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Friday, July 26, 2013
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Customer service: eight eloquent nuggets from Quora | Econsultancy
I?m always impressed just how much eloquence is there for the mining on Quora. I guess it makes sense, as?good answers are upvoted and people answer questions that rev their engines.
Suddenly, there?s a clarity to most threads that is addictive in its intense scrollability.?
So I searched for ?customer experience?, to see what I could find to report back with, and to shape a proto-strategy for a transforming business. Most of the interesting stuff I found can be seen more as comment on customer service, and specifically its social dimension.
Here goes?.
Your employees are people and your customers are people?
The best story to start. Greg Meyer found a job with a social CRM start-up through his enlightened answer on Quora.?
The question?
Is Twitter an effective customer service tool?
Here?s one of the best bits of Greg?s big ol? answer.
Your Employees are People and Your Customers Are People - Why Not Let Your Brand Reflect That?
There are lots of brands that are doing an outstanding job of sounding like people, not like, well, committees. Virgin America, Zappos, and Ford Motor Company are doing a great job in social media, and (surprise!) I also want to do business with them. Even better, when I communicate with these companies on closed, non-transparent channels, I feel like the same brand proposition and value still transmits in these other mediums. (Win!)
?
Customer service in 2013: making good, staff and chat
What's the biggest challenge for Customer Experience in 2013?
Jagan gives us surely the sharpest shot of clarity.
Errors do happen and when they happen, it's a golden opportunity for the businesses to respond faster and see that the overall experience is a breeze for the customer.
There have to be all rounders and people managers at all levels in the business. A customer support executive cannot bluntly say "That's not my work. Developers have to take care of that.", instead 'accountability' has to be increased at all levels.
One way to avoid bad customer experience is by being available at all times for the customers to reach businesses instantly by using live chat services likeclickdesk.com (disclosure: I work here). This has to happen even before the customer thinks of posting a -ve feedback on social networks or review sites. Be there first!
There is almost no precedent for good customer service
I?m being disingenuous with this heading, but it?s clear that forums are full of examples of terrible terrible customer service. For example, ?What?s the longest time that someone has been placed on hold??
Danielle offers, ?My parents were on hold with Continental for seven hours straight?.?
People like to discuss disaster, but the point remains that although customer service is really important for any business, previous blind spots have left service in some sectors characteristically poor. And so you?ve nothing to lose in changing your customer service processes and strategy.
?
Value proposition. What if service isn't enough?
If you work in a business that can?t necessarily beat competition into submission through customer service alone, well then your product and price takes centre stage. I?d suggest that fashion sits here.
As such?
Why do your customers buy from you?
Visakan offers a shower of eloquence on this one.
We aren't the cheapest around, and we aren't even the most reliable.
They buy from us because:
- We represent a narrative that they want to be a part of.
- We allow them to express their identity in a way that distinguishes them from the rest of the market.
- Slowly, we're building a community for them to be a part of.
This is interesting. The reliable comment aside, which brands can be seen to inhabit the same space? From the big brands, I?d suggest Nike.?Nike iD and FuelBand are two great examples of handing control over to the customer.
There are communities outside of official Nike, e.g. NikeTalk, which show that Nike is whupping other trainer brands with its culturing of brand identity.
?
Radical commitment to a customer's needs
Cafes and restaurants provide an interesting detour on Quora. Everybody likes talking about them. They?re the Edward Hopper-Wayne?s World-Soprano?s pillar of the American dream.
And perhaps they give insight?
How do caf?s/restaurants handle unwanted customers?
Peter gives us:
Business should be a desirable and beneficial exchange of goods/services between customers and an enterprise for the mutual benefit of both.
Recommend your 'unwanted' customer to your competitors
It's very important that you understand fully the value propositions of your competitors ?so that you can direct your 'unwanted' customer to the establishment where they have a better chance of being a welcomed customer.
Whilst directing unwanted custom away is hard, and potentially stupid (outside of the caf? environment, where Peter is talking about barring obnoxious punters, I believe), there?s a point here. You must understand fully the value propositions of your competitors. Only then will you recognise when such a time arrives as you are providing nothing unique in terms of service and product.
More nightmares stemming from inconsistency
Here?s a typical Quora thread, on crap service from Terravision, who wouldn?t sell a coach ticket at a window, but would sell the exact same ticket online. I can?t speak for the veracity of this entertaining story (veracity in the sense that this counts as a typical interaction ? it may not).?
But it highlights something I?ve noticed with the advent and maturation of digital. This inconsistency online and off-, with some companies.
