Archive For: June, 2010

Blackberry Desktop Manager Incompatibility with Outlook 2010

The consulting community seems excited about Office 2010. There are lots of great features and some significant improvements. I’m writing today about a particular configuration issue that will only be applicable to people in Exchange environments that access another user’s folders.

In prior versions of Outlook, in order to see another user’s contacts in your “windows address book” you had to follow a convoluted 10 step process that was a nightmare to implement in any reasonable amount of time. Now we can simply add a second exchange account and see the additional address book. This is a big time saver.

With BES services, we can wirelessly sync your Blackberry to your Outlook folders. However sometimes we need to sync the Blackberry to a different folder, perhaps your boss’ contacts folder. Now we have to install Blackberry Desktop Manager and disable wireless sync on your contacts. Then we can specify an additional folder to sync.

Throughout the different versions of Outlook, there have been lots of issues with compatibility with Blackberry Desktop Manager, most notably in the scenario above, we cannot use cached exchange mode. But now with the release of Outlook 2010, the desktop manager won’t connect at all. There are various workarounds, none of which are realistic for consultants or clients for that matter.

I believe that this failure of RIM to stay in compatibility with what I consider their main partner is just another reason they’ll continue to lose users and market share. If I as a consultant, cannot do what my clients need and expect, then I won’t use or recommend the product anymore. The most frustrating part of this is that in many stores, I can no longer purchase Office 2007.

Great Customer Service

What does it mean to provide good customer service?  In my work, I am constantly on the phone with vendors. As a service provider, I make those calls for my clients usually because I want to protect them from bad service. I think the key to doing it right is to listen twice as much as you speak!  If you’re in contact with customers by phone, pay attention to how you feel as you begin to speak with a customer. If you find yourself unsympathetic, angry, irritable or annoyed then it might be time to make a change.

Now for the good experiences… I was so pleasantly surprised today with a call I had to make that I just needed to share it. A year or two ago, my husband gave me a Skil iXo2 drill. This little screwdriver has made my work so easy, I just love it. Well all of a sudden it would not charge. I take very good care of my equipment so you can imagine my frustration. I called the company, was only on hold for a few minutes and spoke with a representative. I expected to pay for a new charger base. Surprise and shock when the rep said she’d be sending me a new charger at no cost. I said she didn’t have to do that but it was very kind. I’ll never forget her words. “I don’t want anyone out there to be unhappy with our products”.

Thanks to Skil for not only making a great product, but taking the time to make it right when there is a problem.