The Get Satisfaction office is slowly emptying out this week. One by one, we’re spreading our wings and migrating to Austin for SXSW.
Lane was the first to arrive in the Lone Star state, many others are en route, and I’ll be bringing up the rear.
Will Wired be waiting to interview me about my hair when I step off the plane?
Doubtful.
Come to our party, eat our tacos, hear us speak, and say hello if you see us around town.
[Wired is on Get Satisfaction.]
Courtesy of the Washington Monthly, this is an unforgettable image of one of the earliest call centers. It’s a scan of an ad from the October 1958 copy of Newsweek, and the copy (obscured here) reads:
This “magic scoreboard” makes it possible for the Hilton Reservation Offices listed below to give you, while you are still on the phone, complete reservation information at any of the 33 Hilton Hotels around the world. You will receive an immediate verbal reply on your reservation request, and a written confirmation will be mailed the same day.
There are some informative comments below the post. For instance, the “magic scoreboard” showed rates and availability to the operators, and was called the “rack”. This is the origin of the term “rack rate,” which means the base room rate.
My favorite part is the young woman carrying the vase of carnations across the workroom.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/116/column-made-to-stick.html
My old pal Dan Heath has penned an excellent article for Fast Company on practical tips for generating word of mouth:
Most organizations systematically snuff out anything that’s distinctive enough to spark conversation, usually through processes and committees. Would woolen caps for smoothie bottles have survived a committee decision at Coca-Cola? Could a formal market-research process have justified the VW Beetle’s bud vase? (”Our conjoint analysis has revealed that customers’ willingness to pay increases by $112 with the bud vase.”) When people with different opinions compromise, they meet in the middle, not at the edge. But the edge is what sparks conversation.
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/05/diy_pr.html
“If you were stripped absolutely naked for the world to see, a few warts might show up, but more people would do business with you.” — Glenn Kelman over on Guy Kawasaki’s blog, talking about his favorite brand of PR: The DIY kind.
Sounds like something we’d say! A very smart, pleasantly counterintuitive approach to public relations.
http://www.podtech.net/home/3456/lunchmeet-customers-demand-satisfaction
Eddie Codel, of PodTech and GeekTV fame, sat down with us in our office recently to chat about Satisfaction on his “Lunchmeet” videocast. Worth watching not only ’cause we reveal even more of our not-so-secret plans but also because you get a chance to see and hear our rockstar dev team in action.
Join us here as we chat about customer communities, the benefits of transparency, principles of hospitality, and what we're doing with Get Satisfaction.
You can also contact us anytime at info@getsatisfaction.com or, if you'd prefer, call our CEO, Thor, at 415.205.0115, or our President, Lane, at 415.867.1708. We'd love to hear from you.
