Author: Vince Kimball

Tinderbox 2.0

Tinderbox 2.0. The major new Tinderbox release is out at last. Tinderbox 2 is even faster than before, has lots of new features for better export and smarter agents, and talks to lots of weblog tools. [Mark Bernstein]

Customer Service and K-Logs.  What customer activities have shifted to the Web (based on a Forrester study on the sales of complex goods):
  1. Researching product information (90%)
  2. Comparing product features and prices (58%)
  3. Contacting customer service (56%)
  4. Locating a store or distributor (42%)
  5. Checking product availability (36%)

Which of these activities could be enhanced by corporate use of weblogging?

  1. A weblog, built and maintained by a product manager, could provide customers with an active resource on the products they are deciding to buy. 
  2. This could be accomplished by building a spreadsheet comparing (feature by feature) several different products, and publishing to a weblog as an additional page accessed by the navigation system.  Additional comparison info could be presented in a weblog format for easy consumption.
  3. Contacting customer service on most sites is painful.  Additionally, the FAQs and resource databases seem put together by monkeys (albeit highly paid ones).  A simple way to generate an extremely valuable and organic customer service data is to have each rep publish a weblog.  The question, including keywords, is the title of the post.  The answer is the response. 
  4. Not really applicable, but for many companies the local outlet doesn't have an effective Web presence (not even for coupons, specials, etc.).  A simple weblog with a corporate template would suffice.
  5. New poducts should be hyped via a weblog.  Features, improvements, etc would all factor into the weblog's posts.  A simple countdown clock would track the days or hours to availability.
[John Robb's Weblog

Customer Service and K-Logs.  What customer activities have shifted to the Web (based on a Forrester study on the sales of complex goods): Researching product information (90%) Comparing product features and prices (58%) Contacting customer service (56%) Locating a store or distributor (42%) Checking product availability (36%) Which of these activities could be enhanced by corporate… Continue reading Customer Service and K-Logs.  What customer activities have shifted to the Web (based on a Forrester study on the sales of complex goods):

  1. Researching product information (90%)
  2. Comparing product features and prices (58%)
  3. Contacting customer service (56%)
  4. Locating a store or distributor (42%)
  5. Checking product availability (36%)

Which of these activities could be enhanced by corporate use of weblogging?

  1. A weblog, built and maintained by a product manager, could provide customers with an active resource on the products they are deciding to buy. 
  2. This could be accomplished by building a spreadsheet comparing (feature by feature) several different products, and publishing to a weblog as an additional page accessed by the navigation system.  Additional comparison info could be presented in a weblog format for easy consumption.
  3. Contacting customer service on most sites is painful.  Additionally, the FAQs and resource databases seem put together by monkeys (albeit highly paid ones).  A simple way to generate an extremely valuable and organic customer service data is to have each rep publish a weblog.  The question, including keywords, is the title of the post.  The answer is the response. 
  4. Not really applicable, but for many companies the local outlet doesn't have an effective Web presence (not even for coupons, specials, etc.).  A simple weblog with a corporate template would suffice.
  5. New poducts should be hyped via a weblog.  Features, improvements, etc would all factor into the weblog's posts.  A simple countdown clock would track the days or hours to availability.

[John Robb's Weblog

K-Log Productivity

K-Log Productivity Measurement:  Time to find and availability. [John Robb's Weblog]

Business Week

Business Week:  Verizon's big bet.  Fiber to the home. NICE!  Amazing, it looks like it is finally on its way.  With fiber connections in place, the technological advances in optical technology that are rapidly reducing price/performance ratios of bandwidth at the core of the Internet, will be extended to individual users (starting with connections at 10… Continue reading Business Week

KMWorld magazine

From KMWorld magazine:  How to measure the bottom line performance of KM systems. Trotta provides some examples of how those seemingly “soft” benefits (of KM systems) can be linked to the bottom line.  Employee satisfaction can mean less turnover, which in turn reduces the costs involved in recruiting and training new employees.  Improved workflow can mean… Continue reading KMWorld magazine

Typepad, Promising New Blog Platform To Debut

Typepad, Promising New Blog Platform To Debut. Good news: The people who developed Movable Type are releasing TypePad, a hosted blogging service with sophisticated features on Monday, August 4. There will be three service levels, priced at $5, $9 and $15 a month. One of the developers, Anil Dash provided some insight into the difference… Continue reading Typepad, Promising New Blog Platform To Debut

Close One Door, Open Another

Close One Door, Open Another. Today is my last day at AOL Time Warner.  In the end, my interests weren't compatible with the positions available in the post-Netscape environment, so I decided to leave. I won't have any free time, though: I'm proud to announce that I'm firing up my own consulting business!…. [meyerweb.com]

Outside the box

Outside the box. Groove CRM? While snooping around for my first post, I came across this news. Groove Networks has launched a Virtual Sales Office system, which combines its Workspace collaboration toolset with sales training content from SalesConference.Net. While not likely to topple the CRM gods, Groove's offering may be a just the right mixture… Continue reading Outside the box