They've always called him Lucky Jim, although there's not many parallels between Jim Doyle's life story and the Kingsley Amis book which provided his nickname.
In Amis' 1954 campus novel, the comedy came from the severe misfortune experienced by a put-upon university lecturer until his luck miraculously changed. The way Doyle tells his own story, it wouldn't make much of a novel: there's been good luck, good luck, and more good luck in the tale of how a working-class Scottish electrician's apprentice became a millionaire businessman, then second-in-command of one of world sport's most powerful competitions, and now the chief executive of the Warriors rugby league team. "I've always said I must have done something really good in a previous life," says Doyle, "because I've been really lucky in this one."
Doyle isn't afraid of a suitably Presbyterian aphorism, so as he might say: hard work brings good luck. After all, at 53, thanks to his part in a management sell-out of sat-nav company Navman to US investors, Doyle doesn't actually need to work again. But he tried that, and he didn't much like it.
"I went from working 16, 17, 18-hour days, to waking up on Monday, looking at the calendar, and seeing I had a meeting Thursday," he says. "And all my mates would be working, so I would get up Monday, go play golf by myself, and then get up Tuesday and think 'What will I do today?' . . . I got a bit bored."
And so he reinvented himself as a successful sports administrator, and now finds himself working those long hours again, this time in a concrete office beneath the main stand at Mt Smart Stadium. It's a long, cheerful way from Scotland. It fits entirely with one of two sayings, handed down by his grandfather, by which he lives his life: "If it's to be, it's up to me: you get nothing for nothing."
It all began with darts. At 15, Doyle was a champion darts player in his working-class home town of Livingston, just outside Edinburgh, where his father worked in a tractor factory and his mum in a biscuit factory. He stayed on at school when many of his friends had elected to leave and sign on, but only until he found a job. There were 252 applicants for his electrical apprenticeship, but the boss was a darts player and wanted the young Doyle on his team. That was the first significant dose of luck. After that, you could argue he made his own.
He wasn't, he says, a big reader or particularly academic; he played a lot of sport. But perhaps he had an entrepreneurial spirit that set him apart: in school holidays, his dad would drop him at the golf course, and he would forage for lost balls until he had enough to sell back to the pro shop in exchange for a round. If he had time afterwards, he would hunt for more to pay for a pie and a Coke. "I don't know if I realised it at the time, but I always had some desire to do better," he says. "Certainly, I knew at an early age there had to be somewhere better to live than Scotland. But I have no idea why."
So four years later, apprenticeship done, 21-year-old Doyle decided to emigrate to South Africa, despite knowing nobody and having nothing lined up. He's hardly been back to Scotland; instead his parents - now separated - make regular visits. South Africa "was the land of opportunity back then. It was where do I go to try to find something else?" He took a month's leave and flew over, within a week finding a job, a flatshare and securing a work permit: he phoned his parents to tell them, and his employer to quit. Night school saw him through a business degree, hard graft from assistant production manager to production manager to general manager: "Opportunities were plenty, if you showed a bit of initiative and drive and energy - and I would say I was a hard worker."
He married an expat Englishwoman, had two daughters, but realised he didn't want to grow old there or see his girls grow up there, so in January 1994, from a shortlist of Australia, Canada, America and New Zealand, they came here.
At 34, the move was tougher - this time he had plenty to lose. So he treated it as, worst-case scenario, an expensive year's holiday. But he quickly got a job as the general manager of a car-stereo business, then met the technology entrepreneur Sir Peter Maire, who offered him a job at his fledgling but fast-growing Auckland company, Navman.
It was a paycut, but a shareholding was on offer. That changed everything. "For me, these things happen once in a lifetime - for most they never happen," he says, thoughtfully. "Yeah, definitely: Lucky Jim [again]." The business grew from $3 million to $500m, he says. They were selling fish-finders and sailing instruments, but they developed a sat-nav system for boats knowing it could transfer to cars - they were the first into the car market and grew rapidly worldwide.
In 2004, Maire, Doyle and chief operating officer Steven Newman sold up to American company Brunswick for a reported $108m. The trio committed to stay for three years, did their time, and left, alongside a flurry of senior staff amid reports of a culture clash, with Doyle telling the New Zealand Herald he wanted a break from working 17-hour days. That didn't last long.
"I would have survived financially: but I would have gone nuts," he says. The idea of semi-retirement, taking a few directorships, whacking a few golf balls, soon palled.
Just as he began thinking about getting another job, the headhunters called. He'd never, despite his sporting obsessions, considered the sports industry, but he was intrigued to be asked if he was interested in becoming chief executive of the deeply troubled New Zealand Rugby League.
He did some research, he says, "and I realised the NZRL was pretty broken". But, he says, he also realised that league had a significant impact on society's most vulnerable and that here was a chance to do some good. "Through sport you can effect a lot of change and have an impact on so many people. And I thought I couldn't stuff it up more than it was." So he wrote an entire strategic plan for the game ("More than a Game") and showed it to the board. They gave him the job.
It was, he admits, another decent paycut. "But it wasn't about the money." That strategic plan, presented as a series of interlocking pieces which had to turn from red to green to show progress, earned him the tag "Jigsaw Jim" but also a lot of respect within the game. Former Kiwis coach Graham Lowe, who was a senior NZRL administrator before Doyle arrived, observed: "He demonstrated good leadership, and I think he got well-deserved respect, which in our game is probably the most difficult thing to do: most league fans would boo Santa Claus."
