Brand Blog: Rate Those Customer Touch Points
July 1, 2009 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
So your agency is still proudly giving customers those cheap plastic pens that always leak?
What happens when a valuable client reports you’ve ruined his best shirt (even if “best” is a matter of taste since you know how he dresses)? And the pen has your agency name on it!
Yikes! What can we do about this?
Read the article “Rate Those Customer Touch Points” at the Insurance Is Fun Brand Blog.
On Point with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan, Episode 1: Social Media
June 25, 2009 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
On Point with Peter van Aartrijk and Rick Morgan is an audio conversation with insurance industry leaders who champion change and challenge all of us to think.
In this first episode, Insurance Journal’s Mitch Dunford and Julie Tinney introduce the new “On Point” podcast with hosts Rick and Peter, and discuss Insurance Journal’s adoption of technology, including social media.
The podcast was published Thursday, June 25, 2009. Run time is 29 minutes 2 seconds.
Are You Saying This?
June 8, 2009 by Rick Morgan · 1 Comment
It’s a fad
I don’t have time for this
It’s not appropriate for business
Show me the ROI
I don’t want my staff wasting company time on this
I am concerned about the E&O exposure
Objections or perhaps more accurately excuses to avoid having to deal with the social networking? Yes, but we have heard it all before.
Earlier today, I was just talking to a friend about the history associated with the use of technology in the insurance agency business. I reminded him that back in the early ’80s when the push was on for agents go become “automated” there was huge resistance. He then recalled how when e-mail was first introduced many agency owners adamantly objected to their staff using it and the objections were even stronger about “surfing ” the web at work.
Yes, there needs to be a corporate strategy. Yes, there needs to be a policy. Yes, there needs to be management and monitoring. Yes, there shoud be best practices guidelines. Yes, Yes, Yes. But lets get past the excuses and begin to reap the rewards that come with smart implementation social networking. The hoola hoop was a fad. The societal and business trends being fueled by the social web are not.
– Rick Morgan
Photo Credit: Flickr DarynBarryWave, Bing Newest Four-Letter Words to Sweep the Web
June 5, 2009 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Google Wave is “collaboration and communication using the same tool.”
– Jens Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer, Google
“Many people believe search today is a great tool; however we believe search is still in its infancy and there is much more that people can and should expect from their search service. Bing … is designed to help people find the shortest distance from their initial search query to the point of making an informed decision.”
– John Mangelaars, VP, Consumer and Online, Microsoft EMEA
In reading these quotes and looking into the latest four-letter words (“Bing” from Microsoft and “Wave” from Google) to sweep the Web, I’m struck by the incredible optimism of the people who are developing tools for the Web.
I see these Web tools (search engines, e-mail, and social networks) and say things like: ‘Wow. Amazing that these are available to me today, and for free or little cost. And they help me work faster and better.’ These folks say things like: ‘Well, those are neat but they have shortcomings X, Y, and Z. Here’s another approach we’re working on.’
Google Wave
Thus we have Google Wave (still in development and not yet available) and Microsoft’s Bing (a “decision engine” and not, the Microsofties insist, a “search engine”).
Bing is out and available. Wave was previewed for the tech/developer crowd last week. How they fit into the future, or how they fade away, I’ve no idea yet. But the excitement (mixed with angst) is that they might change the way we communicate.
Let me leave you with two statements from the folks working on Bing and Wave, the first serious and the second (mostly) tongue-in-cheek.
“Microsoft has designed Bing to help people quickly find the information they need on daily routine searches and in order to accomplish tasks, including making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business…. The explosive growth of online content has continued unabated, and Bing was developed as a tool to help people more easily navigate through the information overload that has come to characterise many of today’s search experiences…. across all search engines, as many as 30% of searches are abandoned without a satisfactory result.” [source: comScore Inc.]
– Microsoft news release, May 28, 2009
“Don’t be shy, you guys. If you see something you like, don’t be shy letting us know. We can handle pretty much any amount of applause.”
– Lars Rasmussen, Software Engineering Manager, Google, to developers when previewing Wave
– Charles Wasilewski