FunnyBusiness: Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line

There you go again...Comcast Got It All Wrong

Last week AOL fired a customer service rep caught on audio for doing his job . A blogger had taped his conversation trying to cancel his  service.

The soundtrack became an online hit. This week's online sensation is the napping Comcast technician. If you happened to be watching Cable News this weekend, this video got a lot of coverage. But it was the wrong coverage.

They focused on the fact that Comcast fired the poor technician, who after waiting on hold for an excruciating and obviously mind numbing 90 minutes to his own office,took a nap. The technician napping, wasn't the issue.

Comcast's horrible customer service was supposed to be the butt of the joke. Unfortuneately, Comcast's knee jerk reaction was to focus on the fact that the technician nodded off.

Who wouldn't fall asleep after 90 minutes on a  Cozy Couch?

The Comcast technician didn't deserve to get fired any more than John at AOL deserved his firing earlier this month. What he deserved was a Gift card to Starbucks.

A couple of weeks ago,I encountered the working conditions of a Comcast technician. I had offered to greet the Comcast technician at my friend Myrna's house while she visited her dad in the hospital. He was working in her bedroom. I was downstairs.

After 45 minutes I went in to check on his progress. There he was, sitting on the floor with the phone cradled in his neck..on hold with Comcast. At the time I found it amusing.While I was used to being put on hold for technical support as a customer, I had no idea that the internal folks were treated the same way.

What's with that? We chatted. He said he always was put on hold for long periods of time.It was just part of the job. The guy who posted the video--Brian Finkelstein(who created his blog Snakes On A Blog for the sole purpose of being invited to the premiere of Snakes on a Plane) wasn't upset with the technician. He was upset with Comcast. That message got lost in the humor of the napping technician video. As he said on his blog,Snakes on a Blog,

At one point Comcast sent a technician to replace my cable modem/wireless router. This should have taken five minutes. Instead, when he called Comcast to activate my new modem, he was placed on hold for nearly 90 minutes. When I asked him why he was on hold for so long, he told me that phone reps were busy filling out customer service surveys. Then he fell asleep on my couch. I could have made a few suggestions for their survey. Anyway, after they missed two appointments in the last 24 hours, I’ve finally lost all hope of Comcast actually getting my internet connection working. To commemorate my miserable experience, I made this video (including footage of the technician asleep on my couch)

As expected, Comcast fixed the problem. Turns ot it was quite complicated and took at team over 5 hours to finally get his interent working. Jim Durbin, at Brandstorming also thinks that Comcast missed the point recommending that if they had had a blog they could have alleviated the bad press.

1) Link to the video from the Comcast blog. Comcast screwed up, and admitting it is the first step to take. Link the video, admit how embarassing it is, and call up Brian to personally apologize. Give him six months worth of free service.
2) Work to correct the problem. The problem is not the poor tech. It's the fact that cable service is a mockery, and everyone from sitcoms to comedians to average customers make fun of the service of cable guys. They even made a movie about it!
3) Don't fire the tech. Make him into a commercial where he drinks a lot of coffee. Turn this around. Use the guy as an example of how they are improving.
4) Highlight your successes by tracking progress. Highlight your successes. Make your improvements public.
5) Focus on other positive ways you can use blog marketing.

There's another aspect to this story. Instead of punishing the technician for taking a nap , Comcast should be applauding him --at least that's the belief of Camille & Bill Anthony of The Napping Company who are tiredlessly (because they nap) campaigning to promote work- time napping. More on that at another time -- but their point is that napping increases productivity. I hope to have an interview with them later this week. So in addition to the Starbucks for a year card, I think Comcast should also become a sponsor of National Napping Day --which always falls on the Monday after Daylight Savings starts.

Meanwhile, Comcast and AOL should rethink their firings, apologize to the booted technicians and yes, apologize to their customers.

Hat tip to Church of the Customer for leading me to Brandstorming. This is cross-posted at Blogher

Note: In the original post I had incorrectly identified Jim Durbin as Frank Durbin. Franki Durbin is his wife. The error was correct on 6/30/06.

