Stefan's Naturally Aspirated Blog

So we’re about a month and a half into GDPR, and it seems that many companies haven’t really taken that much notice of the new laws. There’s lots of companies paying lip-service to GDPR, but many of their policies and actual activities are still in conflict with the new legislation. I do note that spam has tailed off quite significantly, but there are still a fair few suspect mailers in my spam folder. I am also still getting some weird and wonderful unsolicited propositions ...

There are so many companies on the Internet and so many fake references to go with those - that it’s usually nigh on impossible to gauge exactly how well a business will perform in advance of your doing business with it. So when I encounter a new business which has a product or service that looks appealing I usually send them a customer support question with a few very polite but slightly awkwardly difficult questions concerning some of the finer points of that product or services. How ...

My parents frequently arrive quite late on their flight from Iceland, meaning that we’re stepping out for dinner at around 22:00 - just as well then that there is a restaurant local to us which has its kitchens open until 22:30. We’ve been dining there since it opened 10/15 years ago and we always leave a generous tip. In times past we’ve arrived as late as 22:20, but have always been seated courteously and given options. That was until Friday before last - on this occasion ...

There have been a large number of articles in the past couple of months pitching and debunking the different angles on Sales and Marketing Automation (SMA). For most companies SMA means adding yet another layer of software / systems on top of an already highly complex suite of solutions. Most articles conclude that Sales and Marketing Automation is really only for the largest of companies, that it is not practically viable for small to medium enterprises.

One of the key things we at Affino do ...

Throughout this year I’ve been talking about the key challenges High Street Retailers face with trying to consolidate their online / offline inventories - so that shoppers can be sure of the likelihood of their obtaining what they seek when they venture into town. In numerous posts over the years I have highlighted my disappointment about making the usual weekend pilgrimage into town - only to find that most of what I was after is either not stocked by the particular branch I happen to ...

Empowering your customers to be consistently within easy reach of around-the-clock services is what will secure the future success of your business. What this means is that businesses need to put more effort into a seamless customer experience across all contact points.

For most people now, the mobile phone / smartphone is their most used / accessible device - typically within arm’s reach at all times. Already several individuals have huge parts of their lives entirely committed ...