Author Archives: Curtis J. Morley

Please Stop Giving Us Money

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Is money becoming such a commodity that companies just don’t need it anymore or was there some other explanation for the bizarre phone call I received yesterday?

It truly was an unbelievable Customer Service Expereince . Jackie from Sprint called me around noon and described that she was with the Sprint “Something or other” team. I really wasn’t that interested because I have been very disappointed in Sprint’s customer service in the past and even more disappointed with the Sprint Technical Support or lack of it. On most calls with the Sprint Technical Support team I end up teaching them something and I have called upwards of 12 times to get the same issue resolved without success.

This nice girl, Jackie from Arizona, said she had some good news for me and would like to look over my phone plan with me. I was about to politely decline when she said, “It looks like we can save you some money on your monthly bill. It was during the business day and I have had several solicitations like this from Sprint before but, she caught me off guard with her offer to save me some money. I was still skeptical but, she had my attention. She said it looks like from my research… (Did Sprint just say research?) …that you are paying Sprint too much and I am calling to see if you would like to reduce the amount you pay us each month. Now she really had my attention. The rest of the conversation went something like this:

CM – You are calling me so I can save money by paying you less?
Jackie – Yes sir. It looks like you make the majority of your calls to mobile numbers. Even though you have 1,000s of minutes of total calling it looks like  you only actually call about 600 minutes/month to land lines. Because Sprint has Free Mobile-to-Mobile calling you can reduce your rate plan.
CM – So do I have to renew for another two years?
Jackie – Nope. There is no renewal required.
CM – So what kind of fee will I have to pay to set this up?
Jackie – No fee whatsoever. This is a free service that you can do at any time.
CM – What services will I lose.
Jackie – You will continue with all of your current services including unlimited texting, unlimited data, GPS and navigation, free any-mobile any-time calling, unlimited hotspot data and eight connected users, free 4G, free etc…, unlimited etc…, and free etc…
CM – I half expected you to say a free tablet.
Jackie – {Happy Laugh}, No Mr. Morley, no free tablets today.
CM – So, this is a little unbelievable. You called to ask me to stop spending so much money with you? No additional commitments, no reduction in service, and no additional fees.
Jackie – We just want to let you know that we are looking out for you.
CM – What if I change plans and next month bill is crazy because I call all landlines.
Jackie – Just call back in and we will take care of you and change your plan back.
CM – So how much will I save?
Jackie – We can reduce your plan by $40/month and you will still have a good buffer.
CM – Really?
Jackie – Yes really.
CM – This is just unbelievable. Next you are going to tell me that you have made me a creme’ brulee.
Jackie – I do make a great creme’ brulee, but I don’t think it will taste as good if I send it through the mail.

 

Sprint loves money, but in my case they loved something even more than my $40/month.  The question is – what? Let’s take a look at what Sprint bought for $40/month. From this one simple act Sprint gained:

  • A fun blog post from an influential blogger.
  • 10+ backlinks.
  • Slightly higher placement on the search engines
  • Multiple comments (Hey readers tell me your experiences with Sprint).
  • About 20,000 people that will read what this post about how amazing customer support Sprint is.
  • Multiple referrals to my friends and family. (I have already shared this story to 10 people including to the Customer Loyalty Team at FranklinCovey)
  • For the first time in my history I answered the automated call that followed to rate the experience.
  • A customer that won’t have to be put on a two year plan because he now knows that Sprint has his back more than any other company.

As Head of Global Marketing for FranklinCovey I would easily pay 40 month for all of this. I would pay $120/month if I knew that I could turn demoters into active promoters. I would pay to pay to create a movement toward crowd sourced promotion to trusted individuals. So the ultimate question is — Is extreme customer support really another form of marketing?

Let me know your thoughts.

