Customer Promise

I'm sure you've all read the news about the few bad apples at one leading consulting firm who have cost the jobs and pensions hundreds, if not thousands of people. Both the consulting firm
and its client have lost large numbers of customers, again, because of the actions of these few individuals.

To read some the press reports, we apparently should be surprised by the customer defections,

I spent part of last week in Atlanta on business and stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites Galleria. While the hotel was comfortable, my comments have more to do with customer communication than comfort.

Hampton is part of the Hilton family and guests who are HHonors members, gain points for their stay. I've been a HHonors member for several years, but I've never connected like I did with this Hampton.

My local phone company has a a true monopoly on communications services in the county. This company is the only provider of phone, DSL and cable service. It's a small, local company and apparently not subject to the same regulation as the big provider in the area, BellSouth.

Benchmark Portal and eGain reported in a recent study that 41% of large U.S. and Canadian Companies didn't respond to email messages indicating a high-value intent to purchase.

Amazing.

Benchmark Portal and eGain reported in a recent study that 41% of large U.S. and Canadian Companies didn't respond to email messages indicating a high-value intent to purchase.

Amazing.

Looks like someone's thinking about the customer experience at Verizon.

The New York Times reported today that Verizon will not release the names and numbers of their 40 million customers for use in the directory--even if a customer wants to participate.

I just caught an article in The Register about a promotion for the new Resident Evil game, Resident Evil: Outbreak which advertised by sending "unsolicited SMS text messages on their mobile phones telling them they are infected by the so-called T-Virus".

Now, there's a smart thing to do.

On the surface, it certainly seems like a cool idea. Yet, to those unsuspecting people who received the following message: 

Don Peppers wrote an article a few weeks ago entitled, Does RSS Spell Doom for Email Newsletters?, in which he touched on the pro's and cons of RSS and concluded, "The simple truth is that RSS technology has the potential to bypass inbox clutter, and companies want to be ready if it does."

At the bottom of the there was a link to Peppers & Rogers new RSS feed, so I clicked over to see the details.

With regard to the feed itself, the website indicated:

Every time I've gone into Blockbuster the last few months I've been hit up to participate in their monthly rental program as soon as I get to the register. Each time, and it's got to be 10 by now, I tell the clerk I'm not interested in the program. My patience with them on this issue is now almost transparent.

Over the weekend when I was asked the "Has anyone told you about our..." question it was followed by, "You've already rented 50 movies this year, including this one.

Last night, for the second time this week, I've heard from two different salesman from the local Ford dealership--both of whom I'll refer to as, "Bob".

These calls start off with a comment about a need for late model vans in the local market and Bob thought I'd be interested in trading since he could give a good trade in value, and there were some great rebates going on.

"I can tell by your service record you take care of your van," Bob said.

"What?," I asked, "Are you mining the service records for leads?"