An example would be electronics stores doing some offers that are online-only. How can the stores expect to shift any of these products?
The experience
I haven?t got much to say here, apart from the fact that this Quora post on ?What are some elements of a great unboxing experience?? is probably how I would sum up humanity and the internet.
On the serious side, unboxing is the perfect metaphor for how online customer experiences should work. Easy to use, clear and enticing product, all the other gubbins safely and neatly stored away, it looks good, too.
?
Netflix: virtuous cycle of subscriptions is better than selling ads?
A final note of interest here, with a nugget that is symptomatic of the good nuggety content on Quora, waiting to be un-earthed.
Who does Netflix consider their one customer, either subscribers or film publishers?
And well if the Director of Product, Netflix Website, doesn?t answer the question.
I think we're pretty clear that our subscribers are our customers. One of the advantages of a subscription business is that you are directly accountable to your consumers - they are paying us and as a result we seek to make them happy. Part of making them happy is acquiring great content, so we value our relationships with the content companies highly and do our best to satisfy them.
Our CEO has spoken publicly about how we want to provide a lot of economic value to our content partners. The virtuous cycle is: we delight our customers, they provide great word of mouth which attracts more subscribers, we then have more money to pay the studios and networks, we license more content and that makes our customers happier. ?
There's actually a lot less tension here than exists when you're in an advertising-supported business, since in that case your end users (customers) and the people who are paying the bills (advertisers) are two distinctly different groups.
I might check back with more nuggets from Quora. Let me know if you have thoughts on social customer experience and service.
Source: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/63122-customer-service-eight-eloquent-nuggets-from-quora
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Sunday, July 21, 2013
S&P cuts Detroit's GO debt further into junk status
(Reuters) - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services cut its rating on Detroit's general obligation debt to 'C' from 'CC' on Friday, and gave the bankrupt Michigan city a negative outlook.
"The downgrade reflects the city's position as the subject of a bankruptcy petition, as of July 18, 2013," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Jane Ridley.
"The negative outlook reflects our expectation that, given the Emergency Manager's statements regarding debt restructuring, actions taken to date, and negotiations currently underway with bondholders, we could lower the rating in the one-year time horizon of the outlook," Ridley said.
(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/p-cuts-detroits-debt-further-junk-status-122438732.html
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Text message contacts on Galaxy S4
When I create a new text message and enter into my contacts, it loads my gmail contacts, as opposed to just my contacts that have phone numbers which is what I really want. I've played around in the settings menus, but nothing I do seems to work. Any ideas?
Source: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/49575/text-message-contacts-on-galaxy-s4
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The GOP and Immigration: Death by Pandering
Those who advise the GOP to "get right" with Hispanics by supporting the Senate's massive immigration bill never consider the downside of traducing principles in the hope of gaining votes. Perhaps it can be said of "death by pandering", as the Washington Post' Kathleen Parker suggests is the case with "principled martyrs," that, "[P]rincipled or not, you're still dead in the end."
But death by pandering strips you of both your integrity and your honor. Worse, it doesn't give you the opportunity to make your case and try to gain supporters for your perspective.
In essence, it is just giving up.
And if a major political party just gives up on its legitimate view of the public interest, the American people will, understandably, give up on that political party.
One of the few establishment Republicans to understand this is Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho). In an exchange on "Meet the Press", Rep. Labrador had an exchange with his host that is worth quoting at some length:
GREGORY: Well, and Congressman, there is you, somebody who's been pushing ? I mean, you're an immigration lawyer. You've been pushing for reform. I'll paraphrase something that you were quoted as saying in June in the National Journal, that we've got to fix the system and that Hispanics essentially have stopped listening to Republicans. Isn't that a bigger concern than some of these policy differences that you have with David Brooks or others who would support the Senate legislation?
REP. LABRADOR: I actually think if we don't do it right politically it's going to be the death of the Republican Party. If we do it right, I think it's going to be good for us. But if we don't do it right, what's going to happen is that we're going to lose our base because we're still going to have a large number of illegal immigrants coming into the United States. And the Hispanic community is not going to listen to us because they're going to always listen to, at this point, to the people that are offering more, that are offering a faster pathway to citizenship, all those things. So, I think we lose on both grounds if we don't do it right.
Rep. Labrador's view is that adopting the Democrats' immigration policies is a dire threat to the continued viability of the Republican Party, but only "if we don't do it right".
What does "doing it right" mean?
