Happy holidays to all!
To my clients, thank you for your continued business, and best wishes to all in the new year!
Warmest regards,
Debbie
Monterey Bay Design
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Happy holidays to all! To my clients, thank you for your continued business, and best wishes to all in the new year! Warmest regards, Debbie Things that happened today…
Everyone knew it was coming, and I did, too, but I’m unusually saddened by the news of Steve Jobs’ death. He and his vision will be missed. By the time you’ve learned what PCI compliance means – nevermind learning what’s actually required for your business to become PCI Compliant – you’ve learned more than a human brain is currently capable of holding.  Mmm hm. If you’ve studied on it some (I studied on it quite a bit, mm-hm), then I feel your pain. If you accept credit cards as a payment option in your business – especially if you accept credit cards online – the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) requirements must be met. These standards protect your customers, and make no mistake, they protect the merchant, too. Not only does it protect your customers from credit card theft, identity theft – all those nasty things – but it protects the merchant from thousands of dollars in possible penalties, lawsuits and a world way beyond simple aggravation. The banks themselves are fined for violations, but as stated in the PCI Compliance Guide, “the banks will most likely pass this fine on downstream till it eventually hits the merchant. Furthermore, the bank will also most likely either terminate your relationship or increase transaction fees.” This can be deadly to a small business. Is it a law? Not strictly speaking. It’s not federal law – not yet anyway – but there are some state laws already, and your merchant provider or acquiring bank is likely is already requiring it. Even if you use 3rd party processors (which would include PayPal, WorldPay, 2CheckOut), you are still required to be compliant. Still, the work and cost to achieve compliance is much easier to deal with. Last year, I went through an agonizing week learning about PCI compliance. Learning that my little business was going to require thousands of dollars in security scans, learning that I was in arguably the worst possible group (meaning, the compliance was hardest to meet), attempting to fill out a form that requires a PhD in Computer Science and Gobbledy-Gook to understand (it is a thank-you-very-much 49 page form), and the worst of it: vacillating back and forth between all this and shutting down my business. I don’t mind telling you, I was a wreck, but with a lot of perseverance and digging into alternatives, merchant accounts and payment processors, I successfully took steps to insure my own PCI compliance. If you do business with me, you may rest assured that your data and personal information is absolutely secure. And I still have the headache to prove it. Mmm hm. There is a ton of information out there on the internet about PCI compliance, but I recommend you go to the horse’s mouth first. Visit The PCI Security Standards Council at http://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/ I was asked to join Facebook once – for business reasons. After avoiding it for so long, I hated to mar my spotless record of declination in the Social Networking universe, but it was for business, so I plunged. Within the first week, I was contacted by an old friend (good) – who was connected with someone (possibly on Facebook) from whom I never wanted to hear again (bad), and five people I’d never heard of who wanted to be my friend (WTF?). Don’t get me wrong; I’m not against socializing, and I certainly do see the value in climbing aboard the Facebook-Twitter-Manta-etc. train, especially as a business marketing tool, but the internet, like any wonderful piece of technology, can be used for great good and great evil – sometimes at the same time.  Beneath the murk Let’s just use Facebook as an example. Having recently navigated the murky waters of a Facebook account setup, I can say that I have finally surfaced slightly out of breath, but not too far off course and relatively unscathed. I say relatively, only because it was, in fact, an ordeal trying to figure out exactly what you can and can’t do with a business account – whether it is advisable or even against Facebook rules to turn it into a personal account, whether a business entity can function at all without the benefit of an admin with a personal profile, and why it is so freaking difficult to get any of this information at all. As I said, the waters are murky at best. And shark-infested… with hidden, sharp, rusty things that you can step on. But I digress.  Icky People With a personal profile, you let people into your Facebook life, and you are granting them access to all the details you post, that your friends post , that their friends post– unless you know how to guide those funky and elusive privacy details through the maze of your life. Who’s looking? Who’s reading this? Friends? Friends of Friends? Predators? Hackers? Icky people? You, truthfully, do not know, so you do have to be diligent in setting those privacy details just so. As a business presence, if you elect to create a business page from your personal account, be prepared to stay on your toes – unless you feel like weaving the threads of your personal life into your business. Having said all that, what’s great about Facebook? Well, it is a fantastic tool to help boost your visibility and a terrific way to keep up with your friends. And their friends. And their friend’s friends. But let’s face it – you love the fame. You want as many new “friends” or “fans” or “likes” on your Facebook page as you can get. Look how popular I am! But it’s the same pathology as some website owners wanting zillions of hits on their website through any means. They’re unsure how they got there or why. They’re just tickled to see the ticker on their hit counter moving. “My business is tanking, but look, 1,000 hits – just today!” It’s the allure of attracting people to you. It probably comes from the same place in our psyche that just wanted the cool kid to nod a curt hello in the hallway before Social Studies or to get picked in any order other than last for dodgeball. Facebook fame is a type of fame that used to require a stroke of luck and only about 15 minutes. Today, you can write a blog, get a Facebook page, get on MySpace, Twitter and if you do it right, you come away with friends, admirers, even – dare I say it – fans. I realize this appears hypocritical. Here I am spouting off on the semi-evils of the interwebs on a blog I’ve created to draw attention to myself and my business. