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Apr 29, 2008

Power

crossposted to Snapshot Chronicles. Warning: long post

Power. Of the collective. Of the parent. Of the blogger. That's today's topic.

Let's start with what the collective can achieve when we come together. In this case, for charity. As you may recall, about two weeks ago, in one of my Camp Baby case study posts, I suggested that companies interested in reaching women bloggers put their money into the charities that we care about. Not that we don't like schwag or free products, or hell, even some link love. But I have yet to meet a parent blogger that doesn't contribute what she or he can to charity. It's why BlogHers Act has such resonance for the community.

Which is why I was thrilled to get an email from Kristen Chase this morning telling me about the latest Parent Bloggers Network BlogBlast campaign. PBN has teamed up with Johnson's to promote Johnson's Baby Cause, the company's new charitable giving site to support the health and well-being of mothers and children worldwide. Details of the promotion are on the PBN post, but short version, blog about how you'd like to be recognized on Mother's Day. Both Johnson's and PBN are donating prizes; I love the PBN prize -- a $25 credit to donate to the cause of your choice at Baby Cause. Ten winners. There's also a charity auction for gently used celebrity baby goods on eBay that will benefit Baby Cause.

Why do I like this so much? To start with, charity. That will get me EVERY TIME. Which I am sure Kristen knew when she emailed me. And then there's the Johnson's component. I absolutely love that this Parent Bloggers Network campaign came about as a result of Lori Dolginoff from Johnson's and Kristen meeting at Camp Baby, a fact which I confirmed with Lori before posting tonight. (And perhaps of  Lori and Julie Marsh, Kristen's partner in PBN, not meeting for all the reasons we already know.)

I'm sure the broader charity effort was well underway before Camp Baby earlier this month but as a direct result of the event, Johnson's decided to team up with PBN to promote it. In short, it learned how valuable it is to work with people within the community, and that, my friends, is worth the price of admission.

Okay, you get here for free, but you know what I mean.

Another way we exercise our power as bloggers is when we help build our community. As Kim Moldofsky did today with a "link love" post for her Camp Baby friends on parentcenter. Yet another consequence, and hopefully not unintended, of getting 56 women with common interests together.

The power of the collective to effect change. Use it. Write a post. Help a friend with a little link love. Donate, to Baby Cause or BlogHers Act. But I'm thinking, buy a new diaper bag. 

Parent bloggers have power. And that's the segue into my next topic, which is to tell you about a project that launched its public beta today called ParentPower. Full disclosure: I've been consulting for the company developing ParentPower, advising them about the parent blogger space.

What is ParentPower? It's an application for parenting blogs. There’s a lot to it – a desktop widget, an index of top parenting blogs, links to sites we visit all the time like Flickr, Twitter and parenting sites, an RSS reader, the weather, and more. More details in the overview on the site.

Why do I like this project? Because Active Access, the company that developed the app, asked. And they listened. And not just to me and my colleague Kami Huyse, who brought me into the project. They did focus groups with parent bloggers. They've started talking in Twitter. We're talking with BlogHer about the best way to work with the community. And we are asking for even more feedback in the beta process. So if you decide to download the app, please complete the Polldaddy survey or send email to myvoice@parentpowerindex.com

As everyone who reads my Marketing Roadmaps blog knows, I have my concerns about indexes, but Active Access has done a good job here. There's no subjective component in the Parent Power index and blogs that score the same get the same rank.

Personally, I'm LMAO that my personal/parent blog Snapshot Chronicles, which isn't even a year old and has a very small number of loyal, wonderful subscribers, currently has a better ranking on ParentPower than Marketing Roadmaps (three+ years old, 1000 plus subscribers) has on the AdAge Power150. I'll let you draw your own conclusions, but (hint hint) I think the ParentPower algorithm is better (no offense meant,  AdAge 150), and  hope those parent bloggers whose blogs are not yet included in ParentPower will add them and knock me down the pegs I probably deserve.

The power of parents. That's truly what the folks behind ParentPower want to support, and I urge you to give your feedback. On the application, on the index, on whatever floats your boat. The feedback from the parent blogger focus groups was invaluable, and really, we just want "more, more..."

And finally, power. As in laptop power supply. Marketing Roadmaps readers will remember rmy sad tale, posted on April 3, of a broken iGo power supply during my trip to NYC for BlogHer, the 4-hour search for parts and the $130 I spent on new cables because, contrary to the information provided by iGo support, neither Best Buy nor RadioShack stocked the part I needed. Well, today I got an email from a marketing manager at iGo offering to replace my broken part. While I am tickled pink? purple? some other color? at the fact that finally, a company actually read my frakking blog and responded, customer support already sent a replacement part at no charge to my home. Which is great and much appreciated, but does not compensate for the added costs or the wasted time while I was in NY. Nothing really can, but if they respond back to my  reply, I will tell them that I'd be thrilled with some  free product to give away on Snapshot Chronicles. (Sorry Roadmaps readers, all giveaways happen on the personal blog.)

We do have power as bloggers. Our opinions of companies do matter, as this study by SNCR demonstrates, and companies are starting to listen. Slowly.

So use that power wisely. Don't bitch to hear the sound of your own voice or read the melody of your own words.

Write to change things for the better.

That's power.

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Addendum - credit where credit is due (4/30/08)

Kim Moldofsky wanted to make sure everyone knows that credit for the weekly post sharing idea goes to Jodi at www.momsfavoritestuff.com 

In my zeal to be transparent about my small part in the ParentPower project, it came across to some readers as though this was my project. While I think ParentPower is a great product and hope folks try it out, I simply provided some advice about the parent blogger space. ParentPower was developed by Active Access. Livingston Communications and Kami Huyse led the product marketing, strategy and PR, and Shannon Whitley developed the Index algorithm.

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Posted @ 11:04PM in Blogger relations, Charity, Customers | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Apr 3, 2008

The power trip

Some of you may have seen my tweets yesterday about my broken iGo power supply. In which case you will know that the power trip to which I refer has little to do with my ego and everything to do with my journey to find something, anything that would power my laptop and my Blackberry.

Here is the woeful tale. On the train to NYC on Wednesday, my iGo power adapter cord broke. It being the ONLY power supply I have with me for my laptop and my Blackberry and my iPod, I was pretty well screwed. I called my husband from the train and asked him to call iGo customer support to find out where in NY, preferably near the hotel, I could get a replacement part. Luckily, I only bought it in late January and still had the box with the model number in my office.

