And now, the Darth Vader to Alma’s Luke Skywalker: Kazimiera. You can call her Kazia. (CAS-yeah, the cas as in casual.)
Okay Dell, I have to admit, you did a good job. I have almost healed from the trauma you caused me with Alma’s (Inspiron 1420) 3 (almost 4) motherboard replacements and numerous power cord issues! I’m thoroughly impressed with this new (Studio 15) machine. The screen is beautiful. This is the kind of laptop that I usually price out and then go, what?! how much? uh, no, this other one’s just fine. I’m so close to being happy to send Alma away (the fact that she has a name is making it a bit hard). I’m not going to go crazy with praise, but Dell, you held up your end of the bargain, honoured your extended warranty, and put things right, so I won’t mention whose computer I’m thinking of buying next.
I think Kazia and I are going to get along quite well (at least until my warranty runs out).
♥
Tired of listening to cheesy hold music for hours? With more people using Twitter, customer service departments have started following suit.
In my previous blog post, I discussed how building an online community around your brand also has customer service benefits, but what if your only goal is to provide customer service via Twitter?
Providing customer service via Twitter is a complicated task, but it centers around your responsiveness to your customers.
Searching for and promoting your brand on twitter are essential. Your customers need to know you are on Twitter.
The second key is responsiveness. If people are tweeting frustration about your brand and these tweets go unanswered, the view of your brand will decrease.
Take a look at Seesmic’s Support, @askseesmic.
A Twitter user was frustrated at a change to the way the Seesmic application handles retweets and tweeted the following:
@BrookeLogan09: Seesmic i HATE u for messing w/ the RT system
Seesmic responded quickly with:
@askseesmic: @BrookeLogan09 which app is this for? Let me know here to listen and help! thanks! ^cw
About six tweets and 30 minutes later @BrookeLogan09 had her problem solved and gratefully tweeted:
@BrookeLogan09: Seesmic team is THE BEST!!!!! —-> @askseesmic
Seesmic not only found a tweet that wasn’t directed at them, but solved the problem in a public manner. Anyone can see this exchange and note that Seesmic is responsive to the needs of their customers.
The one downfall is if you fail to help a customer, you are likely to get called out on it.
Last week, Claire Celsi, a PR professional from Des Moines, Iowa, called Dell out on the numerous problems she had with various products.
Her first tweet on this issue expressed her total frustration at the situation she was in.
@clairecelsi: Computer repair guy just called. 6 month old, lightly used Dell laptop blew a hard drive, under warranty. Dell sucks. DELL SUCKS
Over the next few days Celsi continued to tweet about her situation, even mentioning @dell. Without success she directed tweets at @dell and @teamblackhawk, Dell’s sales team for home users.
Eventually, @schippers mentioned that @lionelatdell may be able to help and Lionel reached out to her.
Celsi’s experience transitioned to e-mail and you can follow how her story turned out in her blog post here.
While Celsi’s experience may not be typical, it highlights the need to actively monitor your brand on Twitter because if you don’t the results will linger in cyberspace forever.
Here are some of the other companies I found providing customer service via Twitter: AT&T, Comcast, Constant Contact, CoTweet (who also supplies an application to help companies manage their Twitter accounts) and HootSuite (another maker of a Twitter application for businesses).
Do you have stories about getting help via Twitter? Comment and let me know.
Today’s Featured Cause: Healthy Notions – Healthy Notions is a GA Non-Profit children’s organization. Our goal is to help develop healthy communities by decreasing risk factors for children (ages 6 to 12) through educational, health (physical/emotional) and inspirational projects and initiatives.
We believe that kids can be empowered and challenged to make a difference in their lives and greatly impact the lives of others if they are presented with an opportunity to do so.