Clearly supporting policy that effectively curbs future illegal immigration, because with the legislation as written, he says "we're still going to have a large number of illegal immigrants coming into the United States." And if that happens, as it is likely to as the Senate bill now stands, and the GOP helps make it law, "we're going to lose our base."
He might well add the respect and support of all those Americans who want immigration reform to actually accomplish one of its primary reasons for existence ? not adding new generations of millions of illegal aliens down the road.
In another setting, Rep. Labrador answered a criticism of his views by saying, "You're saying that the only way the Republican Party can win is by accepting an immigration reform bill that is not fully completed. I don't think that's the right way to do it. We do the right policy and the politics will follow."
Of course in order to do that, you have to have the courage of your convictions. That's two traits, not one: convictions and the courage to act on them.
Next: The GOP and Immigration: Having the Courage of Your Convictions
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Source: http://www.cis.org/renshon/gop-and-immigration-death-pandering
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Saturday, July 20, 2013
US- South Africa War Games: The Pentagon?s Hidden Agenda is to Make ?Africans fight Africans?
Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
July 20th, 2013
Reader Views: 157
The Pentagon is involved in organizing war games in different part of the World.? The stated military mandate is national security and the ?Global War on Terrorism?.
The South African media has reported the holding of military exercises involving the US military and the South African National Defense Force (SANDF).
The South African and US armed forces are to conduct war games in the Eastern Cape over a period of almost two weeks (24 July to August 5)
The joint war games are to be coordinated by USAFRICOM?s? ?US?Army Africa Contingency Command?.
?SA Navy Captain Jaco Theunissen said the militaries would share technical expertise during the exercise, which would start on 24 July and end on 5 August, and would involve 5 000 soldiers.
?We are exercising to do a?human support intervention in an unstable country,??said Theunissen.
?What we simulate is what is currently happening in a lot of countries in the world, especially in the African continent.
?You?ve got warring factions destabilising the country?. We are exercising the war fight, where you will fight against rebel groups.?
Medical units would also practice giving basic medical healthcare to a local population in an unstable warring environment.
All branches of the SANDF ? the army, air force, navy, and health ? would participate.?? (Times Live South Africa, July 18, 2013, emphasis added)
What these official statements imply is that The Republic of South Africa is slated to participate in US-NATO sponsored ?humanitarian interventions? directed against other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, which have been tagged by Washington as? ?unstable nations?.
What is not mentioned is that these so-called ?unstable nations? are invariably the object of a US engineered political and economic destabilization process (including the imposition of deadly IMF-World Bank economic reforms), which create conditions for the ?recolonization? of sub-Saharan Africa.
These July-August war games were prepared in prior exchanges in February at USAFRICOM headquarters in Vicenza, Italy? between the U.S. Army Africa Contingency Command and SANDF commanders:
Col. Vuka Sean Mahlasela, 44th Parachute Regiment commander, South African National Defense Force, or SANDF, said the exercise helped both forces learn to cooperate with each other and improved the relationship between U.S. and South Africa.
?Joint and multinational operations have become the norm of the day.?The national defense forces play a very significant role to be able to operate with regional, international and multinational forces to test tactics and share skills and knowledge as well as to learn from each other as multinational forces,? Mahlasela said.
Some of the training in which SANDF participated included basic command and control of a multinational exercise; intricacies of joint task force operations; requirements of different logistical infrastructures; and proposed ways on how to run meetings, which the U.S. military calls ?Seven-Minute Drills.? USAFRICOM:?US Army Africa command Post Soldiers Train with South African Forces??March 8, 2013)
Lt. Col Light Jongilanga Tsalupondo, administrative commander for the 43rd Brigade of the South African National Defense Force, discusses training events with Staff Sgt. Robert Hamrick of U.S. Army Africa Contingency Command Post during a contingency command post exercise in preparation for Shared Accord 13 {July-August 2013 War Games] These February training and briefing sessions for SANDF commanders were intended to create conditions, whereby the SANDF would directly collaborate with USAFRICOM in US led military operations on the African continent:
?[SANDF] will take back to their leadership how to better synchronize and collaborate with the U.S.,??said Palacios, a Bronx, N.Y. native. ?This is the success that was achieved during these last few days and will set us up for long-term success during Shared Accord in July.?
While the stated purpose of the war games is to ?protect Africa?, the real objective is imperial conquest.?Washington?s hidden agenda is to ?make Africans fight Africans?.
It is worth noting that the SANDF was recently involved in fighting rebel forces in the Central African Republic, in which 15 SANDF soldiers were killed.