God bless my husband and high marks for effort to the iGo support techs. They had to do multiple calls because they had to check with me twice with questions about the broken bits. The recommended solution was for me to pick up a replacement part here in NYC. The iGo support tech told David that Radio Shack and Best Buy stocked the part, so off I went to the Radio Shack in the Manhattan Mall right next to the hotel. Unfortunately, Radio Shack did not have the part, so the Radio Shack sales rep recommended a basic wall adapter. Ka-ching $40.00 Back to the hotel I go to charge my phone and get some work done.

Then we have the OOPS. The wall adapter does NOT work with the laptop tip, only the small device tips. Back I go to Radio Shack. Where I learn that you have to buy a full converter package to charge a laptop. Wondering why the Radio Shack sales rep earlier in the day didn't know that, off I go to Best Buy (12 blocks away) to see if they have the replacement part.

Best Buy on 44th & 5th doesn't stock ANY iGo accessories of ANY kind. And I'm getting desperate. So I buy a regular power supply. Ka-ching $90.00

If you are keeping track, I've now spent $130.00, and about 3 hours on my "power trip." On top of the time that David spent on the phone with the iGo support techs while I was on the train. Because a $130.00 product that I've had for about 2 months broke. If you are still keeping track, that's $260.00 all in.

Now, iGo is sending the replacement part to the house, but really what the company should have done is fed-exed the replacement part to me here at the hotel. At their cost, not mine. From some of my husband's comments, it sounds like he did discuss this possibility with the iGo tech, but the overnight shipping would have been at my cost, not iGo's. Since all I needed to do was buy a replacement part, why spend the money...

Well, it didn't work out that way. I think the iGo techs meant well, but the information was bad. And I wasted time and money.

Tuesday I wrote, once again, that companies don't seem to be replying to bloggers' unsolicited comments, and it doesn't seem to matter whether the posts are negative or positive. The silence is generally deafening unless it is a very high profile blogger. I have no illusions about my  profile so it doesn't surprise me that I've never heard from AAA, who I blasted in December, and Verizon Wireless, whose customer service I have complimented on more than one occasion both here and on Twitter.

Let's see if iGo is paying attention to the the blogosphere beyond the A-list...

The really top marks for this whole mess go to my husband for trying to sort this out for me while I was on the train. If you see him, tell him I said so.

He doesn't read my blog either.

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Posted @ 11:04AM in Blogger relations, Blogging, Charity, Customers | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1)

Apr 1, 2008

Blogger relations is customer relations

Recently, I was explaining to someone why I wanted to shift the mix of my consulting business to include more blogger relations projects, both hands-on projects and strategic consulting to companies executing their projects themselves.

It's simple. Nearly every organization, regardless of size, is going to have to engage in blogger relations. Because blogger relations is the evolution of customer relations.

I hear the objection ... "But isn't blogger relations just PR campaigns aimed at bloggers to get them to write about products and services? How can that be customer relations?"

Outbound blogger relations, or blogger outreach, is only one part of blogger relations. It's also more, or at least should be more, than "just PR." Remember: the blogger is the customer. When companies engage with bloggers, they are strengthening, or weakening, their relationships with their customers.

For the moment, though, let's step away from the outreach discussion and remember that an interaction can be initiated by either party in a relationship. 

It is equally likely that a blogger -- the customer  -- will effectively reach out to a company by offering an unsolicited opinion about the firm or its products on her blog. How a company handles this blogger-initiated interaction, whether it be kudos or complaint, is equally blogger relations.

In my personal experience, companies rarely engage with bloggers under these circumstances. I've mentioned a number of different companies here, both positively and negatively, over the past three years. So far, only one company has left a comment on the relevant post. Other bloggers report similar results. The question is, why? 

Are the companies not paying attention, or do they just not know what to say?

It's probably a bit of both. That's the opportunity for companies willing to step up and really start talking with their customers. Wherever the conversation may be.

It starts with monitoring what people are saying about the company -- on blogs, microblogs like Twitter, social networks like Facebook, Forums, your customer service or support lines -- wherever customers talk about you, whatever else comes along. But it can't end there, or even with solid outreach programs that offer relevant information to the appropriate people.

You have got to be willing to respond. To answer the question, acknowledge the comment, accept the compliment and address the concerns. Publicly.

That's the challenge for blogger relations. Engaging with your customers on their terms as well as yours, on their turf as well as yours. Consistently and for mutual benefit.

Ready, set, go.

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I'm off to BlogHer Business tomorrow morning, so blogging will be light for the rest of the week, although I will be on Twitter. I will try to get my posts up about the sessions on the train ride home Saturday. While you are waiting, check out:

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Posted @ 5:04PM in Blogger relations, BlogHer Business, Customers | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 30, 2008

An excellent read adventure

Average Jane was kind enough to include Marketing Roadmaps on her list of most excellent reads in the meme started by Kayla at Project Mommy. The terms and conditions of the award, as with most memes, are pretty simple: pass it on and link back to the originator. You can repeat blogs that have already been awarded, but I think it is a cop-out to include ones that are on the same list as you, which is why you won't see my list below repeating a good chunk of Average Jane's even though I regularly read many of these same blogs and consider them most excellent.

Rules say award at least 10 Excellent Blog Awards, so here are 10 (out of the 500+ feeds in my feed reader) that will give you an excellent reading adventure. In alphabetical order by blog name:

  1. Communication Overtones
  2. Galactica Sitrep
  3. It's Not A Lecture
  4. Mary Schmidt
  5. Mom-101
  6. mothergoosemouse
  7. Motherhood Uncensored
  8. Murphy's Law
  9. Occam's Razr
  10. PR-Squared

And if you've got a few extra minutes, please check out three blogs that I recently brought online for clients:

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Posted @ 1:03PM in Blogging, Customers, Memes | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 14, 2008

SNCR research surveys that need your input

The Society for New Communications Research is doing two research projects right now that need your input.

I mentioned the survey with corporate partner Nuance on the impact of blogger/customer opinions a week or so ago here, and have some additional comments on customer satisfaction today at For the Face of Your Business.

The second survey, sponsored by SNCR, Deloitte and Beeline Labs, was designed to assess the effectiveness of online communities and learn how organizations are measuring the success and progress of their online communities. If you're involved in managing online communities for your organization, please give us about six minutes and take the 2008 Online Community Effectiveness Study at  http://www.communityeffectiveness.com.

All participants who complete the surveys will receive a special discount to attend the Society's annual conference, New Communications Forum where the preliminary results of both surveys will be discussed.

Please help us with this important research, and when you are done with the surveys, pop on over to my personal blog, Snapshot Chronicles, for an early peek at Spring from the Boston Flower Show.

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Posted @ 9:03AM in Community, Customers, Social networks | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 12, 2008

More on podcasting and Business Forward SMB podcast

 "I think she's got it." -- Professor Henry Higgins

It was an experience, my friends, but I've finally nailed the various technical and software issues I was having in the podcast production process. There is so much more involved than simply recording and uploading to a server to produce a professional sounding podcast. I don't think you can fully appreciate the process until you do it. I certainly didn't.

