My Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

I've been a good girl all year long - promise! I hope it's not too late, but I need to revise my previous Christmas Wish list.

I had a minor - OOPS - and now I find blogging a bit difficult.

Can I please have a new monitor for my laptop - this one kind of got broken.I promise I won't accidently drop my laptop again and break the new one. Cross my heart!

XOXO
~Kel

What do YOU want to ask Santa For? (its ok, go ahead, I've got enough cookies to go around)

Social Media Introvert?

Would you classify yourself as an introvert or an extrovert?

Introvert
a shy person

Extrovert
an outgoing, gregarious person.

Fundamentally a rather simple question, however not always such an easy answer because many times we can exhibit qualities of both. Personally I would classify myself as an introvert, however if you ask anyone who knows me I am a talker. I mean, I literally talk ALL THE TIME and will typically talk to most anyone. I blog, I twitter, I run the gamut on most social networking sites but even then, I lurk in the shadows until someone or something draws me out of my comfort zone (or perhaps I've had a few cocktails.)

I logged into twitter this morning, like I always do, to find a tweet linking back to a BlogHer post by Maria Niles "Social Media is for Introverts." I immediately read the article nodding my head in agreement with so many of her points.

Introverts conjure up images of anti-social hermits. Yet some of the biggest users of social media consider themselves introverts.

Could this really be? Are we lurking behind the screen in the comfort of our own settings giving even the biggest extrovert a run for his socializing money? I think so.

In a post prompted once again by a twitter discussion Pete Cashmore writes:

Perhaps social media affords us the control we lack in real life socializing: the screen as a barrier between us and the world.

This prompted me to think, perhaps my own want to be involved but to feel in somewhat control has left me following the introverted path in life and explains why in a social setting I am usually standing in the crowd, thoughts swirling with things to say yet feeling utterly invisible to the world. It would possibly also explain why the hub and I are so compatible...he is the extrovert to my introvert.

No, he is not so much for online interaction, but give him a crowd and the spotlight appears. I on the other hand, excel at behind the screen communications and typically shy away from first IRL meetings. Give me a few of these in person communications and then I am usually ok...its breaking that barrier that I struggle with the most.

Perhaps that is the irony in all of this - Social Media and Social Networking is about the communication between people, clients and businesses and yet it's socializing on a whole new level. Technology has provided a link to the masses that affords all of us (introverts and extroverts alike) a rather level playing field. I can meet and chat with people I might never have the courage to speak to face to face as well as share thoughts and discussions with people I might never have had the chance to meet who are just as introverted as myself.

Are you an introvert or extrovert and do you think social media challenges the traditional view of these roles?

For Every Excuse A New Strategy

The Customer is always right (even when they are wrong.)

It used to be a staple point of the customer service job, but lately I've been wondering where has that mentality gone? Was it ever right? Does it fit with todays times or are we just greedy, "I want it my way" kind of people?

A conversation took place at work recently where our customer service "help desk" people we able to aire their grevences. While each person had individual complaints, they all centered around one basic issue - lack of clear cut and INFORCABLE standards with how the customer should be delt with.

"The customer is being unreasonable, where do I draw the line and say no to at request?"

The answer was simple..."You don't."

I can say I believe these words to be true because 'I've been there and done that.' It was a difficult lesson for me to learn, but in the effort of satisfying a customer, regardless of how unreasonable their requests may be - your job is still 'customer service' and they need to be accomodated to the best of your ability.

In todays world, technology has enabled us to air our grievences in many outlets. Social Media's are taking the marketing community by storm and even though a company has spent a lifetime building a reputation, all it takes is a few negative tweets or blogs to start an avalanche of bad PR.

Just look at the recent news with comcast and their massive generation of press because they have a staff that watches the tweets of disgruntled customers in an effort to minimize bad press. Many more companies are jumping on the band wagon and I imagine this will only be the beginning. Companies that are attempting to stay out of the social media frenzie are not safe either - take for example the recent Exxon media in which a woman by the name of 'Janet' had taken to posting as an Exxon Rep which stirred up controversies in itself.

Technology has given us many new and wonderful things - I can buy and sell items in the comfort of my home, I can praise and complain someone without ever having in person interaction, and I can review and rate a product without ever having my opinions questioned. It really is a wonderful place - however in the eyes of customer service, it puts a whole new spin on 'big brother watching.'

Think about it for just a moment, it used to be you filled out a comment card or were asked to participate in a survey when visiting a store - now, surveys are online and companies monitor your purchases via cookies or purchase history. Now they monitor your online interactions as well - personally I'm a little afraid.

What do you think? Customer service changes, are they better than what they were years ago or do you think we are headed into the unknown.

Geek Humor

After yesterday's post, I thought I would share a bit of humor. I've mentioned before that I work in computers (and have for 10yrs.) I've done my time as help desk/support (the people you talk to on the phone when there's a problem), Network administration (the people behind the scenes who fix the problem) and Management (the people with the big title who 'play nice' with the bosses and generally run damage control.) With the recent article The Customer Service Hall of Shame I thought I would post a few of my favorite gems as seen from the 'other' perspective.
**DISCLAIMER** This is not to say all users are less than computer savvy, just that there are a rare few who should not be allowed anywhere near them!

Entered on 04/22/2008 by Robert :
Have been on leave since noon Thursday to Tuesday morning. In that
time, 900+ e-mails - all spam - have accumulated in my web e-mail account ... all spam. Is there a way to filter this out? Or, at a minimum to temporarily disable the
account until the spammers stop using my account ID, etc.? Thanks for
any help you can give. (I left the spam e-mails in the account so you can
see what I'm talking about. The web account is spammed@haha.com

Yes Robert, let me use my Jedi mind tricks and convince the spammers not to use your account anymore. I'm sure they will understand completely as soon as I explain that you do not like having 900+ emails in your inbox while you are away. In addition to this, you really should ask those porn sites you keep visiting from sharing your work email address with spammers (you wouldn't have to use your work address if you weren't hiding from your wife.)

Entered by Dwight :
Email eror

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject:
The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

wavier@can't-spell.com
The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this
message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient
directly to find out the correct address.

(Please see attachement of screen shot of settings, I need to send email to do work functin)

Dwight, I understand that email does not come with spell checking capabilities within the address field, however as evident from the other misspelled words within your request, you might want to invest in a dictionary. The email in fact does not exist as you have spelled it, waIver is the correct spelling and that email DOES exist. Respell and try again.
Some of my all time favorites -

"Why isn't the printer printing my document...I need this right now? It says it's out of toner, does that mean it won't print?"

Sure it will print....it will only take a minute for it grab a pen so it can write it all down and then you can have your copy.

"The meeting just disappeared off my calendar, I didn't delete it, I didn't touch it, poof..it is just gone. Do I have a virus?"

Um, no virus is going to steal just the one calendar event. BTW...check your deleted items as I do see the calendar event you are referring to in there, it might have been an accidental deletion, even though I know you are perfect and would NEVER make such a mistake.

Do you ever have any of those I-D-ten-T's (go ahead and write it out, you know you want to) in your office that make you go ?HUM?