Bring up the concept of “customer service” and you will certainly cause someone’s blood to curdle. As much as just about every company provides service and support to its customers for its products and services, so many do it so poorly to the extent many times it’s easy to swallow the loss and buy from someone else. Well, at least I have done it that way a few times.

But why is it that way? This question and more around customer service are answered extremely well in the book BAM!: Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World, by Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead. Within the pages of this must-read for anyone who is in business, they share many personal customer services stories – both good and bad – as well as demystifying the entire process of customer service. The term “BAM” is for “bust a myth” and it dispels various customer service myths throughout the book. I was graciously given a copy of the book by Barry, with whom I have worked with in the past. After reading it, I was reassured as to why I worked with him!

There’s a lot to take away from BAM! and here are a few of my major takeaways.

Customer service must be baked into your business - Issues with customer service being removed from the core of a company are rampant. Sometimes, they are removed so far away it is outsourced to a third-world country! Not only should customer service be within the core of your company, it should be designed into the products and services you develop. Why create a product that you can’t support? Short-term gains will only last so long.

You must want to be able to deliver good customer service as it won't just happen - The road to good fortune is paved with good intentions. If you don’t have a plan in place to offer good customer service, it just won’t happen. If you only have 1 or 2 people to handle support and you need more like 50, good luck.

Have a customer service manifesto - Want to offer good customer service? Write it down, and tell everyone.

BAM! is a great read for a round-trip flight. It is also a book you’ll want to pass along to colleagues, especially those who have responsibility for customer service in a company. It also has lists of the various myths and examples that are real and ready to use. I highly recommend BAM! to anyone in business or those thinking about starting a business, so that they are ready to offer good service to their clients and customers.

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It’s the cliche job interview question of all time – where do you see yourself in 5 years? I am willing to bet that most of those reading this have been asked this question. As you may have guessed, I have been asked it several times over the 20+ years of my professional career. Where some people may be asking it to expect an answer that you will be working for their particular company then, others are asking to gain insight into your long-term thought process, the latter approach not being all that bad or evil.

After a year like 2009, I am doing much more thinking and planning about the future than I ever had before. I am not limiting it to business as I am also thinking of my growing family, and our needs and wants into the future. Where many things do purely happen, and you may never know what opportunities may come about, purely leaving everything to chance is not the way to go. Even if your plans don’t materialize how you originally planned, you now have a marker to compare and measure against.

When you get down to it, thinking about the future is really about your vision. Where do you see things going and happening, and how will you be a part of it? You may not be able to see things 5 years in advance, but you sure as heck should be able to have a fairly good idea as to how the rest of the year will go!

The video below is from mobile device giant Nokia, and is a projection of where they see the markets they play in, as well as themselves, in 2015. If you don’t see the video below, watch it here at YouTube.

If you watched it, you will see that you don’t have to be an uber genius to make projections of your own, as Nokia’s predictions seem respectable with where the world is now with mobile technology. As this video is from Nokia, I am required to say that I have a continuous professional relation with them.

Perhaps the question should just be where do you see yourself? I welcome your thoughts on how you think of the future.

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Virtual Hosting has compiled a list of 100 blog posts on the topic of domain names and domaining. They have organized them under the category of Parking, Buying and Selling, Value and Appraisal, For Beginners, Questionable Practices, Making Money, Management, Search Engines and Traffic and Miscellaneous. I am proud to have 2 posts on the list - Know Who Manages Your Domain Name (#74) and Who Should Own a Domain Name? (#96).

I am still going through the list, but the people represented are the leaders in this area. The list also shows the breadth and depth of aspects and issues with regards to domain names. I recommend this list to fellow entrepreneurs as well as those in the domain name business.

Updated 9/5/2017 - Changed links to their new site at HTML.com

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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