I’ve seen some cool wordles, but it wasn’t until a friend posted one she created using a recent research paper that I got inspired to create one of my own. This wordle uses my “manifesto,” which was a 37-page, 6,889-word document outlining a proposed strategy for how we at Magazines.com interact with our customers to optimize lifetime value.
No surprise that “email” and “customers” are the prominent words for a visualization of a document describing, essentially, how best to communicate with our customers.
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I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve been using that “save for later” feature in my Amazon cart for years, and I frequently go back days or weeks later and purchase items I’ve set aside. One of the best reasons to do it that way is that Amazon provides messaging in the cart when an item’s price changes, whether it increases or decreases. So it’s a great way to check in on what items are on sale and go ahead and pick them up. But today when I logged in, my cart appeared to be empty.
I sent Amazon customer service an email about it, but I’m curious: does anyone else out there use that feature, and if so, is your cart empty too?
What gives? That’s a pretty jarring experience for me as a ridiculously loyal Amazon customer. If they’ve done away with it for whatever reason, I’m going to have to rethink my loyalty to their site.
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Yes, they screwed up by announcing they would take away the Profiles feature. But then, when it became clear that customers were upset with the announcement — and by upset, I mean ready to cancel their accounts — Netflix retracted their decision, and sent one of the best apology emails I’ve seen.
We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles
Dear Kate,
You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.
We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.
-Your friends at Netflix
Short and sweet, and to the point. “You spoke, and we listened.” That’s the essence of managing customer experience, even when it happens a little after it could have. Well done, Netflix.
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I had stress dreams all night about work. Not just work, but, um, well, strategic issues that influence the future of the company.
Maybe I already need another vacation?
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is a Blue Coast veggie burrito followed by a blueberry chocolate chip paleta. I’d be supremely relaxed right now if 1) I didn’t have so much crap to do, and 2) I hadn’t eaten quite so much of said food.
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My colleague pointed me to a letter a friend of his wrote to American Airlines, “breaking up” with them.
Dear American Airlines,
I don’t think we should see each other any more.
I know that’s hard to hear. But you’re not the same airline I met a few years ago. You’ve changed. And not for the better. Sure, you say you love me… that you’ll take care of me… that I am “Elite” in your eyes… but those words just seem empty now. I need you to show me that your love is genuine.
There’s more. Lots more. And it’s brilliant. Check it out.
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I sure hope this comes to be:
The mayor has called on the committee to identify goals and develop a plan of action that would help Nashville to first become the greenest city in the Southeast, and later one of the greenest cities in the nation.
As the article points out, there’s plenty of work to be done, from outdated stormwater infrastructure (as evidenced by the turrets of water that run down our street when it rains) to sorely lacking mass transit options, with recycling and air quality in between — but it all seems manageable in the long term. I’m glad to see attention being paid to the gaps that need to be addressed.
Now if they would just get moving on a mass transit option that would take me from Nashville to Franklin. I’m getting a little tired of these $60 tanks of gas.
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Celebrity deaths don’t often prompt a reaction in me, but this one made me gasp. Not because it was so very unexpected, really, but because no matter how old he got or how sickly he was looking, I guess it’s hard to believe someone so smartassed could really die.
He’ll be missed.
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I’m in Chicago to speak at a pretty big conference, and my co-presenter is a guy I’ve never met, and our topic is one I know a thing or two about but have never spoken on before. We still haven’t finished writing the content of the presentation. Our session is three days away, and he doesn’t get into town until late the afternoon before.
And yet I’m strangely relaxed today. I’m either completely delusional, or I know what I’m doing enough to feel like we’re going to pull this off anyway.
Or maybe a little of both.
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The publisher of “Mango Sun” emailed us this morning to let us know he has “major” interest in the song.
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Please don’t cry
Originally uploaded by Kate O’
My coworker Andy told me a sad story about a coyote killing a cat, and then left me a little chin-up note to counteract it. This place is nutty.
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My work day today consisted of almost 6 hours of driving, an hour and a half of meetings, and two hours of watching a minor league baseball game. (Our team won.)
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Karsten and I have often talked about disaster preparedness, and a lot of our concern has to do with our six cats. In an emergency, we want to be able to get everyone to safety, of course. That seems marginally feasible with six, but having now seen this picture, I’m so glad I haven’t had to try. My heart goes out to both of the men shown in this picture, as of course it does to all the Iowans trying to make life right again, but I feel a special kinship with this man who appears to put saving his cats above saving anything else in his home. I suspect I’d be that person, too.
(I also can’t help but think that those terrified cats are probably scratching the hell out of him, poor guy!)
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I guess I haven’t mentioned that I found out that I don’t have cancer. I know I never really posted that it was a possibility, but what with the thyroid nodules and all, there was indeed a chance. But the biopsy came back benign, thank goodness. I mean, I still have to have my thyroid out, apparently, but at least it isn’t cancer with all its chances for extra complication.
So while I’m frustrated at having a mysterious new health problem emerge from nowhere, I’ve also been trying to remember to appreciate that it could be much worse.
But I’ve also been having increasing difficulties with drooping energy level, irritability, and trouble concentrating — all of which are probably at least partly attributable to my thyroid. So even with proper perspective? This pretty well sucks.
Oh, but to complete my roller-coaster thought pattern, the doc did tell me that it’s unlikely that goitrogens have any real influence in my case. He says iodine is far more likely to be a factor, and I don’t really think of myself as having a diet that is in either way extreme when it comes to iodine, so that’s good. And it means I can still eat my fill of soy and broccoli, which is REALLY good. Because I don’t think I was really prepared to give that stuff up. I’d be like one of those people with advanced lung cancer who still smokes three packs a day — only in my case I’d have an ever-growing lump in my neck while I gorge myself on stir-fried broccoli and tofu.
Hmm. I think I know what I’m having for lunch tomorrow.
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Is Addison’s mangorita the superior recipe or is Donna’s the ‘rita
done right? I don’t think I’ve sampled enough to say for sure. Back
for more.
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I heard from a coworker that Family Wash was robbed at gunpoint last night. Anyone heard this? He said the robber took the wallets of everyone there.
We almost went there last night, no joke. That’s so weird.
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Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Tell your cat! But be warned: this position reports to me, and it is well known that I am a hard-bitten meany-head.
Customer Experience Specialist
We know you’re out there: an excellent problem-solver, equal parts tech-savvy and marketing-minded, great attitude, maybe just a little too smart for your own good… and frustrated because there aren’t a whole lot of e-commerce jobs around Nashville. We understand – you haven’t had a lot of professional web experience. Sure you’ve built your own web site and you set up your own Wordpress blog, complete with every cool plugin you could find, and you know your way around Photoshop enough to have done your own graphics. You know a little something about usability, and you find yourself analyzing web sites and know how they could improve. But what employer would consider that relevant experience?
We feel your pain. And we have just the job for you.
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