communication. community. cognition.
Canon reads the blogs from their New York headquarters.
So does the corporate mothership in Japan:
Their blog monitor clicked in on the most recent post, and tracked it to the original congrats on the good customer service.
Hey Canon-Japan… how about checking on that raise for Devin now?
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occams’s RazR, Social Media, marketing, blogger relations, blog monitoring, Canon, Canon USA, cameras, customer service[/tags]
Score one for corporate America, when it comes to listening to customers.
Canon, which I previously lauded for their excellent customer service, has at least read about my positive encounter. Evidence below:
No e-mail yet, but that’s really not even necessary at this point. That was a failsafe to make sure I didn’t miss the hit in my IP logs. Canon PR — send me an e-mail if you’d like, but I know you’re listening. And so does everyone else who finds this page months from now on a Googhoo! search. (There is a 3-day and 15-hour delay in the original post and their visit to my site, which is minuscule in the grand scheme.)
Speaking of which… if you look at the top 10 results on Google for “Canon customer service” (as of this writing):
On Yahoo!, the blog entries aren’t prominent at all. Eight out of the top ten results belong to Canon’s worldwide properties, one is a Careerbuilder jobs page, and the other is an entry in The Consumerist… for companies that are good.
Might there be a correlation between companies that put customers first, and those that listen to what their customers are saying?
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occams’s RazR, Social Media, marketing, blogger relations, blog monitoring, Canon, Canon USA, cameras, customer service[/tags]
On this date, one year ago, I was kicking along with a brand-spanking new blog and still trying to discover my voice. I had a lot I wanted to say, but still wasn’t sure how much of it would gel into coherence, or fit in the same box.
On this date four years ago, I was embarking on my final week of television. Sixteen-plus years of broadcasting and accolades, and I was walking away for something different. I left the only career I knew for health reasons, taking a public affairs job with a non-profit. The December prior, my wife and I prayed over the decision, and calculated that we could afford the pay cut since she was still working part-time.
After committing to the switch, we found out we were expecting again. The DINKs (Double-Income, No Kids) were becoming SITCOMs (Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage.) On this date four years ago, I was leaving everything I knew. For less money. With more responsibility than ever. Venturing into a field where many looked on ex-journalists with more than mild disdain.
I’ve never sold myself as something I am not. My best shot is to be what I am – a communicator. Working with different tools and different challenges, it’s still about finding a core of truth and telling it in a way that resonates with people. Thanks to each and every one of you who find my blathering meaningful or valuable – you keep my compass pointing true. And thanks to Michael Sebastian at Ragan Communications, for recognizing this blog as “The Best Read of 2007.” It’s not the best PR blog, not the best marketing blog by a long shot. Those niches are taken by people with far more expertise and experience, and I read many of them myself.
Four years ago today, I had never heard of Ragan Communications, and was scared as hell.
One year ago, my readership didn’t extend far beyond immediate family.
Today is a good day.
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, communication, blogs[/tags]
After four good years of service, our digital camera died, about a week before Christmas. Of course, the fiscally prudent thing would have been to wait for the post-holiday sales to buy the replacement. But if you have kids, you know that the fiscally prudent answer is not the same as the “these kids will only be 5 and 3 for Christmas once” answer. So we bought a new digital camera.
My wife picked it out, and did a great job nailing down a good value in a short period of time. After all, she uses it more than I do, and needs to be comfortable with it. We got a Canon PowerShot A-570. My job is to make sure it syncs to the computers. Which was not as easy as we’d hoped.
I installed the Canon CameraWindow and ZoomBrowsers, but the computer was not “seeing” the camera for automatic synchronization. We got through Christmas alright – I’m perfectly capable of creating folders and dragging and dropping pictures. But the point of having a camera that syncs is so my wife can do it without an annoying lecture from me about how it ought to be done. Simplicity is implicit.
I searched through the Canon forums, and found the online support tips less than helpful. The questions in the FAQ weren’t even close to describing my problem, and several iterations Search terms weren’t bearing fruit. I broke down and sent in an e-mail inquiry, late on the afternoon of the 30th.
Before lunch on the 31st, New Year’s Eve, I had a response from Devin. (I don’t have a last name, he didn’t give me one.) The note was polite, and full of information in multiple levels. He explained what the likely problem was, as well as a more detailed step-by-step solution. And it worked.
So, kudos to Canon for getting me back on track. It was timely, professional, accurate, and on a holiday. (And if you’re a Canon PR rep monitoring the blogs, shoot me an e-mail. I am not asking for free merchandise or services, nor will I accept them. I offer my endorsement for your customer service. Just shoot me an e-mail and let me know that Devin got a gold star on his report card.)
Thanks…
Ike.
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occams’s RazR, Social Media, marketing, blogger relations, blog monitoring, Canon, Canon USA, CameraWindow, ZoomBrowser, cameras, customer service[/tags]
Well, it was a fun experiment while it lasted.
