A friend of mine recently found himself in the middle of a terrible customer service experience. He’s a systems engineer and two of the servers he was supporting had failed with the same error. The production system was down, and the client was looking for a quick resolution. He immediately called the customer support line [...]

I recently completed my first half-marathon. I am not a regular runner but decided to participate in “Rock ‘n’ Roll” marathon in San Jose. It sounded like a fun thing to do. I did prepare for about five months and was quite ready for the challenge. What I didn’t expect was that running this race [...]

Sure, Gordon Ramsay is too good looking, seems to bask in celebrity, acts like a rude sod, and teaches management by intimidation. But, if, as one suspects, his eponymous London showpiece reflects the man, you gotta like him. Ramsay runs a terrific restaurant. No, we’re not talking French Laundry or Joel Robuchon here, my standards [...]

The last few weeks have been fairly hectic, with the KANA User Summits taking me from London, Twickenham to Miami, Florida and back again to Belfast– all within a few days…  Despite the jet lag, I always enjoy the User Summits as I get the chance to hang out with our customers which, given some [...]

The Keynote Speaker at this year’s KANA Summit is Ross Shafer. Ross comes from one of those backgrounds that shouts “only in America.” He grew up on a Reservation, opened a restaurant, transformed himself into a game and talk show host, morphed into a motivational speaker and now is a best-selling author on what motivates [...]

Post-it notes, Notepads, calling a colleague, stretching above cubical wall and yelling “Hey, have you received the PO yet? Can I invoice?” have become a part of our day to day work. How many times you have to ‘run around’ to get an order processed? Umpteen phone calls, emails, contract reviews etc. All this is [...]

“I think that you’ve got to make something that pleases you and hope that other people feel the same way.” Chef Thomas Keller. I live in a tiny, tiny town called Yountville. For foodies, Yountville is synonymous with Thomas Keller and his superlative French Laundry restaurant. As America’s greatest chef, Keller has branded our little [...]

A silly bird shows up, like clockwork, outside my living room and expends an hour or two, each and every afternoon, flying into our window. Whack. Whack. Whack: head first, into the glass. Einstein famously said that doing the same thing over and over yet expecting a different result is the precise definition of insanity. [...]

Question – Where do people usually focus their attention when talking about customer service? Answer – Call/contact centers. Question – What percentage of customer service is provided via call/contact centers? Answer – It depends. In some markets it may be close to 100% yet in others it may be under 10%. In some cases a [...]

In my last blog post I talked about my new weekly commute between Southern and Northern California. As an established homeowner for so long I had all but forgotten what it was like to deal with a range of consumer service providers as I re-established myself in Sunnyvale. And what a long week that first [...]