Author: Christopher Carfi

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Bloglines Issues, Workaround

Plumber_mini
There seem to be some issues this morning with the Bloglines aggregator. Upon logging in, all my subscribed feeds were missing. This is not a good thing.

However, clicking My Feeds > Edit brought the list back. (Note: Clicking My Feeds > Edit and scrolling down gives an option to export subscriptions to an OPML file for backup. Highly recommended.)

Now, it appears that although the feed names are visible, they are not being updated. This is also not a good thing.

Others trying to determine what is going on can be found here:

Technorati – Bloglines
Peter Fleck
Life Hacker
The RSS Blog

Update: It looks like Bloglines is now adding new posts again, but anything that was unread (but not flagged) has been marked as read and is now in the vault of history. C’est la vie…I suppose if a post that’s been missed is important, it’ll show up again in the river of news at some point…

Tag:

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All Aboard!

The Cluetrain gains another passenger in Chris Selland. Selland writes:

“I’m changing my mission statement – and evolving the focus of this blog. Yes I’ll still write about the Siebels, Oracles and SAPs when and where it makes sense (and where either I have something important – or fun – to say (hopefully both)), but I’m turning my attention to what is – in my mind – much more important.

Ironically, this brings me back to the point of a book I truly hated – The Cluetrain Manifesto. As I was speaking with Paul, I realized that what I hated so much about the book wasn’t that it was wrong – what I really disliked was the arrogant, condescending, ‘all big companies are stupid’ attitude of the authors. (As an aside, if this bugged you as much as it bugged me, you’ll love the Gluetrain).

But the primary point of Cluetrain was that customers are increasingly less interested in being ‘managed’ by companies, and much more interested in speaking with each other. To this point, I must tip my hat to the Cluetrain authors (as much as it hurts to do so) – they had it right. The problem with the book (other than the attitude) was that they were at least 5 years early. In 2005, however, customers are supported by a technology and social infrastructure that isn’t just facilitating change – it’s hastening it.“ (emphasis added)

Excerpted from a much longer post that deserves a full read.

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Exit Criteria

A fun comment posted here by Sophia from Adquack, where she outlines a few of the things that immediately disqualifies someone from getting her business.

The
“Should I Do Business With This Company?”
decision checklist, from Sophia
(partial, paraphrased)

Sidbwtc_1

Any other knockouts on your list?

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You Say You Want An Evolution

Paul Greenberg, author of CRM at the Speed of Light, has a new blog, the PGreenblog.

From today, Old School-New School:

“We are dealing with a very different set of expectations from generation to generation and frankly that means that the expected customer experience is very different. It’s why you can’t presume the experience. With the generations ascending to power, collaboration and tools for providing them with an experience that they can manage and create themselves is critical. You have to give them what they need to control their own experience and control it – now.”

Subscribed!

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All About DELL – The Social Customer Manifesto Podcast 7JUL2005

click here to subscribe

Welcome iTunes subscribers! Today’s conversation topics include thoughts on Dell’s current customer service and support woes, news on the shuttering of a portion of Dell’s online customer community, and (unrelated to Dell) some upcoming conferences where I hope we can get together in person.

Dell “support” stories

The original Jeff Jarvis post: Dell Hell (more here, here, here, here, here, etc.)
Steve Rubel’s post (with the now-infamous “A-lister” comment)
Technorati tracking
Blogpulse tracking
Blog Business Summit is running a Dell ClueWatch
Forbes: Dell Slashing Customer Service [Costs]
Jory puts Dell on the CSL

Motherboard Chronicles (brilliant writing, in 7 parts…highly recommended)

Dell to terminate their Community Forums tomorrow, July 8

Dell Customer Support Forum (link likely to be inactive after 8JUL2005)

SocialCustomer: I may have missed this in another thread, but has Dell given a reason *why* they are shuttering the non-technical customer service boards?

rickmktg: No reason was stated. One can conclude that Dell continues it’s business focus combined with reducing its expenses. The moderators were expenses. The support and help they gave wasn’t measured, and therefore to the big corporation has no value. And with the India support willing to take the calls real cheap and recommend formatting for every solution, all is well in the Dell corporate world…

Why is Dell killing the forums, after being open for years?

Let’s go straight to Dell and ask, shall we?

Welcome to Dell Chat. Please wait for an available agent. You will be notified when your chat is accepted by an agent.

The session has been accepted.

{Pooja 12:29:21 PM} Thank you for contacting Dell Customer Care chat. My name is Pooja, how may I assist you today?

{CFC 12:29:58 PM} Hi. I noticed that it appears the Dell Customer Service forums are being retired tomorrow. I was wondering why?

{Pooja 12:30:46 PM} Please give me a moment to review your question.

{Pooja 12:32:54 PM} Christopher, as of now there is no information in this regard.

{CFC 12:33:18 PM} Any idea of who within Dell might have the answer?

{Pooja 12:33:27 PM} May I know from where did you get this information?

{CFC 12:33:53 PM} Sure. Let me find the URL.

{Pooja 12:34:10 PM} All right Christopher.

{CFC 12:34:21 PM} link

{CFC 12:34:38 PM} “The Customer Service boards on the Dell Community Forum will be retiring at 3:30pm this Friday, July 8th. Customer Service FAQs will still be available to help answer your questions. If you need further assistance, you may contact our customer service team via Chat or e-mail for any non-technical issue you may have.
Thank you.”

{Pooja 12:36:08 PM} Christopher, I did go through the URL you provided me. Please allow me 4-5 minutes so that I can provide you with further information in this regard.

{CFC 12:36:39 PM} Thank you. I’ll wait.

{Pooja 12:41:02 PM} Thank you for your time.

{Pooja 12:41:55 PM} Christopher, we are closing the Customer Service boards on the Dell Community Forum for the time being as there certain updates which needs to be taken care of.

{CFC 12:42:31 PM} I see. When are they expected to be available again?

{Pooja 12:42:41 PM} Once the board starts the function again their would be a notification on the web site.

{CFC 12:42:59 PM} Do you have a list of the updates that are being made?

{Pooja 12:43:25 PM} No Christopher.

{CFC 12:43:38 PM} Ok. Thank you for your help.

{Pooja 12:43:40 PM} Meanwhile, you may contact our customer service team via Chat or e-mail for any non-technical issue you may have.

{Pooja 12:43:45 PM} You are welcome.

In Other News: Upcoming Conferences

AlwaysOn (July 19-21, Palo Alto CA)
BlogHer (July 30, Santa Clara CA)
GO! (Sept. 18-20, Leesburg VA)

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The Mercury News Gets Interactive

Kudos to the San Jose Mercury News for their new online section called Interactive. Currently focused on the arts/entertainment beat, the Merc has set up nearly 20 weblogs for reader feedback…comments, critiques, reviews, etc. In addition to the central location for pulling everything together, they’ve wisely set up “channels” (i.e. dedicated blogs) for:

  • Concerts
  • Fashion & Style
  • Gaming
  • Hot Lists
  • Movies & DVDs
  • Music
  • Radio
  • TV
  • Teen Views
  • Your Reviews

Similarly, a half-dozen or so of the Merc’s reporters in the section have been given blogs of their own from which to build a following, such as Marian Liu.

Even just limiting this experiment to the typically “softer” arts/entertainment section of the paper, there are some interesting implications. The Merc gets the opportunity to act as host for a number of very active and passionate customer communities. And, if they’re smart, the various providers of music, movies, gaming, and other areas have another venue in which to get unfiltered feedback from their customers. Nice.