Customer Service

  • Most Topular Stories

  • Growing Business the Old-Fashioned Way

    Customers Rock!
    Becky Carroll
    28 Aug 2010 | 10:45 am

  • 34 Reasons to Start a Blog

    Conversation Agent
    Valeria Maltoni
    31 Aug 2010 | 4:00 am
    guest postToday is Conversation Agent's fourth birthday. Happy birthday! They grow up so fast... No need to send cake, but feel free to join me in posting a comment or sending Valeria an email letting her know you're out there. See, every blog has true fans, active readers, and a large, silent majority. It's easy enough to know what the true fans and active readers think—but sometimes when you're busy publishing up a storm, you start to wonder what the silent majority thinks. This is true especially in the beginning, because you don't have a lot of true fans and active readers, and also…

  • Is Your “Lack of Remarkable” Preventing Customer Loyalty?

    Customers Rock!
    Becky Carroll
    28 Jul 2010 | 6:35 pm
    Here is a blast from the past, a classic Customers Rock! post on taking care of your current customers. Thanks to @Foundora for bringing it back to my attention. Enjoy! Many companies spend a lot of time and money on attracting new customers to their product or service.  Much of the marketing budget is spent on mass approaches such as advertising and direct mail.  While those media may have their place in attracting prospects, they don’t help companies with their most valuable asset: their existing customer base. Taking care of existing customers is a fantastic, cost-effective way to…

  • Inspiration Points: Are You Afraid of Being Noticed?

    Maximum Customer Experience Blog
    Kelly Erickson
    18 Aug 2010 | 12:18 am

  • The allure of the negative…

    Scott McKain Viewpoint
    Scott McKain
    1 Sep 2010 | 3:50 am
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Church of the Customer Blog

  • Has your product jumped the shark?

    Jackie Huba
    16 Aug 2010 | 12:17 pm
      From our good friend Tom Fishburne:  "In the rush to maintain momentum, there is huge pressure to "jump the shark." Jumping the shark attracts new attention and feels necessary in the game of competitive one-upmansship. But the volume of attention is far less important than the caliber of the attention. And more important than grabbing fresh attention is the maintaining of those already buying. The risk of jumping the shark isn't getting eaten by the shark. It's leaving your loyalists behind." More on Tom's take on jumping the shark here. 

  • 9 ways Groupon leads the online coupon industry

    Jackie Huba
    13 Jul 2010 | 4:10 pm
    In the discount world, lowest price is king.  In the online discount coupon world, Groupon hopes to be king via customer service. Since launching in November 2008, the Chicago-based deal-a-day website has sold over 7 million online coupons in 70 cities. Its success has spawned competitor sites such as LivingSocial, Townhog, and Homerun, and it's betting that fanatical customer service will keep them leading the pack. During a recent trip to Chicago, I spent some time at Groupon's headquarters hoping to understand what makes this fast-growing company tick. What I found were the nine ways…

  • After the brainstorm

    Jackie Huba
    21 Jun 2010 | 8:10 am
    "As we return to the realties of our day jobs at the end of a brainstorm, we run into road blocks, inertia, committees and other hazards that can water down ideas or shut them down entirely. That's what organizations do well. They are designed to minimize risk. Bringing an idea to life can feel like making it through a circuitous maze. So much emphasis with innovation is placed on the up-front brainstorm, yet the real acid test is in the day-to-day shepherding of the idea through the organization..."  --   Tom Fishburne BONUS: Tom is the international managing director of…

  • Why a complaint is really a gift

    Jackie Huba
    16 Jun 2010 | 1:26 pm
    At first blush, a complaining customer is not something we have on our wish list of awesome things in the world.  But this type of customer contact provides a great opportunity to do something remarkable that will build loyalty and word of mouth. Research shows this to be true. Customer experience research firm TARP finds that customers who complain and are satisfied are up to 8% more loyal than if they had no problem at all (PDF). My experience with Adagio Teas is a great example of this principle. I recently lost the little plastic disk that sits under its IngenuiTEA pot. (Seriously, this…

  • OGST visually explained

    Ben McConnell
    2 Jun 2010 | 3:34 pm
    If you're a fan of OGST -- Objectives, Goals, Strategies and Tactics -- then this visual explainer that Paula Hansen of Chart Magic drew during my talk last month at the Social Commerce Summit is a handy way to explain it to colleagues.
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Leadership & Learning

  • The Power of Now!

    Kevin Eikenberry
    1 Sep 2010 | 2:28 am
    Every leader I talk with, coach or train tell me the same thing.  They all tell me they have lots to do – more than they did six months or a year ago, with no end in sight.  I could write a post about the factors that lead that to be true, but that isn’t this post. [...]

  • Bury My Heart at Conference Room B

    Kevin Eikenberry
    30 Aug 2010 | 3:35 am
    This week’s Resource Recommendation: Bury My Heart at Conference Room B: The Unbeatable Impact of Truly Committed Managersby Stan Slap. This is fast becoming one of the most talked about business books of the year, and for some very good reasons. It discusses in a new way a very important topic – what are the [...]

  • Ten Ways to Make a Great First Impression

    Kevin Eikenberry
    30 Aug 2010 | 3:30 am
    We all meet new people, in all phases of our lives. In some of those situations we may not be consciously thinking about the importance of making a good first impression; however, conscious or not, we are always making an impression. Sometimes – be it the person we are meeting, the situation we are in [...]

  • What is Your Waldo?

    Kevin Eikenberry
    27 Aug 2010 | 10:33 am
    I just read this tweet from @tim_hurson:  ”Develop a vivid image of your goal. If you don’t know what Waldo looks like, how will you know you’ve found him?” You’ve surely seen the Where’s Waldo? posters, books and more (if not, here is the official site).  The goal of each is to find Waldo amongst [...]

  • Shut Down, Shut Off, and Think!

    Kevin Eikenberry
    26 Aug 2010 | 4:04 am
    Yesterday I read an article in the online New York Times, titled Digital Device Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime.   While I encourage you to read the article, the title gives you the message.  I couldn’t have cited the research included, but nothing in the piece surprised me at all. Then, last night on the NBC [...]
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Call Center Perspectives

  • Poll- Predictive Dialler

    26 Aug 2010 | 7:02 am
    I want your assistance. We are doing a study to track the shift in the Predictive Dialler market from Premise based solutions to SaaS. If you employ a predictive dialler, please take our poll by follwing this link

  • 16 Aug 2010 | 6:49 am

    16 Aug 2010 | 6:49 am
    Just saw this article on CBC.caAs a call center consultant at a call center consulting firm, I am frequently asked to comment on the health of the call and contact centre industry in Canada. The environment today does have some glimmers of hope; such as the Convergys announcement of 120 new jobs, Telelink announcing 40 more jobs in St John’s and Swinton announcing 65 in Nova Scotia, but the industry is still recovering from significant contraction that occurred due to the double whammy of the recession and increased strength of the Canadian dollar.Many call centres in Canada serve the…

  • Holy Twitterfeed Batman- How do we manage Social Media in our Call Center?

    28 Jul 2010 | 12:25 pm
    Social media exposure doesn’t equal success. I know this may sound like heresy to some, but the facts speak for themselves. One of the most successful ads in recent history; Old Spices’ “The Man, Your Man could Smell Like” has racked up impressive social media numbers 94 million YouTube views. 630,000 fans on Facebook and an estimated 1 billion aggregate impressions in one week according to Fast Company. However sales of the product the ad promotes is actually down 7% according to SymphonyIRI . So as Carla Peller said in the most famous ad of its time “Where’s the Beef”? It is…

  • First 30 days for new Call Center Manager

    27 Jul 2010 | 10:54 am
    As a call center consultant when I meet or speak to somone who has just been given the job of Call Center Manager, my response is always the same, "Congratulations or condolenses on your promotion, whichever you feel is more appropriate". Seriously, managing a call center can be one of the hardest jobs in the world. So what can the new manager do in the first month to dramatically improve their chances for success? In this post we examine the critical steps in brief.Many centers were not designed, but rather evolved over time without a masterplan or a strategy. Often these same centers have…

  • New Center Manager - toughest job there is

    26 Jul 2010 | 6:33 pm
    Congratulations or condolenses on your promotion, whichever you feel is more appropriate. Seriously managing a call center can be one of the hardest jobs in the world. Many centers were not designed, but rather evolved over time without a masterplan or a strategy. Often these same centers have not applied rigor to the process of staff selection nor staff promotion. The result can be a center where the single biggest asset and indicator of operational success, the ability to manage, being absent. This can make the job of the manager very difficult indeed.So job one is to assess your…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Conversation Agent

  • See How They did it: 104 Social Media Case Studies

    Valeria Maltoni
    2 Sep 2010 | 4:00 am
    Is your boss still skeptical about social media? Are you looking for creative ideas for social media executions? Do you have a sense of what you're looking to achieve? This post is for you. Last week we talked about how to develop a case study. This week, we review 12 out of 104 case studies that are telling the story of how businesses progressed through solving a problem and delivering results -- with social media.To summarize, the structure of a marketing case study generally  is: situation or challenge time line or complication solution results I've been saving posts about businesses…

  • Why Blog? Why Bother? Why Care?

    Valeria Maltoni
    1 Sep 2010 | 4:00 am
    guest postToday is Conversation Agent's fourth birthday. Happy birthday! They grow up so fast... No need to send cake, but feel free to join me in posting a comment or sending Valeria an email letting her know you're out there. See, every blog has true fans, active readers, and a large, silent majority. It's easy enough to know what the true fans and active readers think—but sometimes when you're busy publishing up a storm, you start to wonder what the silent majority thinks. This is true especially in the beginning, because you don't have a lot of true fans and active readers, and also…

  • 34 Reasons to Start a Blog

    Valeria Maltoni
    31 Aug 2010 | 4:00 am
    We discussed how social media is like sharecropping -- you help build a network with your content and it  may decide to delete your account if it changes rules or there is a glitch. Both Flickr and Facebook have given us examples of that action. The effects of those actions have been devastating for the people who had put time and care into building a presence with their content.That is one of the reasons why I have been and continue to be strongly in favor of blogs. Starting a blog shows commitment to a topic, industry, group, project, brand, etc. It establishes you as someone who can stick…

  • Treating Women Differently

    Valeria Maltoni
    30 Aug 2010 | 4:00 am
    Women customers behave differently. Is that true? I was reading an article about what women want and how not to give it to them, and it got me thinking. In it, Alice Adams describes the behaviors that derail gender inclusion. To me, they derail effective work overall, man or woman. Further, they prevent an organization from serving its customers. Adams lists: Decide not to do an assessment, build a plan, set goals, or establish benchmarks. Task a small group of committed, passionate people with designing and implementing a change initiative—and expect them to succeed without a clear…

  • Should You be Pitching me?

    Valeria Maltoni
    29 Aug 2010 | 4:00 am
    You give me way too much credit if you think your potential customers read my blog. You misunderstand and misapply influence and you're giving away your inexperience with new media. Let's be clear, I still like you, I just find it easy to skip over your pitch. Go build your own audience.New media is not traditional media, only on blogs. PR is very much in need of a reinvention beyond pitching bloggers press releases, signing people up to moderate communities, and building lists instead of relationships. What does it take to do PR in new media?I'm thinking that a non PR person will…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    CRM Daily

  • China Requires ID To Buy Mobile Phone Numbers

    2 Sep 2010 | 7:34 am
    China began requiring identification on Wednesday from anyone purchasing a new mobile phone number in what it says is a bid to stamp out rampant junk messages but that some say gives the government a new tool for monitoring its citizens. The rules apply to everyone, including foreigners visiting China for a short stay, the China Daily newspaper reported. The paper said the regulation was "the latest campaign by the government to curb the global scourge of spam, pornographic messages and fraud on cellular phones." But some say China is looking for a way to track people who might spontaneously…

  • Yelp Delves Into One-Day Deals Market

    30 Aug 2010 | 7:29 am
    Review Web site Yelp said Thursday that it is testing out "Yelp Deals" -- large discounts at local businesses that site users can buy on one day only. The move comes as sites such as Groupon have gotten extremely popular by combining social media with the power of group buying, offering shoppers daily deals on products and services in their communities. With Groupon, however, the deals are only made active once a certain number of people in a city have agreed to participate. In Yelp's case, there is no minimum participant requirement. Right now, Yelp is just testing the service in San Diego…

  • FTC Moves To Enforce Rules Against False Online Ads

    27 Aug 2010 | 8:37 am
    The Federal Trade Commission has started enforcing false advertising rules against "astroturfing." On Friday, the agency announced a settlement with a public-relations firm that had been posting fake, favorable online reviews for a client. The settlement is the first enforcement under new FTC guidelines. Astroturfing is a term used to described apparent grassroots efforts that are, in fact, part of an advertising or political campaign. The marketing and public-relations agency, Reverb Communications, used employees posing as regular consumers to post fake game reviews at the iTunes Store.

