Got a few really happy feet announcements to make here: The Enterprise Irregulars on a Regular Basis First, I was nominated a couple of days ago and accepted yesterday as a member of the Enterprise...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

This has little or nothing to do with CRM except that its HILARIOUS (which has little or nothing to do with CRM). Apparently, this is a REAL discussion - not Monty Python or anything like that....

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

Thought you might be interested. A couple of things that might be some value. First a quick look at CRM State of the Market in a webinar I did for RWD Technologies a few weeks ago. Here's the...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

A few weeks ago, if you remember, I griped right here on these pages about Sony and their misleading advertising on the HDR-SR10 High Definition camera. They claimed they had an iLink connection...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

In February 2007, Senior Forrester Social Computing analyst Jeremiah Owyang published a list of white label social networking platforms that I have to say was the most extensive I've seen by a long...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

Here's a sneak peek at Chapter 2 of CRM at the Speed of Light's 4th edition - kinda. Its a Wordle - a fairly meaningless looking tag cloud that's just a little arty in its own technodorky way....

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

Here's a sneak peek at Chapter 2 of CRM at the Speed of Light's 4th edition - kinda. Its a Wordle - a fairly meaningless looking tag cloud that's just a little arty in its own technodorky way. Chapter 2 has the conversations between those of you who read the book and industry leaders on their ideas of where CRM is going - a.k.a. CRM 2.0. You can see what they emphasize in their discussion -can't you. Got the right cloudiness I think.....Clearly the right ecosystem is there - customers, customer.....The thought leaders who write their pieces in this chapter are (in alphabetical order):Bill Band, Principle Analyst and VP of CRM at Forrester.Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO of Salesforce.comGinger Conlon, Editor-in-Chief of Publications, 1to1 MediaBruce Culbert, Managing Partner BPT Partners, LLCKim Kobza, President & CEO, Neighborhood AmericaAnthony Lye, Senior Vice President, CRM, Oracle.Bill McDermott, President & CEO, SAP Americas & Asia Pacific JapanJoe Pine, Author "The Experience Economy" and "Authenticity"Denis Pombriant, President, Beagle ResearchIf you want to make your own dense little cloud, go to Wordle.com. Its fun in its own, takes-no-real-time-to-do-it way.Technorati : CRM 2.0, CRM at the Speed of Light, Wordle

There's a mindset and level of effort that's necessary when you're writing a long book with a short deadline that can only be defined as "obsessive." As I'm writing CRM at the Speed of Light's 4th...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