I mentioned the Holtz-Hobson podcasting book in my previous post. Another book that proved invaluable was Sound Forge 8 Power! by Scott Garrigus.

Take a listen to the most recent program, Business Forward #6: Making Channel Sales Successful, our interview with SAP Channel Sales VP Dan Kraus. While the content of all the episodes is great (if I do say so myself), and the previous episodes sounded okay, this last one just sounds cleaner.

On another, but related, note, if you are a small business owner and will be attending BlogHer Business next month in New York, I'd love to interview you for the podcast. Drop me a note at sgetgood@getgood.com if you are interested.

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Posted @ 1:03PM in Business Management, Customers, Podcasting | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 3, 2008

For the Face of Your Business

As I've mentioned a few times recently, the last few months have been a blur of fun projects for really nice people.

Here's the latest: For the Face of Your Business, a blog I developed for consulting company Caras Training. Caras specializes in training programs for customer-facing employees who interact with the customer primarily by phone such as call center reps, support techs, customer care and telesales. Company founder Ronna Caras started the firm in 1990 to develop and deliver training programs with measurable, sustainable results and a solid return on investment. 

More than 30,000 people participate in Caras-developed training every year at some of the country's largest corporations. That's a lot of people, so this year, Ronna decided that it was time to extend her conversation with her customers, students and peers with a blog.

The principal writers on the blog will be Ronna and client services manager Gloria Mogavero. They plan to have guest authors from time to time, and  I'll be showing up now and again to comment on the impact of social media on customer service. Or dis-service as the case may be.

Ronna also will be a guest on some upcoming episodes of Business Forward, the SMB podcast I produce for client GuideMark. We taped her interviews last week, and she had some very smart things to say about how to teach your customer service employees to recognize and capitalize on selling opportunities that arise in the course of business. NOT hard sell. Mostly learning how to tell when the customer is really asking for more information, begging for help, etc. And then making the offer in a natural way.

While I hope you'll subscribe to Business Forward so you won't miss Ronna later this month, I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that Ronna is always ready to share her thoughts with others. If the idea of maximizing sales through your customer service function appeals to you, I urge you to drop her a note at conversations@carastraining.com

For the Face of Your Business was designed by Karen Rani & Leslie Doherty of Swank Web Style.

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Posted @ 5:03PM in Customers | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Feb 25, 2008

Bloggers & Customer Service: Do blog complaints make a difference?

"Conventional" social media wisdom would have it that companies need to pay attention to the blogosphere, or risk their brands. For proof, out trots the example of Jeff Jarvis and Dell Hell. Jarvis' complaints about Dell customer service percolated up to mainstream media and are oft-cited as the impetus behind Dell's *big* move into social media about a year ago.

Now, you may sense a certain cynical undertone in the above paragraph, and you would be right. While I absolutely believe that companies should be listening to what bloggers -- their customers -- say, I am regularly provided with proof that either companies aren't listening or they are, and have no bloody idea what to say, or how to say it, when faced with blogosphere complaints, or compliments, about products and services.

My most recent proof:

Ike Pigott has been tracking the response, or lack thereof, to a post on his blog complimenting Blockbuster on its customer service. He also divined that Canon saw, but did not respond to positive comments about its products.

While I haven't made quite such a science of it, I have written about customer service on this blog on more than one occasion. Most recently about AAA's piss-poor performance with my flat tire before Christmas. Any word from AAA? Nope. And I've also mentioned my general, and unexepected,  pleasure with Verizon's support of its cellular customers. On every occasion that I've had to call, I've been treated well. Most recently by a lovely young lady named Amy who offered a credit on something that had gone wrong before I asked. Any response from Verizon? Nope.

Not to mention my friend Mary Schmidt, whose interactions with American Airlines prove without a shadow of a doubt that the airline just doesn't get it.

This is by far a scientific survey, which is why I am so pleased that the Society for New Communications Research is working with corporate partner Nuance to understand the extent to which bloggers think their opinions are, or are not, impacting companies. Please take the survey and let us know whether you think Corporate America is listening. SNCR is offering a special discounted registration to New Comm Forum in April for those that complete the survey. Direct link to survey here.

And that, my friends, is well worth it. There's a great roster of speakers and opportunities to network with other communicators at New Comm Forum. I'm moderating the luncheon keynote on the first day, a panel of conference alumni coming back to tell how they applied what they learned at the conference at their organizations. More on that next week.

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Client News: Maxwell Street Documentary is doing a T-shirt giveaway at the blog Notes of the Urban Blues. It is a very cool shirt. Just tell us about your favorite Blues artist and you can be entered to win.

And please check out the new podcast Business Forward, strategic advice for small and medium businesses, that I am producing for client GuideMark.

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Posted @ 6:02PM in Blogger relations, Blogging, Customers, Marketing, PR, Social media | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Feb 14, 2008

Mommy bloggers, New Comm Forum & Business Forward

Hopefully next week, I'll break free from the technology hell I have been in to write a bit more here.

For now, though, please check out the article I wrote for Media Bullseye, Some Advice on Reaching Out to Mommy Bloggers and my client GuideMark's new podcast for small to medium businesses, Business Forward. Preview: next week's episode is marketing tips from yours truly.

Also, early-bird discount for New Comm Forum in April ends tomorrow, Friday February 15th.

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Posted @ 9:02AM in Blogger relations, Community, Customers | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Jan 23, 2008

Notes of the Urban Blues

cross posted to Snapshot Chronicles

I haven't been posting here too much because I have been jamming to bring up two new client blogs, a podcast and doing media & blogger outreach for Electrified: The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues. Hopefully after Sundance, things will settle down a little bit and I can get back to ruminating about marketing topics.

In the meantime, if you'd like to follow the action at Sundance and the big Electrifed party at Harry O's on Friday with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Hubert Sumlin, you'll find me over at the film's new blog, Notes of the Urban Blues. Friday, I'll be interviewing Phil Ranstrom, writer/director/producer of Electrified at the HP Broadcast Studio, and during the party Friday night (and into the wee hours Saturday morning), we'll try to get some clips up in near real-time. I'll also be live-tweeting so please feel free to follow me at twitter.com/sgetgood. And don't worry, I won't be hurt if you follow me just for the weekend and then unfollow :-)

Notes of the Urban Blues was designed by the very talented Leslie Doherty of Swank Web Style.

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Posted @ 11:01AM in Customers, Sundance | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Jan 16, 2008

Sundance will be "Electrified"

I mentioned in last week's post about Torchwood that I would miss the first episode because I would be at the Sundance Film Festival, and promised more information this week.

