[CLUE-Talk] [Fwd: Good Experience: December 13, 2001]

Thu Dec 13 14:15:51 MST 2001

Some interesting stuff below. Enjoy.

Kevin

Good Experience wrote:
> 
> =================== Good Experience - 13 Dec 01 ====================
>              By Mark Hurst, founder of Creative Good
>    http://www.goodexperience.com  -  http://www.creativegood.com
> ====================================================================
> 
> Thursday, December 13, 2001
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>                        Customer experience lives!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> In spite of the dotcom downturn, important customer experience work
> is still underway on top sites. Here are two articles to consider.
> 
> First, a December 10 article from Federal Computer Week talks
> about how various government agencies are (or aren't) focusing on
> user needs to make more effective websites. For example, the IRS
> made significant changes:
> 
>    To demonstrate the current site's problems, [the customer
>    experience team] had top IRS executives search for tax
>    information. Typically, it took them 20 or even 30 clicks to
>    find it.
> 
> Website improvement often comes from getting executives directly
> involved in the customer experience. Get the VPs, the CEO, and other
> top brass to sit in on the labs to observe customers attempting to
> use the site. If executives think they're too busy to go into the
> lab, bring them a video of the highlights. A recent Creative Good
> project, in fact, created a professionally edited video of a
> customer lab and found it to be quite effective in communicating the
> importance of customer experience work.
> 
> <http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/1210/cov-design-12-10-01.asp>
> 
> ---
> 
> Second, the December 3 issue of Business Week ran a piece on eBay
> called "The People's Company":
> 
>    eBay's customers tell the world about eBay through word of
>    mouth... In essence, customers are eBay's de facto
>    product-development team, sales and marketing force,
>    merchandising department, and security detail - all rolled
>    into one.
> 
> Of course, eBay is a unique company with a unique business model;
> few companies have millions of online customers to listen and react
> to. But regardless of the company, the lesson holds that customers
> are important - vitally important - to respect, to listen to, and to
> create for. Customer experience work, at its essence, is simply
> listening to what customers want and making the appropriate changes.
> 
> <http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_49/b3760601.htm>
> 
> P.S. eBay has a sweet job opening for a customer experience VP, and
> it's posted below. Keep reading.
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>                         Fire Engine 34 update
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> You may remember in the last Good Experience newsletter that the
> Creative Good, Inc. staff took up a collection for the families of
> 29 firemen in our neighborhood who were lost in the attacks on
> September 11th.
> 
> I'm happy to announce that we collected and delivered $1,599 to the
> firehouse on 38th Street here in Manhattan. Good Experience readers
> from all over the world generously sent in donations. London, Tokyo,
> Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Berkeley, and even
> Flower Mound, Texas were all represented - among other places. I
> think the longest-traveling donation came from New Zealand.
> 
> Thanks *very* much to everyone who helped out. You have made a
> difference to those families and to our city.
> 
> In the picture below are firemen from Engine 34, Engine 26, and
> Ladder 21, all in the same firehouse on 38th Street where we
> delivered the donations. Creative Good CEO Phil Terry is
> standing second from right; the occasion was a benefit dinner,
> thrown by the All Stars Talent Show Network, that raised thousands
> more dollars for the families of the victims.
> 
> Firemen picture:
> <http://www.goodexperience.com/images/1017-firemen.jpg>
> 
> If you are still interested in making a donation, just e-mail Phil
> Terry at pterry at creativegood.com and he'll give you the details.
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>                    Jobs: eBay, Wellmark, and yours...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> After three years of publishing this newsletter with no paid
> content, I have finally decided to accept paid job announcements. If
> you're interested in posting a job announcement to the more than
> 45,000 subscribers of Good Experience, e-mail me here at
> mark at creativegood.com and I'll send you the rate sheet when it's
> ready.
> 
> If you're *looking* for a job, I hope that Good Experience will help!
> For now, here are two job openings at eBay and Wellmark.
> 
> *--- eBay: Senior Director, eBay Design Labs ---*
> 
> Location: California
> 
> This position heads up eBay's Design Labs, which is responsible for
> the customer experience of ebay.com, including interaction design,
> visual design, usability engineering, and instructional design. Five
> years of management experience is required.
> 
> For more information, go to
> <http://www.ebaycareers.com/jobsearch/index.html> and search for:
> Design Labs
> 
> Or try clicking on this long URL:
> <http://ebay.recruitsoft.com/servlets/CareerSection?art_ip_action=JobOfferDetail&art_servlet_language=en&jobOfferNo=4774&csNo=2&flowTypeNo=1&isReferrerMode=false&ctx=1>
> 
> *--- Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa:     ---*
>  --- Team Leader, Website Content & Design Management ---
> 
> Location: Iowa
> 
> This person will be responsible for managing the organization's
> Internet and Intranet publishing activities and programs, including
> the formation of customer-focused strategic goals, project
> initiation, planning, development, implementation and maintenance.
> Health care experience is a plus.
> 
> Application deadline is Friday, December 22.
> 
> For more information:
