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An IT Business Edge e-mail showed Web 2.0 as a KEY ISSUE.

The e-mail list links to articles like Online onslaught: Upstart companies disrupt the market for business software, From Bubble to Breakthrough and

Creating real business value with Web 2.0 by ZDNet’s Dion Hinchcliffe — “I run into a fair number of people who are skeptical about the actual business value of Web 2.0. Sure, they usually agree it’s a terrific new movement in online software that encourages social collaboration, two-way use of the Web, services that are open and repurposable, Web-based applications, and more. But can you build and grow a real business with these ideas?”

Great reading! I really enjoyed the FindTech Insight Keyword search feature. It produced a long list of web 2.0 reference articles. I especially liked the article comment/intro that said:

Many people are still struggling with established phenomena like blogs and wikis, so why spend time on the more esoteric concepts of Web 2.0 like “architectures of participation?” This writer, although rejecting “New-Age-y” visions of Web 2.0, provides some strikingly unpractical reasons why it matters.

roar at roarweb dot com

Sxore goes beta:

This good news from Sxore was posted on February 16th. At that point I chose not to write about it. Why? Because I feel Alpha testers should have been given this knowledge before it was made public!

Maybe not a big deal you might say. You are right. But sometimes it is the small things that makes a difference!

Today I received an e-mail from Sxore and decided to give it a few lines. This e-mail was sent to those of us who subscribes to the sxore development list. Attached was 7 documents. My initial test feedback, dated December 15th, was among these.

In December, after testing sxore, I uninstalled the alpha version from my blog. It had a few bugs that I could not live with while waiting for them to get fixed. Good thing I did - today was the first time I heard from them since a “thank you for your feedback” e-mail came in mid December.

While I’m planning to give sxore another try in the near future, there are a few process issues I’d like to look at with regards to their test program. The bottom line is that I feel there was a few steps missing:

• Ongoing feedback to testers is important: We’re more likely to continue to test if we hear from you!
• Tell us BEFORE you launch the next phase: That way we can be ready - and even help you spread the word through writing about it! [Note: The attachments shows that they sent out an announcement on Feb 16th - but I never received it! And I think they should have told us BEFORE it was posted on their site!]
• Help us help you! If we had know BEFORE and been able to download and launch the BETA before it was publicly available, Sxore would have had a series of blogs to point new users to. This would have given each of us some exposure - a bit for each individual blog, lots for sxore!

We believe in providing legendary customer service and are looking for creative, team-oriented stars who work brilliantly, meet deadlines and live to innovate.

I did not find Sxore able to live up to this Sxip quote. Personally I look at the small things when looking at Information Technology companies. And customer service processes are very important to me.

If they can’t get a simple customer service process right, how can I then trust them to get their code and functionality right?

Hmm, I wonder if the job of Product Manager for Sxore is still available???

roar at roarweb dot com

The Cluetrain Manifesto showed us the reality of the Internet age. A reality where there are multiple conversations going and “Corporate” no longer is the only voice heard by the outside world.

In a web 2.0 world, employees talk about their employers, projects and products in a new way, as a direct voice to the customer, a voice that has not been polished by the corporate communications department.

In a web 2.o world, customers talk to each other. They share their knowledge about your company, your projects and your products. They do this in a human voice, giving their own opinion, in a direct conversation with the “outside world”.

We know that “Customer Experience is King “.. Since the overall customer experience is a product of all conversations a customer have with a company the Employee Experience is of importance too.

In a recent Harward Business School (HBS) article, researchers point out that how leaders keep the stated corporate values impacts their Employee Experience.

…employees also said that the worst thing about the company was that the CEO had been, from their point of view, breaching the values that he himself had developed for the company. Unwittingly, even a committed leader may appear to followers to be violating principles he or she has espoused.

It seems that in a web 2.0 world, less and less issues can be dealt with “offline” or at the “back-office”. Thus there are fewer opportunities for leaders to make silent adjustments. A web 2.0 age leader must show integrity by “walking the walk”. Anything else will soon impact the customer experience.

“Walking the walk” does not have to mean being nice to the customers. Ryanair is a good example. While notorious for poor service - one airline quality tracking site gets 35 negative comments per positive comment, there are those that feel they are getting good value from Ryanair’s extremely low prices.

The book Loyalty Myths has shown us that loyal happy employees does not necessarily mean loyal profitable customers. Still, all actions taken by the members of a company/organization have the power to impact someone else’s experience of the company/organization.

Service quality impression depends on our expectations. When we expect little, we seem to be satisfied with little. When a leader’s breach of corporate values impacts the conversations between the members of a company, the “press” and the customer, it impacts our expectations and then the overall interaction experience. Thus, as leaders we must strive to “walk the walk”, so we do not negatively impact the customer experience.

How does your company stack up?

roar at roarweb dot com

I just forwarded an e-mail to “wafl AT phonebusters.com”. This is were I send copies of anything that looks like a Nigerian fraud letter.

Copies of Advanced Fee Letter Fraud (419 / West African / Nigerian Letters) should be emailed directly to: wafl AT phonebusters.com

I’m wondering if Phonebusters have been spammed?

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at phonebusters.com.
I’m afraid I wasn’t able to deliver your message to the following addresses. This is a permanent error; I’ve given up. Sorry it didn’t work out.

