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METAFORIX MAIL Volume 1, Issue 30 February 27, 2001 Our cityscape
icon has morphed into a fabulous postcard. It makes an eye-catching addition
to your bulletin board or refrigerator door.
CONTENTS AT A GLANCE: ON MY MIND: ON MY
MIND: Customer Disservice
ON MY MIND [From the Editor] Bye, Now The good news is, my business is growing. Cash flow is better than it used to be.The expensive news is, I need to improve my business infrastructure to offer my clients and potential clients excellent service. I'm looking for an office assistant available by the hour, as needed, to help with large projects. And I'm also in the market for some new computer equipment to supplement the aging machinery that currently inhabits my tiny home office. I researched the options online and off, assembled some general specifications for the items I need, and checked Gomez.com's merchant ratings for online computer resellers. This weekend, I started contacting vendors, asking them to assemble quotes. I can handle long hold times, inconvenient hours of operation, and sales representatives who don't know as much as I wish they did. But one interaction was so incredible to me that I actually e-mailed the vendor and then posted a copy of my message on the Gomez site. Here is an edited version: In case you are interested, I am writing to let you know why I will not being doing business with your company. I have just gotten off the phone with one of your sales reps. I phoned because Gomez.com gave you a good rating for customer relations. My purpose was to request a quote on a bundle of equipment for my home-based business office and business travel. (High-end desktop, 17" flat-panel monitor, ultra-light notebook, scanner, and more). I explained that I would be asking several vendors for quotes and looking for the best overall deal to meet my needs. Your rep did not seem too knowledgeable, but I was willing to put up with her limited product knowledge and her expectation that I come prepared with all necessary information. "Most of our customers have already done all the research," she said. I have been researching for weeks what, for me, is a major purchase. I spend hours each day on the Web and, while I am not a techie, I am far better informed than the average person about computers, software, and peripherals. But I was disappointed that your rep could not answer some specific questions, such as how to determine eligibility for upgrade pricing on Microsoft Office. This was the straw: As I was beginning to ask another question, she announced, "I can't stay on the phone. I've been on for 30 minutes." I then asked her to send me a quote on what she had already recorded and allowed her to hang up. There is really not much you can do to persuade me to make a purchase from you at this point. But I thought you might want to reconsider allowing your reps to terminate conversations with customers under circumstances like those I have just described. I have to go now. I've been writing this e-mail for the last ten minutes. For the record, as of Tuesday morning, I had received neither a quote nor a response to my message. My inquiry represented a potential sale worth several thousand dollars. I shudder to think how I might have been treated if I my needs were more modest. Cordially, Lois C.
Ambash, Editor
IN THE MEDIA Amy Tan on Writing "Writers on Writing" is a series of occasional columns published in the Arts section of the New York Times. It consists of working writers' reflections on the literary art and craft.The most recent contributor to the series is Chinese-American author Amy Tan, perhaps best know for her 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club. The column -- "Family Ghosts Hoard Secrets That Bewitch the Living" -- explores Tan's reactions to her mother's death and their influence on her work, in particular her most recent novel, The Bonesetter's Daughter. The "Books" section of the New York Times site maintains a full archive of the "Writers on Writing" columns. The archive is just one small part of the treasure trove of materials on books and authors collected in the Books channel. In addition to all book reviews published in the daily and Sunday Times since 1980, there are interviews, first chapters, and "retrospectives" on more than 200 authors, ranging from historian Stephen Ambrose to mystery writer Raymond Chandler to poet Sylvia Plath. The retrospectives bring together interviews, columns, reviews, and other articles that the Times has published over the years. The Amy Tan retrospective is an example typical of the others in scope. I find it unusually interesting because Tan is among my favorite contemporary novelists. Her explorations of family secrets, ethnic identity, gender, and spirituality are consistently poignant, humorous, and sharply observed. And the English language is cherished within her care. The link below will take you to the Amy Tan retrospective. From there, you are one click away from the Featured Authors archive or the Books section home page. Have fun exploring. www.nytimes.com/books/01/02/18/specials/tan.html
Access previous issues of Metaforix Mail by date by visiting our archives. Or use the search box on any page of the Metaforix site (www.metaforix.com) to search by keywords.
INFORMATICON More Evidence: If You Think Customer Service is Not What It Used to Be, You're Right "Welcome
to the new consumer apartheid. . . .
CYBERSPEAK
Hearts, Minds, and Other Bodily Organs "Cyberchondriacs" is HarrisInteractive's name for online healthcare consumers, people who have used the Internet at least once in search of health or medical information. You are probably one, yourself: HarrisInteractive's polling data shows that as of last November, 106 million American adults -- 83% of those online and 52% of all adults -- qualified as cyberchondriacs.This trend is certain to affect the relationships between healthcare consumers -- sometimes referred to as "patients" -- and their physicians, pharmacists, HMOs, and other businesses and organizations that provide health-related services. The Internet allows highly targeted communications from insurers motivated to cut costs and drug companies motivated to increase sales. These organizations have already begun using the Internet to build relationships with individual customers. Thus far, doctors have generally been loathe to loathe to communicate with their patients by e-mail. Their reluctance is due, at least in part, to issues of confidentiality, legal liability, and compensation. Efforts to resolve these issues are underway -- and not a moment too soon. HarrisInteractive points out that if physicians do nothing to meet the challenge of well-funded relationship marketing by pharmaceutical companies and HMOs, they will lose "the battle for the hearts and minds of Cyberchondriacs" by default. Source consulted: HarrisInteractive Healthcare News, February 19, 2001.
Guest Columnists and Interviewees Wanted! Metaforix
Mail seeks your opinions on how information technologies are (or are not)
changing your world of work.
Please note that the links contained in Metaforix Mail are current as of the time of publication. Some of them may no longer be operative at the time you access past issues. To
Volume 1, Issue 29 February 20, 2001 |
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