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I like to ride bikes (again and again)

Posted by: fredzimny on: 2009/08/23

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Looking at the remarkable artefacts of Alexey Amelyushkin

Posted by: fredzimny on: 2009/11/11

Found at http://artsponge.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/alexey-amelyushkin

Alexey’s photography kind of floats between nice portraiture and postcard-style photos. You can tell he’s experimenting with different styles, and it shows diversity in his work.

See and read more at http://artsponge.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/alexey-amelyushkin

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The Art of Community Now Available For Free Download | (free book)

Posted by: fredzimny on: 2009/11/11

Found at http://www.artofcommunityonline.org/2009/09/18/the-art-of-community-now-available-for-free-download

When I started work on The Art of Community I was really keen that it should be a body of work that all communities have access to. My passion behind the book was to provide a solid guide to building, energizing and enabling pro-active, productive and enjoyable communities. I wanted to write a book that covered the major areas of community leadership, distilling a set of best practices and experiences, and illustrated by countless stories, anecdotes and tales.

But to give this book real value, I was keen to ensure the book could be freely accessed and shared. I wanted to not only break down the financial barrier to the information, but also enable communities to share it to have the content be as useful as possible in the scenarios, opportunities and problems that face them. To make this happen O’Reilly needed to be on board to allow the book to be freely copied and shared, in an era in which these very freedoms threaten the publishing world.

But they came through. Thanks to the incredible support of Andy Oram, my founding editor for the book, O’Reilly were hugely supportive of the project and our desire to break down these barriers.

Today I am pleased to announce the general availability of The Art Of Community under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license.

With this license that the book is under you have the following freedoms with the entire content:

  • to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to Remix — to adapt the work

…with a few requirements:

  • Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
  • Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
  • Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

While the book is ready to download right now, the book is available to buy in print, on Kindle, and other electronic book formats and I would like to encourage you to buy a printed copy of the book for a few reasons:

  • Firstly, buying a copy sends a tremendous message to O’Reilly that they should continue to publish books (a) about community and (b) under a Creative Commons license.
  • Secondly, it will encourage O’Reilly to invest in a second edition of the book down the line, which will in turn mean that communities around the world will have a refreshed and updated edition that is available to them.
  • Thirdly, aside from the voting-with-your-feet side of things, it is just a really nice book to own in print. It is really well made, looks stunning and feels great to curl up with in a coffee shop or on the couch.

The book is available to buy on all the major Amazon sites:

Even if you don’t buy it, I would be hugely grateful that if you like it, please go and review it on Amazon. This is a hugely contribution. Thanks!

You can download the The Art of Community here.


http://www.artofcommunityonline.org/2009/09/18/the-art-of-community-now-available-for-free-download

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Learning How my Contact Center Stacks Up, So our Business Can Stand Out

Posted by: fredzimny on: 2009/11/10

In my preparation for my presentation at the Amsterdam Sheraton about how COPC assisted us in a post merger implementation phase, this post did struck me again!

Found at http://www.customerthink.com/article/learn_how_your_contact_center_stacks_up

By Alton Martin, COPC Inc.

In the height of such economic uncertainty, competing for customer attention has become a top priority for a majority of companies, and gaining that competitive edge can make all the difference. Now more than ever is the time to ensure your company knows where it stands amongst competitors in the battle for customer satisfaction.

Although benchmarking can lead to a wealth of information, it can also lead to a wealth of inaccurate, useless data, causing you to lose customers in the long run.

Benchmarking is the process of continuously improving performance and innovation by systematically researching and adopting best practices, both internal and external to your organization. Benchmarking is the most reliable process to gain a full understanding of how your organization measures up against others in the industry. Not only can it help your organization stand out from the competition, it is a critical tool when measuring performance and improving ROI, while simultaneously keeping customers satisfied.

Benchmarking can be applied in a number of ways within contact centers, from setting operational performance goals to strategically setting annual planning and budgeting requirements, such as investment funding requests. Although benchmarking can lead to a wealth of information, it can also lead to a wealth of inaccurate, useless data, causing you to lose customers in the long run. Benchmarking results are only as good as the information at hand. And if the information is inaccurate, then the results are useless.

All too often I see organizations fall into a series of common pitfalls when it comes to benchmarking data.

  1. A lack of incorporated standard data definitions. What is or is not included in the calculation can completely change the score.
  2. Contact center metrics have multiple dimensions that need to be captured to ensure accuracy. If not, these data caveats will result in inaccurate data.
  3. If you know the source of your data, make it a goal to capture it in raw form, which will help avoid any bias.
  4. Metrics can be highly correlated. Consequently, it is important to look at all of the data to understand the underlying cause and affect relationships.