:
The quota has been exceeded for this account — mailbox full. (#4.3.0)

roar at roarweb dot com

Technorati Tags: wafl, Nigerian fraud letter, Phonebusters, roar, roarweb, spam

Web users form first impressions of web pages in as little as 50 milliseconds (1/20th of a second), according to Canadian researchers.

OK, so we need to make good first impression. That should not be news to anyone. My mom told me that.

Hmm. Maybe we need to be told such news over and over again. I’m thinking my mom probably had to tell me more than once that you only have once chance to make a first impression.

Which makes you wonder. In the Internet world - how long does it take until we forget the first impression?

I think a very important question is “What happens after you have made the first impression?” How to you keep your readers coming back for more?

You might remember how Liz at successful-blog.com helped me find a way to solve my Technorati problem… well, I thanked her and left her blog.

Then I wrote about my experience and Liz called me a SOB! The funny thing is that I only found out thanks to … Technorati showing links to my blog.

In the comment section to Liz’s post there was a discussion going on. It was partially on the value of the SOB list. It was also partially of a nature that Liz asked the commenters to take the discussion off-line.

I thanked Liz and, kind of as a response to the discussion going on, mentioned that I had not fully figured out her business model.

Roar Says:
February 21st, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Hi Liz. I just noticed my SOB. Thank you so much. While I’m still trying to figure out your business model I must say that your blog helped me solve one of my problems. So, because of your SOB list I found help for my Technorati problem.

Thanks, Roar

Liz followed up and we ended up exchanging some e-mails on what I was wondering about. From our conversation, and my later thinking about this issue, I’d like to share a couple of points.

Value

As bloggers we must show our readers we give them something of value. It could be information or an emotional impact. Without being able to easily see the value proposition, a reader is not that likely to come back to a blog.

Trust

Our readers need to be able to trust us. Without some kind of trust it will not matter if our content is great!

Usability

Our valuable content, presented in a trusted way, must be easy to find

Key Message Positioning

Your key message, the essence of your “About” page must be visible at all times

In Liz’s case her blog is full of blogging tips. But I had not seen that. When looking at her site, I had not found this referenced in the About section. And with a discussion about her SOB list making me think that there might be little value here, why should I come back?

Liz convinced me that she is serious. She convinced me I can trust her content. I suggested she make it easier for people to find out. I also suggested she change her SOB requirements to increase the value to me as a reader, and that she should add descriptions to the SOB list to make it even easier for me to understand her choices.

Since then Liz has posted some really good references to similar blogging ideas. She talked about understanding your customer:

First impressions tell customers that a business understands who their customers are and that the business knows what their customers are looking for.

Since, in her Editing for Quality and a Content Editor’s Checklist post, she has shared some great editing ideas.

It looks to me that “keeping the attention” boils down to making it a customer experience worth coming back to!

roar at roarweb dot com

IIMA, the International Internet Marketing Association just launched a new blog at iima.wordpress.com

The blog, a result of their current e-mail marketing events, replaces their previous discussion forums. Thes forums were disabled due to a high amount of spam posted. The new IIMA blog is still not linked to the IIMA web site, but such a link is expected in the near future - as soon as the new board has organized the responsibities of the newly elected chairs.

Disclosure: I’m the IIMA Treasurer.

roar at roarweb dot com

The IIMA is bringing together some of the leading email marketers in North America for two intensive and interactive email marketing events. If you’re responsible for email campaigns, these are the “must attend” events of 2006.

roar at roarweb dot com

Free Webinar:

The Costs of Failed Customer Service

roar at roarweb dot com

Reaching Customer Service seems to be an issue for many these days. While my Technorati trouble finally is over, I do believe it took far too long before I finally got some help.

Setting the right service level is not an easy task - especially not for a free service. Tris Hussey (and others) have over the last day or two commented on how difficult it is to get any feedback from gMail and Blogger. In the situation Tris describes, the problem is hijacked accounts.

My guess is that most of the “help” e-mails are never read by humans. Words like HELP and EMERGENCY should, in my mind, lead to someone actually taking a look, but I doubt this actually happens. Just as for me in my Technorati case, Tris’ friend is having a hard time to get any replies.

Maybe the way I got my help is the way to go? Thanks to Liz from Successful Blog who pointed me in the right direction. By posting a comment to a blog I finally got the help I needed.

While I do not endorse being off-topic in comments, it might be that leaving a comment in a blog belonging to someone senior in an organization actually can help.

Senior Management support is always important to make things happen. By letting senior management know that their customer service areas are not able to help their customers, we will at least have a possibility of someone looking further into the issue!

Any reader out there that actually have managed to get “real feedback” from Blogger and gMail?

roar at roarweb dot com

If you read my blog on a regular basis you know that I’ve had a problem reclaiming my blog on Technorati.

While I know Technorati is a free service, I’m still very disappointed about the customer experience I have had trying to figure this out. It just seems to be impossible to get an answer from them!

Anyway, maybe there is hope. Thanks to Liz from Successful Blog I’ve found a link to the blog of Janice Myint of Technorati. In one post she describes what you might try to check out when you are in my situation. I have just left her a comment, maybe - just maybe - I will be so lucky that I actually get some help. That would be great!

roar at roarweb dot com

Technorati Tags: customer experience, Successful Blog, Janice Myint, Technorati, roar, roarweb, Technorati Support, Technorati Help, Technorati Tips