Brent's CRM Blog

A New Twist - A Tragic Case of BRM: Blogger Relationship Mis-management

I know this is coming on the heels of my latest rant on customer relationship mismanagement, but I just got this email that I can't ignore. That and I like the fact that I just did a Google search on the term "Blogger Relationship Mismanagement" and nothing came up. So I can stake my claim to the term! Just to be sure I also looked up "Blogger Relationship Mis-management" and came up with blanks on that as well. So consider the claim staked.

Anyway I got an email today from someone (withholding the name to protect the ignorant, as usual) who claimed to have read my blog entry on why SMB's haven't taken to Web 2.0. Here's a snippet of the email:

In reading your blog entry regarding small businesses and Web 2.0, my colleague would strongly agree with your comment regarding blogging won't be very important with SMBs. In fact, he believes blogging is useless especially for those in a business-to-business organization and SMBs.

Ok....So let's look at the obvious here. This person read this on my BLOG.....the very one that I've been blogging on for almost three years. If this person has been reading the blog they should probably have picked up on the fact that I talk a lot about how SMBs should use technologies like social media to make it easier for prospective clients to find them. And since my business works with other businesses (big and small), that means its a BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS kind of company.

Now I did write a blog about the survey results from Bredin Business Information on Web 2.0's lack of popularity with SMBs. but I definitely didn't go along with the findings. I put together some ideas as to why some SMB owners (those mostly over the age of 40 and not participating in the high-tech industry) haven't bought in as of yet. But I think I've made it pretty clear that I think blogging, podcasting, social networking and other forms of social media are important now and will be even more important in the future to the survival of small businesses. So I have to admit I was a little surprised that someone who read my stuff thought I viewed blogging as "useless especially for those in a business-to-business organization and SMBs". They couldn't have been further off base.

And to drill the point home just a little more, here's the second podcast in the series I did while out on the west coast with Webex Community Leader Diane Davidson. The series is on How SMBs can use the Web to expand their reach and credibility. You can check out the first in the series here and also check out the Webex community site at http://community.webex.com/user.

Oh well, enough ranting for the time being, unless another sad case of blogger (or customer) relationship mis-management rears its ugly head. Until next time.....

Technorati : blogger relationship mismanagement, brm, webex

Barnes & Ignoble - Another Tragic Case of Customer Relationship Mis-management

'Tis the season.....yadda yadda yadda..... Ok well it's time to break out the wallet more than I do any time of the year. But I can't stand shopping. That's why the people on my gift list get cash or gift certificates....of the online variety. In fact the only stores I really like going to are bookstores, and typically that means Borders and/or Barnes and Noble. And Christmas time I may go a little more than usual.

So I guess you can gather from the above paragraph that I like to read. A number of people must know that because on my recent trip to Silicon Valley doing some meet and greets with companies like (in alphabetical order):

• Adobe (nice location in downtown San Jose)
• Cisco (awesome media production studios)
• Intel (nice museum by the way)
• Intuit (great campus)
• PB Wiki (conveniently located minutes from the SF airport)
• Six Apart (the perfect location two blocks from the last stop on the Caltrain in SF)

I was given two interesting books to read. Diane Davidson, Webex Community Leader, gave me a copy of Why Buy the Cow by Webex co-founder Subrah Iyar. And when I stopped by Intuit Scott Wilder, GM of their small business online communities, gave me a copy of his new book Millennial Leaders: Success Stories from Today's Most Brilliant Generation Y Leaders. And yes once I read these books I'll be writing my take on them. But if that isn't enough a new bud of mine at Microsoft, Jeremy Epstein, sent me the classic Elements of Style by E.B. White. So yes, the word is out.... I like books. But I digress....boy did I digress...

So anyway let me get to the reason for the post - the tale from the dark side that is Barnes and Ignoble. So I went to B&I over the holiday weekend and looked around, and ended up picking up a Newsweek magazine. I go to the counter an plunk down my money. The cashier asks me if I had a B&N membership, and I replied the same way I have for the last two years..."Have you guys made membership free like Borders has?" And of course she said no, so I was willing to leave it at that. But the cashier had a bit of a 'tude (probably because she gets that question a lot) and tacked on "well ours is better than theirs anyway". And because I didn't feel like a return to high school and getting into a ridiculous debate, I just paid for the magazine and left.