  • Where Are You Now? A Rundown of Facebook's Places

    27 Aug 2010 | 7:30 am
    Services based on your location, such as Foursquare, are popular in the tech-centric bubbles of Silicon Valley and New York City. But for many Americans, these services remain odd -- and potentially creepy -- tools on your smart phone to let friends or even strangers know you just showed up to a restaurant, gym or the corner deli. According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey this spring, only 5 percent of adult Internet users in the U.S. have used such a service. With the entry of Facebook Places to the mix, though, this number is likely to grow. For now, here is a rundown for…

  • Tax Those Bloggers, City of Philadelphia

    27 Aug 2010 | 7:29 am
    Bloggers in my hometown are up in arms because the City of Philadelphia is charging some of them a $300 lifetime "business privilege" tax. The city's position is that many of the bloggers accept advertising revenue and are in effect operating a business within the city limits. "How can they do this," the bloggers shriek. "This is a violation of free speech; it's an outrage." To the City of Philadelphia I say: "Hip, hip hooray." Tax those guys. By doing so you're actually helping small businesses, not hurting them. I support this tax of bloggers. (Actually, I think it's too small.) If you're…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Customer Experience Crossroads

  • A bank introduces Woops feature: ING Direct New Free Chequing

    Susan Abbott
    27 Aug 2010 | 8:41 am
    I never expected ING Direct to launch a chequing account. Why enter the ugly and expensive transaction part of the business? Well, they have proved me wrong, and good for them. Their new Thrive chequing promises to give back the average $185 a year Canadians pay in bank fees.The pitch: unlimited free chequing, and access to deposits and withdrawals at ATM machines. (ING has no branches, only a few ING Cafes in major markets). The splashy launch included women in orange bathing suits jumping in fountains, billboards that reveal themselves when passersby remove coins, and fun contests. The…

  • We need to name things to remember them

    Susan Abbott
    24 Aug 2010 | 3:05 am
    I'm recently back from a stay in a cabin on a lake, where Bruce and I canoed hither and yon most days. Like most northern lakes, the trees and shoreline tend to look the same from one corner to the next, and it's hard to describe where you want to go. "Let's go where we went yesterday, up that big inlet" "The third one on the left, right?" "No, it was just past that island, the one with the dead tree." To avoid spending long periods in such meaningless conversations, you quickly give names to such features as you can identify. Green Dockhouse point. Moose marsh. Otter bay. It's the only way…

  • The wisdom of CK Prahalad

    Susan Abbott
    12 Aug 2010 | 3:37 am
    Strategy + Business recently published an interview with CK Prahalad conducted prior to his sudden death in April 2010: “The Life’s Work of a Thought Leader,” by Art Kleiner. It's a delightful read, and a reminder that interviews with really fascinating people, conducted by skilled interviewers such as Art Kleiner, can provide a real window into someone's thinking. CK Prahalad is best known for his books, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits and The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value Through Global Networks. Here are a few of…

  • Credit card fraud and the customer service problem

    Susan Abbott
    10 Aug 2010 | 3:13 am
    Credit card fraud is a serious, expensive and pervasive problem -- even as the banks use clever ways to protect transactions (e.g. chips) fraudsters seem to find ways to keep up.The net result is that many honest card holders have had fraud problems through no fault of their own. We appreciate that the issuers are vigilant in monitoring card use and can move quickly when they believe a card has been compromised or is at risk. In research, I hear lots of people taking comfort from this.But companies are not always as quick to let the customer know what's going on when they take these steps.

  • Products versus services - what's the difference?

    Susan Abbott
    6 Aug 2010 | 1:41 pm
    From time to time I hear the question raised about whether something is a product or a service. This comes about, I think, because marketers and brand managers in service businesses often refer to products as a matter of convenience. For example, a mortgage product or a vacation product.However, there are some substantial differences between products and services, which definitely affect how you think about managing both the customer interaction and the marketing generally. For example, services tend to be perishable in the sense that they cannot be inventoried -- what you don't sell today…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    custserv.gbwatch

  • The Keyword for Customer Service is…

    According to Grace Murray Hopper, The most damaging phrase in the language is: ‘It’s always been done that way.’ We often hear people say that it’s the company policy.  They cannot do anything about it. Ms. Hopper above says it well. An article on livemint.com says that: The rulebook should not become an excuse for [...]

  • Does Offshore Outsourcing Affect Customer Service?

    Many companies have outsourced their customer service. Does it affect the kind of service the customer expects from that company? From observation, I think it does. For example, I know company A, based in the US, to be good in customer service. But when they outsourced their customer service and I call their hotline and [...]

  • Where is Customer Service in this Equation?

    My friend J Dresdow shared: I recently ran across an article in Inc. magazine that really highlights how Google and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can make or break a company.  Imagine your company dropping off the top of the list overnight.   Well it happened with this company and made them better for it. This article [...]

  • Marcus Evans Hosts the 5th Annual Customer Experience Management & Retention Conference

    Mark your calendars on the dates, September 16-17, 2010 and head for San Francisco, California at the Argonaut Hotel for the 5th Annual Customer Experience Management & Retention Conference. Hosted by marcus evans, one of the world’s leading providers and promoters of global summits strategic conferences, the event listed the following key conference topics: Design [...]

  • Consumer News: Blip.tv Takes a Zen Approach to Customer Service

    PCMag.com reports: Every small business wants to grow, and grow quickly, but rapid expansion comes with its own costs, and customer service is usually one of the first things to go. “Our customers are everything to us,” says Dina Kaplan, the co-founder of blip.tv, an online network of independently produced web shows. “And fanatical customer [...]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Make or Break Moments

  • Delight is Different Than Service

    Deborah Chaddock Brown
    2 Sep 2010 | 4:59 am
    Do you delight your customers? I found an article written by Alain Thys that was published in 2007 that says it best: It’s funny that when discussing Customer Delight, most people start talking about customer service.  While this nicely fits our managerial illusion of control, it also completely misses the point.  Customer service is what companies [...]

  • Is Customer Service Part of Your Business Process?

    Deborah Chaddock Brown
    27 Aug 2010 | 12:30 pm
    I am working on writing a series of articles for a customer on the importance of developing and documenting business systems.  You know what they are, right? How you do your business Who your customers are How you find them The 1,2,3s of producing your product/service Your billing and receivables process Employee relations and hiring/firing practices It is all pretty cut and [...]

  • Answering Your Phone: Is it You or Memorex?

    Deborah Chaddock Brown
    25 Aug 2010 | 12:48 pm
    Often our first interaction with our customer is over the phone.  If you had to rate that experience from the caller’s perspective – how would you do?  A+ – you answer the phone personally with a warm greeting and a smile on your face F -    they have several confusing options with a menu that goes on [...]

  • Mocha Joe’s Builds Customer Relationships One Cup of Coffee At a Time

    Deborah Chaddock Brown
    18 Aug 2010 | 12:25 pm
    On the last Thursday of every month, you’ll find me sipping the decaf flavor of the day (black, no sugar) and talking about social media and ways to connect with customers with about ten other business professionals.  We call ourselves the Akron Bloggers Community.  It started a little over three years ago when Chris Brown of [...]

  • Hand Written Thank You Note – A Big Mistake

    Deborah Chaddock Brown
    17 Aug 2010 | 1:54 pm
    Have you ever sent a hand written note to a customer? A thank you letter? A birthday message? Emily Kelly had this to say about how she uses some old fashion methods to connect with her customers: Emily Kelly • I firmly believe in the power of “paying it forward”, giving others genuine compliments and sowing [...]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Zengage - a Zendesk Blog

  • Write The Company: Pumping Shell for Answers

    Write The Company
    2 Sep 2010 | 6:30 am
    They say Corporate America has no sense of humor. Are “they” right? Find out by following Write The Company — a consumer humor blog consisting of crazy consumer affairs and customer service letters about everyday products, services and brands …... Read more

  • 3 Reasons Why Product Mediocrity Will Never Die

    Connie Hwong
    1 Sep 2010 | 10:00 am
    Before blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp, it was pretty easy to push a bevy of products into the hands of customers, even if said products kind of sucked. All it took was a slick marketing campaign and before you knew... Read more

  • Will Tweet for Beer: How Epic Beer Is Reaching Customers

    Ben Kepes
    31 Aug 2010 | 6:39 am
    Epic Beer is a boutique, premium brewery based in New Zealand. It’s winning accolades all around the world for the quality of its product, but more relevant to us here at Zengage, they’re doing it via direct conversations with the... Read more

  • We Want to Buy You a Drink Tonight

    Tiffany Maleshefski
    31 Aug 2010 | 6:00 am
    The folks here at Zendesk cordially invite you to our Chicago meet-up tonight (Tuesday, Aug. 31). We’ll be hitting up the beautiful Old Oak Tap that, despite its name, is actually quite new. The snazzy little bar only opened in... Read more

  • Zendesk For Twitter Webinar

    Adria Richards
    31 Aug 2010 | 12:35 am
    As more and more consumers turn to Twitter to express their woes about brands and customer service, how does your company keep an eye on the social network to monitor and respond to these conversations and complaints? Join us as... Read more
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Customer Service and More: The Shep Hyken Blog

  • 1 Sep 2010 | 8:00 am

    1 Sep 2010 | 8:00 am
    Problems are Opportunities to Show How Good You AreShep Hyken – customer service motivational speaker, author, trainer, and expert – understands that sometimes problems happen. In one of his Shepard Letters, his monthly newsletter, Shep shares a story about how a series of problems became opportunities and Moments of Magic™.I recently completed a video project for a client. The director of the video crew discovered a mistake. It was pretty big. We had to re-shoot a number of scenes, which meant we had to create the set exactly as it was several days earlier. Because of this problem, I…

  • 25 Aug 2010 | 8:00 am

    25 Aug 2010 | 8:00 am
    It's Not My Fault, But It Is My Problem - To SolveShep Hyken - customer service motivational speaker, author, trainer and expert - shares a story in one of his Shepard Letters, his monthly newsletter, about how taking control of a problematic situation for a customer, be it your fault or not, has the opportunity to turn a satisfied customer into a customer evangelist!I love watching accountability in action. Just last week I was staying at a great hotel, the Embassy Suites, in Portland, OR. The next morning I had to leave quickly after my meeting to get to the airport. Because there wasn’t…

  • 18 Aug 2010 | 8:00 am

    18 Aug 2010 | 8:00 am
    Create a Unique ExperienceShep Hyken - customer service motivational speaker, author, trainer and expert – brings up examples of creating unique experiences for your customers in a Shepard Letter, his monthly newsletter, and also how to capitalize on your differences.In the past I’ve written about hotels and specifically about amenity wars. This is where one hotel comes out with a better bed – such as Westin’s Heavenly Bed. It gives them a competitive edge for a while, but eventually other hotels catch on and compete head to head. Eventually these amenities don’t make the difference…

  • 12 Aug 2010 | 6:48 am

    12 Aug 2010 | 6:48 am
    Customer Service Spin on JetBlue Flight AttendantCustomer Service comes to the surface of major airline as news headlines focus on JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater. It appears he’d “had enough” with his job and decided to exit in grand style. After an argument with a passenger where curse words were exchanged, he grabbed a couple of beers, announced on the loud speaker system that he’d had it, opened a door and slid down the emergency chute. Public response to Mr. Slater’s behavior has been interesting. He’s been applauded by some for his actions and has become somewhat of a…

  • 11 Aug 2010 | 8:00 am

    11 Aug 2010 | 8:00 am
    Bad RulesShep Hyken - customer service motivational speaker, author, trainer and expert – tells a funny story in the Shepard Letters, his monthly newsletter, where the rules overpowered common sense and left a customer unsatisfied with their experience.Recently I took my wife to one of St. Louis’s hottest new restaurants. This place is always busy and it is hard to get a reservation. On this particular Saturday night they were extremely busy. On our way out I told my wife to stay in the restaurant, where it was warm, while I went outside to give the parking attendant the ticket to get our…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Customers Rock!