And Doyle went back to big days. "There was so much to do. And you get nothing for nothing." He would, he says, leave at 5am for a morning meeting in Rotorua, then drive back for an afternoon in Auckland and take some work home in the evenings. "But you don't do things like that if you don't like it."
The second saying from his grandfather - "choose your attitude" - came into play. He was positive enough to believe he could make a change. He did. Sponsors returned, credibility grew, they made profits, grew numbers. Doyle is cagey about the state of the NZRL now. He's surprised at the staff turnover - almost all his team have left headquarters - "but I am not quite sure what happened. I have got my opinions, but I am not going to be quoted".
He quit with a year left on his plan, he says to allow his successor time to write the next one. Again, he dabbled in semi-retirement, joining boards and consulting to Sport New Zealand, who had made Doyle their Sports Leader of the Year.
At first, he rejected a job with the rich, powerful Australian National Rugby League, governing body of the game there and of the 16-team competition in which the Warriors play. Then the NRL embarked on a major restructure, brought in British banker Dave Smith as chief executive, and Doyle was persuaded to become his deputy. "My wife and I said, 'At some point we will say, I wish we had gone to Sydney, I wish we had given it a go.' So we thought, 'Let's have no regrets.' "
He went at first with just a suitcase, and was always clear it wasn't a permanent move, much as he loved the gig. His wife came, but his grown-up daughters (27 and 22, teacher and banker) didn't, instead moving back into the family home in the East Auckland suburbs.
"Jim Doyle was someone who got things done," says Brad Walter, chief rugby league writer of the Sydney Morning Herald, citing reforms of the salary cap, establishing an Integrity Unit to deal with wayward players and instituting mandatory testing for prescription drugs.
For non-sporting readers, the NRL is a big deal. "Unbelievably. It really blew me away: the coverage the All Blacks get here is nothing in comparison to what rugby league gets there . . . a media conference you have 20 cameras and 30 reporters all in your face."
He often did: as chief operating officer, he was the NRL's pragmatic fireman.
"For me, in business, you set a strategy and try to spend 80 per cent of your time working to try execute that strategy and 20 per cent you are reactive to what happens. There, you could have three days planned to do all sorts of things that are positive for the game and end up doing none of it because something has happened you have to react to."
His golf suffered; he managed only three rounds in two years, although one was a pro-am round with Rory McIlroy. How it worked, says Doyle, was that the NRL's communications director John Brady would call, early morning, and tell him what had happened.
His phone, he says, never stopped. He recalls the day that photos emerged of Todd Carney, a talented but serially wayward player for the Cronulla Sharks, apparently urinating in his own mouth. "I woke up early on a Sunday morning, 5am, saw this picture and thought, 'No. I can't believe it. This is going to be an interesting week.' "
Doyle drove an increase in the severity of penalties for misbehaving players and believes it's had a real impact - while we may read about more cases, it's because none are hidden any more. He explains: when a Newcastle Knights player, Alex McKinnon, was paralysed in a tackle, the NRL dedicated a competition round as a fundraiser for him. They spent time, money and effort on marketing it.
"We do surveys all the time. Sixty-six per cent of people in Australia and New Zealand knew about Alex McKinnon round. Todd Carney 'bubbled', we didn't spend any money on promoting or marketing it, and 88 per cent of people in Australia and New Zealand knew about it. So that's what people think of rugby league players, so we have to change that perception."
After two years, Warriors owner Eric Watson came to Doyle, and offered him the chief executive's job. A former season-pass holder, it was an easy offer to accept. Focusing on one club instead of 16, Doyle hopes he can "pick the eyes" out of what the others do best. He's measured - no, he won't make any outlandish declarations about winning premierships.
"No, the NRL is the toughest competition in the world." But, he says, the top-eight every year is a reasonable minimum and they should be pushing for the top four too.
He says the brand is strong, but the club perceived as a rollercoaster, so he wants more stability: more regular crowds, bigger membership base (they have 10,000, South Sydney has over 30,000).
A regular CEO is measured on his balance sheet and earnings per share; Doyle could conceivably turn a $10m profit, come 16th and be adjudged a failure. Being measured on something outside his control, "that's part of the job" and indeed any business. He says he's operating the same rule as regular business: get a good team around you. That's why he cleared out the coaching staff in the off-season, except for head coach Andrew McFadden, and surrounded him with more experienced personnel. Already, says Lowe, who once part-owned the club, he hears Doyle is making an immediate impact internally by demanding the club aims not to finish top eight, but to win the competition.
Doyle would never go back to business, he thinks, but when his work is done here, he may finally be ready for that semi-retirement.
If he were starting out in business now, he thinks, he wouldn't have got as far as he did. The Lucky Jims these days need at least a good first degree. "I'd be lucky to have got my first job now, let alone the ones I have had along the way," he says. "I think that's a bad thing. You've got to get the right mix . . . I've moved four times, that gives you a different life experience that you don't get from a book or qualifications."
When he sizes potential employees up, the CV can be a secondary consideration. "You can get a sense as to people's values and their attributes: are they going to be working hard . . . or are they hard work."