Save yourself some money with coupon codes and and support Healthy Notions by shopping with Donation Street. Today’s top money saving offers:
Office Max- Save 15% Today Folica- $20 off $100 Dell- Save $50 on the Western Digital 2TB My Book Mirror Edition Dual Drive Storage System – Now $169.99
End Date: Gordon’s Jewelers- 10% Off Spring Trends Shoes.com- 20% off at Shoes.com. Exclusions apply. Nickelodeon- Save 70% Off EVERYTHING + FREE SHIPPING on orders $50 or more. Kipling- All New Markdowns Up to 70% Off– Limited Quantities NBA Store- Receive $10 off orders of $75 or $15 off orders of $100
IT departments use techniques like encryption and remote wiping to protect data stored on laptops. While these methods may prevent the data from being compromised, they don’t help locate the actual machine. A free program called Prey might.
Prey is a free application available on Mac, Linux or Windows – find it here. It is very small in size and operates in the background and at specified intervals connects to the internet and attempts to determine whether your machine is stolen or not. Prey does this in one of two ways:
1. If Prey is configured to use Prey’s online control panel, you simply log in and indicate that your machine is stolen. Prey checks in online from your computer and gets a message that your system has been compromised.
2. If Prey is configured for stand alone (which is a much more complicated method and requires you to come up with a webpage): there is no communication with the online service, you must create a webpage and the url is given to Prey, who then accesses the live page and if it exists, prey continues on. However if your laptop is stolen, you simply delete the page and Prey receives a 404 error the next time it checks the webpage and knows that machine is stolen. Prey then sends a report describing whereabouts:
You log in to Prey’s online service and you are given the following:
The Computer Status
A List of Running Programs and Services
Network and Wifi Status
A screenshot of the desktop
A Picture taken with the Webcam if one is attached
If you have gone for the stand alone option, the report is mailed to an email address that you entered when setting up Prey.
However, there are some limitations to Prey:
Prey is removed if the hard drive is wiped
Software can be uninstalled if the thief knows that Prey is on your system
The machine must connect to the internet in order to give a report
Prey requires law enforcement to retrieve the laptop (you cannot break into someone’s house to retrieve your item, even if it was stolen from you!)
No theft recovery help – Prey is a free service and it’s up to you to do the leg-work
If you are concerned that Prey might not be able to do what you want, there are alternatives: Absolute Software offers services for Home, Business and Corporate users at a cost. In fact Dell and HP are known to use Absolute Software’s Computrace! Check out the website here. So if you do need to protect highly sensitive data, use a more robust, paid solution like Computrace and always ensure your data is encrypted. Check out the Prey Tutorial over on TechRepublic.
Last week our Fresh team was slammed with several new proposals to get out the door by Friday and we launched a new website for an upcoming conference.
I really need to plug the conference right up front – it’s the Social Media 201 Conference, hosted by Microsoft in Seattle on April 15th. More info can be found at our website at www.socialmedia201.com and you may register there as well.
Tip – You can save 50% by doing two things:
register by March 15th and
use the discount code FRESH
The concept for SM 201 stemmed from the 101 Conference Joe Kennedy and the Eastside Entrepreneurs hosted last September at Microsoft. The 101 conference helped educate business owners about what social media is and why companies should participate. The 201 conference is designed for those businesses who have started to delve into social media and want to find a path to profitability, i.e. ROI.
In our research we find a number of firms considering a social media play, but isolating and building a case for return on investment can prove difficult. We’ve identified a number of variables that a firm might measure in developing an ROI model and in one case we found over 100 measurable variables! Like you, we thought that was a little ridiculous.
My approach to this conference was to identify key business leaders who don’t just dabble in social media, but where social media marketing is a part of what they do and they have experienced demonstrable results from their efforts. The speakers are coming from, Vancouver BC, New York, Chicago and Seattle and have worked with major brands such as Disney, T-Mobile, The Gates Foundation, Dell, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Mini and many other small and medium-sized business.
Additionally our speakers have a tremendous presence and a depth of credibility in social media channels. They are the trend-setters, the key individuals in their markets with literally hundreds of thousands of followers, active bloggers, leading authors and thought leaders.