  • Growing Business the Old-Fashioned Way

    Becky Carroll
    28 Aug 2010 | 10:45 am
    Here is a blast from the past, a classic Customers Rock! post on taking care of your current customers. Thanks to @Foundora for bringing it back to my attention. Enjoy! Many companies spend a lot of time and money on attracting new customers to their product or service.  Much of the marketing budget is spent on mass approaches such as advertising and direct mail.  While those media may have their place in attracting prospects, they don’t help companies with their most valuable asset: their existing customer base. Taking care of existing customers is a fantastic, cost-effective way to…

  • Is Your “Lack of Remarkable” Preventing Customer Loyalty?

    Becky Carroll
    28 Jul 2010 | 6:35 pm
    Today we have a guest blogger with us here on Customers Rock!, Nate Bagley. Nate is the Social Media Expert at Mindshare Technologies. Mindshare is a leader in the Voice of the Customer industry, helping companies foster consumer satisfaction, build customer loyalty, and support employee retention. Click here to learn more about Mindshare. Is Your “Lack of Remarkable” Preventing Customer Loyalty? by Nate Bagley The most important aspect of any customer-driven business is consistency. If you cannot provide a consistent experience, it is impossible to generate loyalty within your…

  • The Importance of Customer Listening

    Becky Carroll
    26 Apr 2010 | 9:09 pm
    (Note: This post is a reprise of an earlier Customers Rock! blog post, and one that was very popular with my readers. As customer listening has become a common topic recently, I felt it would be helpful to post it again, especially as it discusses NON social media listening. Important to listen via all channels!) Are we putting up walls between the enterprise and its customers?  Or are we putting up walls dedicated to its customers? I was in Santa Barbara and had a chance to see how one company shares their customers’ voices.  Citrix Online hosted a tour of their facilities for me. …

  • Expert’s Corner: Delivering Voice of the Customer

    Becky Carroll
    14 Apr 2010 | 10:23 am
    Recently on Customers Rock! Radio, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Richard Owen, CEO of Satmetrix. We had a great discussion around listening to customers, gathering social media feedback and turning it into action inside of a company, and of course we talked about the NetPromoter score and how to use it strategically.  You can listen to the 12-minute segments here (Segment 1), here (Segment 2), and here (Segment 3). Richard’s colleague, and CMO of Satmetrix is Deborah Eastman, and she is our guest blogger today. Deborah shares with us about considerations when…

  • Customer-Obsessed Service

    Becky Carroll
    30 Mar 2010 | 8:41 pm
    I have been broadcasting my Customers Rock! Radio program now for 6 months, and I feel it is time to pull together a summary of information from some of those programs into a post (or two!). The radio program is really an extension of this blog; you get to hear my voice as part of an hour-long conversation around the topics we all know and love here: customer experience, customer service, loyalty, marketing, and social media. But I can really sum up the first 6 months of the program with the title of this post: we have been talking about what Customer Obsessed Service looks like. (Note: I…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Demand Satisfaction!

  • Video: Getting Started with Get Satisfaction

    Ginevra
    25 Aug 2010 | 3:13 pm
    Here’s a short video on how to get started with Get Satisfaction, put together by our Service and Support Manager Morgan Sherwood.

  • Gearing up for the Gov 2.0 Summit

    admin
    25 Aug 2010 | 2:58 pm
    Another election day, another reminder that the divide between government and everyday people is as wide as ever. People don’t feel heard, they don’t understand what elected officials are thinking, they can’t figure out how “the system” works. So often with government it’s not that it’s bad customer service, most of the time it’s that there’s NO customer service.Despite the background roar of frustration (nothing new), there are successes to celebrate out there. The social web is creating a whole new path for turning constituent relations…

  • Community Managers: Export by date

    Ginevra
    23 Aug 2010 | 3:40 pm
    Data geeks: here’s a nifty feature we’ve added for community managers and admins in our “management view” of topics. Now, you can filter topics not just by status, mood, or your internal tagging system, but you can also select a date range to view, and export these to open in Excel or Numbers. This is great for us community managers to both get a sense of the health of communities over time, and to give insight to colleagues about how active the community is. Generate a weekly report to give to a manager, or run just a report based on all of your praise since you…

  • And the first prize goes to…

    admin
    13 Aug 2010 | 9:51 am
    The results are in from our first ever Refer-a-Company contest and we couldn’t be happier with the response. Hundreds of our fans spread the word about how Get Satisfaction helps them love their customers, and now we’re super duper pleased to award $50 iTunes gift cards to these lucky participants, each of whom is in the process of growing an amazing community success with Get Satisfaction:Shane Adams of AMC Theaters “We’ve found a lot of success in engaging with our guests in the public forum and we appreciate the service that you (and our account rep, Morgan) have…

  • Our favorite business blogs

    Ginevra
    9 Aug 2010 | 3:27 pm
    We’re working on a redesign for this blog that we’ll be rolling out soon, and thought we’d share a list of some of our favorite business blogs.A favorite customer and blog of around the Satisfactory is Mint.com, with the Mint Life blog. Financial planning information, how-tos, and news on the economy, wrapped up in a great design.Another favorite for keeping tabs on latest trends in social business is the LinkedIn blog.  It’s a great blend of product updates and industry news and interviews.A third favorite is by Allistar Croll and Sean Power (authors of Complete Web…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Dennis Snow Blog» Dennis Snow Blog | Unleashing Excellence

  • The Best Career Advice I Ever Received

    Dennis Snow
    1 Sep 2010 | 6:37 pm
    For me, college was a long, long time ago. And contrary to what we often tell our children as they head off to the world of higher education, it wasn’t the most enjoyable time of my life. Other than my freshman year, that is, at the University of Vermont. That’s the year I almost flunked out because I spent more time skiing than I did in class or studying. That year was a ball. But it was clear my college career would be short indeed if something didn’t change. After moving to Orlando to work at Walt Disney World, I became a “non-traditional student” at the University of Central…

  • Employee Recognition – The Guest Service Fanatic

    Dennis Snow
    29 Aug 2010 | 5:15 pm
    In order to “inculturate” desired customer service behaviors, leaders must acknowledge and recognize employees who demonstrate those behaviors. This video describes a recognition tool used by Walt Disney World – The “Guest Service Fanatic” card. If you receive my blog via email, you may need to click here to view the video.

  • Customer Service Failure Equals Leadership Failure

    Dennis Snow
    23 Aug 2010 | 6:27 am
    This video post discusses the relationship between poor customer service and leadership performance. If you receive my blog via email, you may need to click here to view the video.

  • Thought for a Friday Afternoon

    Dennis Snow
    20 Aug 2010 | 9:18 am
    Is there someone in your organization (colleague, boss, employee) who did something good this past week that you may have neglected to thank? A sincere thanks is a great way to start the weekend!

  • Unleashing Excellence – What Outstanding Leaders Do

    Dennis Snow
    17 Aug 2010 | 12:13 pm
    Are effective leaders born or developed? That question has been debated in thousands of books, articles, speeches, and forums. While there are some characteristics effective leaders may have acquired early in life (I don’t believe they were born with them); I believe that leadership skills can be developed later in life. And these skills aren’t based on personality or charisma, nor are they dictated by a person’s DiSC or Myers-Briggs profile. No matter their style, effective leaders do three things very well. Effective leaders Operationalize the Organization’s Mission. The…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Steve Curtin

  • Want to increase profits? It’s simple: Charge more.

    Steve
    27 Aug 2010 | 10:08 am
    I’m currently reading the book Smart Pricing by Jagmohan Raju and Z. John Zhang. Anything published by Wharton School Publishing has been thoroughly researched and applied in the real world of work—beyond the ivory tower of theory and abstraction often associated with academia. In the book’s introduction, the authors present a simple concept: “A manager can pull only four levers to increase a firm’s profitability: sales, variable costs, fixed costs, and price.” If he spends more on advertising to gain market share, then he’s pulling the sales lever. By reducing hours to schedule…

  • Delighted customers will pay more

    Steve
    25 Aug 2010 | 9:41 am
    Why do executives tend to support instituting fees that they know will annoy customers and yet oppose investments in training and other processes that will improve the customer experience? Here’s a guess: Companies can begin assessing fees immediately and then add up the revenue generated at the end of the day. By contrast, any investment in training or other processes that will enhance the customer experience is difficult to measure and, even if it was quantifiable, takes too much time and effort. The familiar path of least resistance is appealing. Assessing a surcharge requires much less…

  • Coffee. Above all else. (Including customer service.)

    Steve
    21 Aug 2010 | 6:55 pm
    I met a colleague at ink! Coffee in Denver last week. I appreciate great coffee as I’ve blogged about before and was really looking forward to trying ink!’s. My first impression was positive as the barista welcomed me and briefly shared ink! Coffee’s philosophy regarding product quality and freshness. After determining that I was meeting someone for coffee, she dispensed the coffee into a sturdy ceramic mug—which was refreshing. I took my first sip and was truly impressed with the quality. As advertised, it was rich, smooth and not at all bitter. About twenty minutes into my…

  • Predictably poor customer service

    Steve
    16 Aug 2010 | 10:07 pm
    Is there an organization that comes to mind when I ask you to consider a predictably poor customer service provider? By this I mean a company or entity you dread returning to because you’ve been consistently disappointed with previous customer service experiences. When I pose this question to audiences, I tend to hear the same responses: DMV, IRS, USPS… Maybe you’re thinking of one of these—or perhaps you have in mind a cable company, airline, or cell phone service provider? Now, the easy answer is to exercise your freedom of choice as a consumer and discontinue using these…

  • Little things

    Steve
    14 Aug 2010 | 2:45 pm
    Last Thursday night, we took a night off from cooking and brought our kids to Chili’s for dinner. As soon as we entered the restaurant, my seven year old, Cooper, noticed that the Carolina Panthers vs. Baltimore Ravens preseason football game was being televised in the bar area. As the hostess lead us into the dining room, Cooper asked if we could be seated somewhere where he could see the game. She found a long table (there were six of us) located directly opposite the bar area and the flat screen television set carrying the game. We had settled into our booth when Cooper began jockeying…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Experienceology

  • Every piece of paper is part of your museum's brand experience

    Stephanie Weaver
    1 Sep 2010 | 12:06 pm
    I see this sort of thing at museums all the time... check your flyers today. And your school group information. And your teacher confirmation letters. I guarantee you have at least one of these floating around.A while back, as I walked into one of my favorite stores, Target, I noticed a young employee who was handing out small flyers to customers who were entering. I assumed it was a promotion. Here’s what I was handed:Can’t read it? It’s no better in person. It must have been copied off of an original that was on dark red paper, so the copy is nearly illegible. Here’s what it…

  • Sunday's signpost

    Stephanie Weaver
    29 Aug 2010 | 12:00 pm
    We saw this sign on an overlook at a castle in Lisbon, Portugal. This is an interesting alternative to porcelain enamel signs, which work well in locations where things don't change, like historic or natural overlooks. It's very Portuguese as well... Lisbon is loaded with gorgeous tile.

  • Is your visitor experience broken?

    Stephanie Weaver
    25 Aug 2010 | 12:34 pm
    I hadn't watched this since I posted it three years ago. It's still as funny and educational as ever. Seth Godin's hilarious talk on broken experiences is still a must-see. One of the things I help clients understand is how their visitor experience might be broken, and how to fix it. Enjoy.

  • Sunday's signpost

    Stephanie Weaver
    22 Aug 2010 | 12:28 pm
    Okay, so when the previous French restaurant closes due to lack of customers, and you're planning on opening another French restaurant in this location, what do you name it? NOT "Bistro Au Revoir" (Goodbye, Bistro).

  • Visitor experience at Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

    Stephanie Weaver
    18 Aug 2010 | 7:21 am
    In the past I have had the pleasure of visiting the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The center, a little south of Austin, TX is a beautiful example of mission and business practice being aligned.Buildings are built using sustainable green building practices.Cooling stone breezeways were designed to give visitors a place to get out of the sun, as well as cool the buildings. Note the chilled drinking water dispenser on the right.This water cistern collects and holds rainwater for use by the facility, while also being beautifully striking.Tip of the Day:My only constructive critique is…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Maximum Customer Experience Blog

  • Inspiration Points: Are You Afraid of Being Noticed?

