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Check out the new book Trust Agents if you want to learn about Social Media

August 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Trust Agents, the new book on social media marketing by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, should be on your book purchase list. Where I think of Chris as a friend he is also really fricken smart and a personable guy. The main reason to read this book is in our industry of Events and Meetings social media is on the top of everyone’s lists of questions (along with Green Meetings) on how to do it and what its all about. This book will answer your questions. I do not know Julian Smith though I have heard him on the Podcast Media Hacks. He swears all the time to get his point across which I find refreshing. icon smile Check out the new book Trust Agents if you want to learn about Social Media He seems to be a no holes barred type of guy.

So think about buying this book…… it will put you a head of the game with Social Media.

(full disclosure my amazon associates link is above)

If you want to hear a podcast of me interviewing Chris Brogan before buying check this link.

This one’s a keeper. If you do business online (or do business with people who have ever been online) or know someone who once used a computer, I strongly suggest you get smart about the ideas in this book. ~Seth Godin

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Check out the new book Trust Agents if you want to learn about Social Media

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Extra! Interview with David Gray founder of Xplane.com

December 18, 2008 By 2 Comments

The Meeting Planners podcast source for what’s new and exciting in meetings and events industry!

david gray interview meetinsgpodcast Extra! Interview with David Gray founder of Xplane.com

Today our guest is David Gray Visual Thinker and founder of Xplane.com. David founded Xplane to help people communicate clearly in an increasingly complex world. David and I talk about his company Xplane, his blogs, books and conferences on the show.

Some great links to explore to learn more about David, his company, his blogs, conferences and all the visual thinking communities he is involved with.

Company
xplane.com
Blogs
xplanations.com
ComunicationNation
Conference
vizthink.com
Daves reading list: Dave Gray
Books
Marks and Meaning which is a book Dave is writing with his community.
Also- Selling to the VP of No.

More about Dave
Linkedin.com
[Read more...]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Just fire your customers if they give you lip.

July 11, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Ex- Yahoo Gurus on crabby complaining customers.

If you haven’t already add them to your Blogroll. Tim Sanders wants you/your staff to be happy, and Seth Godin points out all kinds of marketing wonders.

It seems Sprint seems to have had enough of its whiners. But keeping your customers happy is part of business.

Is this the new trend. “If you don’t like it Tough sh*t! And there is the door!”

I know this summer we turned away a huge retail client because they were, well a large pain in the ass. But customer service is mandatory when you accept a client don’t you think?

Check out what Tim and Seth said.


Tim Sanders Check out his blog
Fire a demon customer this quarter

I have a friend in New York City that owns a publicity business. Many of her customers are unreasonably demanding and expect her to make them famous for a fee. These demon customers wear out her staff (emotionally) and probably cause turnover. My advice to her over the years was to fire these unreasonable customers — they are bad for biz.

She experimented with my advice and learned that when she fired a demon customer, her staff rejoiced and her other customers got better service. She realized that you should only have customers that are grounded in reality and respect your staff.

Yesterday, in a USA TODAY article, I read that Sprint had disconnected about 1000 customers that complained excessively and made unreasonable demands. Good for them. I feel bad for call center employees, retail clerks and service techs that had to put up with those 1000 customers. No business should have to serve anyone anytime. One of the smartest things that Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines ever thought up is the idea that “the customer is not always right.” When he observed a customer abusing an attendant, he would ask them not to fly the airlines anymore. It was a boost to morale.

Do you have any clients that are unreasonable? Fire one of them this quarter and you’ll find out, like my friend, that your staff will rejoice your new found wisdom.

Seth Godin
Treating different customers differently

I’ve gotten a lot of email about: Sprint may cancel your service if you call customer service too often.

Apparently, about 1,000 people got this note. They weren’t delinquent in their bills, but they were calling in and complaining approximately 25 times a month.

If you’re going to be obsessed with delighting customers, it’s a lot more efficient to focus on customers that are able to be delighted. That sounds like a tautology, but it’s actually a guiding principle for successful businesses. Hire nice people and attract satisfiable, gabby customers. Why not?