There's a mindset and level of effort that's necessary when you're writing a long book with a short deadline that can only be defined as "obsessive." As I'm writing CRM at the Speed of Light's 4th edition (does anyone mind if from time to time in posts in the future I refer to it as either CRMSOL4 or "the book."?), I'm finding that I'm getting immersed into a 24 hour, 7 day a week sticky cloud that allows me to do things other than the book but only when I'm thinking about the book during that time. In other words, I'm writing, writing, writing, writing, getting a haircut (thinking about writing something in particular, or someone who I need to get involved in the book - just thought of someone actually....back...I had to put his name on my To Do list), writing, writing, driving (thinking about something CRMSOL4....), writing, doing a blog entry (thinking about "the book" related stuff)....What I'm also finding is that in order to be mobile for the writing of this book and to engage resources and to hang out with friends at least the digital ones during this obsessive, immersive period (to end August 10), I'm relying more and more on tools that are actually voice-related to do my work and to be more effective. They are translation tools for the most part that involve speech to text and they allow me to take care of tasks both book related and "necessary to let people know I'm alive related" - most are mobile and are favorited on my iPhone (and will be on my new 3G iPhone come July 11).Here's what I'm using and for what. Links will get you to them. They aren't all just iPhone apps. They are universal. They happen to work on the iPhone among others.Cha Cha - This is an amazing service. Phone a number that you get after you register and you have a search engine that runs with human beings. Here's how it works. You call the specific number you get - a local number - ask a question of an automated response thingee. A human agent then researches it. You then - in a few minutes to an hour or so - get an answer via SMS to your question. For example, I was out with someone and told them that my wife and I are going to walk the Great Wall of China next summer. She asked how long the Great Wall was. Good question. I called up Cha Cha, asked them that, and within minutes had a text message saying it was 6400 km (4000 miles) long. Just-like-THAT. They've only failed to answer one question - though it was kind of important. It was "Are there any tornado warnings out in Fairfax County, VA now?" They didn't answer it. Kind of important since I was driving through it. Turned out there was. Maybe it was better I didn't know at the time....Twitterfone - This one works better than expected. I simply hit my favorited number - it dials up to some location - I leave a short message. It shows up on Twitter. Thus I can query my Tweet-buds or simply vent or do whatever it is I do on Twitter. Works great for that.Utterz - This one is new to me but works like a charm. I used to do Audioblogs but the service I used kind of went away. Now I can do it again. I can audio blog for free with Utterz and post text and video that will associate with the blog's audio entry if I do it within 10 minutes of the time I recorded and "published." Again, I call a phone number and I go for it. Works great and there are multiple ways to use this one - and multiple channels to access it.Jott - This site translates my voice into email to particular people or groups or to messages to social sites friends. In a Twitter exchange between uber editor of CRM Magazine Josh Weinberger and social customer king of dudes Chris Carfi, Chris suggested using Jott to do rough emails that you send to yourself to edit when you get home. Hat tip (as Mr. Carfi would say) to Chris on this. Again, a very useful function.All of this is usable while driving, though of course only if you're hand's free. Safe driving. Ahem.I'm now thinking of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred to help me with some of the book too. That's on premise but hell, anything to capture random thoughts in a way that makes this easier. Not sure of that one yet, but use the tools above. They are genuinely awesome and totally cool. Impressive in how accurate they are. Now if only I could be that accurate when I write this damned book.....Technorati : CRM 2.0, Cha Cha, Jott, Twitter, Twitterfone, Utterz, mobile, productivity, social media

I saw an item posted a couple of weeks ago on MyCustomer.com, a site that I think I've told you has the best content on CRM in the world - literally. Its sensible, organized, devoid of crap and hype and at the same time has real substance, unlike a few sites on CRM which are becoming much to much overloaded with marketing collateral and content posted by those representing corporate agendas, rather than authentic voices. Sites like that become a slopbucket for dirty water.Not MyCustomer.com. They have substantial depth and are cutting edge in their approach but rather rational really. They need to get ten times the number of North American readers than they already have. I forget the number. Its like 50,000 I think with 80,000 in Europe. I think.In any case, the item was a survey/study released by the 451 Group, the market researchers (more technical than most) out of NY. It was on the state of social software vendors really and it was a survey of which software vendors were being used by customers interested in using social media & incorporating social functionality into their sites. That includes wikis, blogs, podcasts, social networks and the like. The thing that was so incredibly striking was that the vendor that was preferred by the most customers was, of all companies, Microsoft.Yeah, Microsoft.They had a reasonably comfortable lead over IBM and Google and even over open source and in house development, though, as always in early stages "don't know" seems to lead the pack.Here.Why? I'll tell you why. Sharepoint. Enterprises still love to use Sharepoint - or perhaps its convenient to use given the MS software they are using. I don't know. I just found this interesting. The other things that are interesting is that companies like BEA actually had some share at all and that open source, in house and don't know, dominate the vendors - except Microsoft. I'm going to investigate this further and let you know if I find anything. I won't let you know if I don't.Just take a look. Nothing earthshaking. Just surprising.Technorati : CRM 2.0, Microsoft, social software

I saw an item posted a couple of weeks ago on MyCustomer.com, a site that I think I've told you has the best content on CRM in the world - literally. Its sensible, organized, devoid of crap and hype...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