Customer service issues

Our organization recently worked with a major telecommunications company who did not have an accurate way of measuring customer satisfaction scores and call resolution results. Through industry measures they knew they were dead last in Customer Service ratings administered by third parties (i.e., JD Power). Unfortunately, their internal measures shared little correlation to the reporting of third parties.

Correctly, they intuitively knew this was causing a flight of unsatisfied customers to other competitors. This organization initially turned to us for help improving their customer satisfaction collection methodologies, but after just a few months we were empowered to conduct a full benchmark review to help them streamline and improve overall customer service.

The company was not using a consistent process for measurement, so there was no basic metric to record progress; therefore they were unable to work toward the goals they had set for themselves. In reality, there were producing unsatisfactory customer experiences and losing money in the process. When it comes to benchmarking, comparing processes is just as important, if not more, than the actual numbers.

When it comes to benchmarking, comparing processes is just as important, if not more, than the actual numbers.

After a comprehensive assessment, we were able to narrow the problems down to inconsistent customer experiences and weak goals, which resulted from lack of alignment in metric definitions. For example:

  • There was no agreement upon the process and customer experience during the “greeting phase” of the call.
  • There were no agreements on what constituted the proper time to transfer, under what circumstances and what an acceptable percentage of transferred calls was.
  • There was no agreement site to site and manager to manager on when to coach an agent and what to coach them on.
  • There was no process to use analysis to identify an issue as systemic allowing for escalation to the people that could change a bad process.
  • Customers called back multiple times out of frustration initially to get an answer to their problem. Eventually, customers learned they could “shop” for a better answer or adjustment.
  • When examining the actual agents, there was an extremely inconsistent standard hiring new agents. Minimal skill requirements varied from too hard, too loose or not as specific as they needed. This resulted in inconsistency in agent capabilities which only large amounts of “remedial training” could have overcome.

This did not mean that some good practices were not in place. The problem was that managers could do whatever they wished.

Benchmarking drives improvements

Once we implemented and measured their performance against standard metrics and compared procedures, they were able to ensure each contact center was compliant with the outlined improvement processes, including the ability to analyze and improve quality and customer satisfaction results. In addition, we significantly improved workforce management models, including forecasting, staffing and scheduling.

As a result of this effective benchmarking process, they experienced dramatic improvements not only in performance, but in a variety of areas:

  • Improved competitive position. Referencing third party surveys, within six months they have closed the gap to the next competitor by 50 percent and to the top performer by 45 percent.
  • Return on Investment on one key performance indicator was $66 million (Issue Resolution).
  • Operational gaps between conflicting requirements were exposed and eliminated.
  • Issue Resolution within 12 months reduced call volume by 13.2 percentage points, which allowed the company to reduce the number of call center agents.
  • Top box improvement of 16.5 percentage points in one year—28% improvement.
  • Bottom box reduction of 10 percentage points in one year.
  • Increased Issue Resolution from 66 percent to nearly 80 percent in one year.

Leading Telecommunications CompanyLeading Telecommunications Company

Many vendors and consultants offer benchmarking services, but in order to gain the maximum benefit, you must be smart and take a look at the basic elements. Ensure the data you are measuring is accurate and can be applied to your unique goals. When done right, benchmarking is a highly valued tool for measuring performance, and more importantly, allowing your business to satisfy its customers and grow.

See more at http://www.customerthink.com/article/learn_how_your_contact_center_stacks_up

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Looking at the artefacts of Mary Sialewandowska

Posted by: fredzimny on: 2009/11/10

Found at http://www.marysialewandowska.com/?p=338

museum futures_still

See more at http://www.marysialewandowska.com/?p=338

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Another customer manifesto: Chris Brogan video review of BAM-Customer service (book review)

Posted by: fredzimny on: 2009/11/10

I work in customer service. Lots of people -  as stated by Chris – are passionate about social media have some customer service in their background.

That’s why he really got into Barry Moltz’s and Mary Jane Grinstead’s book BAM!: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World (amazon affiliate link).

It’s a very readable book, broken into very useful chunks, with a recurring theme of “bust-a-myth,” ergo the BAM!  Chris highly recommends this book if you’ve got something to do with customer service.

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Supporting Graham Hill’s Manifesto for Social Business

Posted by: fredzimny on: 2009/11/10

Found at http://www.customerthink.com/blog/a_manifesto_for_social_business

Nov. 10, 2009
By Graham Hill, Customers & MoreThe nature of business is inexorably changing. The changes are being driven by a number of factors: ranging from the need to compete differently after the recession, through the availability of huge volumes of new information, to the rapidly growing influence of social customers.

I would almost go as far to say that we are fast approaching a period of ‘Business Enlightenment’, based not so much on the linear thinking that drove the Enlightenment in the 18th Century, as on networked, emergent thinking which is driving so much new thinking in the 21st.