I buy the occasional item at B&I because they sometimes have a discounted item I can't get from Borders. But I am loyal to Borders because I can be a member of their program for free, which entitles me to more discount offers than I can take advantage of. And I went there today because they just sent me a coupon for 40% off any book of my choice. And chances are I'll be getting more of those offers in the weeks to come...which makes the Borders program a lot better to me than B&I. Because I like not having to pay a fee AND give up my personal information, in order to receive some decent discount offers. But I guess my opinion doesn't count. I'm just the customer. But maybe someone should tell B&I what Sam Walton used to say about customers - The customer has all the answers....because they have all the money. They'd be wise to listen to Sam, he did know a thing or two about business.

Technorati : barnes and noble, borders, crm
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Things NOT to do when sending a comment to this blog....more to come

Chalk this one up as a drive-by act of CRM....Customer Relationship Mis-management. And this one is so stupid in so many ways it actually ends up being laughable. Mainly because it comes on the heels of a post on customer relationship mis-management.  My blog traffic has been climbing pretty nicely over the last few months. At last check the Alexa rating is sitting right above 500K, which is pretty good considering it was around 1.3M about two months ago. I like that traffic has picked up, but I'm even more excited that a few important CRM industry leaders from the vendor and analyst communities are checking it out. To that I say a big THANKS.

I know this because I get emails from folks interested in the things I write about. I get emails from CRM vendors asking my opinion of things they are looking at doing. I even get asked questions about the industry by financial analyst trying to get a feel for what's going on at certain companies to help out with their recommendations. One of the most interesting emails I received was from Frank Warren, creator of the famous PostSecret blog, inviting me to review his book. That post has brought me more traffic than any other post. I also get emails from people asking me to take a look at their software to review and comment on. One I received a few months ago from a gentleman named Anoop who worked at BizAutomation.com asking us to review their product. At the time I didn't have any time to do so but I did speak with another gentleman from the company and thought him pleasant enough. I even went to the site and read a few of the reviews of the app from eWeek, DestinationCRM and other trusted sources that had positive things to say about it. I just didn't have time to do much more than that.

Fast forward to this morning, when I received the following comment on my most recent Customer Relationship Mismanagement post from a gentleman named Anoop, using a hotmail address:

Just found a go:http://www.bizautomation.com" BizAutomation through a Slipstick posting. They've build a nice TCO chart comparing the various CRM's out there. I watched their flash demo and it looks like they have all the basis covered; actually exactly what I've been looking for in a CRM that's truly integrated with Exchange Server. Their pricing is about right for my target audience, but now the key question: can the product be customized? I talked with the CEO this afternoon on the phone and he's going to get back to me...so far, so good: the product is based on a SQL Server backend, based on the .Net framework (.aspx)...more to come.

So how many ways is this bad for Anoop and BizAutomation? Let me count the ways:

1. He sends a comment that has absolutely nothing to do with the post he responds to
2. He acts like he "just found" BizAutomation
3. He let's us know, in only the way a sales and/or marketing person can, that it appears that this product has "actually exactly what I've been looking for in a CRM".....what a shocker
4. He says he talked to the CEO on the phone....why didn't he just go to his office, since he works for him?
5. He uses his personal hotmail account to make it look like he has no affiliation to the company
6. He sent the comment twice
7. He tried to get a link in there but didn't quite get it right
8. He forgot that he had contacted me before by submitting an inquiry on our corporate website using his corporate email account. He even set me up to talk to the other gentleman who I think was the CEO but I can't remember
9. It's blog spam - the comment itself wouldn't get past anyone as it is just so scripted (as you can guess this comment didn't get approved for publication, but used for demonstration purposes)
10. It's just flat out the wrong way to go about promoting your product!

I could probably keep going with this but I think the point has been made.  In the end this may really be a good product, but how could you trust that it is with these kinds of practices being used? Sorry Anoop, but this is just another tragic case of customer relationship mis-management.....no more to come!

Technorati : crm, customer relationship management, customer relationship mismanagement, smb
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