Recently a couple of my vendors had changes in staffing. Where people leave all the time, in these cases it affected the level of service I received from these vendors.

Why did this happen? Why did the service-level change because the people change? The products and services of these vendors remained the same. In thinking about this, it came down to the fact that the true business relationship I had with the vendor was with these people, and not with the vendor itself.

So what did happen you may be asking? Both cases are unique, but have some similarities.

The first case involves an international company. When I started doing business with them, I was assigned a rep who was nothing short of top-notch. He initiated a phone conversation when I signed on with them, and would keep in touch often as to my needs involving their services. If I ever had a question, he would be on it, and would apologize when his replies were just more than a few hours from my inquiry or when he had a day off!

Then the vendor got acquired by another company that offered similar services, and the rep emailed me to let me know he was leaving for a better opportunity. Initially there was no word at all from the vendor, and then a repeating cycle started. I would receive a call from a new rep, introducing themselves and offering me a “package” deal on their products and services that did not make sense to me. A few months later, I would get a call from another new rep, and the same thing happened. In all cases, the rep was outside of the US, only left a long distance number and the only way I could reach them by phone was by placing an international call. One day when I needed to reach them, I tried several times by email, and that was a couple of months ago and I never received a call back. As their products and services work and I don’t need a rep to place an order, I am still with them. However, I am seeking out alternatives.

The second case is with a local vendor. When the manager left, service dropped. Where I was known on a first-name basis and the manager and we frequently discussed how their services could help my business, the new manager took the longest time to know my name, and has yet to sell me on anything. With the previous manager’s departure there was also a departure of other staff, and new hires were less than stellar. I am still with this vendor as it would require a big change to switch from them, and in the meantime I am able to “get by” with them.

In both cases, I still receive the core of what I am paying for, but I am not a happy customer, and would not refer business to them.

You Are Not Alone

Not surprisingly, I am not the only one thinking about this. Marketing Over Coffee featured a presentation over the summer by Dr. Allan Weiss where he talked about business relationships. In it, he talked about just this – a relationship between employees of a business, and not between the businesses itself. I highly recommend you listen to it.

Unless you’re dealing with the direct owners of the business, in most cases you are dealing with an employee of a company whose departure can change or even hurt your business relationship. Keep this in mind as you form new business relationships.

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Business • (2) Comments • Permalink

Last fall I was a little alarmed with my bank, Washington Mutual, failed and was taken over by the FDIC, only to have its accounts be taken over by JPMorgan Chase. When I went into my branch the next day and had full access to my account, I wasn’t as worried, but I did wonder how this would impact me and the great people who work there. Now that Chase has released some of its plans, I have some cautious optimism.

In case you have a weird look on your face after reading the previous paragraph, let me further explain. Yes, I did use the terms “my branch” and “the great people who work there” to describe my banking experience with WaMu. This is precisely the reason I opened my business and personal accounts with them years ago, because they sat down and talked with me as a human being, and didn’t just throw a schedule of fees in front of me as other banks did.

The branch pictures is at the corner of Wabash and Washington in Chicago, and is a branch that will remain after the merger of banking systems is in place, and will be rebranded as Chase. Over the years I have gotten to know the 2 managers of the branch, the assistant managers and most all of the tellers. When I walk in, they say, “hi Mike” and will ask me how business is and how my daughter is doing. Now I hope you didn’t fall off your chair when you read that, a description of a personal relationship with a bank! And to further clarify, I don’t have several zillion dollars in my accounts.

My relationship with the people at WaMu is attributed to the philosophy of the former Seattle-based bank, namely a more relaxed atmosphere. Tellers stand at kiosks and cash is dispensed from a central machine, so no thick glass walls between people and the customers. It is also sincere. Contrast that with my experience with Citizens Bank. Years ago when I was in Boston and president of the Jaycees chapter, I was introduced to a VP at Citizens Bank who was very interested in our business and offered to introduce us to people in the community. Shortly after we opened our account with Citizens, that VP wouldn't respond to my queries and the branch manager who opened our account couldn’t remember me from a stick in the mud.

Where change is inevitable in any business relationship, it will certainly happen at WaMu as it becomes Chase. Beyond a friendly attitude, the staff has been helpful in my day-to-day transactions and matching my business with their products. I am not that demanding of a customer (as far as I think!), and it’s been a nice experience so far, and I hope the folks at Chase don’t screw it up, to be completely honest.