I wrote a great little anecdote about a Blockbuster Video store employee who went over and above the call of duty to help me one day. As of this writing, it’s been almost 150 days since I wrote the post, and marked it up with Blockbuster tagging.
(For those of you with Java turned on, the clock would be showing at the moment.)
Alas, I will be removing the clock from my sidebar. I doubt at this point Blockbuster will be e-mailing me to ask for the name of the employee.
In the meantime, however, my original post has risen in the search engines. I am now #10 (first page) on a Yahoo search for blockbuster video customer service number. And I am #11 (almost first results page) on Google for blockbuster opinions. (Those results may vary over time.) Just for comparison, I am now the #7 result on Google for “Ike”, although I am not in the top 70 in either Yahoo! or Windows Live. Go figure.
That’s okay. Tune in tomorrow to see who goes “on the clock.”
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, Social Media, Blockbuster, Blockbuster Video, Marketing, Customer Service[/tags]
Valeria Maltoni is a very smart woman. She speaks fifteen different languages, and holds patents on two new ones. (Okay, I made that part up.) Being the multi-lingual diva that she is, she’s known as “The Conversation Agent.” I would suppose that being able to analyze situations through several languages at once opens a different set of perspectives on the matter. And, of course, supposition is all that might be, as I am a naturally-born United States citizen and am prohibited by the Constitution from learning another language. (Okay, I made that part up too.)
She’s got a very smart analysis about the fracturing of the marketplace, and what the Blitz of Choices will mean for marketers. Go ahead and read that so you can be smart, then come back and allow me the indulgence to wax poetic on what it will mean for individuals.
Heir of Error
I am an Heir of Error. The process of evolution, at the molecular level of DNA, is nothing more than a Comedy of Errors. Over time, those errors that don’t kill me make me better.
Errors also make life more interesting. For instance, I love Black Cherry Fresca. Even though I have no taste for cherries, and every other cherry-flavored soda is repugnant to me. Tastes like petroleum. (I’m talking about you, Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper.) The only reason I tried BCF is the labeling was too similar to regular Fresca, and my wife bought it for my office. I tried it, out of spite, and liked it!
More than a Beverage
Now, imagine a life where your personal shopper (sorry Hon) never makes a mistake. Better yet – imagine a life where your personal assistant knows your preferences and tastes so well that what you want is served directly to you, without being asked?
In some respects, we are right there. We are about to see the rise of web services that pull and pluck the information we want, and the stuff we didn’t even know we wanted. By analyzing keywords and content, they will be able to suggest news and information from sources you never imagined existed – and suggest news about topics that you really would have wanted if you knew about them!
This poses a scary future. One in which the initial choices we make will have a profound impact on the final direction of our information flow. Choosing a single different news source at the outset can set you on a different path entirely. And once the system “learns” your patterns, you will be inundated with so much personalized information that you’ll not have time to choose outside of your algorithm. You might try, but why bother when you’re so comfortable with all of the content right there in front of you?
The Exercise of Choice
Once we’re cocooned in our comfort zone, “choice” really has little meaning. We’ve ceded “choice” to a formula — or worse yet, a “web” of preferences based on other people just like us. How easy will it be to game those formulae? Take away choice and error, and say goodbye to serendipity.
If it weren’t for “choice” and “error,” I wouldn’t be sipping the last of a delicious Black Cherry Fresca as I finish this post. And I wouldn’t have stumbled upon the writings of Valeria Maltoni. And you most likely wouldn’t be reading this. In fact, I know you wouldn’t. Because my subject matter and format — while maintaining a somewhat uniform tone and theme — doesn’t fit an easy stencil template. If you had a preference for commentary on communication, you’d get something that did nothing but that, and miss out on my Venn diagrams and Demotivationals. You wouldn’t learn about the connection between the rhythm of the cicadas, hair mousse, Avatar, the Hook-and-Lateral, and Jimmie Lee Sudduth. (They all made the complex simple.)
We’d miss out on the really interesting things that happen at the intersections. It’s the crumbs that fall into the cracks between disciplines that make for the most original thinking, the most important science. It’s the ability to carry a concept from the language of one tribe into the cant of another.
Right, Valeria?
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agent, fuzzy logic, marketing, choice[/tags]
Apparently, Citicorp does a better job monitoring the blogs than some other companies I have bragged about.
They haven’t contacted me – but they are following Technorati tags. Here’s the hit from 10:06 am (CST):
(IP address and other information withheld)
That is a return time measured in hours. Good for you, Citi! I feel confident that if anyone were to raise a complaint, you’d at least be aware of it.
Update: Apparently, Salomon Bros. also monitors for “Citicorp” tags.
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, reputation management, Citi, Citicorp, Salomon[/tags]
