DIY customer service – GAACK!

Ok, I actually love the fact that companies have reduced their overhead by providing customers with the ability to “help ourselves”. This goes for populating content online – including forums, rating sites and wikis, as well as self-checkout at Home Depot and check-in Kiosks at the airport.

These are all great because, if we run into more trouble than we can handle, it’s no big deal. On a forum, we can simply refrain from posting, or ask our question someplace with a more user-friendly application. In the grocery store, we can press the “Help” light, and (after a short wait) a clerk will override any errors we may have caused (.. normally this is due to the fact that we buy super-clearance, and these items are not normally logged in the inventory system. One checker still rolls her eyes whenever she sees us J)

The point is, we can do it ourselves - until we need help.

This is NOT the case with DIY over the phone, though. I can’t stand hearing Comcast’s recording with “simple step-by-step instructions” about how to reboot my modem and router. I KNOW! REBOOT FIRST! I don’t call Comcast when I need to reboot.

I went down another slippery slope today with a call to Linksys. First, I tried to avoid their “self help, at your own pace setup” by talking to a customer service rep. He took a case number for me and promised someone would call me back, which didn’t happen. Two hours later, I went for the recording. Overall… it worked. But, the first thing it had me do was reset my router. Apparently, this was a bad idea. Then, it didn’t tell me how to add security to it.

I ended up calling over to customer service anyway. After asking me LOTS of aggravating questions that had nothing to do with my SIMPLE problem (what’s your name? Phone number? Email address? Address? Serial number? What time did you call before? And on.. and on..) I said, “Hey – I just want to set my router up like I had it before, with a name I recognize and a password so the security is enabled.”

Then, she asked if I had pressed reset. “Yes, your automated system says that is the first thing to do to set up the router.”
“Maam, you must never press the reset button if you want to keep your Router ID and password.”
Why am I getting in trouble for following their directions? Anyway, that chore is done now (15 minutes of work and 3 hours of hassle), but it made me think – can’t we do this better?

For instance, I love customer service "chat" that is available online. We could have something like this on the phone as well. There could be an "opt out" key - like "if this has nothing to do with your problem, press 9." That way, we wouldn't get stuck in LOOPS of unhelpful audio. Also, if there was an "I don't get it" key - like if the instruction was garbled or didn't make any sense "if you need a better explanation, press 5."

Another thing that would help SO MUCH on the phone would be if you would get the customer service rep first - instead of the maze of select-a-question. Seriously, if they would spend 5 seconds sending us to the right place immediately, people wouldn't be so frustrated after spending 20 minutes pressing buttons to dead end on menus that don't make sense.

The reason this is relevant is because customer service is even MORE important when customers do MOST of the work ourselves. When we need help, we are REALLY in a bind. It's not just because we didn't reboot.

Everybody Stream!!

I love streaming radio.

I know everyone is ga-ga over streaming video, and I agree that it’s great to see TV online for many reasons. However, my television gets great picture and sound. I can put it anywhere I like, and this will be the case.

As many of us experienced as children, though, this was not always the case. Anyone remember the rabbit ears covered with aluminum foil with a hanger sticking out to try to catch a couple of extra signals?

Well, this is STILL how most of us listed to radio. Yes, Satellite radio is available, and HD radio is finding its place. However, when my alarm goes off in the morning, I’m getting fresh radio waves. If I roll over juuusssttt right, I can actually hear what is being said through all the white noise.

This is one of the reasons we have radio streaming over the computer for the rest of the day. We can HEAR it! Better than that, though, is the incredible variety available at our fingertips when we stream radio online. Pretty much every radio station in the US (and many other countries) has an online stream available.

We can catch radio from different places, and in different time zones. This is handy when a syndicated show is on at different times across the nation. Even the best 1980’s short-wave can’t beat this clarity!

A new utility I would love to see would be a tv-guide-like website for streaming radio. This would show the hundreds (thousands?) of different radio stations available online, and their daily show list for a week. You could set it for your time zone and see what is available and when. Then, when you miss a syndicated radio show, you could look up the next time zone it’s in and listen to it from Cincinnati or Seattle or Honolulu. (you wouldn’t need to wait for any pod casts to be posted)

Streaming TV can’t beat streaming radio because there is nowhere near this amount of availability from TV stations. Radio is still a much more free and available form of media!

Google Docs – Spreadsheet.

It’s no secret, I’m a spreadsheet geek; an MSExcel geek to be more accurate. Today, I took the plunge and decided to try out Google’s spreadsheet application.

At first, I was pretty impressed. Not only did it handle all of my normal functions like sumif and vlookup, it even had a little hovering function template. It has lots of formats for numbers, though it is oddly missing the ability to manipulate the number of decimal places to display (you can do all of them, 2, or rounded to 0) unless you add a formula to round to a specific number of decimal places.

