Monthly Archives: February 2007

CRM 2.0 – Debunking the Debunkers

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I DON’T BOTHER re-visiting my older posts (from way back when I was interested in politics); there are more interesting things to do. Today, though, I have to face myself – myself from March 24, 2006 when I wrote:

I find the vapor sold by old-school marketers as troublesome as the next guy; that said, is “push” dead? No, no, emphatically no: it will be around for as long as the average IQ doesn’t reach room temperature. [...] The “conversation-style marketing” so passionately propagated by the Cluetrain folks thus applies to the crème-de-la-creme only; if your client base consists of top earners, perhaps you can fire those marketing suits and start doing business differently. If, on the other hand, you are selling $5 shoes, you’ll probably want to stick with pushing the crap up the clueless users’ throats.

I’ve warmed up to Cluetrain since then, yet there’s still this tiny nagging voice in the background whispering, bullshit! Party for this reason, partly because Google hasn’t forgotten my older opinions, I’ve decided to stop dancing around. I gave two presentations on this topic in the past two weeks, and I realized I am far from ready to confront all the objections people raise.

So: what makes the claims of CRM 2.0 sound true (or not)? Are there any inherent flaws to its logic? Today, I’ll analyze a claim that we live in a “customer ecosystem“; the customer is tired of corporate b.s., demands authenticity and experiences (Paul Greenberg); that we are no longer being “managed” by corporations, instead, do most of the managing. Continue reading →

Today’s Reading List

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A random stroll in my blogroll:

Berkun blog » Do headlines make us dumber? – Scott Berkun refuting a not-so-silly “mis-represented research that is modern journalism” – a MSNBC article on groupthink and whether groups can come up with “alternative solutions to a problem; I agree that to make such a generalization is silly, but it’s been my experience that meetings, unless conducted with excellence, tend to be a waste of everybody’s time. Creativity is an individual gift, after all.

First Coffee » CRM at Starbucks: Retaining the Right Customers – an excellent analysis of the dilemmas Starbucks is facing after having gained a global presence, written by David Sims. He writes, “[t]he trick is to (re-)establish a premium Starbucks,” a Starbucks-within-Starbucks, where “walk past that line, in the back of the store there’s the La Marzocca espresso machine and a barista who knows what she’s doing. She pulls your espresso shots by hand, she grinds the beans fresh for every cup, all she does is coffees and espressos — but they’re done right.” Sounds tempting, though I am afraid Starbucks have gone too mainstream for that kind of daring move. Think of a premium burger counter at McDonalds … mmm I can smell the tasty Friday’s-level cheeseburger! … then I wake up and realize it’s never gonna happen. Too bad!

Presently unimpressed

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HERE’S A SCOOP on Google’s upcoming addition to their Apps portfolio:

I’m sure many people wondered if Google will release a presentation tool, after building Google Docs&Spreadsheets. Well, the answer is yes, and the code-name of the tool is Presently (a play on Writely, the name of the online word processor bought by Google).

I am not surprised – Google has the ball rolling pretty well – and at the same time, I feel conflicted as to what to think. Technological marvel? It may as well be. But is it a step in the right direction? Office apps have matured to such a degree than any effort to start over would be gargantuous. Aren’t there other goals worth pursuing than re-doing what already works? I would hope so!

(via Pivotal Public Speaking)

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RE: rules of creativity

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I LOVE the “how to be creative” essay written by Hugh McLeod over 2 years ago. One point I am not so sure is his #2: “The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to change the world.” Changing the world is a tempting proposition; in business and arts alike, though, you are more likely to make it if you aren’t afraid to use imitation. Also-rans have an undeservedly bad name!

And it’s not just about Microsoft for you Apple folks out there. Look: thoughout the history of classical music (now a stinky corpse), artists have followed up on one another so nicely you could almost connect the ending notes of A’s symphony to the opening theme of B’s. And that was long before mass-media and the internet! Early in the 20th century, composers wiped the slate clean and started anew; each developing his own syntax, semantics, and vocabulary. Without going into further detail, I am going to assert this was the primary reason why classical music became “classical” – ie, dead.