I'm going out to the Festival to support a new client, Maxwell Street Documentary, at the premiere of the film, Electrified- The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues.

The film will be launched at a party at Harry O's in  Park City next Friday January 25th. In addition to the screening of the film, there will be a live performance by acclaimed blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd and blues legend Hubert Sumlin. Actor Chevy Chase will be master of ceremonies. Fender has also donated a limited edition “Electrified” guitar that film executive producer Les Walgreen will present  to online auction house Charity Buzz for an auction  to benefit The Center for Environmental Education Online.

I'm doing media/blogger outreach and developing a blog for the film. If you are going to be at Sundance on the 25th and would like to come to the screening, email or Twitter me.

Electrified tells the definitive history of the Chicago blues. Narrated by actor Joe Mantegna, the film chronicles how the urban neighborhood of Maxwell Street created a unique environment of commerce and cooperation that led first to the hard-driving sound of the urban blues, and ultimately to rock and roll. Interviews with many of the legendary bluesmen who “studied at Chicago’s Maxwell Street school of music,” including Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmie Lee Robinson and the “father of rock and roll” Bo Diddley, complement the film’s historical narrative and create an exceptional history of this important era in American music.

A companion film, Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street, documents the last days of the historic Maxwell Street market. It premiered to critical acclaim at the Chicago International Documentary Film Festival in April 2007, and is scheduled to be shown at the Amnesty International venue at Sundance January 18-20 and the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago on February 2.

Both Electrified and Cheat You Fair were written, directed and produced by longtime Chicago resident  and Emmy nominated producer Phil Ranstrom who began the projects in 1994 shortly before the Maxwell Street market was demolished.

We've put some short clips from both films up on YouTube. They are all great, but here are my two favorites:

"We come up the hard way..." Uncle Johnny Williams on how the blues were born

Eddie "Jewtown" Burkes performing "Step It Up And Go"

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Posted @ 5:01PM in Customers, Social media, Sundance | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Dec 29, 2007

Customer Service: the final volley (for 2007 at least)

(warning, long post)

Earlier this month, I wrote two customer service posts. In the first post, "if customer service is the new marketing,"  I wondered, if this is indeed the case -- if  front line interactions with customers are as or more important than any marketing campaigns we might devise, why is so much customer service still so awful. The second post featured comments from two bloggers who recently wrote about their own less than stellar customer experiences, Mir Kamin and TDavid.

Originally, I was going to wrap up the series with an "objective" analysis of the customer service problem, to see if we might be able to understand the macro factors causing it to be so bad as well as the unique micro factors in customer service excellence that perhaps we could model in our own attempts to improve.

Well, all that got thrown out the window last Saturday. Instead,  I am going to share an "epiphany" I had on the whole topic after a most disastrous customer experience.

First the story. Saturday morning, December 21, my son and I were driving from our home in Mass. to our vacation home in Vermont. My husband had a few things to do at home so he was following later. We had a carful of stuff, including three of the family dogs. Just after we got on Route 89 -- the one the runs the whole "width" of NH to Vermont, we got a flat and pulled off the highway. Not the breakdown lane, I got off the highway all together hoping to find a gas station. This was around noontime. I called my husband, who was still at home and then called AAA once I determined from my GPS that the nearest service station was more than three miles away.

And the comedy of errors began.

Call Number 1: Service Rep says that Southern NE AAA cannot help me so transfers me to Northern NE AAA. Except he doesn't. He disconnects me.

Call Number 2 (immediately after): I connect with another rep, who really does try to help. I explain the problem and where I am -- on the Hopkinton/Route 103 exit off 89 West in NH. Remember this part, it is important. She gives me a case number and promises to rush a crew out. I assume (yeah I know) that she knew how to do something that the first rep did not.

10-15 minutes after we hang up, inbound call: AAA trying to understand where we are. So I tell them, again. We hang up.

Then  it dawns on me. They think we are in Hopkinton  Massachusetts.   Even though I was pretty clear.

So I call back. This is my Call Number 3 to AAA. It's probably around 12:45, 1 pm by this time. New service rep. Finds the file. Confirms my suspicion that they are sending the crew to the wrong place. Connects me to AAA Northern NE, who cannot figure out where I am. Umm. Aren't they supposed to know the roads? Anyway, a very long call later, we *think* someone is on the way.

Around quarter to two, though, I get a little nervous so I call back. Call Number 4 if you are still counting. Unfortunately, I still have to call Southern NE AAA because that's the number on my card, and I neglected to ask for the Northern NE number when I was on the phone with them. Rep manages to transfer me, and I get the information that a wrecker is on the way from Manchester. For those of you who don't know the area, that's not far from where I broke down. Maybe 20 minutes. She also gives me the direct number to call, which comes in handy a little while later.

So we wait. And finally around 2:15... my husband and a local cop show up at the same time. Yes, you read that right. My husband made it from Hudson Mass. BEFORE AAA from Manchester NH. The police officer calls AAA to see what the scoop is, and while he is on his phone with them, AAA calls my phone. The wrecker is lost. This is probably about 2:30 or so.

WIth directions from the officer, the wrecker finally finds us, and the mechanic quickly fixes the flat. We're on our way shortly after 3pm, with another 90 minutes to drive to reach the house. It was a brutal day, but that's not why I share the story.

Here's the epiphany. The people weren't the customer service problem. Or at least not the worst of it. The process was the problem.

Each person was  trying to help, but the system is set up so poorly that they just couldn't provide a good customer experience. For whatever reason, Southern NE AAA can't enter a problem in NH and have Northern NE AAA then pick up the call. And of course the whole mess was compounded by the fact that either the rep or the system made the initial faulty assumption that our Hopkinton was in Mass. I was also thrown by the fact that the reps -- even the Northern NE AAA reps -- we spoke to couldn't figure out where we were. Don't they publish maps??

The people sincerely wanted to help. But they couldn't because the system got in the way. As a result, AAA failed miserably to efficiently deliver the roadside assistance service that is the reason I (and most people) joined AAA in the first place.  And my son and I were stuck by the side of the road for three hours on a cold but clear December day.

So when we experience truly excellent customer service, either the system is set up to allow such great service -- think Nordstrom or Zappos. Or an individual rises above the inadequacies of the process.

Shouldn't we be aiming for the former? Systems and processes that allow customer facing employees --whether service, sales or marketing -- to deliver the positive experiences we all want.  I don't tend to do big end-of-the-year posts, but if I were to wish for one thing for us as customers and marketers, it would be that: systems and processes that let us satisfy, not frustrate, the customer.

As for AAA, I do intend to contact the organization and share my concerns. I still think it is a great organization that delivers a valuable service.

