I think I've a huge amount of time for people who are learning Python, PHP and Perl ... delighted to help them via
Opentalk or by individual email if they've got confidential information that they don't want to post.
But just occasionally, I feel I'm being taken advantage of - there's a small minority who seem to expect me to drop everything and answer them, for free, without even a "please" or "Thank You". A terse "Reply as soon as possible" on to the end of an email I just received caused me to chuckle. Well now - I do normally answer my emails as soon as possible but now that you mention it, perhaps I shouldn't give this one such a high priority.
Under normal circumstances, I think you'll find the levels of support I offer are quite extraordinary - have a look at all the solved questions on Opentalk, for example, and I'm always happy to put a little time into post-course advise for our students by email or even in person - if they feel it's worth travelling here for a couple of hours of assistance one evening, they can gladly have it. We're here for the long haul and looking after your existing customers and contacts is one heck of a better way to set up future business that a lot of "cold" prospecting. Yet examples written get added to course materials, opentalk answers get archived on public pages that the search engines index, so the very act of helping existing contacts does also spead the work for people who haven't come across us previously.
We've a saying
"Come as a student, leave as a friend". It works - and you can be a student of the technology via this web site and become a friend just as much as you can become a friend if you come on a course.
(written 2005-05-28, updated 2006-06-05)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
G501 - Well House Consultants - Customer Service [72] On Customer Service - (2004-10-03)
[91] On line every 24 hours - (2004-10-17)
[126] Feedback shows the tip of an iceberg - (2004-11-22)
[150] Confession - (2004-12-13)
[189] Tuesdays and Fridays - (2005-01-25)
[195] Customer service - examples to warn us - (2005-01-30)
[233] Giving customers best value - (2005-03-02)
[265] Business practise, 2005 style - (2005-04-03)
[350] Want to be one better - (2005-06-17)
[393] Trainer answers phone - (2005-07-28)
[440] Upgrade! - (2005-09-09)
[482] Different ways of selling - (2005-11-01)
[552] Keeping Customers Informed - (2006-01-02)
[566] May all your screw-ups be big ones - (2006-01-16)
[569] Instructions for bright people - (2006-01-19)
[609] Been on a course, but still not got it? - (2006-02-16)
[621] And the staff put the icing on the cake - (2006-02-23)
[628] Active Learning - (2006-02-28)
[650] A person of few words - (2006-03-18)
[717] A customer service company - (2006-05-11)
[725] Better communication - (2006-05-19)
[841] Forum help - a push in the right direction - (2006-08-21)
[852] Eventful evening - a lesson in looking after contacts - (2006-09-02)
[944] Just ******* Google it - (2006-11-25)
[961] Products that our customers want more of - (2006-12-03)
[966] CSL, KISS and RTFM - (2006-12-05)
[1007] Friends and family - (2006-12-25)
[1046] Bounce, bounce, bounce - (2007-01-20)
[1262] Keep in touch with PHP, Perl, Python and old friends too - (2007-07-09)
[1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
[1434] Market survey - to learn, to prove a point, or to sell your product? - (2007-11-17)
[1446] An answer to a student asking 'Help' - (2007-11-27)
[1516] Pictures you can use - for free - from our library - (2008-01-23)
[1606] Sheep Shearers, Marathon Runners and Ocean Sailors - (2008-04-09)
[1637] Providing exceptional service - and carrying on doing so. - (2008-05-09)
[1835] 23:30 bookings and midnight checkins - (2008-10-12)
[1985] Learning to program as a part of your job - (2009-01-10)
[1991] Rules for a King - (2009-01-13)
[2015] Service Excellence Awards - (2009-01-30)
[2049] Why Choose Well House Consultants for your course? - (2009-02-20)
[2102] What do people think of our Apache httpd / Tomcat course? - (2009-03-24)
[2124] Building down expectations - (2009-04-09)
[2236] Alumni - revisiting and supporting the old University - (2009-06-13)
[2258] Questions I have been asked on answering the phone - (2009-06-26)
[2530] Taking a knock over Santa - (2009-12-08)
[2650] Getting a phone line changed ... - (2010-02-25)
[2880] Getting in touch - Please allow me to see you when you are online - (2010-07-21)
[2961] Initial handling of phone calls and walk in visitors - (2010-09-19)
[3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
[3103] Thank you - and Happy Christmas - (2010-12-24)
[3271] The importance of feedback - (2011-04-30)
[3294] It's not just about the jam in the sandwich - (2011-05-19)
[3378] New product - ensuring that supply matches demand - (2011-08-03)
[3808] Can you put names to faces? - (2012-07-19)
[3835] The Information age - not yet truly with us? - (2012-08-12)
[4077] Palty or Parliamentary? - (2013-04-30)
[4078] Train works for me! - (2013-05-02)
[4232] Not wanted here - hotel guests who will not be happy - (2013-12-30)
G305 - Well House Consultants - Post Course support [136] Please tell us - (2004-12-01)
[199] Post course support - part of the service - (2005-02-02)
[244] Getting your examples, my examples and the data files after your course - (2005-03-13)
[248] Use me, but use me effectively - (2005-03-16)
[293] Course follow-ups - (2005-04-27)
[336] Targetted Advertising - (2005-06-05)
[389] Tough Love - (2005-07-25)
[509] Snippets from Geekmas - (2005-11-28)
[516] Open source questions? Anyone can ask. - (2005-12-03)
[651] Please Register with Opentalk - but just once! - (2006-03-19)
[1245] Ensuring that our tutor answers YOUR questions - (2007-06-25)
[1874] Is it worth it? - (2008-11-07)
[2732] Asking about Jesus - (2010-04-20)
[3045] After Course Resources - do we publish sample answers. Example from Java Exceptions module. - (2010-11-13)
[3391] For programmers who use Internet Explorer as their browser - (2011-08-13)
[3419] Data that we use during our training courses, and other training resources - (2011-09-04)
[3701] Refresh and Revision training class days - Perl / PHP / Python / Lua / Ruby / Tcl / C / C++ - (2012-04-19)
[3770] Sample answers to training course exercises - available on our web site - (2012-06-21)
[4588] What teach you in a week stays with you for a decade - (2015-11-29)
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