Featured Posts

NSA Leaks: The Big Data Two Step for Businesses This post originally appeared on LinkedIn as part of their influencer program on June 10, 2013.  To see the original post click here. I expect we will be seeing a lot of dancing over the next few...

Readmore

Coming to an Agency Near You! This post originally appeared on LinkedIn as part of their influencer program on September 23, 2013.  To see the original post click here. I am often pondering what is next in the world in which we...

Readmore

Customer Service Week: Here's Your Call Center This post originally appeared on LinkedIn as part of their influencer program on October 7, 2013.  To see the original post click here. As we begin Customer Service Week I want to thank all those...

Readmore

Defining the Customer Experience Role This post originally appeared on LinkedIn as part of their influencer program on October 2, 2013.  To see the original post click here. Customer experience is a term growing in popularity within businesses...

Readmore

Apple's #Fail When Dealing with @MarthaStewart This post originally appeared on LinkedIn as part of their influencer program on September 30, 2013.  To see the original post click here. It feels like it was the Tweet heard around the world: "I...

Readmore

  • Prev
  • Next

Why Can’t Politicians Abide By the Do Not Call List Too?

Posted on : 02-11-2008 | By : Frank Eliason | In : Politics

Tags:

5

Views expressed here are my own and not representative of my employer!

 

I have to admit I am not a fan of most politicians on either side of the aisle.  Mainly because they are career politicians that strive to look out for their interests and not those that they serve.  I have yet to hear a politician that was honest enough to admit that about themselves.  They normally say that about others they are running against, but the case can be made against them too.

 

In the past week I have had calls from both sides of the aisle encouraging me to vote for their candidate.  I have even had recorded calls from my local politician Patrick Murphy encouraging me to vote.  Each of these calls seem to come at inopportune times, such as when I am putting the kids down for a nap or dinner.  If they understood those they served they would have included political calls in the Do Not Call legislation.  Even if that was not done they could think to scrub their list against the Do Not Call Registry prior to doing it.  I am half tempted to not vote for the group calling, unfortunately it is both sides.  Does this frustrate you too?

 

Another interesting marketing technique I have seen this year is post cards and letters that look like they are from individuals encouraging me to vote for a candidate based on their reasons for selecting them.  They are interesting because they have the look of being personally written and they even include the return address of the sender.  I should check if it is even a real return address and a real person.  Probably not that important and I probably threw them out.  Does this mean they are sharing my address?  I doubt it because they are probably mass produced, but wouldn’t that be inappropriate sharing of personal information?

 

I do want to encourage everyone to vote on Tuesday based on the candidates that you think are best.  I am looking forward to the political season to be over, but I do think it is important for everyone to vote.

Inspirational Notes – Alexandra Scott & Lemonade

Posted on : 01-11-2008 | By : Frank Eliason | In : Inspirational, Living in Philadelphia

Tags: ,

4

One of the items I will use this blog for is to share stories that inspire me. Sometimes this will be related to social media, other times service, but I wanted to start with a story more personal. These will be people that truly inspire the best out of everyone they meet. To start this off I planned to talk about people I have met recently but I kept coming back to a story very close to my heart. Have you heard of Alexandra Scott? You may better know her by Alex. She started Alex’s lemonade stand back in 2000. Here is the story how a 4 year old started something that will keep her close to people’s hearts for a long time to come. She and her family are the definition of inspirational.

Her story begins when she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, 2 days before her first birthday. When she was 4 years old she wanted to have a lemonade stand to get some money. Her parents were willing to give her money for whatever she wanted. This is similar to any parent in this situation. But it turns out she wanted something bigger. She wanted to find a way that should could help her doctors find a cure for kids with cancer. She did this by starting her lemonade stand. Her family, in an effort to make sure she received the best care, moved to the Philadelphia area. They continued the lemonade stand in their new location. In 2002 the popularity continued to grow with many cancer survivors starting stands of their own. By 2004 the effort was national and raised close to $1 million. Alex took her message to the world through the Today Show and Oprah.  Even as her health was not doing so well, Alex lived the dream to raise funds to help her doctors make life better for so many others.  She had amazing strength.  Alex passed away at the age of 8 on August 1, 2004, just 5 days after our Angel Gia.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand has raised over $19 million for pediatric cancer research.

If you are looking for a great charity check out www.alexslemonade.org.  How can we create an online lemonade stand for everyone to have a refreshing drink for a good cause?

Jay and Liz Scott you are my hero’s for what you have done to keep Alex’s dream alive! The strength and leadership you have shown with your foundation is amazing.  Who are some of your heros?

What is your Mask? Happy Halloween!

Posted on : 31-10-2008 | By : Frank Eliason | In : Social Media

Tags:

4

So what are you going to be for Halloween? Maybe it is Harry Potter, Mickey Mouse, M&Ms or maybe a vampire?  Today is a day we love to put on our mask and be something a little different.  But does the internet allow us to place our mask on more often?

I would love to say I never thought about it, but with all the anonymity on the internet, I have.  Many people on the web choose to have a different personality to show online.  What is the personality you like to show?  Do you have multiple online personalities?  It came up during conversations at the Forrester Consumer Forum.  It was more being discussed on the marketing side, but I have to say it really made me think.  What I really did not realize is how many of us actually do show a different side.  This really confuses companies in understanding the actions of their Customer because they may need to market a different persona than they have all the data about.

