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With the hot weather and the depressed economy, we thought it
would be a good idea to lighten things up a bit in this
mid-summer issue. So we chose to share with you a CRM story that
hopefully will make you smile, and then direct you to an article
by a professional "make you laugh" writer that we hope
will do just that for you as well. Lastly, we found the kind of
place where you would want to spend the summer, and maybe more
than just the summer.
This is also a good time for a quick status check. Four
months since our first issue, it's still just the beginning, but
we are proud to be where we are. Our subscriber list has grown
70% since we started; our April article "Know Your
Customers - By Name!" was published in marketingprof.com;
but most of all, we are happy about the feedback and reaction we
get after each issue of the newsletter.
This is what we set as a goal when we started the newsletter
- to make it an interactive platform for you, the readers. We
still have a way to go, but your reaction tells us we're in the
right direction. Keep sending us your feedback and ideas!
Enjoy this issue and have a great summer!
| in
this issue |
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| A
Script to Smile for |
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| Everybody
has a customer service story. I have one too. A few
weeks ago I called my credit card issuer (one of the
largest in the industry) to dispute a charge. It was for
a purchase I made but cancelled before it was delivered,
and the credit was late to show up on my account. After
going through the usual maze of the IVR (we've all heard
these stories before), I was greeted by an extremely
polite and intelligent service agent on the other side
of the line. "What a delight," I thought to
myself as my heart was prancing while the agent was
guiding me (with a smile in her voice, just like in
those agent training videos) through the half a dozen or
so questions she had to fill out in order to process my
dispute request, "this is going to be easy!"
[As an experienced reader of drama, you know you've
reached the infliction point. This is where the story is
going to turn from nice to bad, ugly, or maybe even
dangerous. Well, here it comes...]
One of the first questions I was asked was the date
of my original order. The last question asked for the
date I canceled the order. As I gave that last date to
the agent, she was quick to inform me (in her still
smiling voice) that my dispute could not be processed
because the date I canceled the order was AFTER the date
of my original purchase. I thought I wasn't hearing
well, so I asked the agent to repeat this. You too may
want to read it again: sure enough, the dispute could
not be processed because the date I canceled the order
was AFTER the date of the original purchase. Could it
be any other way?!
At this point I could have gotten really pissed off
with the lovely agent on the other side of the phone.
Instead, I found myself smiling. I was laughing at the
absurdity of the situation, but more than that, it was
the smile that comes with the satisfaction of realizing
that I actually knew what was going on!
I knew the agent was following a script on her
computer screen. All she could do was read the questions
and type in the answers I was giving her. The final
result was presented on the screen, with no ability on
her part to change the outcome. It wasn't her fault. It
was just a faulty script, a result of erroneous
programming and poor QA. I've seen these before. No
point getting nasty with the poor agent.
The end of the story was that a supervisor was able
to override the script and place the dispute. The moral
of the story? I'll leave this to you to figure out. All
I am hoping is that maybe next time you come across a
similar situation, you too can put a smile on your face,
and save yourself from getting aggravated. With the
summer being that hot and the economy so depressed,
that's about all I can hope for!
Eran
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| RTFM:
Read The Funny Manual! |
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| Anybody
who has been in the high-tech business knows the
frustration that comes with writing user documentation.
A lot of effort goes into something that you know only
two people will read, and they are both from your QA
department...
Want users to read your manuals? Have Dave Barry
write them for you!
Read
and Laugh »
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| Summer
Dream Place |
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| Surprisingly
enough, our summer dream place is not a tropical island,
but a place where you can actually live and work the
whole summer, or even year-round. When you read about
it, I'm sure you would agree that when you live in place
like this, getting on an airplane and fighting the
crowds to go on a vacation might seem not so inviting...
Visit
Our Summer Dream Place »
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| Help
Solve the Perfect Crime: Last Month's Survey Results |
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Last
month we wrote about The Perfect Crime, one that takes
place at the scene of new product introduction.
Based on the many reactions we received, it seems
that this crime is committed rather frequently. We asked
for your vote on the cause for new product failures. As
promised, here are the results:
60% of you said: You are right on the money.
Products fail because the process is flawed and there is
no one accountable.
20% of you selected: It's all the fault of the
engineers. They think they know it all and never listen
to product management.
None of you went for this one: No way. The
reason products fail is because product managers think
they can tell developers how to make products.
And 20% voted for: This is a bunch of hogwash.
Products are lousy because there is never enough time to
do them right.
Thank you for your vote!
See
Last Month's Article: The Perfect Crime »
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| Helping
software companies penetrate new markets, capture, and
increase market share.
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