Every year, the night before the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, which I've been a part of, I lay in bed thinking "why am I DOING this?" its hard, the weather is going to be hot, I have to work... (even tho' it's always on a Saturday). But I know that I'm going to be there regardless, because my wife is on her fourth year, heading into her fifth as a breast cancer survivor. And, of course, the reason I'm going is to be there for her. But I have to tell you, EVERY SINGLE TIME I race, I am inspired. I am moved. I am reminded that people can overcome obstacles but when push comes to shove, the thing I think about is that that people are just damned GOOD. They are fine, lovely and life-sustaining as a rule and they actually care about other people. This year it was infernally hot. We have a heat wave here. There is a heat advisory out here today. But that didn't deter 50,000 people from showing up to walk and run. What always amazes me is the number of pink tee-shirts which indicates breast cancer survivors. They run, walk, laugh, support their friends, and just are amazing people - my wonderful wife Yvonne among them. I never regret being involved in this. Even though I'm totally under the gun when it comes to writing CRM at the Speed of Light - this is too important to me to not do and I love doing it. I love it because it means something more than anything I could ever do in business. It is supporting the woman I love in a way that means something. It means not just survival, but hope beyond cliche or mere words. Hope as something real. Real.

Every year, the night before the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, which I've been a part of, I lay in bed thinking "why am I DOING this?" its hard, the weather is going to be hot, I have...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

Take a look at this. Go all the way to the bottom and note, under the "Inputs & Outputs" that there is an entry entitled "ILink Interface: Yes (mini)See it?Guess what? It ain't there. There is no iLink interface for the Sony HDR-SR10. One of the reasons that I bought this camera was more my ability to hook it up through firewire, though that wasn't my primary reason. I could have bought a Canon or Panasonic but Sony makes great hardware.I asked the customer service dept to help me and they said sorry about that its not there. So I sent another email - then beyond USB treatment as a hard drive, what can I do to make this a web streaming video source. They sent me a generic link. I sent another email back saying that's a generic link, how do I do the USB streaming that you're talking about in the generic link knowledgebase entry with my particular video camera?Their response? You can't with that camera. You'll have to do the composite video streaming through an A/V link. I said that my 8800GT graphics card doesn't have that connection nor does my PC. "Take it up with the manufacturer." I told them to remove their misleading specification. As of this morning, several days later, its still up. I'm going to go after this misbegotten company who treats their customers like they are hardware - actually worse. I'm really tired of them. Watch CRM at the Speed of Light 4th edition and listen to the new version of Experience on the Edge that will be up late today or tomorrow morning. Plus listen to the opening of my webinar on CRM Trends that I'm giving in a few hours. Then just keep track.Actually, in CRM at the Speed of Light 4th edition, there is an appendix with best of, worst of lists. Guess what company is the leading candidate for the company with the worst attitude toward customers? Though the surveys I run or the evidence I gather may change that. Right now, Howard Stringer and his minyons sit at the bottom of the canyon with no rescue in site.I'm tired of all the first and second hand stories I hear on how they treat customers and I'm tired of the way they have historically proven that by treating me the way I hear they treat customers. That means, firsthand evidence.I'm just tired of Sony's attitude.And done with it.Just watch.Technorati : Sony, customer service

Take a look at this. Go all the way to the bottom and note, under the "Inputs & Outputs" that there is an entry entitled "ILink Interface: Yes (mini) See it? Guess what? It ain't there. There is no...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