Happy Savings –

Curtis J. Morley

 

Comma Maker

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Comma Separated Value Maker

Have you ever had a list in excel or word and needed that list to be separated by a comma and space instead of a new line. Well I have, and still do, so, I thought I would write this little Flash app that creates comma separated values from a list separated by new lines. In other words a list of zip codes will go from this:

84057
84119
84663
84523

to this:
84057, 84119, 84663, 84523

Enjoy and Happy Flashing. Parker, this ones for you.

iStockphoto Promo Code

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View My Portfolio

I used this promo code on iStockphoto today and received $15 off my $75 purchase. So I only paid $60 on iStockphoto for 50 credits. A pretty good deal if you ask me. If you click the link above I will get a small commission thanks.

Here is the code – Promo Code: stocklayouts

Thanks to Elizaibeth for turning me onto the promo code.

 

Giving the Keynote at ELearning DevCon – Rewiring Your Brain

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I am pleased to Announce that I am giving the Keynote speech at Elearning DevCon

 

Rewiring Your Brain

Curtis Morley
Head of Corporate and Global Marketing | FranklinCovey

 

What is new media doing to our brains? 20 years ago the average number of interruptions and distractions was once every 2 hours. Currently it is once every 2.5 minutes. Urgency Addiction and Information Overload can actually produce Learned ADD and a rewiring of the brain. Learn what research is saying about how we are training our brains to think quickly and shallowly instead of focused and deep thinking and how this plays into E-Learning.

 

iPad2 or XOOM

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The progress of tablets is fantastic. The future vision of how we would use technology seems to be approaching sooner rather than later. I remember as a teenager watching Jean Luc Picard on the Enterprise thinking that seems so foreign. Now it is a part of daily life.  Tablets are doing more than even Captain Picard could have guessed. The hottest of the tablets are the Motorola XOOM and Apples iPad 2. I did a little comparison for my company to evaluate which we would want to purchase and have decided that the XOOM is the clear winner.

Here are the reasons why:

Flash: If you have ever read my blog then you know I am very much into Flash and have been since the early days. The interesting thing is that nearly have of the web is into it also. Over 40% of all websites have  Flash content. The iPad cannot view any of these sites. This is an issue when http://www.FranklinCovey.com, http://www.FranklinCoveySpeakersBureau.com, http://www.theleaderinme.org, and several other FranlinCovey web properties are built in Adobe Flash.

Free Apps: Yes the App Store has more total Apps than the Android Market Place yet the number of free apps for Android is nearly double. You can’t beat free. Native apps for the Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS is very limited right now but most of the apps I tested work just as well on Android phones as well as on the XOOM. (SlideIt Keyboard was one exception)

Widgets: I love having my email, calendar, news feeds and many other important pieces of information available without having to click an icon and wait for an app to load. This seems so intuitive to me that I don’t doubt that the iPad will have it in one of the future releases.

Voice Commands: Typing, browsing, opening apps, listening to music and navigating can all happen at the sound of my voice. Being able to say, “Navigate to FranklinCovey” and then having the largest GPS unit imaginable is pretty cool. There are many other Google Voice Actions.

Tabbed Browsing: This is a great feature. It may seem simple to some but being able to see the tabs that I have open and go back and forth is a lot less hassle than the ipad (non-multitasking) method that takes me to a separate screen then having to choose which window I want to manage. The browser acts like the browser on my computer. Did I mention the browser has Flash.

Google Integration: Google maps, Google Docs, Gmail, Google Chat, Google Search, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Google Navigation, Google Sky Maps, Google Body, Google Goggles, Google Books, Google everything. I love the way it all integrates together to make my life simple.

Expandable Memory: iPad makes you pay $829 for the 64 GB device with 3G whereas for the Motorola XOOM you pay $599 for the 32 GB device and buy a SanDisk 32GB MicroSDHC Card for $70. Note – The expansion slot is not accessible as of the date of this post. This will be coming within 2 weeks I am assured from Verizon. Price: See above.  64 GB Xoom for $670, 64 GB iPad 2 for $829

Website Load Times: Considerably faster on the XOOM than the iPadfrom my testing and from 6 secs vs. 9 secs load times as tested here.

Internet Speeds: Again the trophy goes to the XOOM. Although Verizon carries both devices the iPad 2 is not capable of 4G speeds. The XOOM will have 4G within a month according to the Verizon reps that I spoke with.