When I approached our two largest sponsors, Microsoft and Comcast, they offered their enthusiastic support for hosting the event and bringing in partners, lunch, and adding their brands to the concept. We’re very excited to have them on board.
Beyond the conference, participants will also have time to meet with all the presenters, participate in panel discussions with experts and to network with each other. This will be a unique conference where attendees will come away with specific actions and key learnings they can apply to their own businesses.
Today (11th February, 2010) sees the opening of an information event aimed at individuals who have been made redundant due to the DELL announcement (January 2009). These individuals have been invited to explore their future options available under the EGF (European Globalisation Adjustment Fund) at this two-day event which takes place in the South Court Hotel, Raheen, Co. Limerick from 10am- 5pm today and tomorrow (Friday, 12th February).
Up to 2,400 affected workers from DELL and its ancillary enterprises (Banta Global Turnkey, IEC/Flextronics, Sercom, Sodexo, Cube, RPS Engineering, Rehab Logistics, Novo Strat) in the Mid-West region have been contacted and invited to attend this event. These eligible workers were in employment with the companies in question at the time of the announcement and were made redundant no later than 31st April, 2010.
FÁS has been tasked to establish a dedicated EGF co-ordination unit (operating out of Limerick) to ensure there is a concentrated local and regional focus in providing assistance to those affected workers.
Complemented by significant Government funding, the EGF fund exists to assist redundant workers to prepare for alternative employment. This range of additional measures will assist these affected workers to access tailored personalised supports in terms of occupational guidance, job search assistance, training courses, entrepreneurship support and accelerated routes into further and third level education.
At this two-day event, eligible individuals can find out about the EGF customised options which are on offer from FÁS, Enterprise Ireland, City and County Enterprise Boards, Fáilte Ireland, Teagasc, VECs and third level institutions throughout the region. Invited individuals can register for courses and services and sign-up for further guidance if required. To assist in career planning, there will be guidance seminars on-site along with representatives from the Department of Social & Family Affairs, MABS, Citizens Information and private training providers.
Event: EGF Information Event
Dates/Times: Thursday, 11th February (10am – 5pm)
Friday, 12th February (10am – 5pm)
Venue: South Court Hotel, Raheen, Co. Limerick
FÁS is committed to working closely with relevant state organisations and stakeholders to provide an effective integrated service for affected workers to explore their future options in re-training, upskilling, education and self-employment. Further information on the range of EGF funding, supports and programmes for eligible workers is available on www.tusnua.ie.
This high capacity Replacement battery has been specifically designed to work with Dell Inspiron 6400 and E1505 series notebook computers. 6 Cell 4400 mah Li-Ion re-chargeable Notebook Replacement batterypack for Dell Inspiron 6400 series notebooks. This battery is compatible to the following Dell Part’s are KD476, GD761, 312-0428, TD347, PD945, RD850, RD859, UD260, UD265, 312-0461 451-10339, PD942, PD946, RD850, RD857, RD859, TD344, TD347, TD349, UD264, UD267 or equivalent.
Get crisp and fast laser printouts with increased print productivity from Dell 2230d monochrome laser printer. With printing speed of up to 33 pages per minute (ppm) for A4 size and 35 ppm for letter size papers, this printer delivers optimum performance every time you print. Also, it allows you to print professional-quality documents with quality text and sharp details at maximum resolutions of up to 1200 x 1200 dpi. Moreover, this printer is equipped with 400 MHz processor and 32 MB of RAM in a stylish and compact design which suits any home or business environment. Designed for high printing volumes and great usage demands, it has a 250-sheet covered drawer with 1-sheet multipurpose tray and also has a duty cycle of 35,000 pages per month. Additionally, it provides effortless setup and installation via USB port or IEEE 1284 parallel port. Streamline your printing process and brighten up your presentations with 2230d monochrome laser printer.