Its time for the always timely Ellen Filipiak again. The latest DirecTV tome. I'm not going to comment on this one, leaving it to you to do that. I can't say that the comments so far have been overwhelmingly friendly. They haven't, though I admire Ellen for her absolute commitment to keep posting. One dude was so outta control he blasted ME for carrying the comments. Probably the weirdest diss I ever got. Let's just say I didn't lose any sleep. So here 'tis. Anyone think that DirecTV has improved? Or not? Let's hear it folks.It's midyear, one year into my work here, and time when our industry is reviewed by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and J.D. Power & Associates. While we received the top ACSI score among the major providers in our industry this year and our score improved over last year - we have a long way to go -- as a company and as an industry.Our industry scores though low overall and just above the airlines in satisfaction clearly present opportunity for great improvement. Consumers compare us to other service industries and clearly have options for their in-home entertainment. This is one reason why my team spends a great deal of time both examining how to run our business better and evaluating best practices in other consumer based industries.An example of change we recently implemented is our recent upgrade to DIRECTV's e-mail service model mentioned in my last post. We looked across industries to companies such as Electronic Arts and Eurostar, two companies that experience similar challenges to DIRECTV including high event driven volume, seasonal spikes, and highly engaged customers.By incorporating a contextual knowledge-based solution into our online e-mail support, we are able to provide more accurate and responsive information to our customers.A broader industry issue raised at the 2008 Cable Show New Orleans reflects how complicated some feel TV has become. Though I agree our set-top-boxes are more sophisticated, I also believe that DIRECTV has had a hand in making our business too complicated. I am working diligently to simplify the overall customer experience by making High Definition upgrades as straight forward as possible and assuring our customers are aware they are prepared for the coming 2009 Digital Transition.We've introduced online tools for our customers as well as educational tools for our agents both designed to address questions from new HD users. Additionally, we have and continue to proactively upgrade our legacy HD customers to the newest in DIRECTV hardware to ensure access to our full scope of HD services. Additionally, as you may know, DIRECTV has been digital since inception therefore all of our customers including those with local channels are all set and ready to go. We're taking these steps to not rest on our laurels and answer the call to simplify our business.Whether it is ACSI or J.D. Power, these studies are just a snapshot of the job we do each and everyday. Our customers are not numbers, or scores, or whatever business measure one applies. Each customer chooses our service each day based on how well we perform and will refer friends and family if we do well - this, more than any other measure will show our true performance.In closing, I want to provide an update from my last post in which I shared some fundamental changes planned for my operation. Many of these changes have been implemented including improved customer to agent routing and modified hours of operation; both designed to achieve first call resolution. While early results are promising, I thought it best to wait until my next entry to share results.I appreciate the opportunity to serve our customers, share the news that things are indeed improving and to hear your feedback. Great teams can always rally for more runs and I extend that same wish to your Yankees!Regards,Ellen FilipiakSenior Vice President, Customer CareEllen.Filipiak@directv.comTechnorati : DirecTV, customer service

Its time for the always timely Ellen Filipiak again. The latest DirecTV tome. I'm not going to comment on this one, leaving it to you to do that. I can't say that the comments so far have been...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

You need to check out what Thomas Vander Wal has to say at Personal Infocloud on the "Granular Social Network" because the insights are meaningful, not just interesting. The idea is that as...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

You need to check out what Thomas Vander Wal has to say at Personal Infocloud on the "Granular Social Network" because the insights are meaningful, not just interesting. The idea is that as individuals we each have specific interests. We are connected to other individuals each with their own specific interests, which are not necessarily the same as the interests we have. While, for example, many members of our personal network might share an interest in music - a. we only know what music they are interested in when they share that with us - so we may know they love hip hop and while they love classical too, they may not have told anyone. Plus our interest in knowing what they like might wax and wane according to who it is and the moment of time we're in.Problem is that the tools that are out there for capturing the conversation of the digital social networks don't understand this complexity and aren't organized to capture it according to what is being shared or the weight of the interest in what is being shared by all and each of the individuals involved in the network, so the level of knowledge that businesses or whoever has of actual interactions among network members is minimal and often not even right - though it may seem right.This dovetails, though is not identical to, my thinking on the personal value chain and how each individual has their own value chain (see the posting on The Company Like Me Part I for details). What affects someone and what is important to that someone is not an easy thing to figure out and often when someone responds to you in a way that you love or hate, the reason for that response may have little to do with you as a person or as a business.Problem is for businesses to get that "perfect" customer record and that Holy HOLY HOLY Grail of a 360 degree view of a customer, they have to be able to capture as much of that granularity as they can so that they can enrich their knowledge of their customers, but also so that the customer can have the optimal experience that his makeup allows him to because the company has gotten the approximation (best they can do) of a peer level knowledge of that customer and provided him with what he needs, accordingly. All this emanating from a personal value chain which is impacted by his granular social network.Keep in mind one thing. Because of the complexity of relationships, and because of the spirited independence of the individual human soul (generally) the company can never CONTROL the personal value chain that has been impacted by this granular social network. Humans are just too damned singular!!Get it?Listen and watch this Thomas Vander Wal video treatment of the granular social network.Granular Social Network from Thomas Vander Wal on Vimeo. Technorati : CRM 2.0, Thomas Vander Wal, social networks