True Multitasking: Enough said.

and…. a

Barometer for when I need to check the weather or altitude. 🙂

In summary, even if I were on the Enterprise I would probably still pick the Motorola XOOM with the Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system.Below is a direct comparison chart.

As always – Happy Flashing
Curtis J. Morley

XOOM iPad2
OS Android 3.0 Honeycomb iOS 4.3
Widgets On Page Interactivity None
Display 10.1-inch WXGA 1280 x 800 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD 1024 x 768
Contrast Ratio 1200:1 881:1
Max Bright(cd/m2) 312 388
Weight 730 g 613g [AT&T], 607g [VRZN], 601g [WIFI]
Dimensions 9.80 x 6.61 x 0.51 inches 9.5 x 7.31 x .34 inches
Color Black [USA], Silver [EURO], Gold [SE] Black or White
Multi-Tasking Yes None
Camera(s) – front, -back 5mpx VGA Webcam – front, 720p Video -back
Processor Dual-Core NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-Core Apple A5
Battery 9 hrs heavy use, up to 20 days standby 10 hrs heavy use, up to 1 month standby
Adobe Flash Flash 10.2 None
Memory/Storage 32GB 16GB, 32GB, 64GB
Expansion Slot up to 32 GB now 64 GB coming soon None
Carrier Verizon Verizon/AT&T
Connection Speed 4G, 3G 3G
Price $799 3-G, $600 Wifi-Only, £499.99 Euro Wifi-Only $499 16GB, $599 32GB, $699 64GB, $629 16GB+3G, $729 32GB+3G, $829 64GB+3G – all models include Wifi
Web Load Time(secs) 6 9
Tabbed Browsing Tabbed Browsing None
Voice Commands Integrated None
Open Marketplace Yes Closed
Native Apps 1500 65,000
Total Apps 150,000 350,000
Free Apps 66% 33%
Connections gyroscope gyroscope
accelerometer accelerometer
ambient light sensor ambient light sensor
digital compass digital compass
GPS & Cellular location on 3G models GPS & Cellular location on 3G models
barometer None
magnetometer None
Proximity Sensor None
CDMA800 /1900 LTE 700 (4G) HUSPA support
Rx diversity in all bands connection None
3.5 mm stereo headphone jack 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack
Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n Wifi 802.11a/b/g/n
HDMI out HDMI out(with adapter)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
mic mic
microUSB 30-pin dock connector port

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ActionScript Error 1050: Cannot assign to a non-reference value.

ActionScript Error 1050 Description:
This Error is rather simple and you will find the solution to AS3 Error #1050 quick and easy. This Flash/Flex error occurs because you have tried (unintentionally I’m sure) to assign something that cannot be referenced later to another value. In other words you could have tried to assign a string in a trace statement to a value. Once the trace statement occurs that value is obliterated and therefore can never be referenced again. I’m sure that made a lot of sense… if not see the examples below. 🙂

Flex / Flash Error #1050 Fix:
Move the equal sign  ( = ) inside of the quotes.

Bad Code 1:

var word:String = “Wrong place for equal sign”;
trace(“AS3 Error 1050” =+ word);

Good Code 1:

var word:String = “Wrong place for equal sign”;
trace(“AS3 Error 1050 = “+ word);

Related Errors:

Flash ActionScript Error 1067 – Implicit coercion of a value of type void to an unrelated type Function. (AS3 Error 1067 is when you try to assign a String to a Number etc…) The above code will give you Flex error 1067 also.