FR Treatment is good for up to 50 home laundering cycles.
The Black Stallion Flame-Resistant (FR) T-Shirts are good to be used as a secondary layer of welding protection or for light welding to keep sparks from getting to your skin. Made of 100% Flame-Resistant treated cotton fabric. Pair up with a FR welding jacket and you get that extra layer of protection without having to suffer in a hot, stiff, leather jacket.


We are proud to introduce this exclusive and unique mid-terraced property, a model "Claudia" with access to a communal swimming pool for approximately 15 properties only.
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IBM 8503 Monochrome VGA Monitor - Cut cable!
Main keyboard: IBM Model M.
Hey all. I was recently given an IBM model 8503-004 monochrome monitor but the VGA cable has been cut. Would anyone happen to have this same monitor and be able to open theirs up? It would be very simple to figure out the pinout - the cable connects inside to the neck board and mainboard using 2 sockets, you would just have to use a multimeter in continuity mode to figure out which wire goes to which pin on the VGA connector.
If not, does anybody have a service manual or schematic for the monitor?
I have a couple IBM mono VGA monitors here, but they're the smaller POS ones,. 4689 and 4707 (same except the cable length), and I'm pretty sure the cables aren't the same as the 8503.
Last edited by Polecat on 01 Feb 2019, 06:27, edited 1 time in total.
No such thing as stupid questions, only stupid answers, but I've got plenty of those. I'm pretty much incidental to this site, just happened onto your question. But I repaired thousands of CRT monitors back in the day, and I've done a lot of adapting and converting also. Nobody wanted mono VGA monitors back in the '90s, they were literally free for the taking. My favorite thing to do was to use the electronics from a 12 or 14 inch mono VGA monitor on a 9 inch CRT and install it in a portable case like a Kaypro along with a mini AT 386 or 486 motherboard. Unlike a color CRT a mono one has no shadow mask, and therefore no dot pitch, so the resolution is only limited by how tightly you can focus the electron beam. That's why the display on the early Macs looked so nice, and a 640 by 480 or 800 by 600 mono VGA display is really sharp and easy on the eyes.