We are like charcoals, says our pastor, burning intensely when together and going cold when scattered. This is true for artists and entrepreneurs as it is for Christians. It’s the relationship economy, okay? No one flourishes in the void (does GapingVoid?)

Going back to our theme, I am not disputing the whole text or even the whole point #2; I am contemplating this bit:

Your idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours alone. The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing.

How many ideas can I claim to have originated? Sadly, not many. Maybe not even a couple. I cannot separate things I have said with those I have heard, and though I may re-mix and re-phrase to sound original, in the end I will have to give full credit to everyone I’ve talked to and had coffee with. So my interpretation of #2 is: own your ideas – and be humble. Somewhere, somebody is thinking the same thing. Which is why agree enthusiastically with #3: put the hours in. A company as well as a symphony is more a product of hard work than a brilliant idea that just happened to materialize.

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Getting to CRM 2.0

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AS THIS BLOG’S TITLE HINTS, I am busying myself trying to figure out what’s next for CRM. Before going any further, let me clarify the context: we’re talking business. Technology facilitates automation and interaction, but what if Al Gore were right and we’ll have to switch off electricity for 12 hours a day so that we save the planet? We would still need CRM!

My beef with CRM 1.0 is that it’s a small ‘c’ customer, small ‘r’ relationship, and a BIG M ‘management’. It’s based on the same fallacy that’s behind the atrocious term “Human Resources”. As if people were predictable, interchangeable machines with a finite set of qualities and operations that could be performed on them. CRM 1.0 was regretfully one-way; it put too much emphasis on process and too little on people.

With the advent of the social web, customers have started to talk back to businesses, letting them know they won’t be managed anymore. Hence the need for a CRM upgrade – a largely philosophical one. Continue reading →

The dilemma of choices

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I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU but whenever I come to a restaurant for the first time, I dread the moment I’ll be presented the menu. Unless it’s a single sheet of paper with five items per category, I find myself unable to resist the temptation to make a perfect choice; 10 minutes and several apologies to the waitress later, I ask for the house special.

For me, the perfect restaurant would have no menu at all. I would ask for “something good”, and the staff would know right away what I mean.

Telepathy hasn’t gone mainstream yet, though, so I am forced to make choices. Whether it’s picking the right suit for the occasion, figuring out which hotel in the area is best, or going through the avalanche of Open Office menus to get to the functionality I need. And the discussion about how many choices are practical is going on in the software and restaurant industry without ever arriving at the right answer (though I am still waiting for a “Daily Menu” option in a desktop app – so perhaps the restaurant industry has a slight edge!)

Kathy Sierra elaborated on this topic. She asks, “But even when users do have the expertise to make good decisions, do they want to?” Obviously, it depends, and she acknowledges as much. It’s one of those questions that make little sense unless you limit the context. Mine is custom software development for a single enterprise client (hers is packaged software if I read it correctly).

The advantage of developing for a single client is that you get to know him pretty well. Hence, you can analyze his level of competence and adjust the application complexity accordingly. Does that eliminate the dilemma of choices? No, but answering it is a lot easier than when you’re developing for untold thousands of users you’ll never meet.

When Call Center Doesn’t Suck

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IT’S A CUSTOMER SERVICE BLOGATHON! Joel Spolsky produced “Seven steps to remarkable customer service”, a very CRM 2.0-ish view on these things: Make customers into fans, he says. Damn right! And, he says, don’t only solve the problem but make sure it never happens again.

Seth Godin is on to something, too, and writes that instead of trying to solve the customer’s problem right here, right now, companies could adopt an asynchronous method of fixing problems that would give them the time to do it right.

In my view, call centers are a nuisance and no matter how well they perform, they have a tough job turning irritated customer into fans. You call a helpline when you’ve got a problem, and if and when it’s resolved, you are relieved; does that make you happy? Spolsky says it might – when the company goes out of its way to serve your very special needs.

