US Airways slogan is “Fly with us.” Maybe it should be “Fly with us…or else!” A few years ago, I had a bad experience flying with U.S. Airways. Here is the short version of what happened: Hours trapped on a plane in the hot sun with no ac …Screaming kids and pissed off passengers… Canceled flight…Hours of waiting in line to re-book…Overnight in Philly at very bad hotel with no luggage (I still don’t really understand how they could get our luggage home but not us!? ) … Back on a plane…No apologies or compensation. (Except for a free toothbrush) I haven’t flow on US Air since, but they are still nice enough to send me monthly newsletters as part of their dividends program for frequent flyers. Several months ago I got a threatening letter saying if I didn’t book a flight soon I would “forfeit” my frequent flyer miles. It seems that US Air decided that customers who have frequent flyer miles and don’t use them are a liability.

“     Effective January 31, 2007, active membership status is based on having earned or redeemed miles within a consecutive 18-month period. “

Needless to say I “forfeited” the miles. Next, the extortion letters started. Here is an abridged version:

-      Ha, Ha, Now we have your miles! If you ever want to see them again, immediately book a flight on our crappy airline or pay the ransom! Act now! Our helpful staff of collections service agents are ready to take your money. “Dividend Miles members have an opportunity to reinstate forfeited miles for an additional 18 months for a fee: • $50 1 – 4,999 miles • $100 5,000 – 19,999 miles • $200 20,000 – 49,999 miles • $300 50,000 – 99,999 miles • $400 100,000 or more miles

Since I haven’t flown or paid the ransom, every month they send me a nice shinny new email which amounts to a proof of life letter for my frequent flyer miles.

Notice how they highlight them in red and mark them as “Miles Forfeited”.

If the miles are forfeited, why show me how many there are every month? Why don’t you just blindfold the miles, duct tape them to a chair with the morning paper and send me a picture every month until I give in to your demands Try asking your customers why they aren’t using the miles and not simply focusing on getting people to use them through scare tactics and extortion. By not asking the right questions you’re missing an opportunity to engage your customers in a conversation that will help make your product better. Here is a good question to ask. How’s that working?

When you learn to ask the right questions and engage your customers in a dialog you are far less likely to lose customers when something goes wrong and you often find overlooked opportunity to improve your product or service.

Tom Peters gave the Keynote presentation at the annual meeting of the AICC (Association of Independent Corrugated Converters). If you have the chance, you should really check out his presentation slides. (Warning! You may need sunglasses.) I am sure you will get the message from the slides, even without hearing the presentation. He does a good job of grabbing and holding your attention and at the same time presenting some really compelling statistics. If your business doesn’t offer anything for women, boomers and geezers you may be are missing the boat. You can download Tom's presentation slides here. I particularly like this slide.

Joomla! announced the release of version 1.5 RC3 [codename: Takriban] today. This is the next to last step before a release of the much anticipated stable version. No firm release date has been set for the stable version, but, what would you bet that there will be a big announcement on or around Oct 13 to coincide with Joomla! Day USA (East) New York City. (Which, by the way, is being held at Google's pad). Let’s hope so. I am really impressed with what I have seen so far in 1.5, and am excited to get rolling with the stable version. With the announcement of the RC3 version the clock is ticking on the contestants in the template contest. They have one week to tidy up the designs before the final judging and I don’t envy the judges. There are some great entries. The winner will have their template included in the release of the stable version and the huge exposure that comes with it. If you don’t know Joomla! here is a bit about it… “Joomla! is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that will help you build websites and other powerful online applications. Best of all, Joomla! is an open source solution that is freely available to everybody.” For more information visit Joomla.org or contact me with questions.