This should help you resolve Flex / Flash Error #1050

Thanks and as always Happy Flashing

Curtis J. Morley

Training Top 125 2011

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Training Magazine just announced the winners of the Training Top 125 for 2011.  Congratulations to all of the winners from tonight’s gala event. They base the ranking on things like: Training Tied to Business Results * Certification * Number of Trainers * Employee Retention * Demonstrable Results *  Training Budget * Training Technology and Infrastructure * etc…

Congratulations go out to the following companies that showed greatness in training:

  1. Farmers Insurance
  2. The Economical Insurance Group
  3. Verizon
  4. SCC Soft Computer
  5. The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
  6. EMC Corporation
  7. United States Navy
  8. Vanguard
  9. Microsoft
  10. CareSource
  11. Edward Jones
  12. Best Buy Co., Inc.
  13. Shaw Industries, Inc.
  14. Miami Children’s Hospital
  15. Cerner Corporation
  16. University of New Mexico Hospitals
  17. ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.)
  18. Mohawk Industries, Inc.
  19. Chesterfield County Virginia
  20. BB&T Corporation
  21. Intel Corp
  22. Aetna Inc.
  23. Allied International Credit
  24. McDonald’s USA, LLC
  25. Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD)
  26. Paychex, Inc
  27. Suffolk Construction Company, Inc
  28. AlliedBarton Security Serivces, LLC
  29. American Infrastructure
  30. BOWE BELL+Howell
  31. Quintiles Transnational Corp.
  32. CarMax, Inc.
  33. Jiffy Lube International
  34. ESL Federal Credit Union
  35. PAETEC
  36. First Horizon National Corporation
  37. Shape Corp
  38. Wells Fargo & Company
  39. Scotiabank Group
  40. Miami Cerebral Palsy Residential Services., Inc.
  41. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company
  42. SpawGlass
  43. Navy Federal Credit Union
  44. MetLife, Inc.
  45. Western Summit Constructors, Inc
  46. ABf Freight System, Inc.
  47. Keller Williams Reality
  48. Healthways, Inc.
  49. U.S. Security Associates, Inc.
  50. SPIN, Inc.
  51. ResMed
  52. EMD Serono, Inc.
  53. ISP | America’s Home for College Sports
  54. Cartus Corporation
  55. Baptist Health Care
  56. Cianbro Corporation
  57. Steelcase, Inc.
  58. Bank of America
  59. DaVita, Inc.
  60. Coldwell Banker Real Estate
  61. Healthpoint LTD
  62. Buckman
  63. Banner Helath
  64. NIIT (USA), Inc.
  65. Intercontinental Group
  66. NCO Financial Systems, Inc
  67. VSP
  68. Orkin, LLC
  69. Verity Credit Union
  70. FedEx Express
  71. Grant Thornton LLP
  72. Baylor Health Care System
  73. Windstream Communications
  74. American Fidelity Assurance Company
  75. G4S Secure Solutions (USA) Inc.
  76. Loews Hotels
  77. J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.
  78. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan(BCBSM)
  79. APC by Schneider Electric
  80. Tata Consultancy Services, Ltd.
  81. MasterCard Worldwide
  82. Choice Hotels International
  83. CHG Healthcare Services
  84. New York Presbyterian Hospital
  85. Vi
  86. Century 21 REal Estate, LLC
  87. TD Bank
  88. Wequassett Resort and Golf Club
  89. William Osler Health System
  90. Special Response Corporation
  91. The Nebraska Medical Center
  92. Tandus Flooring
  93. sanofi-aventis Pharmaceuticals
  94. SuperMedia, LLC
  95. Gables Residential
  96. CareerBuilder
  97. Avanade
  98. Scottrade
  99. Oakwood Temporary Housing
  100. Lam Research Corporation
  101. LQ Management, LLC
  102. Cbeyond
  103. UPS
  104. Perkins+Will
  105. Morrison Management Specialists
  106. IKON Office Solutions, Inc.
  107. WEstern and Sountern Life
  108. Nevada Federal Credit Union
  109. Discover Financial Services
  110. White Lodging Services
  111. NetApp
  112. mcCarthy Building Companies, Inc.
  113. Quicken Loans
  114. Naval Surface Warfare Ctr., Port Hueneme Division
  115. Vistage Itnernational
  116. WellSpan Health
  117. University Health System
  118. Valley Crest Landscape Companies
  119. AIT Laboratories
  120. Sierra Nevada Corporation
  121. Kendle International, Inc.
  122. Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division, Newport
  123. Carilion Clinic
  124. Union Sanitary District
  125. AAA – The Auto Club Group

Look forward to seeing everyone in my session on Wednesday from 12:30 -3:30.