The Train Has Left The Station. Did you forget to bring your paper?

As we move away from the era of "All The News That's Fit To Print" to the era of "All The News That's Fit To Transmit", it's like watching a dear old friend receive a diagnosis of a terminal illness.

Some handle it with grace.

Some refuse to accept the diagnosis.

And,some fight back like hell and prove the experts wrong.

And so it is with newspapers.

Time was when commuters would bring their newspapers on the bus, train ,or plane and read away on their way to work.

Today, they can turn on their phone ( okay not on the plane), power up their iPod , or WiFi equipped laptop or PDA, and get all the news that's fit to transmit.

Talk about a tough job --try being a telemarketer for newspapers these days. All I can say is I hope they don't work on commission.

On Friday I got a call asking if I would like to try the StarTribune for about $2.00 a week.

I explained to the woman on the phone that I did read the StarTribune just about every day--online.

I don't remember what her response was to that. And that's the problem. If the newspapers can't figure out a compelling reason  to overcome my barriers to subscription, then they need to execute a different business model.

So here's what I think they should figure out today and then call me back. Explain why I should...

(1)  spend money to read stuff I can access online for free ( well its not free I pay a pretty hefty bill to Time Warner each month for the privilege of high speed internet)

2. Wait until the paper is delivered instead of  opening up my laptop and reading through stories when the insomnia hits at around 2:30 a.m.

3. Add more paper clutter to my house with a newspaper that only has a few select sections that interest me ( forget the sports, classifieds and stock performance)

4.Find a place to "store" the paper until I remember to take it out to the recycling bin.

5.Remember which Tuesday is recycling pickup day.

Call me a half -empty kinda gal, but I think newspapers ,as we know them ,are going  the way of the 8-track, Sony's  Beta,and gas station attendants who wash your windows, fill up your tank, and check under your hood.

The rumblings about the fate of newspapers have been around for awhile. On January 7th, Michael Kinsley shared his thoughts in an Op-Ed in the Washington Post.

"The trouble even an established customer will take to obtain a newspaper continues to shrink, as well. Once, I would drive across town if necessary. Today, I open the front door and if the paper isn't within about 10 feet I retreat to my computer and read it online. Only six months ago, that figure was 20 feet. Extrapolating, they will have to bring it to me in bed by the end of the year and read it to me out loud by the second quarter of 2007.

No one knows how all this will play out. But it is hard to believe that there will be room in the economy for delivering news by the Rube Goldberg process described above. That doesn't mean newspapers are toast. After all, they've got the brand names. You gotta trust something called the "Post-Intelligencer" more than something called "Yahoo" or "Google," don't you? No, seriously, don't you? Okay, how old did you say you are? "

In his Op-Ed, Kinsley  reminds readers that 10 years ago newspapers had their undies in a bundle with fear that Microsoft's "Sidewalk" project was going to destroy them.

It didn't,and as Kinsley says,newspapers have become complacent. I would add arrogant.

About a week earlier,Tribune syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker wrote a column which basically is  a spanking  to the American public for turning to and trusting bloggers.

Now, many of you won't be able to access the column because its probably already been archived and that would require you spending about $2.95 to read it. And , of course if you are not registered with the Chicago Tribune you'll have to go through that process to access the column.

HELLOOOO.

Back to Ms. Parker. So here are some of her choice thoughts...taken out of context but I think they hold up rather nicely on their own. She writes...

"There's something frankly creepy about the explosion we now call the Blogosphere--the big-bang "electroniverse" where recently wired squatters set up new camps each day."

"Say what you will about the so-called mainstream media, but no industry agonizes more about how to improve its product, police its own members and better serve its communities. Newspapers are filled with carpal-tunneled wretches, overworked and underpaid, who suffer near-pathological allegiance to getting it right."

Bloggers persist no matter their contributions or quality, though most would have little to occupy their time were the mainstream media to disappear tomorrow.