NEW DELHI: A Delhi High Court judge Thursday recused herself from hearing the plea of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife Pratibha Singh challenging a trial court order to frame charges against them in a disproportionate assets case.
Justice Mukta Gupta said the matter be listed before another judge on Friday.
Virbhadra Singha and his wife had approached the high court on Wednesday against the December 10, 2018 trial court order to frame charges against Singh, his wife and seven others in the case lodged by the CBI.


CHOOSING THE RIGHT TEAM FOR YOUR RESTAURANT?
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They may forget what you said, but they'll never forget how you made them feel.
HOW IMPORTANT ARE GREAT SERVICE AND BRILLIANT REVIEWS?
Simon Avis on CROSSING ALL THE T'S IN YOUR resTauranT.
Katie Marcou on James Says… Get Stuck In!


How High digital sheet music. Contains printable sheet music plus an interactive, downloadable digital sheet music file.
How high are the stakes? How much fortune can you make? It's funny, I spent my whole life wanted to be talked about.
The Arrangement Details Tab gives you detailed information about this particular arrangement of How High - not necessarily the song.
There are no reviews written for How High.


Back to School Picture and Make a Frame Event. Thursday, Aug. 9 at 3:30 p.m. at the Cynthiana-Harrison County Public Library. Drop in for a free picture of your child to celebrate back to school and make a cute frame with them to display it in. This event will open at 3:30 and wrap up by 5 p.m. Pre-registration is appreciated.
Bookmobile. The Cynthiana-Harrison County Public Library Bookmobile will be available Thursday, Aug. 9 at Claysville Store at 10:30 a.m; Eastside Laundry, 1 p.m.; Suds Laundry, 2 p.m.


Carlo Biagi Bead Collection has many popular charm beads (also known as European beads) to collect and wear on bracelets and necklaces. Each bracelet can be customized individually to create unique jewelry for every occasion. The Carlo Biagi beads collection allows for many different combinations to create personalized fashion accessories. They also fit on popular brands of bracelets such as Chamilia, Trollbeads bracelets and more.
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text:
Q: Zend Framework Versions What are the mapping of CE/PE/EE versions to corresponding Zend versions?
If possible I need a list going back before Magento 1.1.

A: Here is what I have. I hope it's enough. Because PE and EE versions can be related to CE versions I think you can figure out the missing values.
CE 1.0.19870.4  - ZF 1.5.1
CE 1.1.6        - ZF 1.5.1
CE 1.2.0.1      - ZF 1.7.2
CE 1.3.2.1      - ZF 1.7.2
CE 1.4.0.1      - ZF 1.9.6
CE 1.4.2.0      - ZF 1.10.8
CE 1.5 - CE 1.8 - ZF 1.11.1
CE 1.9          - ZF 1.12.3
CE 1.9.1.2      - ZF 1.12.10
PE 1.10         - ZF 1.11.1
PE 1.11         - ZF 1.11.1
EE 1.9.1.1      - ZF 1.10.8
EE 1.10 - 1.13  - ZF 1.11.1
EE 1.14         - ZF 1.12.3
[EDIT]
To get the ZF version of your Magento instance look in the file lib/Zend/Version.php.
The class constant VERSION is what you are looking for.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Chlorosis, or yellowing of leaf tissue in plants, can be an indicator of a great number of issues from nutrient deficient soils to poor root systems or saturated soils. Manitoba farmers especially are dealing with excess moisture this year, even outside of the flood zones along the Assiniboine River, and while soybeans do take standing water better than other crops, the plants are certainly suffering from water stress.
Related: Iron chlorosis and herbicide flash — other reasons for yellow soybeans.
In this Soybean School, Dieter Schwarz of Pride Seeds, gets digging to explain some of the reasons producers may find yellowing in soybeans, focusing largely on root health and nodulation. Rhizobium species (the bacteria responsible for inspiring root nodules) are negatively affected by compaction and soil saturation, conditions that were present in many locations across the prairies this year. Schwarz describes the symptoms to look for when assessing fields of this nature, what producers can do to help yellowing crops and how to determine the next course of action.