    Kelly Erickson
    18 Aug 2010 | 12:18 am
    Wednesday Words To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business. If you don’t get noticed, you don’t have anything. You just have to be noticed, but the art is in getting noticed naturally, without screaming and without tricks. —Leo Burnett And if you do scream… don’t scream “sure-fire.”   Joking aside, I love his point here—too many businesses are afraid of trying to get noticed, and dying because of it. Getting noticed is how you sell your widgets! Make it natural… and make it happen.   Grow and be…

  • Are You Committing These 10 Small-Business Sins?

    Kelly Erickson
    17 Aug 2010 | 12:18 am
    Sure-Fire Ways To Turn Off Your Customers 1. Sure-fire? I won’t keep you in suspense. My #1 way to turn off your customer is to advertise anything you offer as “sure-fire.” Few phrases can set off the b.s. detectors faster than a “sure-fire” guarantee. So if you’re doing any promotional work and you’re thinking about hyping it up as sure-fire in this skeptical and oversold world, consider injecting a little humility instead. It’s a sure-fire way to get a better response. What other subtle and often-overlooked sins might you be committing without…

  • Inspiration Points: DO You Still Want To Climb This Mountain?

    Kelly Erickson
    11 Aug 2010 | 12:11 am
    Wednesday Words To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business. A recessionary environment encourages you to review the strategies you employ to realize [your] long-term vision in light of the rapidly and dramatically changing conditions you are facing…. It is almost like saying, “I still want to climb this mountain. An avalanche has made it impossible right now to proceed via the north face, so I have to go via the south ascent. This may take a little longer, but one way or the other, I will go to the top of this mountain.” … most of…

  • Trade-Offs The Right Way

    Kelly Erickson
    9 Aug 2010 | 10:11 pm
    Make It Work for You Fewer people who used to do it, are doing your thing. Fewer people go away on luxury vacations. Fewer people eat at four-star restaurants. Fewer people eat at midpriced restaurants. Fewer people cook like Julia Child at home. Fewer people buy brand-names at the grocery store. Where are all these people? You might guess… The folks who used to go on luxury vacations splurge with a dinner at a four-star restaurant now and then. The folks who used to eat at four-star restaurants discover mid-priced restaurants are a fine trade-off. The people who used to eat at…

  • Inspiration Points: Is This What I’m Supposed To Be Doing?

    Kelly Erickson
    21 Jul 2010 | 12:14 am
    Wednesday Words To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business. When I go to my studio to work, I start with something that is going to take two minutes just to put some idea down and the next thing I know, ten hours have gone by and my family is screaming at me because they want me to come up to have dinner with them. —Geddy Lee How do you know if you’ve found your right work? It’s magic when it happens. Dear reader, when you’ve been hard at work for 10 hours and it feels like only minutes, you’ve found it—and your…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Ragsdale’s Eye on Service

  • A Conversation with Sharon Pettigrew: Support Center 101–Back to Basics

    jragsdale
    2 Sep 2010 | 7:40 am
    In our last public webcast, we surveyed members asking with what topics they most needed assistance, and the answers surprised me. No mentions of what TSIA views as ‘strategic’ issues like support margins and Value Added Service; the list was very tactical, with the top issues being how to better train support techs and what [...]

  • Conversation with Bill Moore and Dennis Gershowitz: Building a Customer Experience Management (CEM) Strategy

    jragsdale
    30 Aug 2010 | 9:13 am
    Not too long ago I published a blog post entitled, “Let’s Take Back “Customer Experience” from the Marketing Team!” My point was that the term “customer experience” seems to have been hijacked at some point by marketers who use it as a code term for upsell/cross-sell on company websites and online stores. Similarly, I’ve seen [...]

  • Bringing TSIA’s Social Media Message to Asia Pacific

    jragsdale
    25 Aug 2010 | 6:42 am
    Next week I am doing a webcast for Asia/Pacific on leveraging social media for support. The event is sponsored by TSIA Partner Citrix Online and callcentres.net, a research, consulting, analyst and online publishing company dedicated to the Australian and Asia Pacific contact center and outsourcing industries. I hope all of my readers and our TSIA [...]

  • A Conversation with Karen Travis: Talent Management for Service Professionals

    jragsdale
    24 Aug 2010 | 8:08 am
    In last week’s webcast featuring Phil Verghis, we talked about how most support managers are made: the best support techs get promoted to manager, though the skill sets of the two roles couldn’t be more different. That’s how I made it into support management, and if anyone I managed that first couple of years is [...]

  • Announcing Categories for Fall 2010 TSIA Recognized Innovator Awards: Would You Like to be a Judge?

    jragsdale
    19 Aug 2010 | 6:36 am
    The TSIA Recognized Innovator Awards recognize innovation in services technology, and are presented to partners of TSIA at our Technology Service World conferences. Partners submit applications for consideration, and case studies documenting business results are required. The categories for the Fall 2010 TSIA Recognized Innovator Awards are: Innovation in Service Economics. The Associations’ Services 50 [...]
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Return Customer

  • Customer Service: It’s More than Just Being Nice

    Joe Rawlinson
    1 Sep 2010 | 8:01 am
    Any business without customers is like any car without wheels, it just won’t go anywhere. A solid business plan, like a solid car-frame with supped up parts, is grounded if it can’t acquire and maintain a loyal customer base. And this day in age, with technology booming and economies crumbling, a business’s ability to keep up with and satisfy relentless customer demand is key to a company’s financial success. And especially during these tough economic times, when money is tight for all of us and pinching pennies barely keeps our heads above water, great customer…

  • Top 5 Ways to Measure Customer Satisfaction

    Joe Rawlinson
    25 Aug 2010 | 8:01 am
    Customer satisfaction is notoriously difficult to measure for several reasons. To begin with, you have to count on customers not only to give feedback, but also to be honest in their assessment. Many people, when satisfied, feel no need to contact the company, while others will quietly grumble about flaws in service or products and swear off a company without ever seeking redress or voicing their complaints so that the situation can be remedied. Requirements for satisfaction are not only unique to each individual customer, they can be extremely difficult to quantify, even on a personal level.

  • Return Customers Through Impeccable Service

    Joe Rawlinson
    18 Aug 2010 | 8:01 am
    Every company has customers. Some come in the form of consumers, some in the form of clients, some patients and some patrons. A company without customers cannot succeed. Customers are responsible for a company’s profit and return customers are responsible for an increase in that profit. But in order to ensure return customers, customer service is key. As Walt Disney once said, “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” This is the secret to a successful business. However, in an effort to maintain high levels of customer service, many…

  • 5 Phone Etiquette Tips for Superior Customer Service

    Joe Rawlinson
    11 Aug 2010 | 8:01 am
    Phone etiquette is a very important part of delivering outstanding customer service. Though it may seem like common sense for some to spit out the bubble gum before handling customer service calls, others need a nudge in the right direction to deliver the quality of service that customers demand. Agents can significantly improve the quality of service delivered to customers by following these five simple rules of good phone etiquette. #1 – Agents should have nothing in their mouths while on the phone. While agents should be allowed to keep covered beverages at their desks to prevent…

  • What You Can Learn From The Google Wireless Data Collection Fiasco

    Joe Rawlinson
    28 Jul 2010 | 8:01 am
    Google has been in the news recently for their wireless network (Wi-Fi) data collection process, creating a firestorm of controversy that has resulted in some rather bad PR for the company. As a small business owner, there are a few lessons you can take away from this situation when you observe how people are reacting to this news, and when you realize what the real issue is. A Little Background In case you haven’t heard, Google is in a bit of hot water in the way they have been collecting data via their Street View cars. Google has a fleet of vehicles that operate around the world,…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Service Untitled

  • The receiving side of customer service

    Cheryl
    2 Sep 2010 | 10:21 am
    We buy on emotion, and we justify those emotions with our own particular logic. Yesterday was my day; it was Saks Fifth Avenue calling to me with one of their huge shoe sales. I think it’s important to be on the receiving side of business to know what great customer service really entails, and purchasing a designer pair of shoes at a significant discount doubles the pleasure. Everyone has their own passions, and in the world of selling merchandise from Apple computers to xylophones, none of us want to admit making poor purchases. We expect to buy good products, and admittedly good…

  • Positive customer experiences bring customer satisfaction

    Cheryl
    1 Sep 2010 | 11:13 am
    Companies need to find the customer point of view through words and phrases. Sales and service personnel want to sound positive, helpful, appreciative, respectful, inviting, and informed. We don’t want to get too technical, but we do want to improve the customer experience and say what customers want to hear. A customer experience isn’t necessarily customer satisfaction, but our word choice can make profound impacts. Instead of “We’re out of that product now,” the innovative and positive response would be, “I can order that product for you today.”…

  • Improve small business customer service with a personal touch

    Cheryl
    30 Aug 2010 | 1:52 pm
    Elizabeth’s online business is selling merchandise on eBay. She started her company a few years ago when she decided she no longer wanted to be a banker, and in the back room of her home and a two-car garage to warehouse merchandise, her business has grown by leaps and bounds. Elizabeth used to spend countless hours replying to customers and answering questions by email; so much time that she didn’t have time for her own family, so what did she do? Elizabeth has become streamlined and innovative, but still strives to reply to customers, improve customer support, and reduce time.

  • The benefits of a process-focused organization

    Cheryl
    27 Aug 2010 | 11:04 am
    Business processes help companies to realize their own organizational objectives so that management can review and realign as the market changes, customer needs change, products change, and strategies change. The general unfixed nature of business demands new growth because of changing legislation, global competition, and market saturation. Without a process-focused organization, employees are stomping out fires, missing out on opportunities, and generally wasting time and money because of poor planning and lack of vision. The successful company focuses on its customers, and in order to do…

  • Interview with Doria Camaraza from American Express – Part 1 of 4

    Douglas
    26 Aug 2010 | 7:02 am
    About two weeks ago, I interviewed Doria Camaraza, who is is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Fort Lauderdale Service Center for American Express. This was an interview I was excited a lot about because I’ve written about American Express a number of times and in pretty much any customer satisfaction or customer service ranking, American Express makes the list. As an American Express cardmember myself, the workings behind the 160 year old company were also personally interesting to me. This is a pretty lengthy interview, so I’ve divided it into four parts. Part one…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    The Chief Happiness Officer

  • The happiness empire expands

    Alexander
    2 Sep 2010 | 5:32 am
    Yesterday we expanded our company headcount by over 30% when our newest associate Arlette Bentzen joined us. And of course there were flowers: Arlette (on the right) has a background int the travel industry and in fitness. She will be doing workshops and speeches and she will also be our event manager and run our conferences and other events. Arlette is a wonderful person who has a lot of energy (pretty much a requirement to work for us) and we’re very excited about her :o) And here’s the whole team:

  • Pret’s policy on franchising

    Alexander
    30 Aug 2010 | 1:18 pm
    British sandwich chain Pret a Manger’s FAQ page explains their policy on franchising: Franchising – sorry we don’t. Please don’t call us and ask for a franchise because we don’t; we really don’t. We don’t franchise. The fact is, we don’t like to franchise, so we don’t. A little bit of humor goes a long way in business :o)

  • Monday Tip: Anagrams

    Alexander
    30 Aug 2010 | 7:30 am
    I got an email from Mike Dytham, a project manager at Barclay’s, who’s been doing anagrams for all the people in his department. The new names are… interesting :o) Chris Benton = Robin Stench (a proud 2nd place!) Claire Rainbird = Cider Librarian (a creditable 3rd place) Dan Hartwright = Hard Thwarting James Knupfer = See Frank Jump Tom Coulbeck = Emu Boltcock (what a great name!) Matt Risk = Smart Kit (or even Mark Tits) Kate Baron = Anorak Bet or Oat Banker Dominic Gloag = Claiming Good, Coiling Dogma Anup Purohit = Pinup Author Harris Musau = Samurai Rush (he is one of my…

  • Friday Spoing

    Alexander
    27 Aug 2010 | 6:53 am
    Sometimes I get asked if it’s possible to be too happy at work. I didn’t use to think so, and the jury is still out on that question. But then I saw this guy: I wish you a happy weekend. But maybe not THAT happy :o)

  • A question for ya

    Alexander
    27 Aug 2010 | 1:46 am
    A couple of months ago I was giving a presentation to a new customer and during the Q&A session someone asked me a short simple question that stumped me completely. I’ve been thinking about it ever since and I still don’t have the answer, so now I’m passing the question on to you. Here it is: What is the opposite of work? Please write a comment, I’d really like to know what you think about this.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    The Engaging Brand

  • Show 300 - Facebook Marketing

    Anna Farmery
    25 Aug 2010 | 11:39 am
    Show 300 of The Engaging Brand leadership and marketing podcast is ready just for you. To subscribe or listen on your PC now - both for free, you don't need to download anything - all explained at the end of the post. We joins me on The Engaging Brand podcast to talk about What is Facebook from a business point of view? Are people really thinking about brands when socially networking? 3 ways to use Facebook for brands and businesses How do I decide my Facebook strategy? How do I make it differentiated from my competitors? How easy is the coding language on Facebook? Does Google index your…

  • Show 299 - The 24 Hour Customer

    Anna Farmery
    17 Aug 2010 | 9:54 am
    Show 299 of The Engaging Brand leadership and marketing podcast is ready just for you. To subscribe or listen on your PC now - both for free, you don't need to download anything - all explained at the end of the post. Adrian Ott joins me to talk about her fabulous new marketing book - The 24 Hour Customer. Adrian is someone who I admire as she writes not about the why, but HOW to create a purchasing trigger in a time starved consumer. We joins me on The Engaging Brand podcast to talk about How to create content for the time starved consumer Time is not money, it is much more important…

  • Do we need a new style of citizenship?

