|
|||||||
| If you'd like to get an update when we post new content, please click here to subscribe via RSS or to subscribe by e-mail. |
Bunch of interesting stuff in the latest issue of the British publication Ethical Corporation, all available online. Among the goodies: A rather jaundiced view of Apple’s treatment of its customers and the Steve Jobs mystique–also referred to as the “reality distortion field” A look at diamond mining giant DeBeers and its partnership with Botswana. This [...]
Tags:
As found in John Kremer’s newsletter from earlier this summer. This is in very close alignment with the principles I discuss at length in Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First. All of it rings true, and I particularly like the truth and humor in #6 and #10. Excerpted from Andy Sernovitz’s Word of Mouth [...]
Tags:
Wow, they’re fast! Points for customer service, for sure. Less than an hour after I posted my query. But the response was ambiguous, if polite: Thanks for your message. We appreciate your thoughtful insight into our Terms & Conditions and will take your comments into consideration. Apologies if your reservations prevents you from becoming a [...]
Tags:
It’s not an honor to “win” this award. In my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, I discuss the idea that a company brand is not the slogan, the logo, the corporate colors…but the customer’s experience and perceptions. While the above details may help shape those perceptions, they pale in comparison [...]
Tags:
While I’ve been blogging since 2005, at http://www.principledprofit.com/good-business-blog/ , I’ve been publishing the first two of my monthly e-newsletters all the way back to 1997 (I added another one in 2003, and had planned to launch a fourth son). At the time I started my zines, I had one website, spam was almost a non-issue, [...]
Tags:
You’ve got to wonder about marketers who send those horrible emails where everything is in 8-point type all jammed on the left side of the page and completely unreadable.
Tags:
I grant Mr. Bono the same right to follow his conscience that I claim for myself, even though we choose to exercise it for opposite philosophies.
Tags:
So what’s the problem? This company spent some substantial chunk of money to bring me to the site, actually overcame my substantial sales resistance–and what happened when I got there?
Tags:
Yesterday, I went to the store and bought a new Internet router. and then I tried to set it up.
It said on the software CD that if you run a non-Windows computer (I use a Mac), double-click on a certain file. The file opened in my Internet (but from the CD). However, I tried three different browsers. All I got was a blank colored panel in Firefox, a complete blank in Internet Explorer, and a small question mark in the middle of my Safari page.
So off I went to the website to see if I could download the driver. I identified the product I’d bought and hunted unsuccessfully for the Mac driver. I did find a note that the Mac operating system is in fact supported, so that’s good.
Since I couldn’t find it, I tried to contact support. the contact page had no phone number or e-address, only a webform. So I filled in all my requested information, laboriously typed in the serial number, and tried to register–and got told to enter a valid serial number.
Worse, the page had reverted to blank; I was able to retrieve my filled out form only by hitting the Back button several times. Otherwise, I would have had to select the product and add all the data again.
My number had characters that could have been either zero or the letter O, so I tried switching one of the Os to a zero. No dice.
Guess what product I’ll be returning on my next trip to town. And guess what company has been permanently crossed off my vendor list (OK, so I’m not naming them here.)
Keep in mind, this was a completed sale. They had my money. All they had to do was make themselves available to give me a two minute explanation of how to set up the product and they’d have had a very happy customer. Instead, they’re toast in my mind.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: user experience counts far more toward the customer’s perception of the brand than all the logos, ads, and slogans in the world.
Tags:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Name: Shel Horowitz
Location: Hadley, Massachusetts, United States |
A blog about business ethics from Shel Horowitz, expert on Green principles and business ethics as success drivers. This blog covers the intersections of ethics, politics, media, marketing, and sustainability.
About Shel: Copywriter, marketing and publishing consultant, speaker, and award-winning author of seven books. The three most recent are Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers, and Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy world.
Shel specializes in affordable, ethical, and effective marketing for authors, publishers, small businesses, nonprofits, and community groups.
He's currently engaged in a campaign to get 25,000 people to sign--and spread--the Business Ethics Pledge: www.business-ethics-pledge.org
Robert Ringer: Know How Your Emotions Affect Others’ Perception of You
July 16th, 2006 · Comments Off · Customer Service as Marketing, General Commentary, Uncategorized
Oh yes, and if you’re the kind of person who gets so caught up in, say, a major sports event that you start throwing things at your TV, he tells you to get a life. (He’d probably say the same about my addiction to politics.)
[Read more →]
Tags: