ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - August 22, 2003

It is hard to believe that the summer is almost over. There are only a couple of weeks left before the tone shifts and the back to school routine sets in. This could be a good excuse for an "End of Summer Bash."

What? You say there isn't time to put something like that together and get the word out? If you had a great database of your guests that included their e-mail addresses, you could do it in a matter of minutes! (In case you missed it, this is a not-so-subtle reminder that your database may ultimately be the most valuable asset you have. Get busy!)

Viruses R NOT Us!
I suspect that, like me, your computer has probably been jammed with messages generated by the SobigF virus. (I deleted over 300 of them yesterday alone!) The situation is frustrating and deleting the infected messages is certainly time-consuming. Still, there is good news and bad news.

The good news is that the virus will shut itself down on September 9th and that it could have done a lot more damage. The bad news is that it could spread that quickly in the first place. And why? Because too many people either do not take the need for anti-virus software seriously or do not keep their virus definitions up to date.

If you didn't already know it, those annoying messages do not come from the person who appears to have sent them. This virus plucks a name out of the Outlook address book on the infected computer, sticks that in the e-mail message as the "From" address and sends itself out to everyone else in the address book.

The messages: 1) have good anti-virus software, 2) keep it updated, 3) do not open any suspicious attachments (when in doubt, send a message back to the person and ask if they sent you something), and 4) consider using an e-mail program other than Outlook or Outlook Express. (I use Eudora and love it!) The price of e-mail freedom is eternal vigilance!

Got a Lemon?
My note last week about the east coast power outage prompted this note from Howard Black of the soon-to-be-world-famous Bright Star Drive-In Grill in North Carolina:

The south is famous for its summer thunderstorms, and one hit us on Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago. This Saturday evening we had an old car cruise-in scheduled followed by a parking lot dance for the cruisers. Unfortunately, we also had our power knocked out for nearly four hours. As a result, we didn't have any old cars show up ... but we had about 25 people arrive for the parking lot dance along with a scattering of regular customers who were also hungry and without power.

We overcame and improvised! I called an independent restaurant several miles from my restaurant and told him that we wanted pizza and lots of it. My employees started ferrying pizza and ice from his restaurant to ours. When everyone around town learned that we were serving food that night, lo and behold ... the parking lot filled up, the dark dining room filled up and we had an amazing night!! Car radios were turned up and people danced, talked and ate. It was a great time!

Admittedly we did not make much of a profit but we made a good impression on lots of potential new customers. I made a good friend with another restaurant owner who helped me out in a tough situation. It's what we here in the south refer to as making the best of a bad situation!

The Perpetual Question
What did you learn from your staff today?

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