I just wish it had done so a little better last Saturday.

A final postscript:  The local police officer only found us because a fellow cop coming off duty called it in.  It never occured to me (or apparently any of the many other cars that passed us) to call the police. He told me that you should always call the local police in an emergency, even something as simple as a flat tire. They often can get AAA or a wrecker out faster, and certainly we felt safer on the side of the road once we had the cruiser there.

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Posted @ 11:12AM in Customers, Marketing | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Dec 9, 2007

Customer Service (Part Two)

(warning, long post)

As I wrote in my previous post, it seems we have a serious disconnect when it comes to customer service. At the same time we champion the "conversation" with the customer, the general level of customer service is decreasing. Sure, there are exceptions, but stories like Mir's recent internet service "dis-service" and Mary's lovely experience on American Airlines seem to be the norm.

I've been wondering, why? Do products just "suck more?"  Are the occasional wonderful customer service stories really that WONDERFUL or is it that they just exceed our now much lower expectations?

What is customer service excellence?

First, let's hear from two of the bloggers I used in my examples: Mir Kamin and TDavid.They both replied to my questions in email so I'll let them speak for themselves. In part three, I'll share some of my thoughts on the subject.

Mir:

"I think the norm of shoddy customer service,and yes, in a lot of ways I do think it's become the norm) is yet another symptom of our "fast food society." Look, I've said it over at Cornered Office (and somewhat more obliquely, at Woulda Coulda Shoulda), but I'll spell it out right here: I was on a plan that only cost $6.95/month. I'm not saying I necessarily DESERVED to get screwed, but honestly, what did I expect for that amount of money? We want it faster and cheaper and as a consumer body, THAT is what we demand, rather than quality and courtesy, sadly.

That said, lesson learned over here, bigtime. I can make all the excuses I want -- they promised me service, I bought that plan when I was first starting out and was worried I couldn't afford more, whatever. I'm paying a lot more for my new service, and at least this has taught me that it's worth every penny.

The businesses that triumph in America right now are the ones that can do it the cheapest and the most conveniently. That's why the Walmarts continue to thrive while the heart-and-soul community mom-and-pop stores struggle. You can't be cheap, convenient AND personal. It just doesn't add up. And most of us simply cannot afford to go top-shelf for most things.

Until we as a consumer body start making a lot of noise and putting our dollars where our mouths are, it's not going to change.

Think about the best customer service you've heard lately. I'll bet it was the Zappos story of the woman who not only ended up having them basically white-glove a return for her, but sent her flowers in condolence because when she was talking to the rep she mentioned that her mother had died. Zappos is committed to customer service and they do it better than almost anybody out there, right now. They are also INCREDIBLY expensive. They have to be.

Now. All of that said, I think a VAST IMPROVEMENT in customer service is possible without spending billions of dollars, and that's to encourage CSRs to act like they care. In my situation, a lot of my ire could've been circumvented had the CSRs involved simply apologized and/or seemed less apathetic. That doesn't take that much time and it would've made a world of difference. Maybe in today's "GIMME" society "the customer is always right" is an impractical goal, but when did we just plain stop being NICE to the customer?"

TDavid:

Do products just "suck more?"

"Either it's very coincidental or there is a direct correlation between more ad-supported software and services and negative customer experiences.

Somewhere along the line beta and release software and, as in the Xbox 360 case, hardware have merged. This has noticeably lowered the overall quality of products and services on a wider scale. In some cases these days customers are being expected to become unwilling beta testers and sometimes even paying for the privilege like the Xbox 360.

It's one thing to not be charged in a beta test, it's another to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars and be told the only solution is out of warranty repair or buying more of the same faulty hardware.

Microsoft in their much publicized Red Rings of Death warranty extension didn't cover another common problem: game/DVD disc read errors. So if you have a machine that's older than one year and doesn't read discs any more, they'll expect you to pay to get that fixed or you'll need a third party warranty.

On the software side, the amount of time new/upgrade versions are being turned around seems to be shortening so that just when you start to get to an acceptable level of usefulness and value, you're being asked to pay for a new version and rinse, repeat."

Are the good stories really wonderful or do they just exceed our now much lower expectations?

"Expectation levels are lower now, but there are still some positive stories out there. Harder to find, but they're out there.

These days if a company ships something that runs on the computer without causing installation migraines or turning our computing experience into slow-mo that's cause for joy, where that should be expected. Demanded.

We're putting up with more negative customer experiences in web 2.0 than we should. Sites, services and mashups being engineered poorly that if they become popular won't meet demand without major restructuring. Some services have come to the rescue like Amazon S3 to address these needs and that's a good thing, but I see a lot of web 2.0 headstones over the next couple years that couldn't make a viable business plan out of being ad-supported. VCs are already pulling life support systems, flatline imminent.

But it's not just Web 2.0.

Marvel came out with a paid product: their comics online for $9.99/month and they couldn't even scale up to demand. Spider-man is on the phone looking for help.

How funny is that? If we paid to access comics -- and couldn't because the site was down -- would we receive some proportional refund of the time we couldn't access?"

What is customer service excellence?

"For web services: fast response time, good, reliable uptime (at least 99.5%). Essential for paid services.

For all services/products: Minimum amount of time and hassle solving issues and problems. Being treated like an important asset of the business rather than a nuisance. In the case of faulty workmanship on a product, fixing it with as minimal hassle as possible. Companies that recognize and reward loyalty through better deals on future business being conducted, sharing income from referral sales and creative promotions are providing a valuable service.

And good customer service includes having an easy to find telephone number on the company website with an operator on the other side -- preferably without having to navigate through a machine -- that speaks clearly and doesn't resort to some canned script to answer questions.

Bad customer service is forcing customers to email their responses, fill out a form or navigate through some confusing knowledge base and wait who knows how long only to be sent a scripted response. Or being told you have to pay $$$ just to talk to a human being about the problem installing the software or hardware you just purchased."

Thanks, Mir and TDavid for giving us such meaty food for thought. Tomorrow, I'll share some of mine.

Update 12/10: Just a couple of links apropos of the customer service conversation. Geoff Livingston tells us about the Comcast must die blog and Lauren Vargas shares a piss-poor email response from a craft supplies company.

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Posted @ 7:12PM in Customers, Marketing | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

Dec 4, 2007

If customer service is the new marketing (Part One)

(warning, long post)

If customer service is the new marketing, why do so many companies have such crappy marketing?