Also, there are many tables and charts that excel does not have, which can give a report serious pizzaz, or function as more than a spreadsheet. There are pictorial graphs (worms, chocolate, money all in the size of a bar chart), and there are moving flash graphs. There are also internet-savvy charts, like word-clouds! To function as more than a spreadsheet a Google gadget will produce a Gantt chart, with just task titles and dates. An org chart can also be created by listing manager’s names in one column and subordinates names in another (multiple columns = multiple levels).

However, there is an enormous barrier to using Google Spreadsheet if you are an analyst like me – there are not enough fields. The regular table only has 100 rows and columns to “T” (2003 Excel has 65000 rows and columns to “IV”, and even this is limiting, so I heard 2007 Excel has 100,000 rows). There are not many major trends that can be analyzed in only 100 rows, nor can an analyst find historical data within only 100 rows.

You can add up to 500 more rows, but no more columns. When I added the rows, the spreadsheet crashed.

I may try to use Google Spreadsheet again, in order to finish off a report. Apparently, .xls files can be uploaded into the Google application, so I can use it for my summary findings, and create some nifty charts and graphs for the ooh-la-la factor that execs are always dying for.
Are you catching this, Microsoft?

Online Health Self Help?

Can Web 2.0 help us avoid trips to the doctor? To the wrong doctor?

The other day, I had a sore throat. The last time I went to the doctor with a sore throat, they peered down it and said I was fine. This isn’t the first time a doctor has told me I was fine, when I was sure I had a malicious bug – maybe I’m a hypochondriac.

Another route I like to follow when I feel a bump in the wrong place or have a phantom pain is the web. There is instant gratification in self-diagnosis using a symptom checker. This is much quicker than making an appointment, taking time off work, and traveling to the doc’s (besides, the symptoms have usually subsided by then anyway).

WebMD is one I like because of the cool interface – touch a part of the body that hurts, and describe the symptom:

I found out, though, that this is not the most effective website. This is an article where several symptom checkers are reviewed. Looks like WrongDiagnosis.com is the winner.
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/Home/News.asp?id=52025&PageMem=2

There are stories about hypochondriacs over-hyping their symptoms (“why aren’t we going to rule out ovarian cancer, are you sure its just a UTI?”), and there are stories about people who under-diagnose themselves, and end up having awful infections that could have been avoided had they just gone to the doctor.

There are also those who, after receiving a diagnosis from a doctor, surf the web incessantly, trying to find alternative cures their doc didn’t mention.

For these reasons, many doctors loudly proclaim that the Internet should not be a place people go to for their own health care.

Docs also don’t want patients posting reviews on their medical care online. Just like Yelp!, sites that allow patients to write public comments about doctors end up with libel issues. There are even doctors that are beginning to ask patients to sign a waiver, stating that they will not post reviews online without the doc’s permission. More in this NPR story: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=102297861&m=102297852
Bottom line – I will keep surfing online for medical advice. I know that I am on the hypochondriac side, so I won’t under-diagnose myself. Also, I trust my doctor, so if she isn’t worried about a symptom, I won’t be worried either. On that note, the only thing most patients can review about a doctor is their bedside manner – that trust factor. Unless someone has received a second opinion from another doctor, or has attended medical school themselves, people should not make claims against a doc’s ability as a scientist and healer.

Yelp!

Yelp is a customer review web page, which is a great way to figure out what’s going on from locals.

This site may compete a bit with TripAdvisor, but the thing that differentiates Yelp from TripAdvisor is that the reviews are for locals, by locals. Any and all companies can be reviewed – this is not limited to “top things to do,” but includes local pet stores and hair salons in addition to restaurants and bars.

Another site that may compete with Yelp is GetSatisfaction. However, GetSatisfaction is more for customer complaints, while Yelp is all reviews – in fact, on Yelp, there are 60% positive reviews (4 or 5 stars), 20% neutral (3 stars), and 20% negative (2 or 1 stars).

The upside is clear – people looking for products and services can find them with the help of prior customers. Businesses get “free” PR from customers who want to talk publicly about their experiences.

In the middle is the way Yelp makes money. Apparently, Businesses can pay fees to Yelp in order to have a “fancier” review page, and be allowed to “thank” individual customers for good reviews. They also have the ability to highlight one review to post at the top of their Business Page.

There has been some scandal over whether paying sponsors have other benefits – like negative reviews dropping to the bottom, or being deleted by Yelp altogether. However, Yelp firmly denies that these are benefits of sponsorship.