How Many Companies in the U.S. Have Over 1000 Employees?

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How many companies have 1000+ employees? This is a question I asked recently while doing some market research at FranklinCovey.  I looked in the traditional places but couldn’t find a consistent answer. I should say that I was not able to find an up to date answer for how many companies employ over 1000 people. So for everyone else asking the same question of the number of companies with 1000+ employees here is what I found so that you don’t have to search nearly as hard as I did. Here is some of the most relevant info I found.

U.S. Census Bureau – has a fantastic list that can be downloaded of companies in 2007 broken down by state but only lists the criteria to 500+ employees and not 1000+ employees. They also have this site that lists companies with over 1000 employees. The total number of companies it shows is 11,174.  This is the most accurate that I could find.  Here is how it is broken out.

Firms with 1,000 to 1,499 employees 2,916
Firms with 1,500 to 1,999 employees 1,542
Firms with 2,000 to 2,499 employees 942
Firms with 2,500 to 4,999 employees 1,920
Firms with 5,000 employees or more 1,927
Firms with 5,000 to 9,999 employees 952
Firms with 10,000 employees or more 975

Hoovers shows that it has data on 6994 companies with over 1000 employees. Hoovers is very accurate in the collection and sorting of data but does not look to have all records.

Companies with 1000+ Employees

Manta lists over 25k companies with over 1000 employees.  I looked through their lists for Utah and found multiple duplicates and several companies headquartered in other states that have a small office in Utah but are still listed.  Long story short the numbers here are inflated.

Companies with One Thousand Employees or more

Based on all of the data I found I would estimate that there are approximately 12,500 companies with more than 1000 employees in the U.S. currently.  We will know the exact number next year when the U.S. Census Bureau does there next study.

Thanks and Happy Marketing

Curtis J. Morley

Speaking at Training 2011 Conference in San Diego

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What: Speaking at Training 2011

When: February 9th 12:30-3:30 (2 Weeks from today)

Where: Training 2011 Conference, San Diego Convention Center, Room C4

Topic: Minority Report Learning — How Augmented Reality Makes E-Learning Kinesthetic

Prizes: Two RocketFish HD Webcams

One of the hottest new technologies is Augmented Reality. You will learn through this clinic the easy ways to implement Augmented Reality into your training and websites. You will also learn how kinesthetic engagement can enhance the training from a presentation to a viral experience. You will learn the best practices around the technology and how to make augmented reality a user-driven experience. Learn to:

  • Think differently about the web, mobile, and devices.
  • Use AR to engage users in the learning.
  • Create unique markers to your learning material.
  • Create 3D objects with open source (Free) technologies. Learn about viral coefficient.
  • Deploy on websites.

NOTE: Bring your own laptop computer with wireless internet capability to this session. Please also download Adobe Flash CS5, Blender 3D 2.49, Gimp, Flar Toolkit, Flar Starter Kit, and AR Marker Generator

I look forward to seeing everyone there. As always, Happy Flashing,

Curtis J. Morley

P.S. Scan this QR Code with your Android Phone or iPhone to set an appointment for the session.

Scan with Bar Code Scanner on Android or Red Laser with iPhone

Top iPhone / iPad Apps of All Time

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Yesterday I posted that iPhone Apps had hit 10 Billion. So what are the most downloaded Apps of all time? Which will be the 10 billionth app downloaded. As of yet the winning app has not been listed but anyone willing to guess ——“Angry Birds”? If CES was any indication then this is the year of the Birds. Angry ones. Here are some of the most downloaded apps to date:

All-Time Top Free iPad Apps

All-Time Top Paid iPad Apps

Top iPhone/iPad apps

Top Iphone/iPad apps

All-Time Top Free iPhone Apps

Top iPhone/iPad apps

Top iPhone/iPad apps

All-Time Top Paid iPhone Apps

10 Billion iTunes Apps

10 Billion iTunes Apps Downloaded

The complete list can be found here – All-Time Top iPhone Apps, Top iPad Apps

What are your favorite apps?