Category: Living in trouble
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Unpacking the ‘kill email’ trend: It’s not about CRM.
With Slack all over the news, the death of email is being trumpeted again, but the more you read the more you realize Slack, Asana, and Convo are targeting intra-company email, not the inter-company email flow which is tracked by CRM applications. For the development of business relationships between customers and suppliers, email will still…
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Innovating with a safety net
To defend our business, we have to keep improving, but many of us don't want the anxiety of testing new things. As Steve Blank points out, we don't have to go out on a big dangerous limb. If we keep our improvements small and get them in front of customers immediately, we'll know if we're…
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You and your customer rate the relationship together
Customers have many ways to rate your service. Are you giving them the opportunity to bond with you or to victimize you? Recently, I had to meet some friends at a bar I'd never seen. So to set my expectations, I decided to look at the reviews on Yelp. I was surprised to see how…
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Don’t feed the distrust cycle
In all human beings, loss aversion can lead to enormous distrust. In other words, if someone has cheated you, you are likely to become distrustful of everyone. This behavior is not only irrational, it's incredibly damaging. As co-workers, we must keep on trusting in order to work effectively. I recommend that if you are cheated,…
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How bad managers torpedo good intentions
Gallup recently studied employers who have a high percentage of employees 'actively engaged' versus employers who don't. Not surprisingly, they found the big difference was companies that provide lip-service to good management versus those who challenge themselves to constantly improve. I've paraphrased the 7 differences: Involved, curious leaders who want to improve Terrific HR departments…
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The rising importance of customer experience management
If you're not analyzing the experience of your customer, be assured that your competitor is. Fast Company/Co.Design: IBM invests 100 million to expand design business, 2014-Mar-27 by Mark Wilson “The world is sort of waking up to design thinking, new ways of thinking about problems and solutions to problems,” John Armstrong, North American Leader, IBM…
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The painful part of free media
All this free social media is so hard to maintain. NY Times: The Plus in Google is Mostly for Google, 2014 The value of Plus has only increased in the last year, as search advertising, Google’s main source of profits, has slowed. At the same time, advertising based on the kind of information gleaned from…
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Why we have new problems but better choices
I was introduced to Nonzero by Matthew Wettergreen and this quote from Kevin Kelly reminds me of my own progressive mindset. We should never feel threatened by the new. We should be ready to manage our new problems with better tools. Edge: The Technium, 2014-Feb-3 by Kevin Kelly I call myself a protopian, not a…
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How to look for bias
As a result of my internet use, I've become very picky about the source of my news. I try to be open to new sources all the time, but I also subject them to inspection. If I can't find sufficient background on the publisher and author, I become very skeptical. If you know where your…
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The Challenge in financing loyalty
For many large companies, loyalty is just a side-effect of financing. The store or gas credit card naturally allows the company to collect transaction data and issue benefits. Coupling loyalty programs with can give companies a blind spot with regard to customers who walk into a store with their own financing. Customers may prefer to…