The downside - in all open online forums, people are making public statements. If these statements are unfairly negative, the victims may sue for libel. Defamation is a tough case to make, but more than one Yelp reviewer has been sued by the business that upset them.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/161997/dentist_can_proceed_with_lawsuit_against_yelp_reviewers.html

While I understand why laws against defamation exist, I am truly concerned about the fact that a business (especially one with deep pockets) can tie up a customer (usually smaller pockets) in a lawsuit. Spreading negative reviews by Word of Mouth is the best defense that customers have against businesses that would otherwise rip them off, or sell sub-par service or products.

It seems like the only defense against this is to have the businesses who are reviewed on Yelp agree to having the reviews posted. In their Terms&Conditions, businesses could agree not to sue reviewers. Instead, the company could simply refute a disputed review.
Because social media is a conversation, companies can participate openly with customers, rather than pitting themselves against their customers!

The Web in Africa

First World nations that were present for and part of the development of the world wide web take the freedom of the web for granted. When we lose access, we complain about missed ebay bids, not talking to friends, or not being able to watch goofy videos on YouTube. But in some countries, the freedom the Web provides reaches much futher than “free shipping.” In many nations, even with minimal, spotty access, the ability to participate in the social web has hugely affected the participation of people within society. It is so powerful that oppressive regimes have spent large amounts of money and energy restricting and filtering their citizens’ access to maintain control.

The obstacles put in place by dictatorial governments can only hold the flood of information back for so long. Jonathan Gosier wrote a 3-part blog on the web in Africa, which describes some of the advances being made – technically and culturally – in some cases, in spite the efforts of government control. His goal is to encourage entrepreneurship through the use of the Internet in the third world.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_media_in_africa_part_1.php
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_media_in_africa_part_2_mobile.php
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/africa_democracy_social_media.php

When government can no longer control information, the people can begin to hold government accountable. In Ethiopia, the services Feedelix uses technology that can bypass government filters to keep users connected. In Zimbabwe, the civic group Sokwanele uses the web to alert citizens and the rest of the world to violence and forced “land redistribution”, while the government attempts to suppress reporting. http://appfrica.net/blog/archives/131

Perhaps because of the need for the populous to communicate above the government radar, Africa’s mobile market is the fastest growing worldwide. While there is little broadband infrastructure, VSat services can provide a signal, even without electricity.
Due to this availability, many regional social sites have popped up – Muti.co.za, which is like Digg, Sokwanele.com provides updateable maps through SMS, Amatomou is a news Aggregator, Mzaleno tracks Kenya’s Parliamentary actions.

The downside of satellite connectivity is that networks get bottlenecked and will slow down, which keeps prices high and speeds low.
Johathan Gosier writes his blogs in hopes that the developing world will notice the extraordinary potential available in Africa

The demise of Advertising is near.

Monetization is necessary for all businesses, and is becoming a sticky issue for Web 2.0 companies. Advertising revenue seems like one of the most likely strategies for many of the companies who are competing in a “Free” space. However, according to Eric Clemons, all media advertising revenue is failing, and the Internet effectively shatters any hope those advertisers would have of resurrecting it. He discusses these ideas in the TechCrunch article, “Why Advertising is Failing on the Internet.”
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/

He states three reasons for this failure. The first two are ongoing plagues, but haven’t begun to do real damage to ad revenues: 1) “Consumers do not trust advertising”, 2) “Consumers do not want to view advertising.” It is the third reason, which has changed since the popularity of the internet, that really crushes advertisers: 3) “Consumers do not need advertising.”

Professor Clemons states, “will no longer need advertising to obtain …information. We will see the information we want, when we want it, from sources that we trust more than paid advertising. We will find out what we need to know, when we want to make a commercial transaction of any kind.”

We have heard a great deal about how Facebook has been experimenting with ways to earn money though targeted advertising, including programs like Beacon. People are uncomfortable with this, but it seems like Facebook is directly addressing the items that Professor Clemons is concerned about.

You can trust the advertising if it comes from a “friend.” If you are notified through Facebook that a friend has purchased a dress at Ann Taylor Loft, for instance, you know that your friend made an informed buying decision to do so. Therefore, you can trust that, if you go to Anne Taylor Loft, the dress will feel nice, be a nice color, and fit well (at least it will fit someone like your friend well).

You want to see the advertising if you are already on your friend’s Facebook page, because you are interested in your friend. This is not an in-your-face popup, not even a targeted ad, it is actual information about your friend.

Finally, you can go wherever you want to for more information. You can go to your friend, to the Ann Taylor Loft website, or to the ATL store. You decide what information you want and go get it when you want it.

The hurdles, though, are that people feel like they are being “used” to advertise for these companies. Are there better ways to appeal to consumers?