Random Articles

• Circling Vulture Part 2 A couple days back, I wrote a half-formed rant on the current state of department stores (Picky Customer or Circling Vulture). This morning, while skimming my blogroll [opml] in search of a pick-me-up, Hugh McLeod 1) knees me in the groin 2) points and laughs. He did both in his Cheapest or Best post. First,
• Pledging to Put Money Where Mouth Is Yes, I will contribute five dollars each to five podcasters who don’t use paid sponsors. Help show a listener-supported model will work and add your name to the pledge. If you’d rather just support a podcaster, might I recommend: All of us at PodcastMN Croncast Evil Genius Chronicles This Week in Tech
• Save Your Customers A 39 Cent Annoyance Ironically, since the USPS raised the postage for a first-class letter to 39 cents, I’ve found myself with more outgoing mail. Both Netflix and my bank provide postage paid envelopes for my correspondence with them. So, it surprises and annoys me when I have to hunt down a stamp for things far more important than my
• A Consumer Moratorium Today, Doc pointed to Tim Jarrett saying (emphasis mine): “As I’ve mentioned before, I want a moratorium on the word consumer—both because it is disrespectful and because it builds bad thinking habits in companies that sell to ‘consumers’”. Smart, clued-in companies can signal they respect people by eradicating the word ‘consumer’ from their vocabulary (and the handful
• How Not To Do Customer Research We do quite a bit of customer and employee research here at Working Pathways. From in-depth 1-on-1, deep dive, interviews to quick email surveys to observational studies - our expertise runs the gamut. Whatever the study, each participant involved is 1. screened and qualified and 2. receives some level of compensation for their time and