Surface Ripples

My Hotmail Conundrum

I’m a proud and happy Mac user!  After working on a PC for 25 yeas of my professional life, for whatever reason I decided 11 years ago to switch to a Mac.

To paraphrase the slogan “someone” used, “Once you use a Mac, you won’t look back!”  I love my Mac. I’ve learnt how to use my Mac (mostly through trial and error).  If there’s something I can’t do, I Google it and find an abundance of articles, helpdesks and videos on how to resolve my problem.  I once received the ultimate compliment that people should refer to me for any Apple related issues (mind you this was within my own family).

One of the services I use with Apple is the mail app. I run several email accounts on this: personal, business and two public domain emails (one of which I use for online shopping).

One of those public domain emails is a Hotmail address and is the first email address I ever had that was my own and could be “carried around with me” as I moved from country to country.

This year, Microsoft updated their sign-in protocols for Hotmail and I started receiving emails that I would no longer be able to access my Hotmail account without taking certain action.  Microsoft did provide guidance on what action to take, but unfortunately it was written for the operating systems used on iPhones and iPads.  It didn’t apply to people using Apple Mail on their desktop Mac. Things came to a head, when I received what seemed to be the final warning that I would no longer be able to access my Hotmail address from my desktop.  I’d already taken the action needed to be able to access it on my iPhone and iPad so it was not going to be a “dealbreaker” if I couldn’t access it from my desktop.  However as I advance in age, I find that I prefer accessing email from a larger screen rather than that on an iPhone (even the new “plus “size phones).  An iPad 11” is OK. 

I finally “Googled” something like Can’t access Hotmail on my Mac desktop” and there in the top five suggestions, was the answer to my problem.  It was simple!  Within a minute, I’d successfully reconfigured my Mac to access Hotmail once more. 

The individual who provided it commented that Microsoft instructions were only for the operating systems on iPhones and iPads but not Apple MacBooks or desktops…

It made me wonder, DID Microsoft or whoever the employee was that wrote the original instructions for iPads and phones simply not realise that iOS is different to OSX?

It certainly seems to be the case. After all, is it reasonable to expect a Microsoft employee working on one particular product to understand the intricacies of Apple’s operating systems? This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this problem either.  Are we in our organisations just as guilty of not “seeing the bigger picture”?

Those of us Mac users who use MS Office on our Macs will also have encountered similar predicaments when using the Mac versions of Office. 

In the end I realise this was nothing more than a simple case of awareness.  Our world is growing faster, more complicated and more diverse every year.  What holds through this year may well be obsolete next year.

How can we as business leaders, manage this rate of change in such a way as to keep our business is going (and our employees sane!)

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website  provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  

Labels: Customer Care, Productivity

posted by William Martin @ 09:53