    Anna Farmery
    16 Aug 2010 | 11:45 am
    I keep wondering what we term citizenship now? We used to have a nation of shared values with shared legal boundaries....and now with social media those boundaries are being removed from a geographic perspective. I can honestly say I feel more affinity, have more shared stories with friends on Twitter and other social media sites than my immediate neighbourhood. What does that mean for society? Does a healthy society need to be of geographical importance? Can you imagine a day when we are represented at the United Nations by our social networks rather than our nations? It sounds silly yet, we…

  • Step into my world and make my day...

    Anna Farmery
    13 Aug 2010 | 6:19 am
    Social networking is changing the way that we communicate, how we expect to communicate. It is altering our expectations in relation to brands, in relation to companies. "because we can communicate anytime, anywhere.. because communication is easy, short and to the point...and because of all this we are don't need any more communication in our lives....then to get my attention you have to be either darn good darn relevant darn fun darn personal Consumers used to be starved of information and craved more to make educated choices...but now they are starved of time and tailored communication…

  • Show 298 - How our Brain... Buys

    Anna Farmery
    11 Aug 2010 | 4:22 am
    Show 298 of The Engaging Brand leadership and marketing podcast is ready just for you. To subscribe or listen on your PC now - both for free, you don't need to download anything - all explained at the end of the post. This is a fascinating interview about research by Dr A.K.Pradeep who is the CEO of NeuroFocus. Dr Pradeep has just written The Buying Brain which is an in depth look at how the latest learnings from neuroscience can be used to produce brain friendly concepts, how to engage brains through marketing and how to create brand loyalty. We talk about How emotional engagement is a…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    The Social Customer Manifesto

  • Facebook Places Overview

    Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.
    20 Aug 2010 | 9:56 am
    Here's quick overview on Facebook Places (Facebook's new location-based service) from David Armano.Link here: David Armano Point of View on Facebook Places  Key pull quote from David:"From a user perspective, Facebook places is not bad, which is a bit of an accomplishment for a new launch. From a platform perspective this is not great news for the competition. However, there are some serious issues and the biggest is lack of integration with other platforms such as Twitter. There is also no reward system (badges) which some Foursquare users like and others care less about.

  • The Rise of the Creators (Mobile Edition)

    Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.
    7 Jul 2010 | 8:16 pm
    Some interesting data from Pew.  Note that we're not just consumers, but creators thanks to mobile, as evidenced by the photo / video / text growth. Full source is here. Internet access over mobile also is experiencing statistically significant growth. -cfc "Cell phone ownership has remained stable over the last year, but users are taking advantage of a much wider range of their phones’ capabilities compared with a similar point in 2009. Of the eight mobile data applications we asked about in both 2009 and 2010, all showed statistically significant year-to-year growth.This…

  • Metrics and Stats: iOS vs. Android (May 2010)

    Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.
    5 Jul 2010 | 11:08 am
    The really interesting bit was Slide 12 (although the page number says "11").  Check out the rate of change and the narrowing of the gap between iOS and Android over the last year.  If you look back to 2009, iOS had a commanding lead.  Now, iOS has flattened, then declined, and Android keeps marching up-and-to-the-right.  Something to watch. AdMob Mobile Metrics - May 2010 - Highlights

  • Facebook's Next Trainwreck Waiting-To-Happen: "Community Pages"

    Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.
    4 Jul 2010 | 9:52 am
    Ok, so do this. Go to http://facebook.com and do a search for "JC Penney."  Go to the #1 result.  It's a page here. Now go to Facebook and do a search for "JCPenney." Go to that #1 result. It's a totally different page here. Confused? Back in April, Facebook released a new feature called "Community Pages," which are touted as "a new type of Facebook Page dedicated to a topic or experience that is owned collectively by the community connected to it.  Just like official Pages for businesses, organizations and public figures, Community…

  • This Is, Hands Down, The Best Thing I Read All Day

    Christopher Carfi - Cerado, Inc.
    21 Jun 2010 | 9:26 pm
    "I Am Not A Brand": http://bit.ly/99NRwUThe killer pull-quote: "We can, if we group together, fight off the weenuses and hosebags who want to turn the Internet into a giant commercial..."
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Think customers: The 1to1 Blog

  • Guest Blogger Allen Bonde: Making the Move to Social Commerce

    Guest Blogger
    2 Sep 2010 | 7:12 am
    Social media marketing means many things to many people. And as social channels like Facebook and Twitter continue to transform the way people relate to the brands, retailers, and service providers they love (or love to hate), marketers need to look at what social media approaches deliver the biggest bang for the buck. Fans and followers have a value, and engaged happy fans may spread the word and even buy more or renew at a higher rate. But as marketers we also need to make sure our social programs are resulting in actual top-line business results like more sales and greater loyalty.

  • Marketers are Investing in Social Media to Build Loyalty

    Mila D'Antonio
    1 Sep 2010 | 7:54 am
    Recent research shows that organizations are leveraging social media to retain loyal customers.

  • Hoffman's Hot Seat: Tweet Your Way to Customer Relationship Strength

    Tom Hoffman
    31 Aug 2010 | 7:52 am
    Consumers say a lot about companies and their brands in social media channels. CoTweet Co-Founder and CEO Jesse Engle shares his insights on steps that companies can take to leverage Twitter to forge tighter connections with customers.

  • What Does Customer Loyalty Really Mean, Anyway?

    Elizabeth Glagowski
    30 Aug 2010 | 6:56 am
    Customer loyalty is a term that gets bandied around among executives with customer-based responsibilities. For many, loyalty is synonymous with a points or rewards program. But as customer savvy evolves, companies need to rethink how they define and build customer loyalty.

  • Feedback or Noise?

    Ginger Conlon
    27 Aug 2010 | 7:56 am
    "There is a massive amount of information bouncing around online," Richard Hanks emphasized during a recent conversation we had. Hanks, president of Mindshare Technologies, was referring specifically to the many comments, complaints, and opinions voiced through such social channels as blogs, online communities and social networks.
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    The Intervals Blog by Pelago

  • Time Management Activities and Results for Small Businesses

    John Reeve
    31 Aug 2010 | 9:16 am
    I recently read an interview with entrepreneur Chris Wanstrath of GitHub who quoted Cameron Moll saying “I don’t believe in work-life balance. I believe in priorities.” We should be focusing, instead, on priorities. After all, there are aspects of work that are just as enjoyable as those in life, and there are times in our lives when we’d rather be working. The two aren’t just opposite sides of the same coin. How do we establish priorities in such a way that we enjoy both work and life and don’t burn out? Stephen Covey formulated a simple 2×2 matrix for…

  • Technographic Profile of an Online Project Management Application

    John Reeve
    24 Aug 2010 | 11:00 am
    Ever wonder what type of technology is used by a web-based project management application’s customers? What browsers do they prefer? What operating systems are favored? Where in the world they are coming from? We’ve got some of those numbers to share with you, based on our own online project management software Intervals. We’ve crunched Intervals’ numbers to give you an idea of what the typical technological profile of our customers — web design, web development, creative agencies and professional services small businesses — looks like. Keep in mind, these…

  • A Few Tips for Developing Web-based Applications

    John Reeve
    17 Aug 2010 | 3:14 pm
    Take a quick look at the online productivity software landscape and you will see there are plenty of options to choose from. This as a good thing, after all, project managers, web designers, web developers, and creatives are a thorough and intelligent bunch and highly capable of vetting out the best web-based applications that will work for their needs. The large number of online software options available means any small business can find a unique set of features — time tracking, task management, document sharing, reporting, invoicing, and so on — to match their workflow. The…

  • Intervals Online Time, Task and Project Management Updates

    John Reeve
    13 Aug 2010 | 11:53 am
    We are pleased to announce yet another round of updates to Intervals, our online time, task and project management application, launched this week. These updates combine some of our most-requested improvements with a few ideas of our own to continue in the tradition of keeping Intervals fresh, relevant and in a constant state of improving. The next time you login to your Intervals account you’ll find a few more ways to become even more productive… Upload Multiple Documents At Once There are many times in a project or a tasks lifecycle when we need to upload several documents at…

  • Five Reasons NOT to Redesign Your Web Site

    John Reeve
    10 Aug 2010 | 9:44 am
    Web designers and web developers are tinkerers by nature. We love to fine-tune our creative ideas until they are somewhere close to perfection, despite our definition of perfection being in a constant state of flux. If our web site design does begin to approximate perfection, the inevitable happens. We come up with 101 reasons why we need to redesign our web site — good and compelling reasons why we should throw the old web site away and redesign, redevelop and relaunch a shinier and better web site in its place. I am telling you to ignore these inclinations. Yes, some web sites do need…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Service with Purpose

  • Good Ol' Advertising Still Works

    29 Aug 2010 | 10:43 pm
     Sometimes we get a little too clever in our marketing. We want word-of-mouth, we want social media engagement, we want a social media viral campaigns.On a recent road trip to Canberra, Australia my eye was attracted to a simple sign on the freeway saying “The Daily Pie – fresh make everyday”.I was in the car with a friend, his son, and my son, so hunger is never too far away.Although we knew the location of the next McDonalds, we decided to take the turnoff to the small town of Collector, about 1km off the highway.Along the way to the turnoff, we came across more signs – good…

  • Blog Moving

    30 Jun 2010 | 10:18 pm
    Dear readers.Just another reminder that this blog has moved towww.servicewithpurpose.netIf you are a subscriber, you can automatically subscribe to the new feed here.Subscribe feed Serving Reason

  • Role plays are tough - an alternative

    3 Jun 2010 | 4:41 am
    For many people role plays are tough and uncomfortable. The thought of sitting with a peer pretending to be a customer is scary and intimidating.As a result, we avoid the activity. Very few people will argue that role plays are not beneficial.In fact most expert professions are built on proactive simulations. ·Airline pilots use a simulator. ·Doctors may practice on dummies. ·Sportsmen practice in training drills. And yet in customer service environments, it is avoided.Rather than move to the uneasy role-play, customer service staff and sales people could use the wisdom of others. Here’s…

  • Trying is not good enough - what we can learn from Yoda

    2 Jun 2010 | 3:10 am
    When leading staff, we sometimes get caught asking them to ‘try’ and then to ‘try harder’.Asking staff to try gives them an excuse not to accomplish. Avoid asking people to try a new skill.  Teach them and then ask them to ‘do’ the job.  There is a difference. Trying is judgmental.  How can you know if the staff member tried enough?  How do they know themselves?  When other people learnt the skill, did they try harder? If I attempt a task for the first time and get it wrong, was it because I didn’t try hard enough or was it something else?  Was it…

  • Beware of Customer Service Snake Oil and Silver Bullets

    1 Jun 2010 | 12:46 am
    Every now and then someone presents me with the latest and greatest ‘cure all’ customer service program, idea, or system.  There is no silver bullet in Customer Service. I am the founder of a Mystery Shopping Company but do not purport it to be the silver bullet to solve all your service ills. It is a critical part of the solution, but not the sole solution.   Just doing training is not the answer, because it needs to be measured.   Customer complaint cards are not the answer because they are not frequent an tend to measure extremes.   The latest trend of Social Media…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    X-Squared On Demand LLC Blog

  • Salesforce Wallpaper for iPad (by request)

    David Schach
    13 Aug 2010 | 9:38 am
    Because he asked so nicely, here's a cloudy iPad wallpaper just for JP Seabury (and anyone else who wants it). Enjoy! iPad Wallpaper (1024x768 at 132ppi) (Click on the image to download the full-sized version.)