These 1000 people were actually happy to be unhappy. They were unpleasable, and they weren’t helping either word of mouth or the ability of the call center folks to do good work.

I think the mistake Sprint made was in only giving people one day’s notice. I probably would have given them a month or so… Turns out Sprint even gave them one month’s notice.

What would happen if you fired (nicely) the very few customers that take your best effort but rarely appreciate it or spread the word?

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Tell a story to get your message across

July 10, 2007 By 2 Comments

I caught this on Chris Brogans blog. He is a good egg and I daily watch his blog and twitters that come around. They always make me think. I know I have turned some of you on to Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki’s blogs but I think Chris has another not to be missed. A good blog can be a great thing when you get bogged down in the day have something to turn to for a break. I also recommend a walk away from the computer, phone, PDA.

This little video by Epuron is really really great storytelling piece. Take a look at it and tell me what you think. Also take a quick trip over to Chris’s blog and add him to your blog reader like Bloglines or Google reader.

How many times have you tried to get you client to tell a compelling story when trying to get the company message across? I know we do every single time. You fly hundreds of people to a venue put them up , feed them and then sit them down for hours of Powerpoint madness. Why not tell a story instead? Entertain the audience. It does not have to be expensive, just creative. Move them to action.

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Marketing your Blog like CC

June 18, 2007 By 1 Comment

I have switched podcatchers to corral all my podcasts over the years. Then I moved to Bloglines for my blogs. One thing I wondered is a few blogs come up more than others. I love the Guy Kawasakis, Seth Godins of the world but one guy who can somehow have his posts, re-post over and over again is CC Chapmans blogs. Managing the Gray and Reality Bitchslap constantly re-post to my bloglines even though I have already read them. Now CC is the king of New Media marketing so I think he may have a trick up his sleeve. I still check it every time though. Some guys just have the gift of marketing, even when it is thrown in your face over and over again.

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Setting Expectations (Seth Godin)

February 2, 2007 By 2 Comments

bloggslogo Setting Expectations (Seth Godin)

2007 Setting Expectations

BEST BUY Experience

Last week my wife and I left Best Buy in Emeryville, California a little shell shocked we dropped a considerable amount of money on a Plasma screen and a BOSE surround sound system. Sure we got the $150 gift card for the TV and the $50 gift card for the BOSE system.

But we also bought the really expensive cables and a 4 year warranty which the two person sales team who deftly worked on us said we would be insane not to buy. “Your regular warranty ends in a year! What will you do then?” The large sales guy said to us with a smirk? My wife and I looked at each other and shrugged. “OK.” I said mentally watching our checking account shrink.

“And who is going to set this up for you?” He asked. “My wife looked at me quizzically. As my manhood shrank away to nothing I said. “How much?” The salesman said” Only $200 more but you can put your two new gift cards towards it!” Hmm that was easy.

Then I asked.”Will they hook up the Tivo and make sure it works? He smiled and said.”Oh yeah everything will work and they will calibrate your TV so it is perfect. Plus show you how to use everything so you are completely comfortable.”

So we slid our credit card, signed and walked to the car not speaking much. We both agreed that we felt abused, but we knew it was was our own fault. We both work really hard so we deserve a new System. Our old TV we bought 8 years ago, our surround sound system was a hand me down from an old office mate really don’t work very well anymore.

Last night the Best Buy service guys came by, its Super Bowl season and its been a crazy day for them they told me right away. They were exhasuted and overworked today. I had taken the afternoon off work because they were coming 12-5pm. I looked at my watch 7pm. Hmm, ok well they are here.

They said sorry they were late and sorry they didn’t call. They had no lunch break all day. My wife asked if they wanted something to eat. They said they couldnt accept anything. They plugged in the expensive cables. I asked why doesn’t the plasma TV come with cables that work with it. They laughed and said. “Best Buy makes all its money from selling these cables” Nice, real nice.

