Where are the Cyber Police? (WT425)

Where are the Cyber Police? (WT425)

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by Shirley Dalton | 17 Aug, 2018 | Blog, Business

WT 425 Where are the cyber police

For many people, August 2018 has been a difficult month. Astrologers have warned of the tricky effects from eclipses as the energy for the planet shifts.

I was a little more than interested when I heard one Astrologer say that some of the effects could include cyber hacking because that’s exactly what happened to me.

I received a number of messages through my website from concerned people asking me to produce a receipt for a credit card charge that read “Shirley Dalton Newcastle”.

I was shocked. They weren’t my customers and I hadn’t charged their cards, let alone received any of the money. 

It turns out someone set up a bogus account in Stripe (like Paypal) using my social media details to verify the account and then somehow charged the credit cards for amounts from $799 to $1995.

As soon as I became aware of this I contacted Stripe to ask them to investigate. They don’t have a phone number you can find anywhere so it was all by email and very frustrating. They advised that I had to go to the local police and get a police report, which I did.

That still wasn’t enough to convince them. I contacted the ACCC, Department of Fair Trading and the Australian Cyber Security Centre as well as other departments and no-one seemed to be able to help.

Where are the Cyber Police?

I was beside myself. I had almost resigned myself to the fact that I couldn’t do anything about it until a representative from Stripe finally agreed to call me at 9pm. I have to say I was still sceptical that she was really a representative and not the scammer, however she gave me some details for the police and cyber security people if they wanted to contact Stripe.

Out of the blue I also received a phone call from an Australian Federal Police officer who informed me he would contact the victims and also the merchant company.

I have no idea what will happen with the investigation. I have no idea how much damage this has caused my business and reputation. What I do know is that it is extremely difficult to find and prosecute the people who do these things.

Where are the Cyber Police?

Truly, it’s a scary thing to find out your details have been used for something illegal and damaging to others.

You can’t be too careful with what you post or share. Just a few days ago Ross got a call from someone wanting to sell raffle tickets for a charity. He came and asked if I was okay to support the charity. “Yes, but you’re not going to give our credit card details over the phone are you?” I asked.

He shook his head, as if to shake his brain. It’s so easy to get caught with things like this and if you do it willingly or knowingly you are not covered by your bank. We were shocked and saddened to hear of an 80 year old couple handing over $15,000 believing they owed it to Centrelink and because they did it willingly the bank could not reimburse them.

It’s sad that we need to have cyber police and from my experience we definitely need to have a collaborative force with worldwide jurisdiction.

Until we get dedicated cyber police, be sure to check your accounts, your junk box and change your passwords – regularly!

Learn It With a Story (WT424)

Learn It With a Story (WT424)

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by Shirley Dalton | 10 Aug, 2018 | Blog, Mindset

WT 424 Learn it with a story

A friend of mine, Janet, recently enrolled in a program with Jim Kwik to enhance memory and learning strategies. Part of her homework was to teach someone what she was learning. Of course I was a willing participant, both from a learning perspective and also to support her and be her Accountability Buddy.

Since I too am required to share, I thought it would be a good topic this week. 

Here’s a little story I made up. Read the story and I’ll explain what it really means. 

“The SALT got poured over the chocolate coated MAGNUM icecream and fell into the TIN FOIL that was buried in the SAND. At night the glow worms glowed PHOSPHORESCENT YELLOW and stunk like BLEACH, which made us all go “ARRGGGHGHHHH”, until Peter came along with POTATO chips and chocolate MILK which was good for our bones. 

Notice the words in upper case: SALT, MAGNUM, TIN FOIL, SAND, PHOSPHORESCENT, YELLOW, BLEACH, ARRGGGGHHGGGHGH, POTATO, MILK. 

These words relate to the elements in the Periodic Table numbered 11-20. 

The trick with memory according to Jim and Janet is to make it relevant to something you know so you can remember it easily and to make up a story.

Salt – Sodium, Magnum – Magnesium, Tin Foil – Aluminium, Sand – Silicon, Phosphorescent – Phosphorus, Yellow – Sulfur, Bleach – Chlorine, Arrggghghhgh – Argon, Potato – Potassium, Milk – Calcium.

You could make up any story. Janet’s story was quite different to mine because she has different triggers.

It’s a cool little tip if you have to remember steps in a process or a list of items or even names. I’m still working on it for bigger chunks of information. I’m keen to learn so I can pass this to participants in my leadership program when they have to recite a very special poem.

Your homework this week is to give it a go. See if you can make up a story to remember the first 10 elements: Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon. As a hint, your story could include balloons and batteries or trees or diamonds.

See how you go.

What Do You Need to Measure? (WT423)

What Do You Need to Measure? (WT423)

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by Shirley Dalton | 3 Aug, 2018 | Blog, Mindset

WT 423 What do you need to measure?

You’ve heard the saying, “What gets measured, gets managed”. 

I confess I didn’t quite understand the impact of this statement until recently. 

I set myself a goal of doing exercise at least 4 times each week. 

Of course I never feel like doing exercise; it’s very easy for me to make something else more important. Consequently I wasn’t meeting my goal. 

I decided to use the calendar on the wall and simply place a “tick” on the days I did exercise. 

It soon became very obvious how many days I was wimping out. 

Being able to see the ticks (or lack of) actually started to motivate me and soon it became a game between Ross and me, as to which one of us got to place the tick on the calendar. 

