PODCAST 430

You’re Not That Hot Anymore. Are the institutions of our society failing us, or just failing to live up to their over the top narratives? A bad customer service experience leads into a discussion – presented as sort of a rant but meant as a question  – about whether the business models and technology that seemed so forward five to ten years ago don’t seem that way at all now. Technology companies, Internet Service Providers, consumer products, office supplies, services, health care, travel, utilities and all kinds of services in the western world seem to have stopped progressing in terms of service to the customer a few years ago. No longer is it good enough to deliver a great product or service, you have to have an ‘amazing’ story, be saving the whales, or making your product in some aboriginal prefecture where you pay fair wages and post the obligatory pictures of building schools, or handing out water at the local marathon or breast cancer walk. What happened to buying a toaster that works, and when it doesn’t being able to rely on a customer service approach that says, “Yep, here’s a new one”? Instead you get protocols, upsells, long waits at the help desk (with the same three songs that play over and over) bored, surly or overwhelmed ticket agents, or admissions ‘techs’. The gauntlet of nose-ring festooned ‘greeters’ sporting ‘man-buns’ or just plain mean city, county, state and federal workers is actually the new normal. We need to talk about it, and we need to fix it. Is the problem that companies are spending too much time saving the whales, and not enough time saving the customer? Or is it excessive government regulation, poor economic growth, or we’re just not as competent as our ‘amazing’ history and resume says we are? No institution in our society is more dangerously corrupt and incompetent than the government, despite what the politicians say about Wall Street. What can be done? Meanwhile…still on hold with customer service. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate. (Editor’s Note: Podcast 429 isn’t done yet, and will be on the way…so here’s podcast 430. Don’t worry you didn’t miss one.) 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:11 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Podcast 427 – Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann. The Bob Davis Podcasts caught up with former Congressman Michele Bachmann at the Citizens Council For Health Freedom annual dinner. Bachmann proves she is still a firehose and a firebrand when it comes to talk about politics. The CCHF is interested in repealing Obamacare, so this is where we start. Does the former congressman really think this congress, or the next, is going to actually repeal the ACA? How would that vote be taken? Sharing some of her experience from the presidential campaign trail in 2012, she talks about Jeb Bush and Donald Trump, and responds to a question about Trump’s seeming support of not repealing the ACA, saying Trump is willing to change his mind. She goes on to blast current republican leadership in the House of Representatives, and especially Minnesota Republican Leadership for not taking the fight to the left. She also takes on what she feels are the big issues in the 2016 race, starting with illegal immigration, and her analysis of what the republican base wants. Bachmann says Minnesota Republicans are risk averse, afraid to take on the democrats and the left, on the issues. In comments sure to ruffle some careful republican feathers, Bachmann says Minnesota’s Republicans at the state and federal level ‘don’t want editorial boards mad at them’. Bachmann says the Democrats are pushing hard left to their base, while the right is doing the opposite; pushing more to the center and ‘kicking its base in the shins’. Current Republican leadership in Minnesota really isn’t going to like her critique and explanation of why she thinks they are doing a bad job, but the base will celebrate what she says. Bachmann agrees with many of her former constituents who lament the loss of what she calls conservative leadership in Minnesota and reminds people on the sidelines in the Republican camp that one person can make a difference, providing a detailed history of how she got involved in politics in Minnesota in the first place, and then on to Congress and a presidential campaign. The former congressman and 2012 presidential candidate travels the country speaking, and proves in this interview she is as capable as ever of shaking things up. Is there another election in her future? Listen and find out. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Eric and Erum Lucero of Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:30 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Podcast 424

Retail Politics. The 2016 presidential election cycle isn’t yet in the primaries, but campaigns have locked in their rhetoric. Speakers are throwing out red meat at small gatherings of potential voters and political actives across the country, especially in the early caucus and primary states. This podcast takes you inside a political event in Minnesota where a surrogate for the Ted Cruz For President Campaign — The Senator’s Father — makes a speech. Sorry? Did you think these events would include substance, discussion of the issues, details on how to achieve goals, and detailed analysis of opponents? Media focus, polling, ‘cattle call’ debates, a desperate need for money to fuel bare bones campaigns, and propel candidates to the top of the heap before a single vote has been cast, has all but destroyed ‘discussion’ and ‘substance’. It may be early, but it’s already all about firing up the hopeful, the political active, getting the contribution, getting people on the email list, jumping on the plane or bus, and heading to the next event. Even local supporters and state legislators at the event are ‘on message’. The problem with retail politics and red meat is, do people have any better idea of what the candidates actually will do? What is a conservative? What is the plan for the country and why? What do Republicans stand for? Listen and find out. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Pride of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:37 — ) | Embed

Subscribe: RSS