Bad experiences worse than poor products

As far as eCommerce is concerned, consumers are more likely to complain about bad customer service than poor product or services, according to a survey by RightNow Technologies and YouGov. The study found that British consumers complain up to 5 times a year about poor customer experiences.

Start over with customer service

6 FREE sample RFP templates for your marketing projects

Need to find a new agency, platform, or other supplier of digital services? Need help in outlining your project? Need to know the right kinds of questions to ask and how to specify your requirements?

e-consultancy have just published six Request For Proposal (RFP) templates to help you improve the process of briefing and choosing new suppliers.

Each RFP is specific to one of the key internet marketing disciplines as follows:

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – RFP >>

2. Paid Search Marketing (PPC) – RFP >>

3. Email Marketing – RFP >>

4. Affiliate Marketing – RFP >>

5. Web Analytics – RFP >>

6. Usability and User Experience – RFP >>

e-consultancy Subscribers can download these templates immediately

For non-subscribers there are free samples available to give you a glimpse of what’s contained within.

Online Video: Storytelling and Inauthenticity

Into online video? Thinking about getting involved?

Here’s an important debate emerging about Storytelling and Inauthenticity on Will Video for Food.

Interface decision making: in the blink of an eye

This post started a brief conversation about usability, interfaces and making first impressions count. In it David Hawdale discusses various usability issues in a little more detail.

After reading his comment, I jumped on his website to take a look around and was presented with these images.

Thanks for the laugh David. This sure flags up the interface usability issue.

For those of you really interested in usability and understanding customers behaviour online read on for David Hawdales views on Blink Usability Protocol.

This piece if full of interesting material – the sum of which is;

“….eye-tracking report(s) state that users look at a Google results page for an average of 6.4 seconds before clicking on one of the results and in that time they read 3.9 individual ads. That’s an average of 140 words in 6.4 seconds.”

As David points out that’s fast, and that’s not subject to rationality.

It is decision making done in the blink of an eye.

The Battle for the Empty Chair – Seminar

HotwirePR are holding a seminar called The Battle for the Empty Chair. On 26 April 2007, in London, they will present their research on the impact the proliferation of digital media channels has on the future of an organisation’s marketing communications.

The backdrop is that the growth of digital media channels and the fragmentation of the media is blurring the lines between the disciplines and subsequently the roles of the marketing director and the corporate communications director.

HotwirePR have conducted pan-European research into the changing marketing communications environment to explore the following questions:

• With the change in marketing channels and the marketing mix, who ultimately will own the relationship with the customer?

• What will this mean for the roles of marketing director and corporate communications director?

• Will such a change affect the traditional make up of the board (traditionally a role held by the marketing director), where ownership of talking to the customer determines ‘the seat on the board’?

This is a BIG topic and HotwirePR will have industry spokespeople contributing their views and opinions. I believe it will be an evening of extremely interesting and useful debate.

Details on the event:

Date: Thursday 26th April 2007
Time: Registration begins at 5.45pm, and seminar beings at 6pm to 7.30pm, followed by drinks and canapés
Where: HotwirePR offices, 33/41 Dallington Street, London, EC1V 0BB

If you would like to attend or would like more information, please call Daljit Bhurji on 020 7608 2500.

This event will also be held in Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, Milan and Madrid. For information on the international sessions and dates, please contact Colette Hugues on 020 7608 2500.

Alternatively full details details are here

ZX Revolution

 

8-bit Z80 processor

16KB or 48KB of RAM memory

16KB of ROM

Eight colours displayed

256*192 resolution

The Spectrum’s reign as the UK’s most popular computer was brief but its legacy and the affection in which it is held remains to this day. Take a step back in time and remember the Spectrum – the UK’s first mass market home computer and 25 years old this month.

Interesting quotes from the BBC article to learn from:

“Everything was cost driven. The design was the face of the machine.“

“Form does tend to follow function. We wanted a thin, elegant form.”

“He loved looking for technology ideas and often had an idea and had to wait for the technology to catch up.

“As a consequence, we were constantly pushing the envelope, pioneering manufacturing techniques which had not been done before. All of the technologies in Sinclair products are now implemented all over the world – from the button on your toothbrush to the buttons on a mobile phone.”

Capturing ‘imagination’ is so important for B2B IT software and Services marketers.

For those inclined, here is a nostalgic Spectrum Video

15 Principles to Creating What You Want

From Danyb.

15 Principles to creating what you want.

• Never compromise your integrity for anyone or anything.

• Don’t try to be all things to all people. Learn to say no politely and pleasantly , but immediately and firmly.

• Never wait for something to happen; make it happen! Do it now!

• Do not be overwhelmed by the tasks before you. Don’t try to do everything; just do something.