Korea
In April, the US completed a two-month-long ?Foal Eagle? exercise military exercise in Korea involving several thousand air, ground and naval personal.? The objective was to trigger increased tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Australia
On July 18, the US commenced the largest joint war games in Australia?s history involving 20,000 US troops.? The military exercises ?which are part of the Pentagon?s ?Asia Pivot?? are being staged on Australia?s eastern seaboard.
The Obama administration?s so-called ?pivot to Asia? involves the repositioning of American military forces throughout the Asia-Pacific region as well as strengthening US military alliances and strategic partnerships in that part of the world.In order to display its military might, the Pentagon leads multinational military exercises each year in the Asia-Pacific region, which is a ?very dangerous escalation of US military presence,? Rozoff said.
The exercises are ?a cause of severe concern to countries like China and to Russia.?
Rozoff described the US military as ?out of control? that needs to be disarmed and pacified by the international community.
The US and Australia have strengthened their alliance in recent years. The US military is building up its presence in Australia and plans to send 2,500 Marines there on six-month rotations each year starting in 2016. (Press TV, July 19, 2013)
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Contributed by Prof Michel Chossudovsky of Global Research.
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Van carrying St. Charles church group crashes in northern Georgia
KMOV.com
Posted on July 18, 2013 at 9:11 PM
Updated today at 10:50 PM
?(KMOV) -- A St. Charles church van was involved in an accident Wednesday night near Chatsworth. Ga. That left one child and several adults hospitalized.
Police say the van was transporting 24 people from a northern Georgia youth camp when it ran off the road and struck a tree late Wednesday night.
The pastor of First Baptist Church wrote on the church?s website that every student but one was back at the camp this morning.
One child suffered a concussion and lacerated liver. Three adults were seriously hurt in the wreck. The adults and the child are all being treated at an area hospital.
17 people were taken to area hospitals but most were treated and released with minor injuries.
The cause of the accident has not been disclosed.
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Wall Street Transcript Interview with Neil Voloshin, CFO of Cavitation Technologies, Inc. (CVAT)
67 WALL STREET, New York - July 19, 2013 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Agricultural & Specialty Chemicals Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs and Equity Analysts. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
Topics covered: Crop Yield Management - U.S. Corn Crop - Chemicals Companies Pricing Power - Fertilizers, Paints and Coatings, and Petrochemicals - Emerging Market Demand - Specialty Chemicals and Fertilizer Pricing Power
Companies include: Cavitation Technologies (CVAT) and many more.
In the following excerpt from the Agricultural & Specialty Chemicals Report, the CFO of Cavitation Technologies, Inc. (CVAT) discusses company strategy and the outlook for this vital industry:
TWST: How is your cavitation technology being used, and who are your customers?
Mr. Voloshin: Cavitation Technology is flow-through technology, and the technology itself can be, or should be, separated into separate segments for the sake of simplicity. One segment is our Nano Reactors. This is the physical element of our technology. These reactors are flow-through and have no moving parts. Our smallest system allows for 10 gallons per minute flow-through, and the largest up to 200 gallons per minute.
Our other major segment is our applications, in which we develop specific devices and modify them based on the particular need of our customers. In essence, our devices can be implemented amongst multiple industries, but it takes a little bit of tinkering and modification depending on our customers' exact needs. Each application or each segment or each new industry that we are approaching requires its own modification, R&D and know-how.
TWST: Looking toward the future, what are some potential uses for your technology that you haven't yet monetized or won customers in those areas?
Mr. Voloshin: Today, we're in vegetable oil industry, thus this is something where we generate sales today, and our technology is commercially implemented worldwide. The most immediate applications we're looking at are petroleum enhancement and water treatment. As I mentioned earlier, we have developed a strategic partnership with GEA Westfalia, a company heavily involved in these industries, and we believe this relationship will put our company in a much better position moving forward. Currently our plan is to continue developing our capabilities with petroleum enhancement and wastewater treatment, and monetize on our technology in...
For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-transcript-interview-neil-170300825.html
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Texas Passes 20-week Abortion Ban, Should Survive Legal Challenge | Ken Klukowski at Breitbart
Ken Klukowski at Breitbart: Today Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed into law a pro-life bill which will very likely be upheld by the Supreme Court. The law disallows most abortions after 20 weeks, the point by which an unborn child can fully feel physical pain and therefore would actually experience the agony of dying during the abortion procedure.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/alliancealert/~3/2hlD-ssxa2w/
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