In recent posts, Brian Solis and Kami Huyse both argued, with slightly different but generally similar perspectives, that customer service is the new marketing. In simple terms [and without any of the great nuances they shared, so read their posts :-)  ] what they are getting at is that the customer's experience with the company, with the product/brand, is what forms his decision to purchase, or not. And that experience is created by much more than exposure to a few marketing campaigns or the occasional customer service call. Blogs, online forums, word of mouth are all becoming part of this experience, and companies need to understand and respond appropriately.

Companies also have to understand that now more than ever, it is ALL about the customer. No matter how great the product, how wonderful the blog, without a customer, there is no business. Everyone in the company is in customer service. This was of course true before as well, but it is so much more obvious now. Simple things like an ill-placed blog comment or "astroturfing" positive anonymous comments on posts negative about a product create far more complications for a company than a rude customer service rep could in the "old days." We've got the proof, you see, in the email and RSS trail.

I agree with them on pretty much all counts. I have always believed in placing the customer at the center of our marketing activity. This is not an equivalent to saying "the customer is always right." She isn't. We aren't. But there are positive ways of handling negative situations, whether the company's fault or the ubiquitous "operator error." It is possible to say "no, you can't have it for free" or "not under warranty" or whatever it may be in a way that doesn't leave the customer feeling cheated.

Why is it then, that there seem to be so many instances of bad, awful, terrible, nasty customer service? Here are just some of the more recent stories I've heard or read.

Popular mom blogger Mir Kamin's websites went down in November. Her Internet provider WiredHub was unresponsive (and that's putting it mildly) even after multiple days of outage. Yes, you read that right: no information, no response. And when the response did come, it wasn't terribly comforting. Read her post for the details.

On her way back from Europe, marketing blogger Mary Schmidit got tagged with an overweight baggage charge from American Airlines. Even though the bag was an acceptable weight for international travel, because she switched carriers and had to recheck her bags,  the domestic carrier AA charged her the overweight tariff. She describes the tremendous sympathy of the airline employees here.

Shel Holtz learned that the motto of bank Washington Mutual didn't extend all the way to actual practice when he tried to send money to his son, a soldier about to deploy to Iraq. The bank had closed his son's account for being overdrawn $0.98, without any notification, and refused to reactivate it so Shel could deposit funds. He could open a new account, but that would mean a new ATM card, which would not reach his son before he left for Iraq. In other words, SOL. The good news: another financial insitution came through. [Kami Huyse also posted about this.]

Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang wrote about brands that didn't respect his time. So far the only one mentioned in his post that hasn't responded to him in some fashion is Delta Airlines. Jeneane Sessum wrote about Google inexplicably losing email messages.

These are just a few examples from the blogs I read from the month of November. Imagine what I might find if I really started to dig. No, in fact, don't imagine that. It is too depressing.

I also had my own little customer service contre-temps in early November with a small specialty goods catalog company. I didn't blog about it then, and am not naming the company here because it eventually was resolved satisfactorily, but it illustrates how the intermediation effect of email escalates situations.

The details:  I had ordered something more than a year ago. Manufacturer delay upon delay, they could not deliver the products. They had charged my credit card upon the order (not really good policy BTW), and when the product could not be delivered, instead of refunding the money, they issued a store credit with an expiration date.

Now, as we all know, this in itself is not legal, on two counts, but they are a small company, so I was willing to let it go and use the credit. Until  I placed an order on the website, and couldn't use the credit.

So I emailed them, and learned that I had to call with my credit card number in order for the credit to be applied. They could not get the information from the web order. This seemed odd although I am certain the answer to that lies somewhere in the shopping cart they use.  So I tried to call. And there was NEVER any answer.

I finally followed up with yet another email asking them to resolve the situation, and was met with amazing email hostility from one of the business owners. Rude and disrespectful doesn't even begin to cover it. It was apparently up to me to keep calling until I could reach someone, and I could not cancel the new order either. It was sounding more and more like they just didn't want to give the credit.[ Twitter friends may recall this because one Sunday morning, I asked for opinions on whether to blog about it. ]

In the end, I didn't over-react, sanity prevailed, and I got the credit. And the new merchandise I had ordered. But, just think about it -- the vendor felt perfectly justified being downright rude to a customer. How can that happen? Sure, it is easier to be rude in bits and bytes than face-to-face or even on the phone, and that certainly creates some of the negative customer service that happens these days. But not all. Mary Schmidt was at the airport. So was Jeremiah. Shel Holtz went to the bank. 

If we can't get this most basic thing right, how can we possibly expect to have a mutually beneficial "conversation" with our customer? Why is courtesy so uncommon in so many customer service situations?

I haven't even touched on the issue of shoddy products. They are even more central to our experience. And just as much of a problem as poor customer service. Here's just one example. Technology blogger TDavid has had five Xboxes in the past year. All but one returned under warranty. This can't be helping the bottom line, yet wouldn't we all say that a bottom line mentality is what causes the shoddy products in the first place?  

Now, of course, there are exceptions.  Who hasn't heard the wonderful story of Zappos sending flowers to the woman whose mother had just died?  That's exceptional customer service. In fact it is more than that. It is exceptional humanity.

But most positive customer service stories are much more mundane. Do we call them great because our expectations are so much lower, or is it truly great? For example, on two separate occasions, I had some problems with my Blackberry. Both times, Verizon call reps did a great job solving the problem, and following up with me to make sure the problem really was resolved. Do I call it great simply because cell phone providers usually get bad marks for customer support and my previous company  (rhymes with singular) did a horrible job? Or was it really great?

Part Two will try to answer some of  these questions, with some input from Mir and TDavid who were kind enough to share their thoughts with me.

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Posted @ 1:12PM in Customers, Marketing, Social media | Comments (11) | TrackBack (1)

Nov 1, 2007

Announcing Photographic Memories

Cross-posted to Snapshot Chronicles

As I’ve mentioned here before, I occasionally help HP with social media projects. I’m thrilled to announce that the most recent one, Photographic Memories, went live today.

Part of the US launch of HP Photo Books, Photographic Memories is a series of interviews with mom bloggers about the photos that have captured the memories of their lives. I interviewed 23 women across the US – young moms, older moms, moms of newborns, toddlers and teens. Working moms and stay at home moms. Professional photographers and moms who simply carry a point and shoot in their pocket, just in case.

HP Photo Books are a great way to share photographic memories, and in these interviews, the moms share theirs with us. The first group of 10 interviews was posted today and the rest will follow later in the month.

A little bit more about HP Photo Books

With an HP Photo Book, you can easily create a professional quality photo book at home. Particularly cool is the innovative binding system – think of a big clip – that lets you replace or rearrange pages and add mementos like invitations, children’s artwork and so on. They are available in two sizes, 5x7 and 8.5x11, and multiple colors.

If you’d like your own Photo Book, HP is offering a 20% discount until the end of the year.