text:
Q: How to add multiple series in pandas correctly? I have a question.
In my dataframe, I have names (of players of a game) stored in the four columns W1, W2, W3, W4 for the four players that won a round and in L1, L2, L3, L4 that lost a round. There is also a column WP for winning points (depending on map played) and LP for losing points which is simply -WP.
These would be the .head() of the 10 columns in question. Index are the rounds played. Its basically a history/tracker of past games.
{'W1': {0: nan, 1: 'Matthi', 2: 'Vain', 3: 'Matthi', 4: 'Markus'},
 'W2': {0: nan, 1: 'Paddy', 2: 'Marvin', 3: 'Jonas', 4: 'Marvin'},
 'W3': {0: nan, 1: 'Max', 2: 'Paddy', 3: 'Vain', 4: 'Johann'},
 'W4': {0: nan, 1: nan, 2: 'Max', 3: 'Johannes', 4: 'Max'},
 'WP': {0: nan, 1: 5.0, 2: 5.0, 3: 3.0, 4: 4.0},
 'L1': {0: nan, 1: 'Timi', 2: 'Matthi', 3: 'Timi', 4: 'Matthi'},
 'L2': {0: nan, 1: 'Markus', 2: 'Timi', 3: 'Markus', 4: 'Timi'},
 'L3': {0: nan, 1: 'Marvin', 2: 'Markus', 3: 'Marvin', 4: 'Vain'},
 'L4': {0: nan, 1: nan, 2: 'Johannes', 3: 'Nille', 4: 'Paddy'},
 'LP': {0: nan, 1: -5.0, 2: -5.0, 3: -3.0, 4: -4.0}}

What I want to do, is make a ranking, so for example for "Max" add WP for every time he was in either of the winning player columns and subtract LP for every time he was in either of the losing player columns.
I hoped I could just do this:
df.groupby("W1")["WP"].sum()+ df.groupby("W2")["WP"].sum()+ df.groupby("W3")["WP"].sum()+ df.groupby("W4")["WP"].sum()+ df.groupby("L1")["LP"].sum()+ df.groupby("L2")["LP"].sum()+ df.groupby("L3")["LP"].sum()+ df.groupby("L4")["LP"].sum()

But that gives me (lots of NaN that "shouldnt" be there, this is over the whole df of course):
Funkey       NaN
Johann       NaN
Johannes   -16.0
Jonas       22.0
Markus       NaN
Marvin      41.0
Matthi       NaN
Max         38.0
Nille        NaN
Paddy       -2.0
Timi         NaN
Vain       -16.0
dtype: float64

The weird thing (to me) is that all the values that are not NaN are correct.
Now, the problem, I think, is that the names are somewhat random across the four columns. It also means not each of the columns will have all the names. E.g. "Max" can sometimes appear in W1 and sometimes in W2, but maybe not in W3 or W4 ever.
I also thought I could do it with:
pd.Series.add(df.groupby("W1")["WP"].sum(), df.groupby("W2")["WP"].sum(), etc., fill_value=0)

But that gives me an error if I put more than three of the groupbys.
How can I achieve what I want to do?