Many different themes are coming together and new business models are emerging from where they meet and mutually reinforce each other. Together, they have the potential to change many aspects of what we call business today. They have the potential to create a new kind of Social Business, driven not so much for social purposes as by social relationships. Many companies are already experimenting with these themes, some companies with a number of them. Although no companies are experimenting with all of them yet, it is only a matter of time.

Here are the fifteen themes (the Manifesto) driving Social Business:

  • No1. From Individual Customers… to Networks of CustomersThe emphasis for business today is still on managing customers as individuals. But we have evolved as social animals with highly developed and highly influential social networks. For example, research by Christakis & Fowler suggests that we are highly influenced by three degrees of influence – friends, friends’ friends and friends’ friends’ friends. It’s not about ‘influencers’ per se, but the social networks in which influence happens. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must recognise the power of customers’ social networks to shape customers’ behaviour.
  • No2. From Customer Needs, Wants & Expectations… to Customer Jobs-to-be-DoneFor years we have struggled with the psychobabble generated by trying to understand customers needs, wants and expectations. Customers know what they are trying to do but codifying this has baffled market researchers and cost companies millions in failed new products. Recently, Tony Ulwick has shown how looking at the jobs customers are trying to do and the outcomes they are trying to achieve, can cut through the psychobabble and provide a foundation for innovation. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must start to understand the jobs customers are trying to do and how we can help them do the jobs better.
  • No3. From Company Value-in-Exchange… to Customer Value-in-UseThe dominant model in business today is based on value-in-exchange. The company sells products in exchange for the customer’s money. There is obviously value in exchange for the company, but not much value for the customer. Customers only create value when they use the products in the days, months or even years of the product’s lifecycle. Think of buying a new car. Customers create value over many years of happy motoring. But the carmakers pretty much abandon the customer (to their dealers) immediately after the sale. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must understand how customers use products to get jobs done throughout the lifecycle of the product.
  • No4. From Delivering Value… to Customers to Co-Creating Value with CustomersIn the value-in-exchange model, companies embed value in their products and then try and find willing buyers. Value is delivered at the point of sale. But as we have seen, value for customers is co-created when customers use the products to help them do jobs more effectively. The product is a means for the customer to co-create value. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must understand how customers use products to help them do jobs and to embed the collected knowledge, skills and experience in the products themselves so that customers can co-create more value-in-use.
  • No5. From Marketing, Sales & Service Touchpoints… to the End-to-End Customer ExperienceTraditional CRM is based largely on the marketing, sales and service touchpoints. But customers see many more touchpoints, in particular, they see the many touchpoints as they use products to help them do jobs. CEM has extended CRM to include all the touchpoints in the end-to-end customer experience. But far too much CEM is about the company’s brands rather than about customers. It is a step in the right direction but it doesn’t go far enough. It isn’t about how customer co-create value. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must understand all the touchpoints important to customers and how we can help customers co-create more value during the touchpoints.
  • No6. From One-Size-Fits-All Products… to a Long-Tail of Mass-Customised SolutionsMost companies still make a limited range of products and then try and find willing buyers. Many companies have gone beyond this simple model by bundling a range of complementary products, information and services. But as anyone looking for a new mobile telecom plan knows, the bundles never give you exactly what you want without bankrupting you in the process. Some companies, like Turkey’s Garanti have started to offer customers modular products they can mass-customise for themselves. Their Flexi credit card offers 9,000 different variations through only 19 easy to customise options. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must modularise products and provide simple configuration tools to allow customers to create just the right solution at the touch of a button.
  • No7. From Competing on Products, Price or Service… to Competing over Multi-sided PlatformsThe Delta Model tells us that companies should compete based on innovative new products, keener pricing or superior service. This approach has served companies well in the past 20 years. But new advances in business models, in particular, the growth of multi-sided markets like credit cards, internet retailing and more recently, the Apple iPhone application store has changed whole industries. Multi-sided markets allow thousands of sellers to trade with millions of buyers who normally would never meet each other. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must provide multi-sided platforms over which customers can trade with our companies and a whole ecosystem of partners.
  • No8. From Company Push… to Sensing and Responding in Real-Time to CustomersAs we have seen, most companies still operate using a push model. Products are made and then marketed and sold to willing buyers. That works fine when most customers want what your company has to offer. Or if there isn’t any real competition. But today’s customers are no longer willing to accept products that don’t exactly match their needs. Companies like Capital One and Tesco have used the power of customer analytics to offer the right products to thousands of dynamic customer micro-segments. Capital One reputedly carries out over 50,000 such marketing experiments every year. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must learn to sense and respond to the changes in behaviour of small groups of customers in almost real-time.