Unfortunately banking has been a commodity today. Poor service or no service has become the norm. These facts can easily be verified by just about every person on the street, not to mention employees of the banks themselves. My WaMu experience has certainly been unique, and I am not going out of my way to look for a new bank just yet. There is a cost to switching bank accounts – mostly in time – and I have better things to do with my time. I only hope Chase doesn’t live up to their name.

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A while back online brokerage TD Ameritrade launched Ted, a virtual assistant. The virtual assistant consists of a static (read – not animated) headshot of a white male and a text box where you can ask a question, and upon submission the question is restated and the Web visitor will get a response.

When I heard about this a few questions came to mind. As a friend of mine has a TD account, I asked them if I could try out Ted. The following is a log of the questions and responses from Ted. I have edited some of the responses as they simply gave details on how to use a TD account, which I felt were not relevant to the retelling of this experiment.

The Experiment

You Asked: where are my statements Ted: To view or print your statements and confirmations, click… (edited)

You Asked: did my last trade go through? Ted: The "Order Status" screen displays information about your trades for the current… (edited)

You Asked: how did the market do today? Ted: The "Markets" overview page under Research & Ideas… (edited)

You Asked: I'm not sure if I want to sell or buy Ted: I would love to help you, but I'm not sure I understand your question. Please try rewording your question.

You Asked: I said I am not sure if I want to buy or sell Ted: To place a stock order online, you can select "Stocks" under Trade… (edited)

You Asked: but should I Ted: TD AMERITRADE accounts are self-directed, allowing you to choose how to invest your assets. We offer an extensive set of tools, products and services that can help you build a portfolio. We don't offer advice for self-directed accounts, but we do have other programs you may be interested in. Please contact a Client Services representative for more information.

You Asked: How are you Ted: I'm good, thanks. How are you?

You Asked: Not too bad Ted: That's good to hear. What questions can I answer for you about TD AMERITRADE?

You Asked: do you think in this volatile market TD ameritrade should be launching a virtual consultant? Ted: Good question. I am not sure how to answer that. Please try rewording your question. I understand simple questions best.

You Asked: why a virtual consultant Ted: I apologize I don't have an answer to your question. A Client Services representative would be happy to answer your question by email or phone. For contact information click Contact Us. Contact Us

You Asked: What is your last name? Ted: I don't have a last name, you can just call me Ted.

You Asked: Thanks for your help buddy Ted: You're welcome.

You Asked: have a nice day Ted: Goodbye.

My Assessment

When I first heard the name of TD’s virtual assistant is Ted, the first thing that popped into my mind was United Airlines’ failed discount airline of the same name. I tried to keep an open mind though when I posed these questions. As you can see, these questions ranged from the mot common to personal. In the middle I posed a few questions seeking advice, as I was curious to what the response would be.

I laud TD Ameritrade for experimenting with Ted. It may not be for everybody, but in some cases it may help people, especially in navigating a comprehensive and complex Web site. Even in tough times, it is important to be innovative - even if Ted couldn’t answer that question directly.

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Business • Technology • (9) Comments • Permalink

If you are reading this and it is your job to manually spam blogs and forms with links, all I have to say is I am onto you!

You don’t need me to tell you that spam is a problem. Well, if you do, Dunkirk Systems, LLC would be glad to put on a private, paid workshop for you, but I digress. Unfortunately there is no set solution to spam. If you look at it as spam is a journey and not a destination, you will grudgedly accept this. As a result, any method that you have used to prevent or thwart spam today may be rendered useless down the road.

When we think of spam, we think of it in large volumes. Opening our email to hundreds of spam messages on a daily basis, getting a ton of form submission spam, and on a blog a lot of this is in the form of comments. Robots tend to find our site somehow and have a field day. As turning off commenting and not using forms altogether does not make sense from a user perspective, other methods needed to be considered and deployed.

First Strike – Verify Submitters Are Human

My first step was to implement technology to “ensure” a form submission was made by a human. I decided to use a random question that needed to be answered. For example, a question is “what is 2 + 2 – spell it out” and the answer would needed to be entered as “four.” I chose this method over CAPTCHA for several reasons. In addition to personally not being a fan of it, CAPTCHA is as far as usable for those with are visually impaired. And forget the audio CAPTCHA – try it for yourself and see if you can comprehend it!

The random Q&A functionality worked initially, and cut down form and comment spam to almost nothing. But it did not block it entirely, as some kept coming through. After further review, I determined all was working well, and that people were the culprits!