Spoiled and undisciplined, they have grabbed the mike and seized the stage, a privilege granted not by years in the trenches, but by virtue of a three-pronged plug and the miracle of WiFi.

Each time I wander into blogdom, I'm reminded of the savage children stranded on an island in William Golding's "Lord of the Flies." Without adult supervision, they organize themselves into rival tribes, learn to hunt and kill, and eventually become murderous barbarians in the absence of a civilizing structure.

Schadenfreude--pleasure in others' misfortunes--has become the new barbarity on an island called Blog. When someone trips, whether Dan Rather or Eason Jordan or Judith Miller, bloggers are the bloodthirsty masses slavering for a public flogging. Incivility is their weapon and humanity their victim."

It was reading a Schadenfreude blog --Jossip in the first place that I learned about Ms. Parker's concerns.

"Oh, yeah, you also have editors, fact-checkers, assistants, and interns, to make sure that one fucking story a day you file has no errors right? Oh, boo-hoo, cut the "we're journalists, we work harder" crap, ok? We have carpal-tunnel too, bitch — and no fancy-man insurance!"

Which brings me to the Roanoke Times in Roanoke Virginia. This newspaper is now offering a 4-5 minute daily videocast in an effort to attract non newspaper readers.

Take a look, it's the new face of newspapers.

You can bet your 60 GB video iPod on it.

Episode 2_My American Office_Royce Holladay

NOTE: This episode was originally posted on October 11th. I decided to reissue this vlog because I am now using vblogcentral which greatly enhances the view-ability of vlogs.

Disclosure: Royce is a former client.Earlier this year I consulted with Human Systems Dynamics on brand communications.

Royce Holladay is a consultant, a former teacher, a former education administrator, an artist, a novelist and a blogger. She is a "paper" away from her earning her PhD.

Her office is the basement of her home in Minneapolis.

My American Office _Episode 4_ Paula Kaplan Berger

I met Paula Kaplan in 1969. We were both freshman at the University of Missouri. We both went to "J' school. I went on to be a reporter. Paula went to law school. Today she is a partner with Neal Gerber Eisenberg in Chicago. She practices real estate law.

This is her office.

Episode 3- My American Office

This post has been moved to December 21,2005. The reason for the change When it was originally posted I was not affiliated with vblogcentral-- a great service that enhances the viewing of videos online.

I decided to migrate all of my old videos to new posts so that it would be easier for people to watch each episode.

Thanks!

 

Episode 2- My American Office

This post has moved to December 27th. The move was made because I now use vblogcentral which makes it incredibly easy to view videos--no downloading necessary--if you have cable connection you can start watching the videos almost instantaneously.

CCD CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

According to Consumer Reports, in 2003 there were more than 5000 product recalls   involving 60 million products.

Surprisingly the Canon CCD Chip is not among them.

To read what consumers are saying about the Chip off the old block, you'd think Canon would issue a recall. They haven't.

About six weeks ago, in my commitment to begin video logging, I bought a used Canon ZR 70 camcorder on eBay.  The owner said he had only used it once to film his son's birth.

Snicker you may, but I  still believe the guy and the equipment seemed to support what he said.

It was only after I made the purchase that I decided to check what people were saying about the camcorder.

Oops! Note to self. When checking consumer reviews the  process is  supposed to be read the review BEFORE you make the purchase...not buy the product and then find out whether you've made a good purchase.

Consumers were not happy with Canon.  Seems like the camcorder has a bad CCD chip which prevents the camcorder from recording anything but pitch blackness.

While there were a lot of "don't waste your money" and "I'll never buy Canon again," this is the one that caught my attention :

" I was willing to overlook the grainy pictures and other performance quality issues this camera seems to have, however, my camera also went "black" after just 15 months of ownership. Canon did tell me if it was the CCD chip, it would be repaired for free — if it's not, I have to pay for it out of pocket and they would not provide an estimate until I sent the camera in to their factory."

