The Crossing of Marketing & IT: Where Marketing and Technology meet – Web + Search + Social Marketing, Teamwork, Leadership & More

The Case of the Disconnected Call Center

Here are a couple more examples from my Bad Customer Service files. Please read and learn from the mistakes in my stories “Customer Service Disconnect” and “The Mismanaged Web Form.”

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Make ‘Em Part of the Family

by Elmer Boutin General Marketing

My wife and I own a motorcycle. During fair weather season (which is quite long in Texas) I tend to ride to work 3-4 days a week. At between 35-40 miles per gallon, it saves me a fair amount of money – and it’s a lot of fun to ride. Motorcycles do require a bit more maintenance than cars. There’s the regular oil changes, coolant changes, lube jobs and such; but, there is also chain or belt changing, monitoring of various mechanical pieces which make the bike safe. Although my wife is more than capable of maintaining the bike, we tend to take it to the dealer for maintenance. This is something I don’t normally consider for our cars.

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Show Off Your Smarts

by Elmer Boutin Marketing

Potential customers look for signs of your competence and importance to distinguish you from your competitors. The key is to find out what they look for in order to best communicate this to them – and it might not be what you think it is.

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Egos Need Not Apply

by Elmer Boutin General Tech Tips

Those who have served in any of the armed forces know teamwork. Some may not do it well, but they know about it because it’s stressed from day one. Let me share a great lesson I learned while attending a leadership school during my time in the U.S. Army.

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Book Review: “Radically Transparent” by Beal & Strauss

by Elmer Boutin Book Reviews

Andy Beal is an expert in reputation management on the web. His knowledge on the subject is vast, thoughtful and expert. For that reason it is quite appropriate he should co-author a book (as the subtitle reads) “Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online.” He and Dr. Judy Strauss succeeded quite well with their book, Radically Transparent.

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You Are Making Backups, Aren’t You?

by Elmer Boutin General Tech Tips

The sound of thunder rolling across the area warns of an approaching thunderstorm – and reminds me to talk with you a little about disaster recovery. This is something most people think of only after it’s too late. Like buying life insurance or making a will, it’s something a lot of people don’t like to talk about let alone do, but backing up your data is a critical part of your business and personal computing.

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Ghost Writing Fun

by Elmer Boutin Marketing

I’ve been helping a colleague set up a blog which replaces a monthly print newsletter. One of the concerns my colleague had was that some customers who subscribed to the print version of this newsletter are new to blogs and might not know how to get automatic updates. After thinking about how to tackle this possible knowledge gap, I put together a post for her which explains basically what an RSS feed is and how to subscribe to one.

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Stop Shouting and Start Listening

by Elmer Boutin General Marketing

I’ve had some experiences of late with sales people I really feel the need to address. At the risk of going on a rant, I want to talk about the difference between trying to shout above the noise and trying to really help your customers or potential customers.

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Scott Brinker’s Marketing Technology Manifesto

by Elmer Boutin In-House

I’ve referred to Scott Brinker’s blog “The Chief Marketing Technologist” a few times now. Scott has some brilliant ideas on how marketing folks should harness technology and take command of it. Over the weekend, he came out with a brilliant manifesto stemming from his “Rise of the Marketing Technologist” post which I wrote about back in April. Go check it out here: The Marketing Technology Manifesto.

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