Second Strike – Moderation

Even though I have always had moderation turned on my own blog and that of my clients, I consider this a final step after others are taken. Especially when human beings are the ones filling out the forms. How do I know this? There were 2 tell-tale signs. The first was courtesy of my site’s analytics. Many visitors came to my site from either a search query of something like “remember my personal information” or from a Web site that tracked Web sites that do not have the “nofollow” attribute on links. If tagged with nofollow, a Web site’s search engine will most likely not follow links off your page, which helps in the ranking of the sites linked from yours. As I think this is of value to me from both sides, adjusting this did not work.

The blog comments and form submissions manually submitted are interesting in themselves. Some are blatant and others are more subtle. Each post has a name, email address and some URL in it, and the comments tend to be short and choppy. Some say things like “interesting post” and others actually have some context of the original blog post in it. But as you take a look at the URL in the comment, and often the domain name and IP address of the poster, you can see they don’t really match the URL or someone associated with it, or even the same hemisphere. Those always get deleted.

Final Thoughts

Where I consider a blog a community, it doesn’t mean you necessarily have to log into it to participate. As a result, I don’t generally advocate logins for blogs. If one is considered to prevent spam, I would recommend methods as I previously mentioned. If it is thought these are too much labor than it is worth, I would ask you to consider your audience, and maybe even pose it to them. Unfortunately you may get some spam in response.

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So I arrive at the venue after trudging through the snow. I ring the bell and someone greets me who has no idea who I am. As I enter, I see the opening act setting up. I grab a beer and get a place to sit as the lights dim and the first act starts. Oh, I forgot to mention that I rang the bell and was warmly greeted by the owner of what was a house in a nice neighborhood who was also the lead singer of the opening band. The beer I brought myself, and I sat on a nice rug just feet from the other side of the living room where the bands were setup. This is what is called a house concert.

The concept of a house concert was something completely new to me, as well as for the other attendees that night. It was held by The Locals a Chicago alternative rock band. They performed followed by Steve Lawson and his lovely wife Lobelia Lawson. It was from Steve I heard about the house concert – he and I met at Nokia OpenLab this fall in Helsinki and he talked about his house concert “tour” in several US cities over Twitter. Most all of the others in attendance were friends and fans of The Locals.

House concerts are apparently something big in the UK, from where Steve and Lobelia hail. Which is not surprising, because a lot of cool things come from Europe and Asia and find their way to the US, but I digress. The advantage of a house concert is that it is a small, intimate audience in a comfortable setting that is not filled with smoke or overpriced beverages, not to mention the up-close and personal relationship the audience has with the artists themselves and vice-versa, which for me was they key for this.

Two sets comprised the evening, one by The Locals and the other by Steve and Lobelia, the latter alternating between solos by each as well as duets. As someone who spent most of his college days in the late 80’s in the radio station studios, I loved The Locals. They are a 3-piece band, with Yvonne as vocals and guitar, Christy as bass and Kirk on percussion. Yvonne’s voice reminded me a lot of Kristen Hersh. They played mostly their own, awesome original songs as well as a cover of the Heat Mizer song. They didn’t do Snow Miser because they like the hotter sibling of Mother Nature better! For a better idea of their music check out The Locals Web site.

Though I met Steve at OpenLab, I hadn’t heard his music until after I got back from the event. Even after hearing his, it wasn’t until I saw him perform that I truly appreciated his art. He plays the bass unlike I have seen before, and it’s hard for me to describe it. On his Web site’s home page is the words “New-Age Post-Rock Ambient-Jazz Solo-Bass” and if that’s not enough of a hook I don't know what is. He uses equipment and looping techniques to make it sound like there’s more than one musician playing.

Lobelia is an amazing singer and guitar player. She has a very soulful sound and her own original songs reflected this. Her cover of “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive had everyone who was a fan of the 80’s in disbelief! She has also learned looping techniques from her husband and integrated them well into one of her own songs. Check out her Web site and listen!

Needless to say, it was a unique event and wished it didn't end. It was great to see Steve again and meet Lobelia. I also appreciated the hospitality of The Locals and got to know of a great local band. As I was leaving, I made a comment how there should be more house concerts, but being in Chicago I bet the pols would find a way to try to regulate and of course tax it! I got a few hisses from people, but Steve acknowledged that this is also happening in the UK. But in these times where thinking outside of the box is required, I hope more will be able to experience a house concert soon!

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Business • Diversions • (8) Comments • Permalink