I'm of the mind that Cisco is the great hidden player in the world of the social customer. Though at this point the whole subject is getting so pervasively staggering that I'm just going to call it Sentient Being 2.0 or Gaia 2.0 or something. I think that there is so much going on at Cisco that we don't cover in our analyses and yet, I see them everywhere doing amazing things. I want all of you to just simply watch this video and though the technology is amazing and part of it all - listen to the discussion toward the end. Cisco just seems to understand. They seem to understand. They just seem to.Technorati : CRM 2.0, Cisco, Enterprise 2.0, social customer, telepresence

I'm of the mind that Cisco is the great hidden player in the world of the social customer. Though at this point the whole subject is getting so pervasively staggering that I'm just going to call it...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

A few months ago, I created a private wiki for those who wanted to help me with CRM at the Speed of Light, 4th Edition. I got a nice rush of people who wanted to join it and I thought,...

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg

A few months ago, I created a private wiki for those who wanted to help me with CRM at the Speed of Light, 4th Edition. I got a nice rush of people who wanted to join it and I thought, "hey, very, very cool. Gonna get some help. They like me, they really like me!!" Imagine my sadness, my crushed heart, my wall of hurt, when all those who signed up contributed literally absolutely nothing to the wiki. Nada. Nunca. Nothing. I still....tear.....up....when.....I (I won't cry, I WON'T). The only explanation that can sooth my brow is that there is some technical issue, but then why wouldn't somebody have emailed me and told me that.So....I'm making it public for ANYONE who wants to contribute to the book. What I'm looking for is ideas and pointers to research. I'm looking for vendor companies I should consider and why I should. Vendors are free to make appointments with me to talk as long as they put themselves in the wiki and the appropriate chapter(s) they think they belong in. Give me a vendor name, a person, a phone number and a reason to call and we'll talk.ANY contribution or suggestion I use from wiki contributors will be attributed in the book somewhere (usually in the acknowledgments). In a rare case or two, I'll be looking for writers who will have their own conversation with the readers of the book. I'll explain if you are a writer. There won't be many of those only because I can't muddy the voice of the book with too many voices. But I'm willing to listen to why you should write a piece. Just realize its here in particular I'm going to be tough - really tough.I'm also willing to quote key folks in the book too - either you or people you know IF IT MAKES SENSE.This is wide open. CRM at the Speed of Light has been the best selling CRM book ever. This edition is going to break new ground because its devoted to CRM 2.0 and what it means in the new world of the social customer. So not only comprehensive but entirely cool. Style will matter as well as what always has - substance.Help me create it.My deadline for manuscript submission is a HARD August 1, 2008. Nothing will be considered after July 20, 2008. The wiki will go private again that day.I WOULD LOVE YOUR HELP. I WOULD ADORE YOU FOREVER AND EVER. THERE WILL BE PRIZES!!! AND FUN AND PARTIES AND.....Okay, its a wiki, not spring break.If you'd like to work with me on the book, please go to this wiki:CRM at the Speed of Light 4th Edition WikiThe invite key is:CRMSOL4Thank you.Technorati : CRM at the Speed of Light, pbwiki, wiki

Know what, when it comes to Facebook's platform one year later, this is something in today's TechCrunch, I agree with. Might be too irritating, too closed a platform and too late for Facebook. Sigh.Technorati : Facebook, TechCrunch, social network

Know what, when it comes to Facebook's platform one year later, this is something in today's TechCrunch, I agree with. Might be too irritating, too closed a platform and too late for Facebook. Sigh....

The award winning, edgiest CRM blog on the planet. The industry, the concepts, the news from CRM at the Speed of Light author Paul Greenberg