A window into the past

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Exploring family history can be a window into the past… an interesting way to learn about broader history. Lives long gone can give us an insight into where we are today and the struggles that shape the world and us.

My great-great grandmother, Celia Edwards, was a survivor of the Irish famine and was shipped to Australia in 1849, aged 16.

Such a lot to have been through in just 16 years. An orphan, she and some of her family (so far I have found evidence of a brother), were admitted to the Gorey Workhouse in County Wexford. She was trained to be a nursemaid, learned to read and write, and then was chosen to emigrate.

She was one of a ship load of Irish orphan girls transported to Melbourne, Victoria, on the New Liverpool.

How must she have felt? Pushed out to travel halfway around the world, alone; her life shaped and managed by forces outside of her control.

Exploring Celia’s life opens up endless paths: Irish history, its place in the world and impacts of the British empire’s expansion around the world and its political machinations; the wide-reaching impacts of religious tensions; the social vulnerabilities of a young woman at the mercy of a young colony… and more.

If you have any light to shed on this woman’s life, I would love to hear from you.

See a little of Celia’s life. Here is some information I compiled to share with my cousins. Without her, none of us would be here: Celia Edwards: Irish Famine Survivor

 

A little charm could save the show

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A nearby cafe, well placed to be successful with a loyal local following, recently changed hands, taken over by a mother and her two children.

Mother seems a bit shy but is charming; her son is also charming, outgoing and openly affectionate with his mother. In contrast, the daughter has no charm… at all.

So which one would you put on the front counter? Anybody but the daughter, right?

Well this family has the daughter fronting customers. Why would they do that?

Charm can be superficial, of course. Sometimes it’s the grumpy rough diamond who wins us over when they show us that they care about us and go the extra distance to give us quality product and service.

Not in this case, though.  My hot chocolate was tepid, the cocoa left to form a congealed lump at the bottom of the cup.  She was graceless, unfriendly and unhelpful.  Not an encounter likely to tempt me back.

My question is: how can people be so insensitive to the needs of their customers; so unaware of how people might respond to them… Unable to match their resources (such as people) to the most appropriate tasks and roles?

 

Potato and leek soup by the canal

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At the edge of a large park in inner London’s Stoke Newington, the canal widens slightly, providing a resting place for barge homes, with gardens growing on their roofs, bicycles propped in sterns, and aerials for the perennial TVs. It’s rather like a caravan park for barges.

Strategically placed by the footbridge over the canal is a small ‘caff’. We might call it a greasy spoon, or in the US it might be a diner.  Cheap and cheerful eats for the hungry canal resident or passing walker or cyclist.

The sign on the door declaring home made potato and leek soup was enticing on this cold, windy, wet spring day. The young man inside, with tats and broad cockney accent, assured us the soup was definitely home made… No packet mixes here!

The soup slopped over the edge of the bowl as he placed it, with a fresh wholemeal baguette, on our table. As I took the first slurp, I was won over.  The best potato and leak soup I’ve ever had, richly flavoured with a generous quantity of leaks.

It turned out that Dave, the young tattooed man, was the cook.

What a find, tucked beside the canal in inner London!

WiFi hotspot Virgin Trains

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Sitting on a Virgin train from London to Holyhead in Wales with a lovely window seat, watching the fog play over the green fields and black faced sheep, when my eye strayed to a sign on the carriage wall opposite: WiFi hotspot.  So I pulled out my iPad and joined up for 5 pounds.

And here I am, beatiful, lush green English countryside whizzing by my window as I tap out this blog.

Who says technology isn’t wonderful?

Getting a response from a web enquiry

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Have you checked your website’s enquiry facility lately? Are enquiries routed to an email address that still exists? Do you have someone nominated to check incoming enquiries? How quickly are enquiries responded to?

These may seem like obvious questions but I’ve had a number of experiences lately of sending off queries via website ‘contact us’ forms and receiving no response.

It’s disturbing on several levels. We genuinely seek an answer to a question that’s important to us. But at a deeper level, we are relying more and more on internet communication in so many parts of our lives. Non responses undermine our confidence and trust in this communication channel.

And can any business really afford to burn these contacts? Web enquiries are an an important part of the marketing and customer service mix.

On a positive note, I have been cheered by responses from people in various countries as I arranged my recent holiday, and impressed at the efforts many people are willing to take to provide assistance, regardless of the language barrier.  Needless to say, they won my confidence and my business.

Long distance customer service

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Preparing for international travel recently gave me some food for reflections on long distance customer service.

Many of us take for granted online booking of travel arrangements, from airfares, accommodation, train, car hire and tours. But what happens when things go wrong?

I found that the bookings system on some sites didn’t work too well. This can be frustrating. On a couple of sites I found it difficult to make the date ‘stick’ so that I accidentally booked for the wrong dates. There were other difficulties, too. It’s a reminder that it’s wise to schedule occasional checks of your website functions, following through a complete booking, for example, to make sure everything is working as it should.

The next question is: how easy is it to fix when things go wrong with your bookings?  I give a big bouquet to online tour booking agency Viator. Their website listed contact phone numbers in several countries, including my own. When I called to correct an incorrect date in my booking, I received prompt, friendly service and the error was corrected there and then.

It’s this kind of responsive customer service that builds our confidence in booking overseas services online.