Canon knows they have a problem but they haven't issued a recall. They aren't warning people on their website. They're just trying to keep it under the radar.

Now, maybe that strategy  worked in 1982, but today you only have to type in Canon ZR 70 and you go right to the angry consumer page.

Is it really worth the bad publicity ? Evidently Canon thinks so.They must think that most consumers will be satisfied by calling the company and hearing that the repair will be free.

But what about the young family that didn't get to capture their son's first birthday on tape? And what about the soccer mom who didn't capture her daughter's winning goal?

Not to mention the new video logger who was forced to stop taping in the middle of a story because of the problem?

That's right. I had just used the camcorder 5 times when  in the middle of an interview it went to black.

.I called Canon, they were lovely and said that there was a bad CCD CHIP and they would repair it  for free.

It is now in the shop. My friend Myrna is letting me borrow her Sony and if I can figure out how to get the Sony and my computer to talk to each other, I may have  a  Vlog entry later this week.

Back to the Canon. Maybe they are saving a boat load of money by not issuing the recall. While its great they are fixing the problem for free, it still shows a total disregard for their customer base.

Fixing the video camera after the fact can't make up for the loss of capturing the event on tape.

First birthdays never happen again.

On the day I took my camcorder to the UPS store for shipping to Canon's repair center in New Jersey, the clerk looked at the address and said,

"Hey this is the second one I've sent to that address today."

Update on Mardi Gras Rosary

On Wednesday September 7th, I posted my first attempt at video logging. The story was about my friend Kim, a bead artist and New Orleans native who creates wonderful jewelry from vintage glass mardi gras beads.

Kim donated three of her pieces to be auctioned on eBay with the 100% of the proceeds going to Habitat For Humanity. Those original items sold within a couple of hours!

Kim decided to make some additional pieces and those auctions are now up.

The funds from these auctions will go to Medical Support Association an organization that aids children and adults in desperate need by providing free medicines essential to survival.

So Go BID.  http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZkswiler1v07QQhtZ-1

Read The User's Manual

Eagerly, I clicked onto the link in my email which gave me a heads up that the technical support team at Cyberlink had an answer to my question.

Their succinct answer:

You can find the answer in the User's Manual. And then they provided another link where I could download the user's manual.

Hello! I read the user's manual at least six times. I didn't get it. That's why I asked my question.Geez.

This is not the first time that I have been exasperated with a software company's total lack of appreciation of different learning styles. They either think everyone learns exactly like they do or worse yet, they don't care.

Not all of us learn by reading a user's manual. Some of us are  auditory or kinesthetic learners. I think I am a combo of auditory/kinesthetic.

In a day of podcasting and videocasting what's with read only user's manuals, anyway?

Am I the only one that finds it a bit ironic that a company producing software to convert videos into "movies" and vlogs only offers their customers a written user's guide and not a step to step video guide demonstrating how to use the software?

Since returning from Blogher in early August I made a promise to myself that I would start vlogging and podcasting. I attended a workshop on using these media, I checked at vlogging sites and everyone said it was really simple.

It probably is once you understand what you need to do. But there are so many assumptions on technical knowledge that it's laughable. Before I could submit my question,which I thought was rather relevant --how do I compress this baby from 290MB to under 10MB?, I had to complete a questionnaire which asked me, among other things, which Intel chip my computer used and what the CPU is.

Are you jokin' me?

If I really wanted to I could find out which Intel Chip my computer has but I didn't feel like sharing that information and I really didn't understand why they needed to know this.

I have no idea what a CPU is and why I should care. What I care about is learning how to use the software and compress it so that people can see it instead of getting error messages that say "your server is missing a compressor."

Reading the manual isn't the issue.  Understanding the manual is a completely different matter, in fact, it's the issue that does matter.

The Story of the Mardi Gras Rosary

This post has been moved to December 23,2005. It was moved to make it easier to watch the video. Since the original post, I am using vblogcentral to upload high quality videos to my blog. Enjoy.