  • New Blackberry and iPhone Wallpaper

    David Schach
    1 Aug 2010 | 10:30 am
    Last year, I published a wallpaper image for Blackberry, at a resolution of 320×240 (how quaint). Screen resolution has grown since then, as has salesforce.com and Salesforce CRM. This is a new wallpaper background using the latest branding, at 480×360. Blackberry Wallpaper 480x360px For those of you using retinal displays, here’s one for you: iPhone Wallpaper 640x960px I expect to see you ALL using these at Dreamforce 2010! (Thanks to Jamie Grenney at salesforce.com for the original image post years ago.)

  • Chatter and the CLM

    David Schach
    11 Jun 2010 | 9:30 am
    I love Chatter. I love the way that it is a game-changer. I think that Chatter is a powerful tool. But as Peter Parker's Uncle Ben said, "With great power comes great responsibility," and with the possibility of great rewards from Chatter comes great risks. First I'll list my conclusions, just so there's no misunderstanding. Then I'll explain some of the possible pitfalls that Chatter presents. Chatter is amazing. It lets users share information in ways never seen before. Chatter should be enabled in an org as an all-or-nothing switch - as it is now. Allowing it to be disabled for some users…

  • I Found a Bug – And Salesforce Support Was Great

    David Schach
    10 Jun 2010 | 1:23 pm
    A week ago, I installed Scott Hemmeter’s amazing app, Geopointe. Everything was going smoothly until I decided to manage the licenses I had assigned to the app. I successfully managed the licenses and tried to click the “Back to Previous Page” link, but something broke: This should never happen for a Salesforce-generated URL Here’s a video of the problem in action: Managing Licenses Previous Page Link Is Broken. This is a story about the super-responsiveness of the salesforce.com support team. (I’m not including peoples’ names, but for any employees, it is…

  • Sophisticated DateTime “Formula Fields” with Apex and Field-Level Security

    David Schach
    17 May 2010 | 1:39 pm
    What do you do when you want to calculate a formula-like field but a regular formula won't work? Salesforce CRM's formulas handle dates very well. If you want to enter a date value and have formula fields display, for instance, mydate__c + 21 days, that's simple. Just use mydate__c + 21. Side note: If you try going the long way around and use DATE( YEAR( mydate__c ), MONTH( mydate__c ), DAY( mydate__c ) + 21 ) and mydate__c = 09/17/2010, Salesforce returns #Error! because there's no date 09/38/2010. Similarly, adding three months to a date like 1/31/2010 will also give an error. More about…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Can I have that with!

  • Stillness within the waxing and waning of a crescent moon

    1 Sep 2010 | 7:51 pm
    On a beautiful clear evening the waxing and waning Crescent Moon offers stillness. The full moon might be romantic however the crescent radiates stillness.

  • What is your value statement?

    1 Sep 2010 | 1:39 pm
    Rafi Mohammed shares his value statement philosophy,Every company – whether a mom-and-pop or a Boston’s, for example -- should have a value statement that clearly articulates why customers should purchase their product over competitors’ offerings. Be specific in listing reasons: this is not a time to be modest. This statement will boost the confidence of your frontline so they can look customers squarely in the eye and say, “I know that you have options, but here are the reasons why you should buy our product.”

  • Tranquility in the workplace.

    1 Sep 2010 | 1:02 pm
    Kimberly Wilson shares her insight with Mary Ellen Slayter on how to bring tranquility to a workplace.What words of wisdom can you share specifically for human resource professionals in terms of their ability to use Tranquilista as well as any other yoga philosophies to make their companies better places to work? Practice compassion first and foremost. People need to feel appreciated and a part of what is going on within the organization — not like cogs on a wheel. Practice satya (truthfulness). Say what you mean and mean what you say. Practice svadyaya (self-study). What are your…

  • What good are fans if you can't motivate them to action

    30 Aug 2010 | 9:57 am
    Sam Oches provides an example of the new social media landscape and how it impacts any business,Rubin says a large number of Facebook fans for a brand means nothing if it's not put to good use. Companies, he says, must utilize the support and information that a large group of Facebook fans represent."I think people assume that just because they've got fans, they're going to get revenue," Rubin says. "I don't think it correlates to that. I think having fans gives them the audience to engage with. More importantly, instead of saying, 'Here's what the soup is today,' maybe say, 'What's your…

  • The allure of "trending now"

    29 Aug 2010 | 6:15 am
    One of the joys of our always connected world is that one can know the pulse of the universe by viewing the "trending now" section on Yahoo or Google. Our fellow space travelers are typing in words into a search engine. The search engine shares the top ten current searches with the rest of the world which reinforces the search terms. We click aimlessly on search terms that others have chosen because we do not want to be "out of the loop". If tomatoes is trending than I want to know why tomatoes is trending. I do not want to be the only person at the "watering hole" who did not know.No doubt…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    The Sun Rises Today

  • How Winning $3,600 In Vegas Sparked Jason Kintzler To Revolutionize PR

    Tim Jahn
    31 Aug 2010 | 2:00 am
    Have you ever had one of those ideas that just won’t go away?  One of those that gets ya real excited all the time? That’s how PitchEngine was for founder Jason Kintzler.  The idea consumed Jason so much, he went to an agency and asked how much it would cost to build his idea.  Unfortunately, the down payment for the project was a bit more than Jason could swing at the time. How did Vegas, some serendipity, and $3,600 allow Jason to bring his idea to life?  Watch my video interview with Jason above.  Click here if you can’t see the interview.  Below is a transcript.

  • How Celebrating The Little Victories Led To Brenden Mulligan Selling His Company To Sonicbids

    Tim Jahn
    27 Aug 2010 | 2:00 am
    Almost a year ago, I interviewed Brenden Mulligan to learn about ArtistData, the website he founded to help bands and musicians update all their various sites and profiles across the web.  I was impressed, because it was just him and a small team creating this amazing tool being used by tens of thousands of musicians. Apparently I wasn’t the only one that was impressed.  This past June, ArtistData was acquired by Sonicbids, a leading website for connecting bands and promoters. I think that’s pretty freakin’ cool, so I asked Brenden to chat again to learn what the past year…

  • What Josh Karp Learned From Founding The Printed Blog, Shutting It Down, Relaunching A Year Later

    Tim Jahn
    24 Aug 2010 | 2:00 am
    I first interviewed Josh Karp over a year ago when he founded The Printed Blog.  The idea was to take blogs offline and print them in a weekly newspaper format where content was voted upon by the local community. The idea didn’t work so well the first time around.  Six months after the first issue of The Printed Blog was released, Josh had to shut the whole operation down due to lack of funds. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I catch wind on Twitter that Josh is going to relaunch The Printed Blog with renewed energy, a new co-founder, and most importantly, a new business model.

  • 5 Lessons Creative Entrepreneurs Can Learn From A Filmmaker

    Tim Jahn
    20 Aug 2010 | 2:00 am
    Dave Miller is a producer, writer, and director who, in addition to writing, producing, and directing feature length movies, owns his own production company.  He also writes and produces his critically acclaimed comedy web series Assisted Living, now in it’s 5th season on Koldcast.tv. I’ve been meaning to sit down and chat with Dave ever since I created Beyond The Pedway.  When we finally got the chance, I popped into his office and chatted with him about his production company Mindlight Films. As we got to talking, I realized many of his lessons from being a filmmaker could…

  • Why Annie Sorensen Quit Her Corporate Job And Thinks You Could Too

    Tim Jahn
    17 Aug 2010 | 2:00 am
    I met Annie Sorensen at Big Omaha (which is an AMAZING entrepreneur conference happening in Omaha every May that I hope to see YOU at next year).  We chatted briefly but I wasn’t clear as to what it was she did for a living exactly.  She seemed really cool though and I had a hunch she had an interesting story to tell.  I kept running into her during Big Omaha and she was always laughing and smiling (it’s only a 500 person conference, but in my eyes, that’s one of the best parts). After Big Omaha, I started following Annie on Twitter, but I still wasn’t entirely sure…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Questar Blog

  • You Never Listen To Me

    Questar
    20 Aug 2010 | 4:39 pm
    Nurses in Duluth, Minnesota, may be striking soon.  Earlier this week they voted by a nearly 9 to 1 margin to reject their new labor contract.  Like so many others in this “do more with less” economy, tight staffing levels have taken a toll, and the Minnesota Nurses Association cites “patient safety” as the primary concern prompting the strike. Employees decide to strike for many reasons.  But at the end of the day, most just want to be heard.  In that regard, they’re not alone.  At Questar we track tens of thousands of employees’ opinions about their workplace.  This…

  • Beware of G[r]eeks with Gifts

    Questar
    30 Jul 2010 | 10:23 am
    A colleague forwarded an interesting post to me yesterday titled “The Trojan Horse of Employee Engagement.”  The title instantly piqued my interest – maybe it was the image of 30 I/O Psychologists stashed away in a giant wooden horse.  The author, David S. Cohen, Ed.D., raised some very interesting questions throughout the article and laid out 7 specific ones. This “geek” is glad you asked.  These types of questions come up all the time – and they are good ones.  At Questar, we are always up for a game of devil’s advocate, so here is my reaction to your 7 questions. First a…

  • Once Upon A Time- A blog from Bolster

    Questar
    15 Jul 2010 | 5:48 am
    One of the things we do well is help our clients engage employees and customers and create brand loyalty. We do this in several ways—mainly by harnessing the power of employee, customer and stakeholder feedback to improve company performance. Our friends at Bolster (www.bolstercreative.com) are also in the business of driving brand loyalty. They use authentic storytelling, and engaging and sustainable communications tools to strengthen the reputation of a brand.We thought they had some good ideas and that you might find them interesting as well. Let us know what you think. Once Upon A…

  • This is No Small Announcement

    Questar
    29 Jun 2010 | 9:34 am
    Yesterday Questar announced the capability for our current and future clients to seamlessly integrate sentiment and text analytics into their customer experience measurement programs.  And we couldn’t be more thrilled, to tell the truth, because this is no small announcement.  Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you a little more about Questar’s new friend, Clarabridge. Where to start…how about here: Clarabridge is the leading provider of text analytics solutions to track and improve the customer experience.  Period.  They provide Global 1000 companies with the ability to…

  • Reflections on ‘Facebook for Business’

    Questar
    22 Jun 2010 | 10:00 pm
    Last week’s Fortune magazine had an interesting discussion about social networking in the workplace. The article, “Facebook for Business,” raised some interesting questions about whether social networking will change the way we work – or whether it’s just a fad best left outside the office. It reminded me of similar discussions heard in the mid 1990s about whether employees should have access to the Internet at work. Today, of course, most businesses cannot imagine operating without the internet. Yet what I remember most about that debate was a comment from a Senior Leader with whom…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    spark new thinking

  • A Little Bit Of Different

    sparkspace
    1 Sep 2010 | 4:11 am
    I generally avoid writing about the "big 4 of service" (I just made up that term in case you've never heard it before). You know the names: Disney, Southwest Airlines, Ritz Carlton, and Starbucks.  It's not that I don't like these companies. It's just that everybody writes about them, and talks about them, and wishes they could be them. Truthfully, I get a little sick of hearing about them from every customer service consultant, writer, and speaker.  Don't get me wrong; I've experienced them all and they all live up to their legends. I NEVER get sick of experiencing them, just…

  • What's on Your Fork?

    sparkspace
    23 Aug 2010 | 11:36 am
    The most positive people in the world and the most negative people in the world have one thing in common: They both want you to share in their experience. Sure, maybe it's buried subconsciously, but it's there, a secret desire for others to feel what we feel, to think what we think. Maybe because it validates our thoughts and feelings. Or maybe both joy and misery love company. We all do it. We radiate whatever mojo we're in the middle of. Don't believe me? Here's proof: What happens when you're dining with a friend and they take a bite of the most delicious food they've ever tasted? …

  • It's Not About The Cookie!

    sparkspace
    17 Aug 2010 | 3:24 pm
    It takes two days -- scratch that -- two LONG days in the car to drive from Columbus, OH, to Dallas, TX. It wouldn't take near as long if I was driving alone. Give me a 2-liter of Coke Zero, a big bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos, and an adult diaper and I bet you a hundred dollars I could make it in one day. For some reason I couldn't get my wife and kids to go for the adult diaper idea no matter how fun I made it sound. So after two LONG days in the car, stopping at about a dozen of the most God-forsaken truck stops on the planet, and sleeping in what is hands-down the nastiest motel in…

  • How To Sell A Ferrari

    sparkspace
    3 Aug 2010 | 10:13 am
    My 10-year-old son bought a Ferrari last week. Well, he hasn't paid for it yet, and he won't actually take possession for a couple of decades. But he made the decision. A Ferrari it shall be. Some quick background: after a father/son bonding experience getting haircuts (not matching, FYI), we decided it would be fun to go look at cars that cost more than my first house. As we entered the Ferrari dealership, the salesman greeted us with a warm welcome. To be honest, I half expected to be thrown to the ground, beaten silly, and interrogated by some former…

  • You Do Make A Difference

    sparkspace
    14 Jul 2010 | 6:12 am
    Walking with my kids on the beach last night, we saw some starfish washed up on the beach. My daughter delighted in scooping them up with her beach shovel and tossing them back into the ocean. I delighted in telling my kids the story of the little boy and the starfish. A little boy was at the beach one day. He noticed up and down the beach there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of starfish washed up on the sand. He gently lifted them one by one, ran to the edge of the surf, and returned them back to the ocean. As each starfish floated away the boy would smile for a moment, wishing the starfish…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    ClickSoftware

  • Optimized Shift Planning? Get the basics right first...

