cold times

Now that the temperatures have finally taken a tumble, retail sales should pick up for the last few weeks of May, reversing a somewhat disappointing third quarter for some retailers. Mothers day should have picked up extra winter sales, with those usually not shopping picking up items on impulse.

I've forgotten how intrusive Auckland's cold can be - and how suddenly it can arrive. The fan, to keep comfortable with the warm humid nights has been replaced with the dehumidifier to ease the cold humidity of Auckland's winter.

Rod Dean is stepping down as Telecom chairman. I'm sure somewhere out there there'll be good riddance calls, especially since his conspicuous absence in the first few days of the LLU leak. Well yes, it'll be good to see him step down after so long at the helm, but it will be up to Dean, along with CEO Teresa Gattung, to make sure that they handle what has been an awful PR time for Telecom to create a direction for the business that will work with the new and planned regulation. There are indications of this already, but putting together a committee to establish the possible need for thinking about something isn't the final call. At the very least, Telecom needs to stick to its decision of splitting its business into customer and business divisions (with hopefully splitting wholesale into a different business). Telecom's services are currently a minefield to operate, and you might as well give up if you're looking for information on telecom.co.nz or xtra.co.nz. They desperately need to integrate their customer information portals, their pricing schedules (inc features and benefits) and their online access to information. It's eternally frustrating to have to log in multiple times to access any details surrounding one account.

It's a split that will make things better for Telecom in the long run, and should save overheads to boot. They would definitely be better off having done this 5 years ago. Instead they have chosen to underinvest in their customer experience. It's little wonder they're getting the cold shoulder lately.