> <http://www.wellmark.com/jobs/display_position.asp?datanum=1254>
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>                          Simplifying the PC
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Exactly one year ago today I wrote a Good Experience column called
> "It's Time to Simplify the PC", in which I described the
> complexity of personal computers:
> 
>    Unfortunately, even the simplest site on the Web can't escape the
>    overwhelming complexity of the personal computer on which the
>    site appears. Everything about today's personal computer - from
>    the hardware to the operating system to the Web browser software
>    - is complicated, unreliable, ridden with defects (not "bugs," as
>    the industry would like us to call them), and focused on
>    short-term profits at the expense of the user.
> 
> (from <http://www.goodexperience.com/columns/121300simplifypcs.html>)
> 
> What has this past year brought to the PC experience for the average
> user? I can only think of two things: more e-mail viruses for the
> long-suffering users of Microsoft Outlook, and the release of
> Windows XP, whose main selling point is that it doesn't crash quite
> as often as preceding versions of Windows.
> 
> Given Microsoft's monopoly, and the general stagnation of the PC
> market, I don't expect any major improvements from the industry any
> time soon.
> 
> In contrast to this situation is my own Macintosh, which I have
> outfitted with a small collection of freeware and shareware programs
> to run almost everything. At this moment, for example, I'm typing in
> a text editor that I got for free, in a file format (plaintext) that
> is free and accessible to every type of computer and networked
> digital device in the world, while my spelling mistakes are caught
> and corrected on the fly by a simple shareware program.
> 
> Meanwhile I'm listening to a dj mix, in mp3 format, that I
> downloaded (legally) for free - and those music bits are coming to
> me through the Quicktime player, which was included free on the Mac
> when i bought it. I never have to deal with viruses, I never have to
> upgrade my software, and I never have to worry about the
> compatibility of my (plaintext) bits. Barring some tremendous
> technological advance, I have trouble imagining how my computing
> life could get much easier or more effective, no matter what
> hardware or software upgrade I was offered.
> 
> Unfortunately, the Mac didn't come outfitted like this; I had to
> configure it this way myself. My point is that the major software
> companies are probably never going to give users the tools they need
> to enjoy an optimal PC experience. Instead, it's going to take the
> efforts of people outside the Microsofts and Intels to really make a
> difference. I, for one, would be happy to work on the project, if
> there was just some funding to get it started. (Any takers? :)
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>                              Fun stuff
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> This is fun... Yet another reason to treat your customers well,
> especially in the hospitality industry. After a bad experience with
> a hotel in Houston, these guys created a slide show about it - then
> posted it on the Web.
> 
> <http://www.craphound.com/misc/doubletree.htm>
> 
> Speaking of which, I should really put together a slide show about
> the last two times I ordered from barnesandnoble.com. Not long ago I
> ordered a book by same-day delivery, and it took over two *months*.
> Not learning my lesson, I ordered a gift from them again recently
> and the book arrived, unwrapped, with tags telling workers to wrap
> the book... right next to a sticker saying that the book was a
> "special discount." (I don't think I even got the discount.)
> OK, I'll stop now.
> 
> ---
> 
> Finally, if you live in the New York City area, I highly recommend
> dropping by the "winter show" of New York University's ITP
> (Interactive Telecommunication Program), where the students display
> their end-of-semester projects in interactive media.
> 
> Wednesday, December 19 through Friday, December 21, 6-9 p.m.
> 721 Broadway at Waverly Place
> 4th floor, South Elevators
> 
> Winter Show:
> <http://itp.nyu.edu/nuweb/winter_show/>
> 
> My review of last year's Winter Show:
> <http://www.goodexperience.com/columns/121900endyear.html>
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 
> Until next time, have a happy and *safe* holiday. See you in '02.
> 
> - Mark Hurst (mark at creativegood.com)
> 
> Good Experience home:
> <http://www.goodexperience.com>
> 
> All archives, starting November 1999:
> <http://www.goodexperience.com/archives/index.html>
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>                             contact info
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ABOUT MARK HURST
> Mark Hurst, founder of Creative Good, has been advocating the online
> customer since the birth of the Web. He also writes this newsletter.
> 
> Contact Mark Hurst: mark at creativegood.com
> Bio: http://www.creativegood.com/team/mark.html
> 
> ABOUT CREATIVE GOOD, INC.
> Creative Good makes the Net easier to use and our clients much more
> profitable. To delight your customers with your Internet site or
> service, hire us. We have consulting experience in health care,
> consumer packaged goods, e-commerce, content sites, financial
> services, wireless services, and online entertainment.
> 
> Contact Creative Good:
> Phone: +1.212.736.2075
> E-mail: good at creativegood.com
> Web: http://www.creativegood.com (corporate site)
> 
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> Always remember... on the Net, a good customer experience brings
> higher revenues, more customer retention, and better branding.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> (c)1999-2001 Mark Hurst. All rights reserved.

-- 

"Success is never final, failure is never fatal" - Kevin Cullis
---
Kevin Cullis
kcullis at coloradoexcellence.org
303-893-CPEX (2739)
Colorado Performance Excellence, Inc
http://www.coloradoexcellence.org