  • No9. From Technology, Processes & Culture… to Complementary Capabilities and Micro-FoundationsMost companies recognise that it is no good just installing new technology and expecting things to get better. As we used to say in PwC’s Change Practice, Old Organisation + New Technology = Expensive Old Organisation. Today, companies look to a basket of technologies, processes and people to plan business improvements. But this isn’t enough. We need to look deep into the nuts and bolts of our companies to understand the complementary capabilities and micro-foundations that drive success. And in today’s networked environment, that may mean understanding partners and even customers’ capabilities too. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must really understand what drives success in our companies and our network of partners, not just use simplistic improvement models and hope for the best.
  • No10. From Made by Companies for Customers… to Made By Customers for Each OtherCompanies exist as they are more efficient at providing what customers need than either markets or other customers; they have lower transaction costs. But the Internet is slowly chipping away at these transaction costs and is enabling new ways of transacting. Customers can now transact directly with other customers, often at a lower cost than going through a traditional company. As the success of peer-to-peer bank Zopa shows, customers can now do business with each other directly, cutting out the expensive middleman. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must ensure that our companies are not in danger of being cut-out of the equation as customers start to deal directly with each other. Or to adopt, e.g. a multi-sided platform business model if we are.
  • No11. From On-premise Applications… to On-demand Solutions from the CloudAs companies recognise that yesterday’s complicated approach to business won’t work in tomorrow’s complex environment, they must adapt or die. Part of the adaptation is moving away from suites of all-singing, all-dancing on-premise applications to solution clouds of integrated on-demand applications. Although this is still very much work in progress, it should be clear that only on-demand solutions through the cloud will give companies the flexibility they need to cope with emerging changes to the business environment. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must have access to use just enough on-demand applications delivered through the cloud to respond to changing market conditions.
  • No12. From Stand-alone Companies… to an Ecosystem of Networked PartnersMost companies still only work with a limited number of partners. But these times are changing. As customers increasingly demand complete solutions to help them do their jobs, companies are forced to work together with a network of partners to provide exactly what customers need. For example, Procter & Gamble’s Connect & Develop programme allows it to partner with thousands of potential partners to deliver better solutions for customers. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must identify the partners we need to deliver better solutions for customers and learn how to partner with them for mutual advantage.
  • No13. From Hierarchical Command & Control… to Collaborative Hybrid OrganisationsWhen companies are organised to minimise transaction costs, it usually leads to a hierarchical, command & control approach to organisation. This is fine if companies want to operate as efficiently as possible in an unchanging environment. But if the environment is continuously changing, companies cannot sense and respond quickly enough if they are organised in this way. To make sense of changing environments, companies need a flexible, network-based organisation that can work together with customers to identify and respond in real-time to their needs. The answer to these apparently conflicting ways of organising is to create hybrid organisations that combine the best of both worlds. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must create collaborative hybrid organisations that combines the efficiency of command & control with the flexibility of networks.
  • No14. From Customer Strategy… to a Portfolio of Emergent Customer OptionsIn an unchanging world companies should formulate customer strategies that allow them to make the best of their limited resources. But in the continuously changing world we find ourselves in today, that just creates problems as plans quickly become out of date. As McKinsey’s Eric Beinhocker points out in his book The Origin of Wealth that means creating a portfolio of customer options with which to respond to customers’ emerging behaviour. And as we have seen, today’s social customers are highly influenced by what their friends do. Their behaviour is highly emergent. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must create a portfolio of customer options with which to respond to changes in customer behaviour.
  • No15. From Customer Lifetime Value… to Customer Network Value – Customer lifetime value is based on the customer as a purchasing island. But as we have seen already, the customer is highly influenced by friends, friends’ friends and friends’ friends’ friends, and in return, influences then back. This led to the development of Customer Referral Value as a way to measure these influence networks. But that isn’t enough. As I pointed out in an earlier blog post on Take Three Bites at the Customer Value Cherry customer networks by dint of their ability to attract other customers and sellers has a value over and above the customers’ referral value. If we are to be successful in Social Business we must understand how customers, their referrals and the customer network as a whole creates value for companies.

The fifteen trends driving social business are not meant to be the final word on the subject. Rather, they are meant to provide a framework to start to think about social business in a structured way and at the same time, a catalyst to stimulate everyone else’s own thinking on Social Business.

Social Business is too important to leave to individuals or individual companies to decide. It is SOCIAL Business after all. That means everyone with an original thought should feel free to add to the many conversations now spring-up on Twitter, Googlewave and elsewhere.

As Alan Kay famously said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”. Let’s get inventing.

Read more at http://www.customerthink.com/blog/a_manifesto_for_social_business

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Intrigued by Graham Hill’s Tweet manifesto: 15 New Trends driving social business

Posted by: fredzimny on: 2009/11/10

15 New Trends Driving Social Business

View more presentations from Wim Rampen.
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