I never thought I showed anything different, but the more I thought about it over the past few days I have to admit I may have a mask.  I am a service oriented person, and I always have been.  There is no difference there.  I like to think I am in general a nice person.  No difference there.  But in person I am a bit more introverted and a little shy at times!

So what is your mask?  Do you even notice it?  Do you have a difference in the way you would write a review on Amazon, talk on Twitter or how you write your blog?

Happy Halloween!

What is this Social Media Thing Anyway?

Posted on : 30-10-2008 | By : Frank Eliason | In : Social Media

Tags:

7

In the past week I had the pleasure to attend 2 great seminars:  Marketing Profs’ Digital Media Mixer and the Forrester Consumer Forum.  Social media seemed to be the big discussion point for everyone in attendance at these forums.  The big questions was how can we make money in this space.  That is what happens when you are with many people from the marketing side of the business.  Even for a simple service person like myself, I was thrilled to see the excitement.

 

To me the term Social Media is confusing, I think it is more the socialization of the internet.  In the past we communicated more 1 on 1 via tools like email or instant messenger.  There were some social options such as chat rooms or email distribution groups.  But today we are now talking to more people, not as segregated as was the past with these other methods.  Sometimes it is simple as posting comments about a product at Amazon.  It can also be starting a blog or posting on someone else’s blog or tools such as Twitter, identi.ca, Plurk, LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, etc.  The list goes on and on.  But now there is a lot of discussion.

 

What this means to marketers is control is shifting.  It is more difficult to get a message out there.  So now companies are trying to figure out how they can participate.  This will be a topic I will be discussing in future posts.

 

Now how did I get involved in this Social Media?  It was not through Comcast (although they were the connection at the time), but back in 2000 our daughter Gia was born 10 weeks premature.  What happens is people want updates, but we were busy enough and did not want to talk to everyone.  We started our own website.  Then 3 years later when Gia was diagnosed with cancer, we used the website again.  We provided regular updates that are still available.  After her passing we let the old website remain intact at the following URL  http://www.sitedreamer.com/gia.  After our other children were born we created a new website http://www.eliasonfamily.info

 

As I have conversations regarding these social interactions, you will notice that I am a firm believer that people are trying to communicate their thoughts on a variety of topics.  They are trying to be heard, it is just a question who will listen.

World Series Champions! Philly Fans and Service

Posted on : 30-10-2008 | By : Frank Eliason | In : Customer Service, Living in Philadelphia

Tags: ,

8

The Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series!  What a great a day for Philadelphia.  Many of you do not realize how important this is to all of us in Philadelphia.  You may have heard that we are a little passionate about our sports teams.  Yes we have thrown snowballs at Santa and batteries at JD Drew.  I remember the cheering when Cowboys star Michael Irvin was injured.  All true, and many other stories that you may not have heard of.  But Philly fans are really just passionate for their team.  It is this passion that drives us.  If you did not notice, that passion also helped the Phillies go undefeated during the playoffs at home.

 

This is the first major sports championship in this City since 1983 when the Sixers won the NBA championship (the Soul won the Arena Bowl this year too).  We have been in desperate need to have a parade to celebrate our beloved teams.   As I think about this, and the news of the fans in the streets is playing in the background, this is all about passion.  I have a passion for Philly sports.  I also have a passion for Customer Service.  Unlike many people, I believe service by many companies has been improving over the past couple of years.  That is because companies have drifted away from bad measurements such as sales and handle time and went to concentrating on first contact resolution and Customer satisfaction.  I think that is a good start.

 

But what we really need is a few Philly sports fans, or at least individuals that have a similar passion for Customers.  When people are doing what they are passionate about they have more fun at work and have much better results.  Wouldn’t you love your job if it was something you were passionate about?  How many sports fans would love the opportunity to work for their favorite team?

 

Does this mean the wrong people are hired for Customer Service?  Maybe, but not in my opinion.  I think the trouble is managers have coached toward numbers.  Gen y’ers, which make up a number of Customer Service positions, do not care about the numbers.  They may not even care about the Customer or the company.  I will talk about Gen y’ers at times because I think they can be the greatest employees.  In many cases they have a passion, it is just trying to show them how they can direct that toward Customers.  They just want to know why it is important to them.  That is not hard to show.  Once companies do more of that, we will see service improve to new levels.  Passion is good in many things in life!

 

Now back to the Phillies.  Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!  This is so exciting to have a World Champion in Philly.  I think they partially won because of the fans, and maybe because of Comcast (hehehehe).  For those that have not heard, the Curse of Billy Penn is now broken.  In 1983 the first skyscraper was built higher than a statue of William Penn on top of city hall.  Rumor has it there was a gentlemen’s agreement to never build higher than William Penn.  Well no major Philly team has won a championship since.  This is how the curse became known.  Well when the Comcast Center was built to be the highest building in Philadelphia, a small statue of William Penn was placed at the top!

 

That is my first ever blog post!  Have a great day.