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Aaron Strout

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Verizon’s “Room to Learn” Community

October 20, 2010 By Aaron Strout 2 Comments

Today Verizon and Powered are proud to announce the launch [pdf] of a new “branded engagement community” called Room to Learn. It’s a big move for a smart company who operates in an industry that’s not known for it’s focus on customer service. In fact, the reason we’re so excited about this project is because we see this as a big step toward the future of the way customer service will get done in the future.

Podcast: Director of eBusiness at Verizon, Mark Studness, and I talked about the project in a recent podcast.

http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf

What’s unique about Room to Learn is that instead of waiting for customers to come to come to them with questions or complaints, Verizon is reaching out their customers with useful content. Content that will help them with all things media and home entertainment. Even better, the information and education that Verizon will provide it’s customers (and non-customers) doesn’t try and sell them anything. Imagine that?

Why would a company do this you ask? Because Verizon realizes that in order to maintain their leadership position in the market, they need to do something game changing. Something my colleague, Joseph Jaffe, likes to call customer service 2.0. It’s the concept of the “give before the get.” The results should be things like greater loyalty, deeper engagement, greater share of wallet and most importantly, referrals.

A few other exciting things to mention about this new branded engagement community:

  • The community manager will be none other than Becky Carroll, a seasoned social media professional who is well versed in blogging, podcasting and community.
  • A resident contributor in Alfred Poor. Yes, that Alfred Poor, the guy that has covered consumer electronics for 20+ years for the likes of PC World.
  • Community forums for customers to ask questions, talk with professionals or share ideas with one another.

What you’ll notice today is that the conversations on Room to Learn are just getting started. If you’re interested in joining, the good news is that you don’t even need to be a customer. Obviously, Verizon expects that if you participate, you’ll be respectful and will keep the language clean. But they are always looking for feedback to if you have constructive feedback or simple suggestions, you can let them (or us) know and we’ll be sure to work it into the mix.

Is your company following Verizon’s lead and getting proactive about customer service? If not, what’s stopping you?

–

Hey AT&T, if it Ain’t Broke…

February 8, 2010 By Aaron Strout 7 Comments

As an iPhone user, I’ve always been a bit annoyed by the way it handles voice calls. Up until recently, I was definitely an apologist explaining to my friends that had Blackberry’s and other phones that, “yeah, AT&T;’s service might not be the best but 1) I don’t talk on the phone much and 2) the iPhone’s form and functionality more than make up for that fact.” After experiencing more than 20 dropped calls during the last couple of weeks here in Austin, TX, I’m not so sure.

It’s no secret that AT&T; is an anchor around Apple’s neck on the iPhone deal. [sidebar, if you haven’t read this post by Fake Steve Jobs, it is pee-your-pants funny — warning, it contains some foul language]. Yes, they may have been the only carrier big enough at the time to handle the iPhone’s data needs but since then (hello 4g on Sprint), Apple’s deal with AT&T; is looking more and more albatross-like every day… to the point where I am considering buying a different device (gulp). Yup, I just said it.

In addition to the obvious annoyances that I’ve mentioned above, there are a few things that are driving my willingness to consider a different smart phone. For one, I keep asking myself why it took three years, an embarassing shit storm in New York, a failed multi-million dollar advertising response to Verizon’s virtual “pants-ing,” and thousands of daily mentions of how much AT&T; sucks to realize that maybe they should spend some money and actually fix the problem at hand. I also can’t help but wonder why they’ve yet to really embrace social media when that could go such a long way to help change their perception in the marketplace.

Who knows, maybe I’ll stick with the iPhone in spite of the ongoing dropped calls. But probably not. I’ve already agreed to test out Sprint’s new Samsung Moment. And if that doesn’t take, Google’s Nexus One could be in my future. While I love my iPhone, I think the only thing that’s going to save it is if Steve Job’s can wiggle out of his contract and strike a deal with Sprint or Verizon. Otherwise, I’m not stickin’ around.

Image courtesy Fastcompany (great article btw on this very topic)

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