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Archive for February 1st, 2008

Share Your Company’s Failures in a Blog

Posted by Ted Hopton on February 1, 2008

Bill TaylorGotta recommend Bill Taylor’s blog to you: it’s called Game Changer, hosted on HBR’s website. Here’s another compelling post from him, “Authenticity, Openness and Competitive Advantage.” He describes BzzAgent‘s founder and CEO, Dave Balter’s practice of blogging about his company’s inner workings, including failures.

Why be so open about how his company works? For one thing, it’s a matter of authenticity. One way to demonstrate your commitment to openness is to lift the veil of secrecy around your operations. “Openness is in our life blood,” Dave says.

Sounds like an interesting concept, but what practical good does it really do? Oh, here’s one answer: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Blogs, Innovation, Leadership, Management | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Benchmarking C.R.A.P.

Posted by Ted Hopton on February 1, 2008

I love this post by Bill Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company (one of my favorite magazines), “Beyond Benchmarking: Why Copy the Competition?“

The most creative CEOs I’ve met don’t aspire to learn from the “best in class” in their industry—especially when the best in class aren’t all that great. They aspire to learn from companies far outside their field as a way to shake things up and make real change.

Hear, hear! I’ve taken issue over and over with what I call blind benchmarking, myself Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Benchmarking, Innovation, Management, Strategy | Tagged: , | 5 Comments »

Who Wins When Service Stinks? Follow the Money

Posted by Ted Hopton on February 1, 2008

I just had an insight. Maybe it’s so obvious that I should have seen it sooner, but it just dawned on me tonight as I was reading yet another gloomy posting on The 1to1 Blog (seems to be a pattern with them of highlighting the lowlights when it comes to call centers and inviting people to pile on by sharing their sad stories) — if customer service stinks and all that call centers are doing now is not good enough, then the answer must be: NEW TECHNOLOGY!

That’s it! We’d better buy the latest techno-wizgadget (see my earlier post on automated callbacks, “Just Answer the Phone Quicker!”) so we can finally provide good customer service!

What led me to this epiphany? I followed the money, of course. The 1to1 Blog cited an amusing video produced and uploaded to YouTube about a man who so dreads contacting a call center that he would rather clean his house, give the dog a bath, do his taxes, and so on, instead.

Ha, ha, cute, we get the point. Yes, it’s an *original* point: customer service stinks. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Call Centers, Customer Sat, Customer Service, Human Interest, Media, Research, Statistics | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Customer Advice

Posted by Ted Hopton on February 1, 2008

Thought-provoking post from John Quelch on HBR’s blog site, titled “How To Be a Customer.” Here are the five behaviors he cites (read his post for the explanations for each):

  1. Be demanding
  2. Be respectful
  3. Be reliable
  4. Be surprising
  5. Be engaging

Take a look — it’s good advice!

Posted in Customer Sat, Customer Service, Human Interest | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Outrageous Interaction Contest

Posted by Ted Hopton on February 1, 2008

The spirit of fun, playfulness and stress-relief are all present in this contest being offered by Interactive Intelligence. They’re giving a prize for the most Outrageous Interaction with a customer story. Before you start getting too creative, one of the rules is that it has to be verifiable and true.

image6

I’m not sure, however, what the point will be of collecting these stories. Are we going to sympathize with the poor call center representative who had to endure such an outrage? I suppose that is the point. Given all the press that outrageously awful customer service by some reps gets, I suppose turnabout is fair play — let’s pick on the customer for a change! The real point is probably just to get publicity for the contest sponsors, which seems to be working, so far, if you are reading this.

Posted in Call Centers | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Goals vs. Resolutions

Posted by Ted Hopton on February 1, 2008

Chip and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick, have a regular column in Fast Company. This one is titled, “Make Goals Not Resolutions,” and it offers a bit of a different take on a familiar topic, but certainly it’s a timely one to review around this time of year.

To sniff out whether your business is pursuing a goal or a resolution, follow the fun. What’s fun about goals is the end point, the completion. If your goal is to “grow sales by 13% in the Southeast region,” and you nail it, you’re ecstatic. What’s fun about resolutions, on the other hand, is the announcement.

read more | digg story

Posted in Management | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

 
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