So, I am doubtful about the asynchronous approach as it doesn’t answer my first very special need: the reason I called, the problem I have. I do want to have at least a partial success when I finish the call. Being told to wait until tomorrow doesn’t even come close. Continue reading →

Today’s Reading List

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A random stroll in my blogroll:

10 Things Guaranteed to De-rail Your Selling Career (applicable to other careers as well)
http://www.crmmastery.com/weblog/2007/02/19.html#a726

Thank you Joel Johnson… (Adriana on failed promises of consumer devices)
http://mediainfluencer.co.uk/media_influencer/2007/02/thank_you_joel_.html

Traceability (Part I of III) (a comprehensive look at tracing requirements) by Accidental Business Analyst
http://accidentalbusinessanalyst.com/?p=35
Part II: http://accidentalbusinessanalyst.com/?p=37 (update 21.2)

8 tools for getting and keeping attention
http://simswyeth.com/Blog/?p=25

From “Beyond Bullets” To “Beyond Lame”

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“BORING”, how often you’d whisper 5 minutes into a presentation. To avoid a similar fate when it’s me who is on stage, I fished for advice and ended up buying Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points. Here are my first impressions.

On the plus side:

  • thinking of my presentation as a story is helping me with organizing my thoughts. Once the ideas are in place, I am free to concentrate on supporting arguments and anecdotes knowing where they fit in the overall scheme of things
  • Mr Atkinson’s main point – the slides have a supporting not leading role in a presentation – makes me think more about what and how I am going to say (instead of show), and that’s crucial since it’s me who has a stake in it, not the slides
  • having read the book, I am good to go; it’s a clear and instructive text that doesn’t require a follow-up training

That said, I take issue with the following:

  • headlines in the case study that Mr Atkinson uses throughout the book use visual metaphors I find cheesy and cliché-ridden. “The pharmaceutical industry today is navigating a sea of change,” reads the very first one. A matter of taste, I admit; maybe even a cultural thing. I, for one, would fear being laughed out of the boardroom if I used such a phrase. We Czechs are known for our penchant for sarcasm and irony.
  • the book advocates the use of Microsoft Office clip-art. We have seen too much of that; mostly as a random decoration that unwittingly pokes fun at the argument instead of supporting it. I guess you can use it once you really know what you are doing; otherwise, there’s a risk you’ll end up looking lame, bullets or not.
  • the book is tightly coupled with one tool (MS PowerPoint) and bases much of its “science” on a single piece of research (cognitive theory of multimedia learning by Richard E. Mayer, PhD.). If pressed, I would probably concede that OO Impress isn’t going to be a serious competitor for some time. Still, the book assumes previous experience with presenting (would you feel the need to move beyond bullets if you haven’t a clue?), thus I find the detailed PowerPoint instructions a bit superfluous. As for the research, isn’t there more? Surely there most be other arguments that would put the book in context; now, it’s more like an island.

Again, these are my first impressions that are likely to change when I actually try to practice the book’s approach. Despite my reservations I voiced above, it deserves a serious attention and is likely to breath life into your slides.

Taking Notes

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I DO LINUX. It reminds me of the days when computing was fun (~ 20 years ago). Linux is playful and conductive to experimenting.

If you feel a connection here, you may find BasKet Note Pads just as useful as I do. It’s a KDE application that lets you to take notes (gasp!), attach files, images, etc., all that without forcing you to follow a pre-determined metaphor – such as folders and files. Nope – you create a so-called ‘basket’, specify layout (free-form or columns), and off you go. Drop notes, files, photos in the basket, move it around, and tag it for easy categorization. [screenshots]

Why and when use this instead of a Web 2.0 application such as stikkit? Apart from functionality that no Web app can give you (such as taking a screenshot and dropping it into the basket), BasKet is most useful when you gather ideas, analyze them, put them in context … and before you are ready to share them. Your desktop is a natural place for that to happen.

What I would like to see in the versions to come is a way of sharing the information once you are ready to do so. Now, you can export your basket as an HTML page. How about exporting it to a wiki? That would make the transition between, say, creating a draft and perfecting it with you team, a smooth experience. And that’s the point: desktop apps don’t just have to cooperate with one another, they need to build bridges to the Web 2.0 world to stay relevant.