Conversationware

This is one of those ‘prediction’ posts for comms solution companies.

Talking to a couple of integrator partners today about the change of IPT solutions from hardware to software, and about software upgrade renewal plans, it became clear there are issues bubbling away for the unwary.

These maintenance and support plans are designed to give the customer a better deal on continuous upgrades, and encourage a well supported customer base - presumably to higher levels of customer satisfaction over the period.

As a customer you get to know your upgrade costs in advance, and don’t suddenly have to ‘find’ money you didn’t know you needed for an upgrade. Manufacturers get more revenue to fund further research ….so all well and good all round.

There’s a seemingly small issue though, one that can bite you

• The customer only wants to start their support contract from the completion of install, which can be months after original kit order
• The manufacturers start the 12 month clock when they ship

Renewals are sent from the kit manufacturer three months before you’re likely to see the revenue from your customer - and paying out months before you even know if you’re going to get your contract renewed isn’t much fun. 

This is compounded when lots of suppliers on the same install are going live at different times.

So, if your suppliers aren’t flexible about go live days for your orders - as opposed to ship dates - there will be trouble about 9 months later. Sounds about right when dealing with some manufacturers.

Our company supplies workflow solutions, so we can manage the lead times for solving the issues (saving a personal headache). But I bet there will be more than a fair few accounts in the industry on stop this time next year.

My car broke down on Monday morning last week, and it was a rare opportunity for some companies to make a difference to me…..

The recovery service was Green Flag - and so within the hour of me phoning, I was being picked up by a cheerful chap. So  far so good.

I even got advice as to which three car brands were more likely to be picked up by him - not sure that I should repeat, as it is heresay, but two were German (including mine), and one was French.

Within an hour and a half, I was at Kwik Fit, being told it was a duff caliper.

However sagely I thought I was nodding, the Kwik Fit mechanic asked me whether I wanted to have a look for myself. So I gave up looking knowledgeable about cars, and meekly let him show me my braking system had broken, and that I was accelerating and braking at the same time.

A reasonable cost to fix, and they managed it the same day - not bad since I just landed on them without an appointment.

I can’t complain at the service, or the cost, given how expensive German car bits can be - and in fact, in the circumstances, all had gone well. So, I was in a good mood when the phone rang at 6pm - it was just dinnertime, but perhaps it was a customer.

Nope. It was Kwik Fit call centre. (they must have picked up my number from the ticket)

The girl immediately informed me it was a courtesy call to see if they had serviced my requirements ok. A fairly perfunctory enquiry (a missed opportunity to ask more questions about the service in my opinion) was swiftly followed by a request.

“I’m not sure if you’re aware, Mr Lambert, that we now do car insurance, very competitive car insurance. Would you mind if we called you back at renewal time and gave you a quote?”

Ah, there we have it.

Not a customer service enquiry at all then, but quite the reverse. They may as well have said

“Since you just said we treated you well, the least you can do is give us the chance to quote, you’ve just said you’re happy - why on earth wouldn’t you use us?

I think I might have had more respect if that’s what they actually did say. Humour would have worked, so would putting the phone down and sending me sales info later. 

Sales people shouldn’t be in charge of callcentres.

Of course, Green Flag were slower on the uptake - they instead posted me a 2 page questionairre, with very small writing and boxes and diagrams (I think). They wanted me to post it back (FOC) but that went straight in the bin, interruption marketing, who needs it.

I think I would have preferred a phonecall from them.

I bet Paul Sweeney of Voicesage has something to say about this….not that I’m leading the witness. But he just linked a report that said outbound call volumes haven’t reduced in spite of the recent legislation.

The report put this down to outbound callcentres being correctly advised to focus on customer service as a retention and cost avoidance strategy. On the evidence above, I’m just not sure Paul has got around to enough of them yet.

When Milton Keynes Tesco had a store designed with plenty of space to get around, for a change, I thought “what a clever company”.

We used to spend loads in there, but I haven’t been allowed for a while until I snuck in today for some juice. My wife fell out with them ages ago and, as ever, she knew better than I did.

I was aghast.

Now, I’ve read The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, and I understand a little of the economics, it must be tough for capitalist retail companies. But:

Who decided it would be a good idea to block up the aisles with extra pallets at the end of every row. Who exacerbated the problem with roadblocks of special offers in the middle of the aisles.

Presumably management weren’t watching people coming out of the store today with a healthy dose of roadrage.

Tesco are a rich company, and I’m guessing whoever they paid to design the store was aware of the best in retail science, and had brains. If there was room for more pallets wouldn’t the shelves have been made longer?

They put their profits above their customer’s comforts and convenience - in broad daylight.

Incidentally, it seemed to me that the grumpy customers must infected the staff, who used to smile….not this morning they didn’t.

I make no apology for linking to Lou Carbone again. Great audio.

So if you’re tempted to naval gaze, cut costs remember that happy customers are not so price sensitive, and they come back. Perhaps you can get on with finding your growth targets elsewhere instead.

I can’t believe so many companies are messing up lately. Perhaps after each birthday you just notice more

Could society could be stupid enough to label completely different disciplines with the same moniker?

I used to wonder.

Communications meant both “telephone technology” and a “job title within some PR function”

Back in the day though, telephones seemed completely different to the ‘other sort’ of communications, which seemed to be about getting your message published in a newspaper.

Well, doesn’t this single word make more sense this year? (Happy 2008)

Today, you can draw a theoretical line between real time voice communications, through other one to one technologies, to messaging, and on to other asynchronous group based communications like blogs, wikis and social software.

So my theme is that;

• Marketing is talking - originally to a very wide audience, but now steadily being segmented (segmented, segmented) into smaller and smaller targeted audiences.
• Real time communications is talking - originally one to one, but now steadily being increased from one to one conversation into larger and larger targeted audiences.
• Communications has finally lived up to it’s original promise.
• Cisco bought a Web Conference company last year. That tells you the same thing - communications is communications, and wherever the technology falls between the two endpoints, it is all interelated.

So: communications were unified enough already. Therefore, doesn’t the phrase ’Unified Communications’ lack definition, ambition and a sense of purpose?

Get a telephone, and surround it with lots of other technology like IM, everyone seems to say. Perhaps the better approach is to define a business process, and then telephone enable if needs be.

Voice is used to persuade, to seal the deal. But the fact is, written communications are just as useful as voice communications and sometimes a great deal more.

I suppose I could have just rung you all to tell you, but this seemed like a better way.

PBX based companies had better think this through.

I saw a fair few spelling mistakes today, and it reminded me of the link below.

Perhaps your punctuation is slightly off, and perhaps all it takes is a little reflection and modification.

A dash in time saves nine maybe?

http://www.upassdriving.com

Is this post just mean, or is it a salutory lesson for all of us bloggers/publishers?

Wasn’t it Seth Godin that told us to be remarkable in our marketing? See a link to Seth’s video on my Great Conversations Page.

A very worthwhile watch indeed at 17 mins. I just watched it again.

It’s too grand a title, and too big a conversation. But things ARE changing on the Interweb.

Blogging, multimedia presentation, Google Adwords, RSS - this is the web marketing future. This company called Pepperjam does several things that most other companies don’t find natural.

They walk the talk.

The founders video on the front page tell you so much more than just the content - its the passion, the attitude and its the dogs doo-dahs.

Yes it’s a little in your face, and Brits might find this a little unsettling but even they’ll (we’ll) get the hang of it sooner or later.

 The web isn’t new, but Pence Per Click Management is.

PepperJam’s growth rate of over 450% last year, and 550% this year shows that.

But I’m betting this growth isn’t just the service they give their clients, but that they live their dream in public.