    ClickSoftware
    1 Sep 2010 | 11:29 am
    By Stewart Hill A good friend of mine works for a major retail chain and because they are employed in the store running various customer-facing counters, they are subject to working shifts. And these shifts vary daily regarding the number of hours worked, the time of day that the shifts begin and end, and the days of the week that employees are scheduled. No surprise there as this is typical for the retail industry but what I found surprising is that two days before the start of a new working week, they did not know what shifts they were scheduled to work that week. This created problems…

  • Enterprise-Wide Workforce Management? I don't think so!

    ClickSoftware
    11 Aug 2010 | 9:57 am
    Author: Simon Morris Internet shopping - everybody does it, right? It's simple and means you avoid those long queues at the store, right? You may even save a little money, right? But what about the delivery? I'd like to share with you my "horror" story.It started out with an email from a friend mentioning a special discount code on first orders placed on Very - a new online department store. With the English Premier League season about to get underway, I decided to purchase the new Arsenal home shirt. Priced at £45, the discount voucher would mean me getting it for £20 - what a bargain!I…

  • Could incentives cause your team to score own goals?

    Israel Beniaminy
    8 Aug 2010 | 1:04 am
    Author: Israel BeniaminyIn a football (or soccer, as our North American friends call it, if they call it anything at all) game, your team needs to score more goals than the opposing team. That's the goal, if you'll excuse a weak pun. It's a clear and simple incentive, subject to simple counting that can be easily performed even under the influence of whole sixpacks of beer. So, it's excusable to think there's absolutely no reason for a team to score an own goal.Not so. Even the simplest incentives can play strange tricks. The history of football has at least two examples of own goals that…

  • Automating service operation could have been simple had people not been involved

    Tal Geffen
    2 Aug 2010 | 2:27 pm
    Author: Tal GeffenIn a recent article published on Mackinsy Quarterly, Harold Brink, Senthil Muthiah, and Rajan Naik share experience from a service automation project that went south the first time round only to emerge successful on the second attempt after key blockers have been removed from the process.Interestingly, and quite as expected, these blockers were mostly related to human factors and had hardly any bearing on the technology.While such challenges, as the ones described in the article, are common to many IT intensive projects, my belief is that for service automation and…

  • Indoor location in field service - you read about it, now watch the video!

    Israel Beniaminy
    20 Jul 2010 | 8:32 am
    Back in 2008, we wrote about our planned research on indoor location. Well, now you can see it in action: this video highlights the benefits in efficiency, productivity and workforce safety. Some more background is rationale for the development is here.What do you think? Will the impact of indoor location technology on field service be comparable to the impact we saaw woth outdoor location (GPS)? If so, when will we see it happening? How can we balance the need to respect workforce privacy with the value of making the workforce's job easier and safer?
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Your Source for Providing a Better Customer Service and Customer Support Experience

  • Parature Service Desk Widgets

    Jessica Godby
    1 Sep 2010 | 11:08 am
    Parature Service Desk Widgets Service Desk Widgets allow you to have contextually relevant content from outside systems integrated into the Ticket Details page. With a widget, you can pass Ticket, Customer, or Account fields as URL parameters to the third-party system, allowing data specific to the ticket being viewed to be displayed in the customizable-size widget. Custom Service Desk Widgets pull contextual data about your Tickets, Customers, or Accounts and insert them in a special frame in a ticket. You may only have one active widget at a time, but as many inactive widgets as you wish.

  • Improve the Customer Experience by Leveraging Parature Email Templates

    Jessica Godby
    18 Aug 2010 | 7:39 am
    Leveraging Parature Email Templates Email Templates is one of the new features Parature introduced in the Parature ‘10 Release. Parature’s Email Templates can be used to improve readability of emails, enhance branding of email messages, and provide more control over the support experience. Check out the points below to see how you can improve the customer experience with the Email Templates feature: Email Styling Customize the design of the email notifications received by your customers and CSRs. These customizations can range from including a company logo or custom fonts, colors, and…

  • Parature Releases the Industry’s First and Only Customer Service Application for Directly Engaging with Customers, Prospects and Fans on Facebook

    Parature
    12 Aug 2010 | 5:00 am
    Parature for Facebook Newly Available Parature for Facebook Helps Companies Increase “Face-Time” while Keeping Support and New Customer Acquisition Costs Low Today we announced the general availability of Parature for Facebook, the industry’s first and only customer service application that enables direct customer engagement through Facebook. The Parature for Facebook application, delivered on-demand through Parature’s software-as-a-service model, helps companies, educational institutions and government associations directly engage with their Facebook fans to resolve service issues,…

  • Facebook for Business: How to Engage and Support Your Customers Directly on Your Facebook Page

    Parature
    10 Aug 2010 | 7:15 am
    Webinar - Facebook for Business: How to Engage and Support Your Customers Directly on Your Facebook Page In the beginning, Facebook was viewed as a personal-focused networking tool. Now users outnumber the entire population of the United States. Clearly, Facebook can be a powerful tool for brands, businesses, and non-profits. This webinar will help you maximize your business to get the most out of being on Facebook. You will also learn how you can add the Parature for Facebook customer support application directly to your Facebook Page to ensure your customers’ experience is optimized.

  • Answers to Questions from the ‘How 2 Give GR8 #CustomerService & Have Your Followers ‘Like’ You in All Social Channels’ Webinar

    Parature
    4 Aug 2010 | 7:23 am
    How 2 Give GR8 #CustomerService & Have Your Followers 'Like' You in All Social Channels The webinar “How 2 Give GR8 #CustomerService & Have Your Followers ‘Like’ You in All Social Channels” was attended by hundreds of customer service and support professionals who submitted numerous questions during the webinar. Due to the time constraints of the event, Rich was unable to answer all of the great questions submitted; however he has been gracious enough with his time to answer each one within our blog. Whether you attended the webinar or not, you may find that the…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    John Caddell's blog

  • Mistake Bank Podcast #5 – Monica Gould of Strategic Consulting Partners

    John Caddell
    31 Aug 2010 | 7:12 pm
    #5 in our series of interviews with successful entrepreneurs in which they talk about the mistakes that helped shape their careers. Our guest is Monica Gould, who founded her business, Strategic Consulting Partners, after a successful career at MCI, and has sustained it for more than 10 years. Monica, like so many of the entrepreneurs I’ve talked to, is very candid and self-reflective, and willing to talk about mistakes, to teach others and to ensure they themselves learn from them. I was struck by Monica’s sense of humor when she discussed the cobbler’s kids dilemma –…

  • Silicon Pasture Podcast #1 – Jason Kichline of OnSong

    John Caddell
    10 Aug 2010 | 7:54 pm
    In our inaugural Silicon Pasture podcast, we talk to Harrisburg-based Jason Kichline, developer of the OnSong iPad application that helps musicians and bands manage chordsheets. My favorite part of the interview is when Jason, when asked why he was able to succeed in building his own business developing websites, credited good timing rather than his own brilliance. Good for you, Jason! Highlights: 0:35 How he got started 2:45 How can you build a sustainable business out of a hobby? 4:07 The idea for OnSong 7:05 What the app does 9:13 What’s happened since the product’s release…

  • Randy Nelson of Pixar: Collaboration is like improv theater

    John Caddell
    10 Aug 2010 | 5:33 am
    I learned of this video of Randy Nelson, dean of Pixar University, from Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen blog. Garr points out many interesting facets of Randy’s presentation, but I was struck by the initial message in the talk, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot the past few days. Randy says this (all in the first 1:30 of the video): Two core principles of improv have always guided us. The first is: Accept every offer. If an improviser says to you, “It’s raining a lot in here today,” you don’t say, “Raining in here?” You say,…

  • What is a Foursquare friend?

    John Caddell
    3 Aug 2010 | 7:07 pm
    Foursquare is the latest Big Thing in the social space, following in the footsteps of Friendster (RIP), Myspace (nearly RIP), Facebook (world’s third largest nation) and Twitter. If you’re not familiar with it, Foursquare is a mobile application that uses GPS to know where you are and allows you to “check in” at places you visit. Friends can learn from the application where you are and on the spur of the moment decide to pay you a visit. (Is it obvious that the application started with young people in New York?) Like all these emergent social apps, people developed…

  • Silicon Pasture Report – Refurbished is the New New

    John Caddell
    2 Aug 2010 | 12:08 pm
    When our Wii tumbled off its rack the other week and crashed to the floor, subsequently losing the ability to read game disks, it wasn’t only my kids’ hearts that sank. Mine did as well at the thought of paying another $200 to replace it. As it turns out, you can ship your broken system to Nintendo (actually, you send it to a subcontractor), who will fix it and send it back for $85, including shipping. It seems like only a few years ago that electronics were disposable. They were cheap to buy and hard to repair. Things have changed a lot. Refurbished is the new “new.”…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    The Think Zone

  • Give It To Me Now, Give It To Me Straight

    15 Aug 2010 | 11:10 am
    In this post, I'm going to talk about service from the customer perspective, stepping out of my role as a service provider. Let me state for the record that when I say Customer Service, I am not talking only about a Customer Service "department," or the handling of complaints or returns or problems, although all of these are all parts of the Customer Service world. I'm talking about a philosophy of service that is relevant across the company, and which doesn't lose sight of the fact that a business will only continue to exist as long as it fulfills the needs and expectations of customers,…

  • How Did This Get On My Plate?

    17 Jul 2010 | 9:20 am
    It's a struggle. Every day, things are getting on my plate. Some of them get there because I opened the packages (work tickets, project requests, tasks from the boss). Some of the things on my plate are there because I wanted them ("Can you pass me that web update, please?"). But some of them, I just don't know. Something arrived completely out of the blue. Something else I envisioned as being an afternoon's work became a week's work because there were components no one had thought about, or because it tied into three other projects, or because I did not ask enough questions.That one bites me…

  • Customer Service: Weighing the Options

    27 Jun 2010 | 1:34 pm
    Knowledge of—and confidence in—a company's culture empowers employees to make decisions and to seek out creative solutions to problems.After 5 years of delivering newspapers as a kid, I got myself  a "real job" in a high-volume supermarket. I worked for that chain through most of college, and for a couple of years later on as I was getting my music career started. By then, I was a department manager, and had responsibility for minding the store one night a week and a weekend or two a month. As a bagger, cashier, and service desk worker, I had learned the company culture with regard…

  • Customer Service Stories Are Everywhere

    13 Jun 2010 | 11:58 am
    Recently, I flew to Colorado Springs for a weekend of meetings. Going from Downeast Maine to just about anywhere is not especially straightforward, but I did manage to find economical airfare from Bangor. There were three hops, and on the longest of these (New York City to Dallas-Fort Worth), I found myself sitting next to a delightful woman—I'll call her "Sally"—who asked where I was from, where I was going, and what I did. When I told her that I write about Customer Service, she immediately said she had a couple of stories for me, one "good" one, and one "bad" one, and said I could use…

  • Customer Service Can Happen Anywhere

    31 May 2010 | 6:46 am
    One of the traditions of Memorial Day in many families is going to visit cemeteries, and placing flags there to commemorate the service and sacrifice of those who served in the military. I hope that all of us have spent a little time this Memorial Day reflecting on the human stories represented by those flags.My friend Cris Buckley told me a story about a very unexpected Customer Service experience this weekend. Cris was visiting a cemetery where a friend is buried. When she arrived, she was offered a questionnaire, and asked if she would fill it out and return it on the way out. She…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Scott McKain Viewpoint

  • The allure of the negative…

    Scott McKain
    1 Sep 2010 | 3:50 am
    I’ve often caught myself saying something that may have crossed your lips a time or two about television news: “Why does EVERYTHING have to be so negative?” Well, unfortunately, after a couple of years of writing blog posts, I think I know. It’s a point of pride that the readership here is growing consistently, and with ever-increasing rapidity. I sincerely hope what we share together here is a resource of value on many levels for you. (And…thank you so much for spending a bit of time here. I’m grateful.) However, it is very interesting when I examine…

  • Roger Clemens indictment…and the lessons for YOU and your business!

