Email is a cost-effective way to reach customers and patients. But just because it’s cheap and easy doesn’t mean it’s always a good idea. When done incorrectly, email messages can alienate the very audience we’re trying to cultivate. Send Only Useful Messages: I once had the grand idea of using an email-marketing program to keep […]
Last September in my column, “Let’s Play,” I discussed gamification and questioned if it was mostly hype or offered merit. I wondered then – and still do – if gamification has any application in the contact center. Those who talk about gamification mostly do so from a theoretical perspective, lacking tangible real-world examples. In my […]
There’s a certain brand of wool socks that I like. Okay, I really, really like them. I’m wearing a pair right now. I wanted to try a different style, but the local outlets didn’t carry it. Though I prefer to buy online and bypass the “experience” of going to a store, sometimes I want to […]
Email is a cost-effective and simple way to reach out and touch clients and customers. But just because it’s cheap and easy, this doesn’t mean it’s always a good idea. When done wrong, email messages can alienate the audience you’re trying to cultivate. Send Only Useful Messages Many years ago I had the grand idea […]
It recently became time to replace our 24-year old furnace. As the installer wrapped up his work, he began teaching about the critical aspects of carbon monoxide detection. I had placed our lone detector where the furnace and water heater were located; detecting the poisonous gas at its source, I had reasoned, was the ideal […]
I upgraded some software and paid an extra ten bucks for the installation CD. This makes restoration much easier when it becomes necessary. But for instant gratification, I downloaded the software so that I could begin using it immediately, while waiting for the disk to arrive. (It took 29 days, but that is a different […]
Unethical Business Practices Hurt Everyone The deluge of phone calls was not how I wanted to start my week. These calls slammed my company’s sales line—with complaints against another company. What unfolded was a revealing look at the ugliness of unethical marketing tactics. Though I haven’t had a fax machine in years, there was a […]
I have long been a proponent of the necessity for outsourcing call centers to have websites. In fact, I view a website as a veritable requirement for success in today’s market. To the point, call centers lacking a website are quickly viewed as second-rate providers and not worth the consideration of first-rate prospects. With the […]
A few months ago, I blogged about the various random press releases that I receive each day. In that post, I committed the faux pas of labeling them all as spam — and was quickly chastised for making a sweeping overstatement that was not entirely correct. In this, I was reminded that spam is in […]
A while back, the Connections Magazine sales line was slammed with a phone call— for another company. The calls were from irate individuals trying to call a removal line of the fax service bureau that had sent them faxes. It seems that they had received an unwanted fax solicitation on behalf of a travel company. […]