Or you can take your chances in one of the many contests and sweepstakes the women in the Photographic Memories series will be having on their blogs over the next couple months. Some contests have already happened, others are going on right now, and some will be starting next week. As I get the details, I’ll add them to the Photo Contests list in the sidebar of Snapshot Chronicles.

Later this week, I’ll be writing more about the project. For now, please enjoy the interviews.

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Posted @ 1:11PM in Blogger relations, Customers | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Oct 31, 2007

Being Green

You may already know that if tap water cost the same as bottled water on a per gallon basis, a bath would cost $192. And that it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil per year to produce the bottled water consumed in the United States. That’s like filling every one of those bottles ¼ full of oil.

But until I started helping CamelBak Products with blogger outreach for its Sustainable Hydration Project, I didn’t, even though my family tries to be environmentally responsible. And I’m pretty sure my family isn’t unusual. We know there is an environmental cost, so we take care to recycle our soda cans and water bottles, but most of us just aren’t aware how much that bottled water is costing us financially as well as environmentally.

Now, it isn't always easy being green, but in the case of drinking water, at least in the US, it really is. Tap water in most places in this country tastes just fine. Otherwise companies couldn't filter it a little bit, put it in a disposable bottle and sell it at a huge mark-up. To compound the crime, most of those disposable plastic bottles aren't recycled. To the tune of 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. Bottled water just doesn't make sense. Environmentally or financially.

What can we do to reduce the cost, for ourselves and for our planet? There's one simple thing that almost every one of us can do without much difficulty.

Instead of expensive bottled water, switch to tap water.  At home, on the road and in restaurants. My family has. We're even bringing our reusable bottles with us on vacation. Still not going to be much use for airplane trips but just about everywhere else, we should be able to get clean, cool tap water.

And it will be even easier early next year when CamelBak installs hydration stations in more than 50 top outdoor and bike retailers where we'll be able to refill our bottles for free.

See, sometimes it is easy being green.

Disclaimer: as noted in the post, I did some blogger outreach this month for the Sustainable Hydration Project. Also: I love the CamelBak bottles.

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Posted @ 5:10PM in Customers, Green | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Oct 23, 2006

Wrapping up loose threads -- things remembered and wal-gate

My posts on the Wal-Gate fiasco and the gift chain Things Remembered have both gotten a fair number of comments, so before I move on to my next topic, I wanted to wrap up the loose ends on both of these threads.

First, Things Remembered. A number of commenters wrote about their great experiences at the chain and thought I was perhaps too harsh, expected too much. Perhaps, but that is one of my points. Sometimes you do only get one chance with a potential customer. We should always strive to make every customer service moment a great moment. The day I was there, there was one clerk to wait on about four potential customers. He clearly didn't want to be bothered with my oddball request. For all I really know, they DID have something that might have worked just fine, but he didn't want to bother. It was too hard. Much easier to sell an engraved pen.

The other point, and you are welcome to disagree with me, is that companies should strive to deliver extraordinary customer service. That means meeting the customer's needs, and helping them out even when the customer might end up buying from someone else on that day. It is all about recognizing the lifetime value of that customer, and recognizing those moments when extraordinary service is possible. Things Remembered has an opportunity to deliver extraordinary service by referring customers with oddball requests to other vendors. It won't happen very often, but when it does, it will be a defining moment for the customer, as it was for me. Can a company be successful without delivering extraordinary service? Sure, but why settle?

To the company's credit, a vp from Things Remembered did leave a comment on the original post. Will I shop there?  I am more likely to now, knowing that at least they are paying attention.

Final thoughts on the specific incidents in Wal-Gate: late Friday, both Richard Edelman's and Steve Rubel's blogs had news of the agency's initiatives to fix the ethical problems surfaced during the whole nasty episode. They're going to do an audit around the world to make sure they are applying best practices, everyone at the agency is going to have to attend an ethics in social media class, and the me2revolution team is going to be available in some fashion 24/7 to consult anyone in the agency on social media projects.

Umm. Why weren't they doing these things already? And will it really be enough to change the agency culture? While it doesn't seem like enough, I'll reserve judgment on what they've said until we see what they do next. And I don't mean whether they do the "Edelman University" or what great external experts they get to speak.

Let's hope the next time we hear about a social media project driven by Edelman, we hear about a project that met everyone's expectations: the client, the customers, the community and the agency's PR colleagues and peers. For Edelman's sake.

Because I do think they are now out of chances. They have got to get it right or get out.

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Posted @ 9:10AM in Customers, Ethics, Marketing, PR | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Sep 22, 2006

Pets, links and updates, September 22, 2006

My friend Yvonne DiVita has started a new blog devoted to pets called Scratchings and Sniffings. The blog is sponsored by Purina. Early days yet, but it seems to have struck a chord with pet lovers if the comments are any indication. Check it out!

Speaking of pets, don't forget to check out the Gourmet Station Get out of the doghouse contest. 

Happy Belated Birthday to Mike Driehorst of Mike's Points.  Mike asked for links for his birthday, which was Monday. Enjoy!

Updates on ongoing sagas

  • Farscape still rocks.
  • Good Technology still hasn't bothered to reply to me or do something to alleviate the problem. And yes, we had our weekly Verizon user call for support. Do I wish these folks could make the connection that GetGood Strategic Marketing is NOT related to Good Technology? Absolutely. Do I understand how they get from a problem with a download link http://get.good.com to http://www.getgood.com? Absolutely. We are conditioned to add the www. So, to repeat: if you have a mobile phone and are having problems with the "get.good  file," calling GetGood Strategic Marketing will not help. You need to contact Good Technology at www.good.com. Please.
  • Web site and blog redesign progresses. More in October.

And to start your weekend off right, do not miss this (first seen on Media Orchard and Just Shelley).

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Posted @ 12:09PM in Blogging, Customers, Humour | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Sep 16, 2006

Forget Things Remembered

The store, that is.

You know, the ubiquitous customized gifts store found in just about every US mall. Why? Because it seems if they don't sell it, they won't help you find someone who does. Apparently, they just want you to buy the engraved gifts they sell....

Customer service at its very worst.

I went to the local store today to get some engraved plates for a trophy we are donating to our local Scottie club. I even lugged the trophy with me so we could pick the best alternative. The trophy base is an odd shape, so we needed a larger size than the store carries.

Well, they don't do custom or larger plates AT ALL. When I asked where I could perhaps get something that would work, the clueless clerk said, maybe a trophy store. I asked if he knew of any local ones. "Oh no, we don't know what the competition sells. Couldn't tell you."

I certainly hope this was just a case of a stupid teenager on a Saturday afternoon. If instead, it is the company's corporate policy to NOT help out potential customers when they don't have the goods -- ie it isn't a competitive situation -- then all I can say is, clueless. How hard would it be to have a list of local trophy stores that can handle the occasional oddball request? Not hard at all, I'd say.