After 1o minutes they said.”The Tivo would not work I needed a splitter to make it work with the TV.” “Don’t you don’t have one in one of the two vans you guys drove up in. “That’s not our deal he said.” He showed me what to buy at Radio Shack and where to put it. They then showed us the 3 remotes to use the system. ‘”If you had the splitter he said you could eliminate the one remote.”

They then did a 5 minute tutorial on turning on the TV and the BOSE together. They then said they really needed to go and get something to eat. I asked if they would be calibrating the system. “Oh you don’t need that.”

They left. I then felt like I had been gang raped by Best Buy. And paid a ton for the experience.

Cingular or ATT or Cingular

We had a vacation to beautiful Sayulita, Mexico last month. In preparation I called Cingular or ATT or which name they are going by this month about my cell phone. I do own a business and I wanted to be able to check the office phones. I asked them if I could buy an add on service to my cell phone so I would not be ass raped on my bill. (sorry starting to get angry) They then said sure and signed me up for an additional $5 month so it would be affordable enough to use while in Mexico. Cool I thought.

As we arrived in Mexico my phone did not work. I could not call anyone or receive any calls. The whole vacation. I have unlimited use of my web and email with my package with Cingular/ATT here in the states. Yesterday right before the BEST BUY guys came over I opened my mail. $1195 dollars for my Cingular bill. Data charges. When I woke up from the floor with a gash in my head I went upstairs to change my shorts and call Cingular. I was on hold for 15 minutes then somehow disconnected. Then I called back and was on hold for 25 minutes. The most offensive thing was the on-hold ads which blurted all these great options for Cingular, get this, get that. The looping happy lady told me for 25 minutes how wonderful all these new options could be for me. My call waiting came suddenly on my phone. It was the Best Buy technician guys. I couldn’t take a chance answering it. So I let it go to voice mail. A real Cingular person finally came on and I explained to her my problem. She said she couldn’t help me that her supervisor could not help me. She said she would fill out a form and send it straight to cingular.(who was I talking to?) Someone should call me in 3-4 weeks. I told her I have direct payment so they would need to credit my account. She said she was sure it wouldn’t be a problem. ” She then said. Thank you for using Cingular may I provide you with anymore excellent service?” “Nope” I said as I kept my true feelings inside so I would not scream obscenities at this nice impressionable lady from a call center in Utah. I am sure I would be calling back in a few weeks.

Nice my first ass rape of the day. I am all ready for the Best Buy guys.

Comcast cable

We are getting this new plasma screen delivered so my wife wants to surprise me with HBO so she calls Comcast and the sales guy who answers says. “You can buy the package with the phone service and the HBO upgrade for this great new special they are running. “My wife says. “We don’t want a phone we use our cell phones.” He says. “I don’t think we can do that.” Then silence. My wife says. “So you are saying I am wanting to buy more cable from you as my cable company but you cant do it unless I get a phone service also? “Yes” the operator said followed by silence. “OK well I guess I will call back later.” Then the operator says his canned closing. “Thank you for using Comcast Cable and can I provide you with anymore excellent service?” She called back later and got HBO for us. Tony Soprano wouldn’t take this sort of crap.

Toyota/Suburu in Oakland

Got a call out of the blue from the sales guy at Toyota today wanted to know how our Prius was doing. I wont go into the experience of buying the car because that happened a while back. He of course did not know our car was in the service area of where he was calling us from. This post is about Robins post on Seth Godins blog today. We experienced the same thing. Our service light popped on and we took it in to the Toyota dealer. Toyota needed to do the 25-30 whatever point inspection. Basically we got the oil changed. It cost $300 dollars for the service. 78 dollars for parts $200 for labor. They had the car all day. we also asked them to fix the cracked windshield. They did not do it. But the topper was what Robin also noticed is the car had not been vacuumed or washed. They had the car all day and of all that $200 of labor they didn’t even bother to wash the car, or wipe the dashboard. Petty huh, but for $300? You make the call on that one. I say BS.

As Robin said: To raise someones expectations then not fulfill them is worse than mediocrity.

We are getting a lot of that lately and my ass hurts.

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