    Scott McKain
    30 Aug 2010 | 10:02 am

  • Office Depot fixes the haircut…

    Scott McKain
    29 Aug 2010 | 4:25 am
    You may have read the recent post here about my good friend, Jeff Slutsky, and how his signature story from a speech somehow wound up being repeated — practically word-for-word — on an Office Depot commercial without his prior knowledge or permission. Good news! Office Depot has stepped forward to resolve the situation! Jeff’s wonderful wife, Helene, sent along this message from her blog, which I’ve excerpted here… “Here is an update to end all updates! My Office Depot Drama has ended well. First, let me just say, I am so thankful for the outpouring of…

  • From financial advice by a Gen-Y’er to Seniors on Twitter…

    Scott McKain
    28 Aug 2010 | 4:44 am
    Let me run two events from today — seemingly disconnected – by you, and see if you reach a similar conclusion. My Friday morning started with coffee at Starbucks with Pete Dunn — better known as “Pete the Planner.” We’ve been connecting on Social Media, but had never met in person. Pete’s a really terrific guy — and a truly brilliant example of what my friend, Nido Qubein, calls “intentional congruency.” In other words, he is involved in a number of projects, but they all contribute to the meaningful whole of what he’s all…

  • The One Minute Negotiator

    Scott McKain
    27 Aug 2010 | 11:56 am
    My great friend, Don Hutson, has done it again! A #1 New York Times bestselling author, he is back with a new book, “The One Minute Negotiator” that is just fantastic. I recorded a message about it, and wanted you to see it. And, if you order the book, you’ll receive: * (52) VideoZine Tips: weekly 90-second video tips on how to be a better negotiator. (Value: $149) * (4) Twenty Minute Teleseminars on negotiation strategies, tactics, and tips. (Value: $495) That’s $644 of programs — not counting the value from this sure-to-be mega-bestseller, just for buying…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    crm intelligence & strategy

  • Hey Esteban, What About the Physical Channel?

    Esteban Kolsky
    18 Aug 2010 | 5:05 am
    Anthony Nemelka is a long-time veteran of the CRM industry, having previously served as a senior executive at both Peoplesoft and Epiphany and most recently co-founder and CEO at Helpstream.  This is the second in his series of posts this week on “The Last Mile of Social Collaboration.”   And ending months of speculation, he’s finally letting us in on his next big venture….. In my blog post earlier this week, I asserted that in order to really transform how businesses operate, social business collaboration faces one more big challenge. I called it “The Last Mile of Social…

  • The Last Mile of Social Collaboration

    Esteban Kolsky
    16 Aug 2010 | 9:00 am
    Today’s guest post is by Anthony Nemelka.  Anthony Nemelka is a long-time veteran of the CRM industry, having previously served as a senior executive at both Peoplesoft and Epiphany and most recently co-founder and CEO at Helpstream.  Rumor has it he’ll be announcing his latest endeavor later this week. We often save the biggest problems for last.  In the world of business, that’s often because problems sneak up on us so slowly that we don’t notice them until they’ve gotten really big. Such is the case with the unintended consequences of social business…

  • Will The Social Customer Revolt Against The Indifference in Management?

    Esteban Kolsky
    16 Aug 2010 | 6:39 am
    Find out in my exclusive post at TheSocialCustomer.com! Share

  • The Evolution of CRM on Display in NYC

    Esteban Kolsky
    4 Aug 2010 | 11:26 pm
    I came back from two days (technically, 36 hours) of CRM Evolution 2010 last night with my head spinning and lots and lots of new ideas.  The event was everything I expected and more, lots more. Where to start? Quality of presentations was amazing:  Ray Wang, Natalie Petohouff, Brian Vellmure, the panel by Paul Greenberg with CRM Executives, and so much more.  I will admit that I just peeked into some of the presentations briefly, and attended parts of others — but what I saw blew me away. Denis Pombriant was amazing in the quality and quantity of information he presented —…

  • Is The Social World The End Of EFM? (Cross Posting)

    Esteban Kolsky
    3 Aug 2010 | 5:00 am
    Last week I wrote a guest post on Vovici’s blog to discuss the link between EFM (Enterprise Feedback Management) and Social CRM.  I want to provide you with a link to it so you can get to it if you are just getting this via the RSS Feed (OK, I was told I am not good at pointing to all my content around the web — so I will try to do so starting now). You can read all about it here. Feel free to leave comments either over there or here, I get notified of both.  Thanks for reading! Share
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    crm intelligence & strategy

  • Hey Esteban, What About the Physical Channel?

    Esteban Kolsky
    18 Aug 2010 | 5:05 am
    Anthony Nemelka is a long-time veteran of the CRM industry, having previously served as a senior executive at both Peoplesoft and Epiphany and most recently co-founder and CEO at Helpstream.  This is the second in his series of posts this week on “The Last Mile of Social Collaboration.”   And ending months of speculation, he’s finally letting us in on his next big venture….. In my blog post earlier this week, I asserted that in order to really transform how businesses operate, social business collaboration faces one more big challenge. I called it “The Last Mile of Social…

  • The Last Mile of Social Collaboration

    Esteban Kolsky
    16 Aug 2010 | 9:00 am
    Today’s guest post is by Anthony Nemelka.  Anthony Nemelka is a long-time veteran of the CRM industry, having previously served as a senior executive at both Peoplesoft and Epiphany and most recently co-founder and CEO at Helpstream.  Rumor has it he’ll be announcing his latest endeavor later this week. We often save the biggest problems for last.  In the world of business, that’s often because problems sneak up on us so slowly that we don’t notice them until they’ve gotten really big. Such is the case with the unintended consequences of social business…

  • Will The Social Customer Revolt Against The Indifference in Management?

    Esteban Kolsky
    16 Aug 2010 | 6:39 am
    Find out in my exclusive post at TheSocialCustomer.com! Share

  • The Evolution of CRM on Display in NYC

    Esteban Kolsky
    4 Aug 2010 | 11:26 pm
    I came back from two days (technically, 36 hours) of CRM Evolution 2010 last night with my head spinning and lots and lots of new ideas.  The event was everything I expected and more, lots more. Where to start? Quality of presentations was amazing:  Ray Wang, Natalie Petohouff, Brian Vellmure, the panel by Paul Greenberg with CRM Executives, and so much more.  I will admit that I just peeked into some of the presentations briefly, and attended parts of others — but what I saw blew me away. Denis Pombriant was amazing in the quality and quantity of information he presented —…

  • Is The Social World The End Of EFM? (Cross Posting)

    Esteban Kolsky
    3 Aug 2010 | 5:00 am
    Last week I wrote a guest post on Vovici’s blog to discuss the link between EFM (Enterprise Feedback Management) and Social CRM.  I want to provide you with a link to it so you can get to it if you are just getting this via the RSS Feed (OK, I was told I am not good at pointing to all my content around the web — so I will try to do so starting now). You can read all about it here. Feel free to leave comments either over there or here, I get notified of both.  Thanks for reading! Share
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    the customer experience for profit blog

  • The end in mind, and what’s in the middle

    Linda Ireland
    30 Aug 2010 | 6:34 pm
    John, Ever since I read Steven Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” more years ago than I’d care to admit, I’ve known I was an end-in-mind girl. As a manufacturing leader I wanted to understand how my customers would use my product. As a marketing executive we focused on why a customer’s life would be better if they used our products or services. It all sounds so logical. Yet this “system” you describe – and the idea of a smart, well intended group of people in the system doing things that all work toward a common vision of a…

  • Stat of the week: who’s responsible for customer experience strategy?

    Linda Ireland
    25 Aug 2010 | 5:22 am
    For this installment of Stat of the week, we’re taking a look at responsibility. photo by Sarah G We asked 644 leaders:  In your organization, who has the primary responsibility for defining customer experience objectives and strategies? 43% said CEO or Senior Management is responsible for customer experience strategy. 25% said everyone is responsible for customer experience strategy. These two were the top vote getters.  Other participants threw sales, marketing or customer service into the ring, but none of the other responses garnered anything more than 8%. I think it’s…

  • Stat of the week: Who translates today’s voice of the customer to tomorrow’s actions?

    Linda Ireland
    17 Aug 2010 | 10:02 am
    This week’s stat focuses on translating today’s lessons into actions that make a positive difference for customers and organization performance. Bringing the customer’s point of view into company operating decisions has become a such a common business goal that we now have Voice of the Customer as an official-sounding way to describe this thinking as a strategic research discipline.  Leaders in marketing, sales, service, operations and product all strive to better understand what customers think, do and want. Their companies do everything from capturing daily events to…

  • How personal is personal enough for your customer experience?

    Linda Ireland
    11 Aug 2010 | 8:30 pm
    Yes, indeed I want both. But I may not be your customer. I was keynote for a leader meeting a while ago, and well into the conversation someone in back raised his hand: “What do you do if your customers don’t want a customer experience?” He shared that he was a sales leader for a packaging company, and that increasingly customers were turning away from the personal (and consistently personal) experience his company offered — and had begun putting their business out on reverse auctions on the web. Those customers wanted an experience that was consistently IMpersonal,…

  • Stat of the week: What does success look like?

    Linda Ireland
    9 Aug 2010 | 1:19 pm
    xx Previously, on ’stat of the week’ We’ve covered some provocative stats pulled from the Aveus study Finding the Performance Payoff in Customer Experience. I shared that whether (or not) an organization has a well-understood definition of customer experience is such a strong indicator of performance that we used it as the primary distinction in the findings. For fun and for clear reference, I called these groups “Haves” – those that have a definition that everyone in their organization understands – and “Have Nots” – those that, well, you get it. What…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop

    Write The Company

  • After the Dust Settles

    Write The Company
    1 Sep 2010 | 7:44 am
    Even though dust settles, I have no intention of settling for dust. Since Swiffer Dusters from Procter & Gamble gather up dust, I reached out to them to gather up information about dust… Dear Dust Devourers: I use Swiffer Dusters mainly because I can’t use feather dusters since I’m allergic to feathers. Then again, I’m [...]

  • More Elbow Room for Macaroni

    Write The Company
    30 Aug 2010 | 9:29 am
    Elbow macaroni seems different to me than any other kind of pasta. That’s why I wrote New World Pasta, manufacturers of the Creamette brand, after noodling around with some suggestions for expanding the concept of elbow macaroni… Dear Elbow Macaroni Manufacturers: There’s no denying that elbow macaroni is one of the most popular pastas. Plus [...]

  • Why Chicken … of the Sea?

    Write The Company
    27 Aug 2010 | 8:50 am
    On MTV’s Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica, Jessica Simpson once asked: “Is this chicken what I have, or is this fish? I know it’s tuna, but it says Chicken … by the Sea. Is that stupid?” I recently wrote Chicken of the Sea and picked up where Jessica left off… Dear Chicken Fisherman: As a consumer, [...]

  • Getting to Know AZO

    Write The Company
    25 Aug 2010 | 10:02 am
    After the subject of yeast infections came up with a female friend, I consulted Amerifit Brands, manufacturers of AZO Yeast, to investigate further… Dear Fighters of the Yeast Beast: From what I can tell, AZO YEAST effectively relieves yeast infections. I’ve never had a yeast infection, probably because I never had a vagina either. That [...]

  • Air Canada Wake-Up Call

    Write The Company
    23 Aug 2010 | 11:17 am
    After an unusual incident involving a passenger several months ago, I wrote Air Canada to see if they felt this idea based on what happened could take off… Dear Canadians that Fly Through the Air: Your website says, “You can expect to hear back from us within 30 days.” Since I didn’t, I thought you [...]
Log in