Vodafone enters UK iPhone market

So O2’s exclusive contract with Apple and the iPhone has come to an end…

Again…

Vodafone has reached an agreement to sell Apple’s popular iPhone in the UK.

More from BBC News.

Orange announces UK iPhone deal

So O2’s exclusive contract with Apple and the iPhone has come to an end…

BBC News reports:

Orange has reached an agreement to sell Apple’s popular iPhone in the UK.

The deal ends an exclusive arrangement between UK network operator O2 and the Californian phone maker, which has been in place since 2007.

I am not sure that there was much consumer benefit to the exclusive arrangement that O2 had (well has at the moment) however I am equally sure that bringing Orange into the market won’t actually make too much difference to consumers; more likely it will benefit those who can’t get an O2 signal but can get Orange.

Part of the issue has to be the fact that iPhone is in a league of its own when it comes to smartphones, not many other devices match the iPhone in terms of usability, applications and features.

Darling warns banks on loan rates

From the BBC News:

The chancellor is to quiz bank bosses over how much they charge small firms for loans, saying he is “extremely concerned” their rates may be too high.

Alastair Darling said the cost of loans seemed to have risen, despite the UK’s record low base interest rate of 0.5%.

He told the BBC that banks had a duty to restore lending levels, saying the government did not rescue the banking sector “out of some charitable act”.

Read more

Airline complaints ‘on the rise’

BBC reports

Complaints from customers about the airline industry have risen by 11% in a year, a consumer support group says.

So is everything really bad when it comes to customer service in the airline industry? Well no…

It accepted that complaints came from a “tiny” minority of passengers.

Companies should not ignore complaints but often they rise to the top of the agenda as people are more likely to complain then to praise. Likewise it is important to deal with them, as people not happy with a service will often tell ten other people about it, while people who had good service often tell only one person. Says more about society than the level of customer service though.

Why don’t surveys tell the truth? Because you don’t!

From BBC Magazine, a really interesting article about how rubbish statistics and surveys are.

The old complaint that there are lies, damned lies and statistics blames the bean counter, the supposed stubby-pencilled bureaucrat who gathers the data, or the slick vote-grabber who mangles the results for a shifty cause.

But who started it? The answer – sorry folks – is you. Want to know who introduces half the junk into junk stats? Look in the mirror.

So any business who just relies on survey data, shouldn’t be surprised if sometimes the survey is rubbish because the respondents lie.

More retailers in administration

BBC reports on Mosaic going into administration.

Mosaic, which owns some of the most famous brands on the UK High Street, has gone into administration, with debts of about £400m.

But most of the group, including Oasis, Karen Millen, Warehouse and Coast have been immediately sold to Mosaic’s main creditor – Icelandic bank Kaupthing.

As the recession deepens it would appear that more and more retailers are going into administration.

220% increase in number of businesses going bust!

The BBC reports on the huge increase in the number of businesses going bust!

There has been a huge rise in the number of firms going bust in England and Wales because of the recession.

The Insolvency Service said that in the last three months of 2008 there were 2,428 corporate insolvencies such as administrations and receiverships.

That was a 220% rise on the same period the year before.

This of course has an impact on suppliers of those businesses as well as the immediate impact on the employees.

This kind of negative news, along with job losses reported across the country makes consumers behave in the very way in which reinforces the recession, as spending reduces and firms cut back on production.

Things will start to change once the economy starts to feel that it is at the bottom and has higher expectations about the way in which the economy is moving.

More on the economic environment in which businesses operate.

Photo source.

…and another one!

BBC reports

The womenswear company Viyella, which was founded in 1784, has become the latest long-established British company to call in the administrators.

The company has annual sales of about £30m and operates 40 stores, 64 concessions and four clearance outlets.

Of course like other retailers mentioned in this blog, only Woolworths has actually closed, the others are “only” in administration, but more often then not this can lead to at a minimum closure of lots of stores.

Even retailers not in administration are feeling the pinch and closing stores. BBC also reports on Marks and Spencers who are closing stores and cutting jobs.

Marks and Spencer plans to close 25 of its small Simply Food stores and another two of its regular stores.

The closures will mean the loss of 780 jobs. The retailer is also planning to cut 450 head office jobs.

The retail sector which weathered the last few recessions has been hit very hard by this one. The difference this time, is that margins are tight so it doesn’t take a large drop in sales for it to have a major impact on the profitability of the retailers.

What is dispersion?

You have been gathering data for your business. It could be daily sales figures; spend per customer; cost per job.

You are interested in the spread of the data from your business.

So what is dispersion?

It’’s how data is dispersed, or spread.

The mean, median and mode give an indication of central tendency, dispersion gives an indication of spread.

Measures of spread include: range; mean absolute deviation, variance and standard deviation.

Read more.

Purpose of a questionnaire

So you have decided to ask your customers some questions, through a questionnaire.

Why?

What is the enquiry trying to establish and why is it trying to establish it?

A questionnaire is simply a set of questions and its purpose is to obtain information or data.

It is an imposition and requires the goodwill of the respondent for its success.

However designing questionnaires is a bit of an art and get it wrong and your business could suffer.

More on questionnaires.