A: You can use melt to flatten your dataframe and compute points for each player.
df1 = df.melt(['WP', 'LP'], var_name='W/L', value_name='Player').dropna()
df1['Points'] = np.where(df1['W/L'].str[0] == 'W', df1['WP'], df1['LP'])
out = df1.groupby('Player', as_index=False)['Points'].sum() \
         .sort_values('Points', ascending=False, ignore_index=True)

Output

Player
Points

Max
14

Paddy
6

Johann
4

Vain
4

Jonas
3

Marvin
1

Matthi
-1

Johannes
-2

Nille
-3

Markus
-9

Timi
-17

Check df1 to see the intermediate dataframe.

A: IIUC, melt to reshape, compute the points based on the column name (if starts with W), and grouby+sum:
import numpy as np
(df
 .melt(id_vars=['WP','LP'], value_name='name')
 .assign(points=lambda d: np.where(d['variable'].str.startswith('W'), d['WP'], d['LP']))
 .groupby('name')['points'].sum()
 )

Output:
name
Johann       4.0
Johannes    -2.0
Jonas        3.0
Markus      -9.0
Marvin       1.0
Matthi      -1.0
Max         14.0
Nille       -3.0
Paddy        6.0
Timi       -17.0
Vain         4.0
Name: points, dtype: float64


Besides Siri's art work she is a bike messanger.
After a 50 kilometer ride enjoying some good tacos.
Kat helping Karin to adjust the back wheel.
Isa showing Camilla Kina castle on Drottningholm.
Therese trying out her newly built bike.
Karin cleaning here custom made Cats crank.
Karina on here way home on Erstabron.


text:
Chaos theory produces map for predicting paths of particles emitted into the atmosphere
16 Jul 2019 by chiefeditor
Floating air particles following disasters and other largescale geological events can have a lasting impact on life on Earth. Volcanic ash can be projected up to the stratosphere and halt air traffic by lingering in the atmosphere for months. Particles from industrial accidents have the potential to travel full hemispheres before falling to the ground. A new model drawing on chaos theory, and published in this week's Chaos, from AIP Publishing, looks to help predict how particles move in such events with an eye toward potential applications for geoengineering to combat climate change.
Using available wind data, researcher Tímea Haszpra developed a model for following air particles as they travel around the globe. Using it, she has generated maps that can be used as atlases to predict how particles, such as volcanic ash or pollution, will be dispersed above the world.
"One of the most surprising parts of the research is the wide range of individual lifetimes," she said. "Lifetimes ranged from about two to 150 days for typical volcanic ash particles. More than 10% of smaller particles survive in the atmosphere as much as one year, and more than 1% survive two years."
Floating air particles following disasters and other geological events can have a lasting impact on life on Earth, and a new model drawing on chaos theory looks to help predict how these particles move, with an eye toward applications for geoengineering. Tímea Haszpra developed a model for following particles as they travel around the globe. Using it, she has generated maps that can be used to predict how particles will be dispersed above the world. This image shows the geographical distribution of the lifetime tau of particles initialized uniformly over the globe, Jan. 1, 2016, 00 UTC on the 500 hectopascal pressure level (about 5.5-kilometer altitude). Particle radius is 5 micrometers, particle density is 2,000 kg/m3. Credit: Tímea Haszpra
Atmospheric particle motion exhibits fractal-like behavior, and when data is specially filtered, an object that governs chaotic particle motion and is called a chaotic saddle can be found. The paths of each simulated particle show properties that are transiently brought together by the changes in the flow of the atmosphere, akin to sitting on the saddle, before falling off the saddle and, consequently, falling to Earth.
In general, she found that particles coming from the area around the equator remain in the atmosphere for the longest time, and particles smaller than one micron could stay in the atmosphere for years before falling.
The average lifetime of a particle in the air is about one month, but they also found that particles in one area of a map could be in the air up to 10 times as long as particles nearby on the map. How these lifetimes were distributed around the globe varied depending on the season.
To illustrate the concepts in the paper, Haszpra has created an online game, called RePLaT-Chaos, that lets players learn the topic of atmospheric advection by creating and testing their own volcanic eruptions.
Haszpra believes her findings can inform future efforts that have been suggested to use sun-reflecting air particles to counteract climate change. She plans to expand on this work by incorporating historical meteorological data and climate models to better understand how the dispersion of particles might change when the climate changes.
Categories Physics Tags climate change, mathematics, pollution, volcano Post navigation
Stronger earthquakes can be induced by wastewater injected deep underground
200 times faster than ever before! The speediest quantum operation yet

