Friday, August 24, 2007

Bring Back The “Human Touch”

In our quest to deliver better, faster and cheaper, we continue to leverage technology to automate processes in order to reduce cost. But where should the line be drawn? Have we gone too far? Is the automation of customer service actually hurting your business by driving customers away? While some automation and self help is desirable, I personally feel we have gone too far in dehumanizing customer service and therefore are negatively affecting the customer’s experience.

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How to Win on “Power of 10”

For those of you who haven’t seen Power of 10, it is basically a Who Wants to be a Millionaire/Family Feud cross where a contestant attempts to guess the results of a survey. 

What I found interesting about the show is that the contestant gets to poll the audience for their guess on every question.  As many devout fans know, there was similar help available on Millionaire, but only on one of the 15 questions.  This limitation made sense for the show’s producers as the audience was correct 90% of the time.

Perhaps the producers of Power of 10 assumed that with a question where the contestant can never trust their answer, they would be even more confused once they saw the audience’s opinion.  In reality, however, groups of people actually excel at predicting how other will answer and are correct more often than even “experts”.

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Looking For Ideas?

Click the center and give the wheel a spin. (Via c|net, Core77 and The Directors’ Bureau). Amusing.

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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Beginning Your Digital Identity at Birth

Naming a child is challenging. You must avoid names already taken by family members and friends. You must find a name that’s liked by you and your spouse or partner. You should steer clear of potentially-embarrassing rhymes, initials or nicknames.

Now a new naming consideration has emerged, according to an AP story: Is an Internet domain name available for the child?

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The Old TV and The “New TV”

Television advertising is not going away, but, yes, it’s changing. Television is still one of the most powerful advertising and branding mediums available, but you do need to be cognizant of how much you’re paying for your television advertising in light of steadily eroding audience numbers.

It’s also time to consider a counter strategy. This Advertising Age article touts Web videos as the new 30-second spot.

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