Customer Service in Fiji [Part 1]

A conversation this past weekend with a guy who works at New Zealand All Natural Ice Cream in Nadi:

Me: "What time do you close?"

Ice Cream Guy: "9 p.m."

Me: "Every night?"

ICG: "Yes."

Me: "What about tonight?"

ICG: "Tonight? 8:30."

I later realised that my line of questioning is one that could only be asked by someone who has spent an extended amount of time in Fiji.

At 8:15, I arrived back at the ice cream place with my daughter and was met with a hand-scribbled note on the door:

"Back in 5 minutes!"

20 minutes later, we sat waiting still. Two taxis came by and left disappointed as did a group of tourists.

I'll never truly get used to these experiences in Fiji. Yeah..yeah...call it "Fiji time" and move on. Sometimes I can. Sometimes, I can't. 

"Slow" as "Fiji time" is accepted by most people and can be a quaint part of travel here.

"Inefficient" as "Fiji time", is not.

There is a difference between the two and the desirability of Fiji as a destination hangs in the balance. It's definitely one of the biggest challenges the country faces.

Tuesday, 23 December @ 7 a.m.

I don't even know what to write about this. Had a craving for a breakfast sandwich from McDonalds at Laucala Bay this morning and was greeted by this image along the drive-through.

Now, I grew up with Ronald McDonald but the person in this picture is NOT Ronald McDonald. The hair is all wrong, the smile is devious, creepy and diabolical and he appears to have one of those bad-ass tattoos of a single tear coming from his right eye. I'm not a huge fan of clowns anyway...this just cements that fear further.

What's going on here? It's like McDonalds Corporation hired the ghost of Heath Ledger. This has to be a brand violation.

Scary start to the day.

[UPDATE: Below is the Ronald McDonald I've known ever since I was a child.]

Advertising in Fiji Under Attack?

There's been a spike in advertising-related complaints during the past few months in Fiji. As traditional "offline" advertising now accounts for between 30-40% of Oceanic's yearly revenues, it's something that I have an opinion about. [Actually, I pretty much have an opinion about everything. I think it comes with my American passport.]

The complaints peaked last week when I received a copy of a letter from the Fiji Media Watch. The letter itself is addressed to Connect, the Internet Service Provider and references a recent campaign of theirs, but the file and email was sent to the attention of a number of the larger agencies in the country as well as some government people and women's rights NGOs.

The letter is not up on their website so I've provided a copy here:

 

Download Fiji Media Watch letter to Connect 

I should first write that the Fiji Media Watch is correct in their right to call attention to any issue which they believe impacts local media communications. In fact, according to their website, the organisation was formed due to what was considered "offensive" public advertising back in 1993. I don't know which particular ads were the impetus for the FMW from starting up but since it was 15 years ago, it's probably safe to say the same ads might be considered tame by today's standards. 

First, below is the web version of Connect's ad campaign in question. [I've blocked out the model's identity for impact, dramatic effect and an overly self-inflated perception that this blog is at all relevant in the larger scheme of things.]

The print version is essentially the same but a full page version where the model is wearing what would be considered a sexy Santa suit. Connect's offices in Suva have this ad plastered all over their windows as well. A second version of the ad has a beefcake male wearing a Santa hat which may also be labeled as a sexy image [not necessarily my type, though].

However, It is the copywriting which, in conjunction with the image, is causing a reaction. "I know what you want..."

Vodafone.com.fj Breaks Some Ground

Yeah, I know there hasn't been much blog posting lately. It's apparently not just me, either. Many of the local bloggers have apparently gone into a shell for the holidays.  

We got word last week that during Vodafone Fiji's board meeting, some of the visiting executives from abroad informed the local team that their website is the most heavily visited and trafficked website of all Vodafone online properties.

Vodafone Fiji put out a press release on the news.

This will absolutely sound like I'm just beating our own drum here but I'm really proud of the design and development effort made by Oceanic on the Vodafone site. We put a lot of extra energy into building stuff that is simple and easy and this is the best case study for that effort.

Vodafone's e-commerce effort has surpassed all expectations w/ regards to the amounts of top-up credit sold. It's online customer support continues to be developed upon too. The site just works. Clearly, VMAIL is the killer application that keeps people coming back.

We've got some design changes forthcoming on the front end shortly and we'll be adding a lot of new back-end functionality over the next few months too.

Big thanks back to Vodafone for letting us support them online. 

We're doing what we can to incorporate and use the intelligence we've picked up about user behaviour in all our work. I look forward to highlighting that in some of our upcoming projects, including Post Fiji's new website.

[UPDATE: 17 December. The story was highlighted last night on Fiji One's Talk Business. See below.]

Mailife : Still complaining

It’s ironic that after the fantastic outcome of the US Presidential election last month, I would still feel the urge to complain. However, there are two months left of the Bush administration, the global economy is as lethargic as a taxi driver after a three day grog session and there are entirely too many home invasions still happening. Rants can still be justified...

I’ve seen an increase in SPAM recently, most notably from the “friendly North”. It needs to stop. Immediately.  I’m hereby announcing the launch of a nationwide petition called “Stop the North” (www.stopthenorth.com) and I’d like to encourage everyone to join this fight. The goal is to effectively convince Fiji’s Internet service providers to cut off the northern islands from having Internet access until such a time that they prove themselves responsible of the privilege.  Ok, maybe it’s not fair to hold it against everyone but frustrations peaked this week when a 7.2MB file was emailed to me, unsolicited, from a company up there trying to sell me some pizza. Come on, people...