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Human Connection Matters to Gen Z: Ooma Survey Busts Myths Around Generational Communication Preferences
By MTS Staff Writer	 On Jun 26, 2019
Ooma, Inc., a smart communications platform for businesses and consumers, announced the results of a survey1 commissioned to discover consumers' preferred method for communicating with local businesses. In this study, Ooma surveyed 500 people each from four different generations: Baby Boomer (55-75 years old), Gen X (40-54 years old), Millennial (25-39 years old) and Gen Z (4-24 years old). Overall, the survey findings show that across the board, all generations are seeking a human to human connection, preferring in person and phone calls over any other method of communication – largely driven by speed and accuracy of speaking to a real person when it's important.
Marketing Technology News: Tencent Champions "Tech for Good" in Cannes
Most notably, the survey busts a common myth about Gen Z. Viewed as the most digitally connected generation so far, Gen Z has a reputation for avoiding phone conversations and solely communicating through texting and social media apps. The survey indicates Gen Z, with an estimated purchasing power of $153 billion a year2, overwhelmingly prefers the phone and face-to-face contact when it comes to important interactions with local businesses. When given the option, Gen Z will choose a direct, personal conversation over all other means of communication.
Authentic, human contact prevails: 57% of respondents prefer phone calls over electronic communication when dealing with local businesses. 35% of Gen Zers specifically said this is due to the speed and efficiency of phone conversations as compared to texting and social media.
A phone call is key in professional situations: Phone calls are the most preferred when contacting service professionals, including doctors, dentists and other health care professionals, hair and beauty salons, auto centers and legal and tax services.
Social media is least favored: Only 17% of Gen Zers like to communicate with local businesses over social media. Among them, 30% say it is impersonal and 35% claim slow responses to inquiries.
Email is geared toward Baby Boomers: Email is more often a preferred method of communication for Baby Boomers, while Gen Z prefers email the least.
Gen Z prefers human contact for booking hotels: 47% of Gen Zers choose to call a local hotel, compared to just 8% who would want to text with them, and 8% who'd communicate with them over social media.
Marketing Technology News: Only 6% of Small Businesses Focused on Retaining Customers, Despite Main Digital Marketing Goal of Increasing Sales
"Despite Gen Z's reputation for being glued to texting, tweeting and Instagramming on their devices, Ooma's survey has shown that this generation, along with all others surveyed, drastically prefer to handle both urgent and day to day communications through their phone," said Ken Narita, director of business marketing at Ooma. "Phone conversations provide an authentic experience that allows for quick actions and solutions, and it's clear that local businesses need to offer a clear way for people to reach them and communicate in this preferred method."
Ooma helps small- and mid-sized businesses make human connections through Ooma Office, a cloud-based phone service available at a straightforward fee of $19.95 a month per user with no contract required. Customers have their choice of hardware – conventional analog phones, IP phones, or virtual service through the Office for Mobile app, or any combination of the three. Advanced features such as a virtual receptionist, ring groups, call parking and extension monitoring give businesses the tools they need to avoid missed calls and get customers to the right person as fast as possible.
Marketing Technology News: Will Salesforce Customer 360 Arrival Push CRMs and DMPs Out of Equation in 2020?
Gen ZHuman ConnectionKen NaritaNewsOoma
Mobile Data Use Nearly Doubles, CTIA Annual Survey Shows
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