Last month I met my goal and exercised 4 times every week, even 5 times on some weeks. 

I was astounded at how simple this was. 

I have now added a few more things to the calendar to remind me to do them. 

How about you? 

What do you need to measure? 

What’s your system and if you need to, who can you ask to hold you accountable?

What’s Your Criteria? (WT422)

What’s Your Criteria? (WT422)

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by Shirley Dalton | 27 Jul, 2018 | Blog, Business

WT 422 What is your criteria

Warning! This week is a bit of a rant but it also holds a very important message for you if you have customers. 

For the past 5 or more years I’ve had a merchant facility with the nab bank and eWay to accept online payments and payment by credit card (and yes I am naming and shaming). Last month I was shocked to look at my statement that showed that I was being charged 3.32%, 7.14% and a whopping 14% on some credit cards for payments from my customers.

I rang eWay to enquire about the rates. “Oh, that’s not us. Those rates are set by the nab.”

I rang nab. “Oh, that’s not us. You’ll have to talk to eWay.”

I rang eWay again. “Oh yes, that’s because of the way the account was set up and nab sets the rates.”

“This is not helpful. What can I do about it?”

“We have an arrangement with Westpac that would be 1.9% +20c per transaction.”

“That sounds good. What do I need to do to set that up?”

“I’ll transfer you to a Westpac representative.”

The Westpac representative informed me that I had to open a business banking account with Westpac at a local branch, then I could apply for the merchant facility.

I spent two hours setting up the bank account. The banker called the Merchant team and I answered the questions for the merchant facility.

Less than 24 hours later my application was declined. There was no reason given.

The lady from the merchant team called me to ask if I had received the email telling me that it had been declined. At that point I hadn’t opened my emails, so you can imagine my surprise, disappointment and anger.

To be clear, I wasn’t that angry about being declined for the facility. There are a number of other options for taking payments. I was, however, extremely annoyed that this will now be added to my credit history and will affect future applications.

I questioned the lady as to why I was declined. Apparently it was bank policy not to disclose. I asked to speak to someone more senior. Again I was told it is bank policy not to disclose the reason. The only reason I can imagine is because my forecast revenue for online payments may have been lower than they want. Still no response.

I asked whom else I could complain to so they transferred me to the Complaints Department. All they did was “catch and pass”.  They listened to what I had to say then replied with, “I will have to refer this to the merchant department for them to investigate. This will take 7 business days.”

“Aaarrrghghghghgh!” 

No-one would tell me the criteria for acceptance. No-one would tell me why my application was declined. (Just so you know, my credit score is extremely high, so that was unlikely to be the reason.)

A similar thing has been happening to the surveying industry with what used to be the Lands Department.

Land Registry Services (LRS) as it is now called, have a checklist that they use to assess applications for title. Up until now, they had not shared the checklist, so surveying firms could be penalised for something they didn’t know they had to do or not do. 

Here’s my point. If you want your customers to comply with your policies and procedures, doesn’t it make sense to let them know the criteria. 

If I had known the criteria for the application and found I wouldn’t meet it, I wouldn’t have applied.

Surveying firms would do the same with their applications. They would make sure that every application was assessed against the checklist BEFORE submitting it. 

Take a look at your business. Do you have qualifying criteria for any of your services or for taking on potential customers? 

If so, do you share this? 

And if not, why not? 

It’s the same with your team members’ role descriptions. If they know what they have to do to what standard, they can assess themselves and make sure they are doing things right.

This experience has certainly taught me to ask more questions and check the criteria.

If You Don’t Train Them (WT421)

If You Don’t Train Them (WT421)

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by Shirley Dalton | 20 Jul, 2018 | Blog, Business

WT 421 If you don't train them

I was sitting in the waiting room. The phone rang. The junior answered. I didn’t hear what the caller asked, but I could guess based on the answer. “It will be $50”. 

My guess was that the caller asked how much the service would be. 

As soon they got the answer they hung up.

If you were the owner or manager of this business, would you be happy if you overheard that conversation? 

I know I wouldn’t be and yet you can’t blame the junior. The junior did what she was asked; she answered the question about cost. 

If you don’t train your people, you can’t be angry when they don’t do things the way you would like them done.

Most customer enquiries in any business, in any industry usually start with a question about cost. Why? Because customers don’t know what else to ask. 

It’s your job to take control of the phone call. 

You could start by asking permission to ask them a few questions. “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions to make sure I understand your situation please?” 

Here are a few examples from different industries that follow once you have been given permission to ask: 

“Is it for your son or daughter?”  

“Is it for a special occasion?” 

“Is this something you need urgently?” 

“Are you looking to buy or rent a property?” 

It’s very important to have a script or cheat sheet so your team can answer customer enquiries in a professional and consistent manner whilst taking control of the call. We call this “Telephone Technique”. 

It’s up to you to develop the script or series of questions. You know the information you need in order to determine if you can help someone. You know why you ask the questions you do. 

If you haven’t done so, please write this down. You don’t have to personally write it down, you can record it and have it transcribed, but someone has to document it. 

You’ll be surprised at how many more sales you’ll make, or time you’ll save by qualifying the right rather than wrong customers, if you’ll just take the time to unpack what you know and train your people.

You might be very surprised (and disappointed) if you were to listen in on your calls and add up the number of potential sales you lose, simply because you don’t have a script and you haven’t trained your team.

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