• To accomplish your objective, first begin. Secondly, concentrate exclusively on the project at hand. Third, don’t stop.

• Let circumstances dictate your priorities; let priorities determine your actions.

• Focus your efforts on the root of the problem. Don’t expend energy on peripheral issues that are not crucial to producing results.

• For maximum effectiveness, do only what you do best and let others do the rest.

• Concentrate on long-term, permanent solutions rather than stop gap measures.

• Don’t waste time telling people what you are doing or what you are going to do. Results have a way of informing the world.

• Don’t make promises you can’t keep; once made, keep them.

• Don’t be tempted to take the easy way out. Have the self-discipline to do the right thing rather than the instinctive thing.

• Don’t become lax; play every point as though it were matching point.

• You are not through until you have dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s.

• Avoid premature celebrations. You are not through till the check has cleared the bank.

Call – Speak – Get More Done

This could be very BIG indeed.

Too bad it is U.S. only at the mo.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Gil Scott-Heron is an American poet and musician known primarily for his late 1960s and early 1970s work as a spoken word performer.

I’ve seen Gil live a number of times – and can safely say no other performer has ever captivated me more, or indeed captured my imagination, or shaped my thinking as much as Gil.

Gil is best known for his poem and song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”. The original lyrics are here, and you can hear an excerpt of the original here.

Latter day spin-offs are widespread. None are as good as the original, but are thought provoking and sometimes amusing none the less.

“The revolution will be brought to you by Apple Mac and PC World, with Nokia and Motorola providing SMS updates.”

“The revolution will operate a job share, or flexitime option so you can have it at your leisure because the revolution will be digitised.”

“The revolution will have a new twist, sponsored by Levis, with a sticker campaign written in an illegible graffiti style font.”

or perhaps you prefer;

The revolution will not be brought to you by Google
In 4 parts of less than ten minutes each.

There will be no pixelated buffering on the youtube.
There will be no pixelated buffering on the youtube.
There will be no pixelated buffering on the youtube.

The revolution will not be right back after a massage
South Park will not be added several times by russian teenagers
Only to be removed for copyright violations.

Online marketing & the business case

Having trouble convincing yourself, your boss, your investors, or your client, about the merits of investing in online marketing? Struggling to back up your arguments?

e-consultancy have produced six ready-made ‘business cases’ for the key internet marketing disciplines that every company should consider embracing. They are:

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – The Business Case >>

2. Paid Search Marketing (PPC) – The Business Case >>

3. Email Marketing – The Business Case >>

4. Affiliate Marketing – The Business Case >>

5. Web Analytics – The Business Case >>

6. User Experience – The Business Case >>

Each report provides you with a framework for a presentation and contains lots of facts and figures so you can make a solid case for investment.

The reports are also ideal for beginners who want to understand why these subjects are important to business success.

Subscribers can download all the guides immediately.
For non-subscribers there are free samples available to give you a glimpse of what’s contained within.

E-consultancy subscribers have access to all of their research, for as little as £149 per year. Get the detail here.

Bellwether shows marketing budget boost

UK marketing budgets have increased at the fastest rate than at any time in the last three years and even traditional media has seen a slight jump for the first time in two-and-a-half years, according to the latest Bellwether report.Total marketing budgets increased by a net balance of 7.7 per cent, with 24 per cent of companies reporting an increase and only 16 per cent seeing a decrease in the report, compiled by the Practitioners in Advertising. A boost in corporate profits are the main reason for a growth , followed by business expansion plans, new product launches and increased competition.

You know you’re living in 2007 when…

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your mobile phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7 Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your mobile phone, which you didn’t have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile.

: )

12. You’re reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn’t a #9 on this list

Bad Powerpoint in IT

It comes as no surprise to me that Bert van Dijk and Seth Godin (again) have taken some time to highlight a sorry case of Powerpoint (mis)use.

No surprise either, that the culprit looks like a Software or IT Services firms doing.

First impressions count for web

Internet users make up their minds about the quality of a website in the blink of an eye, a study shows.  How long have you got to make an impression online?

1 minute? 45 seconds? 10 seconds?

Not even close.

Researchers found that the brain makes decisions in just a 20th of a second of viewing a webpage.

They were surprised as they believed it would take at least 10 times longer to form an opinion. The study, published in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology, also suggests that first impressions have a lasting impact.

Scary, but enlightening.

“Lead Today, Gone Tomorrow” – Free paper for technology marketers

“Lead Today, Gone Tomorrow”, By Chris Schermer

This paper discusses brand leadership and its implications to a technology company’s future vision and success.

How can a technology company differentiate itself in a world where technologies are commoditised?  Read Chris’ views.