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with owning your own little corner of the net. Frankly, I like the idea that I’d need to put on a baseball hat and sunglasses when I log on. And, after all, I don’t write this stuff just to smell the rubber burning between my ears. The point of writing, for the most part, is to have other people read it. ::peering over sunglasses at you, drenched in LCD goo:: You are there, aren’t you? Reading this? Oh, good. Now, go ahead. I give you permission. Tell a friend on Facebook about this blog. And you know what? Let’s be careful out there. Ever get the feeling when you call and speak to a customer service person that you’ve seriously inconvenienced them, possibly ruined their day, and you get the distinct impression that they think you’re an idiot? Don’t you hate that? I know I do. Or how about when you call a business and they don’t get back to you for days – sometimes not at all? Apparently, business is so good for them that they don’t have to give a hoot about their customers. The worst, I think, is when you are dealing directly with a business already. They’re supposed to be doing work for you. You might have even paid them money. And what’s worse, your business is experiencing fallout from not being able to talk to the person you need to talk to. Let’s take, oh, website design as an example. You’ve hired a designer. They’ve built your site. Now, you’re experiencing some sort of problem – a page won’t load, formatting is odd, a vital piece of data has changed and you need it updated. You email, you call, you visit their last known address to no avail. So, now you’re stuck. Or how about the fact that it simply takes them days and days and days to get back to you. Somehow, that’s even worse. One can understand to some degree if a web designer has moved on to other things, particularly a freelancer who is only doing it for fun occasionally. But a designer in business who is actively working that won’t return calls or emails in a timely manner, that’s unforgivable. It takes 30 seconds to shoot off an email saying that they’re right in the middle of a job and they’ll get back to you shortly. Any designer that doesn’t have 30 seconds to do that has some serious time management issues. I think I take particular exception to customer service inconsistencies because I come from a background of customer service. Every previous job I’ve had has entailed some degree of customer service layered in with my other duties. But let me clarify. It’s not the background in customer service that makes me good at it – and I am good at it – it’s the fact that I’m a nice person. I treat people the way I want to be treated. Do I have bad days? Absolutely, it happens. And if my bad day bleeds out onto a client, I know it, and you can be damn sure that person will get a follow-up call or email apologizing for any bad mood goo that’s been flicked onto them. And every single time they say, “what bad mood?”  The NardDog I suppose that’s where the customer service training comes in. Learning to deal with a customer without letting a disastrous mood get in the way. So, there’s my take on customer service – politeness in a nutshell. My philosophy is very much in line with The Nard Dog’s (one of many The Office references you’re likely to get from me), and I quote: “You give me a gift? Bam! Thank you note. You know, sometimes you have to purge the thoughts in your head in order to make room for new ones. For instance, I’ve recently reacquired the memory of a recipe for a seafood salad. I’m pretty sure it’s directly related to the creation of this blog. The simple fact of its existence and the resulting possibilities has freed up space and allowed me to focus on other things. I’m a multi-tasker by nature, so this can only be a positive thing, I’m quite sure. (Though, I still can’t listen to music and write at the same time; I tend to try to type in rhythm.) Still, what pleases me most about this blog is that instead of a new idea or a new thought leading to the creation of a new page on my site proper (which, in turn, entailed multiple menu adjustments) – or simply languishing in my head – now I can just spew it out here. The other downside of only adding new ideas into my main website is that I can’t very well write a random thought or speak as informally. And – as established from the beginning – I must attribute all my thoughts to the royal “we.” It works from a business standpoint, but sometimes we are not amused at the restriction. We much prefer speaking as I. So, a-blogging I will go. I hope to not only post helpful or interesting ideas on web design and all aspects of that industry, but also my personal views on almost everything else – music, movies, cats, dogs, food, wine, restaurants, painful rotator cuff injuries – and what have you. As is my right, I respectfully decline to offer any views on religion or politics – polarizing as these subjects are. As is also my right, I might change my mind. Now that I’ve got all this room in my head, who knows what might come up? |
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