Archive for October, 2007
Posted by: David Naylor | 8.10.2007
All change at Skype it seems with the founders departing with only a fraction of the money that was predicted if they managed to hit the targets for growth. It’s still $500m so I won’t be worrying for their future welfare. Read the full story at Business Week.
What caught my eye was that Zennström was off to launch his new venture Joost - a web TV service that currently offers over 15,000 shows and counting. Maybe if he’d been concentrating on Skype’s performance rather than the next big thing, it might have been a different story for eBay’s $2.6b investment.
With Microsoft talking about a massive investment in Facebook (apparently) and a new site called MyWorld being created as a cross between MySpace and Second Life, there are plenty of ideas vying for the title of the ‘Next Big Thing’. You can guarantee that these will always be followed by the ‘Next Big Sting’ when young entrepreneurs go smiling all the way to the bank.
Microsoft, ebay, skype, web 2.0 | No Comments
Posted by: Peter Massey | 5.10.2007
When does advertising get wasted? When it’s blown away by the product its on maybe …
2 examples:
When it came to buying phones I never noticed for years that Vodafone sponsored my fav team Man U. In fact I do now use Vodafone but that wasnt me who did the procurement
This great Bob Dylan video clip - its masterful http://www.dylanmessaging.com/ . A great case of the viral trick being so strong you ignore the ads. But even as Dylan fan who has used it a dozen time this week I havent been tempted to look at the music it advertises - WHY NOT?
21st century marketing, humour | No Comments
Posted by: David Naylor | 3.10.2007
When the phone rings at 9pm and there’s a long pause and lots of crackle before someone says “can I speak with Mr Naylor”, you know it’s an India call centre. There’s an immediate reaction in me that wants me to hang up. Trouble is, when this call is from the fraud department of my bank and they want to let me know my card has been used in a fraudulent transaction, I need to speak to them.
Why has the Indian call centre industry reached this point? I think it’s because customers feel no emotional link with the agent. Efficient processes (when they happen) make the agents appear curt and poor processes make the agents appear incompetent. Either way, agents are frequently accused of not listening to customers and bulldozing their way through the call. It’s a no win situation.
Fixing this is not a quick exercise as it’s a problem that has been compounded by the industry itself over a number of years. I think the best that can be achieved is for customers to feel neutral about the experience of dealing with Indian centres. How long it takes to get to that point is anyones guess.
India, customer experience, financial services | No Comments
Posted by: Sue Cooke | 2.10.2007
Hi everyone looking forward to joining the fun of blogging.
Whilst on the train this morning the guard reminded us to take all our belongings and if we dont they will be available on ebay next week!!!!
Its really lovely when someone makes you smile first thing in the morning, just what we should all do if we manage people.
humour | 1 Comment
Posted by: Peter Massey | 1.10.2007
The third Chief Customer Officers’ Forum (CCO Forum) took place last week at Studley Castle.
A brilliant bunch of CCOs assembled to suffer comedy waiters, relay races and the pressure of the Dragon’s Den – and that was just to warm up.
There were some really good conversations about the value of emotions in what we do championing the customer in big businesses: “People buy emotionally and then rationalise their decision logically”.
And some fascinating material on designing, managing and delivering world class sales environments:
“Sales is a black art but I’m analytical and I needed to work out what’s going on so I can measure it, coach it, improve it”.
Here’s some of the feedback from last week:
“Fantastic day! ….., incredibly productive and thought provoking”
“there’s nowhere we’d rather be than here talking with this group of people”
Suffice to say it went rather well and we’ll be using the feedback to raise the bar even further next time. The next CCO Forum meeting will be on 27th/28th November in central London. Membership is by invitation only for those who champion the customers’ cause in their business and want to mix with like minded people behind Chatham House rules. Contact us (marion.howard-healy@budd.uk.com) if you think you’d like to be a member.
CCO | 3 Comments
