scale against theirs to their benefit.

In this scenario, long cheap local calls are unprofitable while long-distance calls are profitable but the callers are also disincetivised by cost so are likely to be shorter as they're trying to avoid a price penalty local callers don't face.

So lets shorten those calls in a way that doesn't lead to a backlash!

PasturesNew

Play background waterfall music while the free calls are occurring... so they want to hang up and find the nearest loo. Or some other musical disincentive.

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

Play background waterfall music while the free calls are occurring... so they want to hang up and find the nearest loo. Or some other musical disincentive.

This is clearly your strong point, and you seem familiar with many of the ideas.
After all many malls use MOR or easy-listening music because younger people can't switch their attention off it. Also some use a spectrum of lighting that makes acne more visible so that if adolescents check their appearance in a mirror they'r more likely to leave.

Anyway I think we're getting closer to a workable solution or maybe the real solution

PasturesNew

Could try something innovative and encourage partnerships with local businesses to the booths, where the phone spits out a free discount voucher/BOGOF for each long distance call. Value/volume of the vouchers is call-length dependent. Just to cover the other end of the spectrum.... you can make the freebie callers cut it short, but then you'd need to encourage the paying punters.

There could be an income stream from those till spits, similar to the adverts you get on the back of parking tickets.

Spirit_2

lostinrates wrote: »

Just went to get dh who now has no idea whether he still has a job so decided to come home. He is sanguine about it and is gonna turn up on monday morning and see what happens.

QUOTE]

Sorry to hear that. Hope it resolves itself to your satisfaction. I have some know how about job loss situations (sadly usually creating them and managing exits:o) and SarEl who 'haunts' the employement board is excellent, should you want assistance.

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

Could try something innovative and encourage partnerships with local businesses to the booths, where the phone spits out a free discount voucher/BOGOF for each long distance call. Value/volume of the vouchers is call-length dependent. Just to cover the other end of the spectrum.... you can make the freebie callers cut it short, but then you'd need to encourage the paying punters.

There could be an income stream from those till spits, similar to the adverts you get on the back of parking tickets.

That's a pretty imaginative answer and TBH a lot more sophsticated than the real one. The actual solution was more basic and physical.

misskool

zagubov wrote: »

That's a pretty imaginative answer and TBH a lot more sophsticated than the real one. The actual solution was more basic and physical.

Change the phones to accept credit/debit cards? Or a card which has credit loaded on and you get loyalty credit for making long-distance calls?