They might even get an additional sale out of it. I was actually considering getting some small token to go along with the trophy that the yearly winner could keep. The trophy itself is a challenge trophy that must be won by the same person three times for permanent possession. I thought a small engraved ornament or something that the person could keep would be a nice keepsake.

I may or may not do that, but one thing I know for sure, if I do, I will not be purchasing it at Things Remembered. In fact, I doubt I'll ever shop there again.

It may take me a bit longer and may not be as convenient, but if I need something engraved, I'm sure I can find somewhere else. 

Count on it.

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Posted @ 6:09PM in Customers | Comments (19) | TrackBack (0)

Jul 7, 2006

one hand, other hand: why companies need CRM

July 7, 3:10pm EDT: Inbound telephone call from what must have been a monster.com call center or telemarketing vendor since the area code shown on caller ID was Broward County, Florida, not global HQ in NY nor the local (Maynard Mass.) office. Caller wondered about my business recruiting needs, was getting ready to do the pitch for monster.  Fair enough. Everybody has to make a living.

Except:

I currently have an ad running on monster.com for a marketing/pr assistant. Which my caller did not know. Hmmm.....

Now to be fair, we do have two businesses operating from our lovely Hudson headquarters, GetGood Strategic Marketing and my husband's computer consulting business, Active Oak LLC. We share the phone number, which was of course in the ad listing :-)

The monster.com telemarketer had to dial my number somehow, but even if it was a call list generated using a random number generator versus a directory, there is really no excuse, in my mind, for failing to check the numbers against the monster client list. Especially current advertisers :-)

All that said, I am extremely happy with the responses to my ad, and am willing to forgive monster this slight lapse in business acumen. But.... were it a service that I was less happy with, and I got an equally clueless telemarketing call, I would be far less likely to let it go.

Lesson: if you are doing outbound prospecting or even customer service calling, you should be using an enterprisewide CRM. There is no excuse for a telemarketer not knowing someone they are calling is already a customer.

My .02

YMMV

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Posted @ 3:07PM in Business Management, Customers, Integrated Sales & Marketing, Marketing | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 3, 2006

Blogging has no intrinsic value

Intrinsic. adj. Of or relating to the fundamental nature of a thing; inherent. (Webster's)

Blogging, whether you think of it as a form, a medium or a vehicle, has no intrinsic value.

Strong words, especially when you consider that I've recently been characterized as a blog fanatic (and by the way, I did not take offense at all). In the sense that I believe Daniel Bernstein meant, that I am a believer in the value of blogging and "social media" for both individuals and business, yes, I am a fanatic. But it isn't "the blog" per se that I value -- it is what it gives us.

For the real value of blogs (and all social media, whether wiki, forum or podcast) isn't the thing itself. See above. In and of itself, it has no value.

The value is in what it gives us. For individuals, blogs fill all sorts of needs - community, conversation, education, reputation, validation. There as many reasons why as there are bloggers. But the answer to why do we blog is never simply "because." It is always because something.

We shouldn't expect it to be any different for a business. Yes, there are many reasons why a business might consider blogging. But never "just because."

It has to come back to the business and marketing plan. Blogging has to fit into the business plan and deliver to an existing business objective. It doesn't have to be an overt sales/marketing objective -- it could just as easily be something important for customer service or development.

A big part of the value of blogs -- of even considering doing a business blog -- is the focus on the customer. That's why I embraced blogging in the first place. I have long been a proponent of customer-centric marketing, and blogs are most definitely (and sometimes painfully) customer centric.

But if the business doesn't understand how blogging will deliver to something that is ALREADY important to it, it will NOT do it.

When it does....

Companies of all sizes are embracing blog monitoring. It's a no-brainer, really. We already monitor the media; blogs are an obvious extension, and a great way to listen to customers and other influencers. And cranks too of course, but the most important thing is to listen and take action when appropriate. You don't actually have to respond to every comment.

In fact, we should never feed the trolls. It only encourages them.

It's also why we hear a lot about companies using blogs internally.  Blogs connect employees, as workers and as individuals, in highly beneficial ways. That fits the plan. So, if a company NEVER does a public corporate blog, but encourages internal blogs, and maybe even/eventually employees blogging externally, connecting with customers, we've got something good. Makes this blog fanatic happy anyway :-)

So whether you are talking to the Fortune 500 or a mom and pop shop, stay focused on what't important to them as a business. If a blog makes sense, recommend it, but make sure you couch the recommendation in a solid business case. Because they aren't going to (and shouldn't) do it "just because."

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Posted @ 8:05PM in Blogging, Business Management, Customers, Marketing | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Apr 26, 2006

Marketing Roadsigns Newsletter

Marketing Roadsigns is the newsletter that accompanies this blog. Last year, I did it monthly, but have had to move to a bi-monthly schedule this year.

To make up for the reduced frequency, I've decided to make the lead article in each issue exclusive to the newsletter. The March/April issue (published today) features Customer Loyalty. I also have a brief review of Naked Conversations by Scoble & Israel and Blogging for Business by Holtz & Demopoulos.

Some of the Roadmaps content will still be used in the newsletter and vice versa, but for the  most part I am going to keep the two vehicles distinct. This blog, which has a PR/marketing slant, will continue to focus on timely communications, blogging and industry issues. The newsletter will cover "evergreen" sales and marketing topics like customer loyalty, telemarketing and so forth.

This way, those of you who are kind enough to read both the blog and the newsletter will get something a little different out of each, which hopefully equates to the best of both worlds.

If you do not subscribe to the newsletter, but would like to check out one of the above-mentioned articles, I do index the newsletter on my company website.

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Apr 6, 2006

What do Thomas Edison, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Tupac Shakur have in common?

No, it's not that they are all dead, because Elvis? Who really knows for sure?

The answer is that rare signed memorabilia from all of them -- plus dozens of other famous (and infamous) folk --  is part of a special auction event next week at online auction site Bid4Assets.

Full disclosure: Bid4Assets is a client. Also, unlike previous auctions that I have written about here, this is NOT a charity auction.

But there is some really cool stuff in this auction -- worth checking out just for fun. And if you happen to be a collector, you just might find something worth adding to your collection. Here are some of my favorites.

And my personal favorite, the

There are tons more signed items -- Beatles, sports figures, presidents, celebrities. The auction also has a lot of jewelry and rare coins, plus real estate in prime recreation areas, including the Southeastern US, Hawaii and the California/Nevada border. 

One day only. Bidding starts at 5pm Tuesday April 11 and ends at 11pm Wednesday April 12.

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