Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
This post on the Customers Are Always blog is fair warning: “Blogging Causes Stress?” Can’t say I have experienced that. More like the opposite, as I find blogging to be a satisfying creative outlet. Still, it’s good to stay in balance, and with that, I’m signing off for the night.
Posted in Blogs, Health | Tagged: Blogs, Health | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
I’ve admired Seth Godin’s mind for many years. He’s always been cutting edge, yet down to earth — it’s an effective combination. In his latest post from Seth Godin’s Blog, titled, “Tribe Management,” he succinctly makes the case that brand management should not be the focus anymore, because “Tribe management is a whole different way of looking at the world.”
It adds to that the fact that what people really want is the ability to connect to each other, not to companies. So the permission is used to build a tribe, to build people who want to hear from the company because it helps them connect, it helps them find each other, it gives them a story to tell and something to talk about.
I love Seth’s passion and evangelism. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Leadership, Management, Marketing | Tagged: Leadership, Management, Marketing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
I was disappointed by the naivite displayed in this post on the The 1to1 Blog, titled “When Will Contact Centers Be Taken Seriously?” I suppose people who only look into call centers now and then, or base their take on the state of the industry on a lunchtime gripe session at a conference are bound to miss what the actual trends are and may have an outdated view of the current state of the call center industry.
Sure, plenty of call centers still struggle with being perceived as cost centers, but the true trend we’ve been seeing in the industry is a positive one. More and more contact centers *are* getting recognized for the incredible value they provide to the organization. The value of call center data for analysis has never been higher, and the wide array of tools on the market to leverage this to understand the customer experience speaks to the attention executives are paying (in dollars, no less) to their frontline point of contact with customers: call centers. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Call Center Management, Call Centers, Trends | Tagged: Call Centers, Strategy, Trends | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
The cheap-chic store, Target, has whacked the proverbial bees’ nest by disrespecting a blogger who complained about one of the chain store’s ads, and that has the rest of the blogosphere (present company excepted) in a tizzy. The NYT, a traditional media outlet, was able to get Target’s spokesperson to comment in this article, “Target Tells a Blogger to Go Away.”
Early this month, the blog’s founder, Amy Jussel, called Target, complaining about a new advertising campaign that depicted a woman splayed across a big target pattern — the retailer’s emblem — with the bull’s-eye at her crotch.
OK, I’ve read Marshall McLuhan so I understand the impact that subconscious messages in images can have, so call me insensitive if you must, but I think this is a good example of hyper-sensitivity to complain about this.
Still, Target’s handling of the complaint is either clumsy or just plain clueless: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Blogs, Call Center Management, Marketing, Media, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Blogs, Marketing, Media, opinion | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
I have to admit I really like Maureen Dowd. She’s insightful, clever, perceptive, a skillful writer, and she calls ‘em like she sees ‘em. Her NYT column, “Seeing Red Over Hillary,” analyzes “The Snub” and Obama’s sensitivity to Hillary’s rejection of him:
It’s already famous as The Snub, the moment before the State of the Union when Obama turned away to talk to Claire McCaskill instead of trying to join Teddy Kennedy in shaking hands with Hillary.
Take a look at ABC News’ coverage of The Snub:
Here’s Dowd’s cutting take on Hillary’s spin in the ABC piece:
Something’s being stretched here, but it’s not her hand. She wasn’t reaching out to him at all.
I also like the way Dowd brings a woman’s (snarky) fashion perspective to Hillary’s presence, as well: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Politics | Tagged: Politics | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
Finally, science has addressed an issue we all actually care about, instead of all that obscure medical, nutritional and environmental stuff that they keep changing their minds about, anyway. This NYT article, “Dip Once or Dip Twice?” gets to the really burning questions in life. And the lead scientist admits his study was inspired by this well-known Seinfeld episode:
Here’s the first conclusion the research revealed: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Human Interest, Humor, Research, Science | Tagged: Food, Research, Science | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
eMarketer (one of my favorite websites for all kinds of statistics related to marketing) cites various studies in this short article, “Search Marketing’s 800-Pound Gorilla.” In short, search marketing is taking off like a rocket, and for good reason:
“At least 155 million people in the US used search engines in 2007,” says Mr. Hallerman. “That number will rise by 25 million in 2011.”
Marketers have noticed:
eMarketer estimates that US search advertising spending grew almost 27% last year.
And clearly the service to place your bets on is Google: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Marketing, Statistics, Technology | Tagged: Marketing, Research | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
Interesting research cited in this MarketingProfs newsletter item, “How Saying the Least May Achieve the Most.” It’s short, so it will only take you a minute to check it out. Here’s the main point:
A study has revealed that ads containing considerable white space lead customers to perceive the advertised product as more prestigious, sophisticated, trustworthy, higher in product quality and leadership, and lower in risk than the same ad without white space.
Posted in Marketing, Research | Tagged: Marketing, Research | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
I just had an experience with an online help tool that looks like no other I have seen. I was looking for PB Wiki help and I got directed to their Get Satisfaction site. I’m a heavy wiki user (they call me “Wikiman”) and I wanted to learn how others are using wikis for project management.
I was not so impressed with the amount of resources in the Get Satisfaction site for PB Wiki, but I assume that’s because it’s only recently been deployed. The interface appears to be intuitive, it’s graphically appealing, and it’s an awful lot friendlier and welcoming than a standard forums page. I always feel overwhelmed the first time I go to a company’s user forum page — it’s just intimidating to see so many specific topics going on for page after page.
So, I posted my question and I’ll see what kind of response I get. According to the site, 17 PB Wiki staffers were “listening” on the site, so it’s not just depending on users to respond. Either way, if you’re looking for a customer-facing online help tool for your organization, you might want to take a look at Get Satisfaction’s application.
Oh, one more thing: it’s free! There’s quite a long list of companies that are already using it, too. And if you don’t set it up for your company, there’s a chance that one of your customers will (that’s one of the options allowed). I won’t even go into the whole topic of managing user-generated content about your organization, but let’s just say that this tool could be used both for good and evil purposes. Consider this your heads up!
Posted in Technology, Web 2.0 | Tagged: self-service, Technology, Web 2.0 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ted Hopton on January 30, 2008
I started two groups on LinkedIn. One is for ICMI Members, and only current ICMI Members are eligible to join. The other is for the ICMI QueueTips Community, and that’s open to anyone to join. Both are intended to facilitate networking among call center professionals by leveraging the power of LinkedIn’s 10 million+ members.
However, I was curious about other groups on LinkedIn. For example, is there an alumni group for my college? I could not find any list of all the groups on the LinkedIn website, which seemed strange. There is a list, but it’s only a few pages — surely there are far more groups than those listed. And there’s a note at the moment saying that new groups are not included (the note has been there for at least a month).
Well, today I found an index of sorts to LinkedIn groups. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Career, Networking, Web 2.0 | Tagged: Career, Networking | 2 Comments »
