CRM...And The Real World - Part 1.

Written by Roger J. Burke


Continued from page 1

Her shrill voice breaks my vengeful reverie.

SHE: "Well, here it is," waving it about triumphantly, "but you can't haverepparttar card back. It's *not* yours, you know...you'll have to get authorization from your son...a letter...to pick it up." Emphatically, she putsrepparttar 106739 card in a drawer, slams it shut. Thud! Smiling now, full set of ivories, dripping insincerity.

ME: "Huh...what?" (I know, I know...I tend to repeat myself!) But, before I could go on...

SHE: "Anyway, what happened? Why didrepparttar 106740 ATM takerepparttar 106741 card? Did you enter something incorrectly?" I couldn't believe her accusing tone. At any moment, I expected her to start shaking her finger at me.

I look at her blankly, but I'm thinking. Now that wasrepparttar 106742 funny thing about this whole mess - I'd followed everything torepparttar 106743 letter...er, number: key in PIN, hit WITHDRAW CASH, select correct account...hmmm, must be SAVINGS, Danny has no CHEQUE account, but just after I key-entered 140,repparttar 106744 ATM issuedrepparttar 106745 above messages and aterepparttar 106746 card. That's it...kaput! I felt that I'd just been executed. Maybe it was some kind of read error onrepparttar 106747 unit? Most unlikely...the card had already been accepted - PIN, account,repparttar 106748 lot! But, what then?

ME (finally shrugging, shaking my head): "Hmmm...well, no...there's no obvious reason...that I can think of..." Brow furrows, bites lip pensively.

SHE (primly): "Never mind, never MIND, either fill this form out for a new card", handing me another bank form, as if I didn't have enough already, "or get your son to bring a letter back...and then you can getrepparttar 106749 card back!" She saidrepparttar 106750 last with more false bonhomie, teeth glittering.

As I walked away muttering, I glanced back atrepparttar 106751 large sign aboverepparttar 106752 area: "Customer Service Desk". Some service, I thought; more like "Customer Punishment Area - SFA (that's Self Flagellation Acceptable)"! My only option now was to return with some sort of letter to satisfy these goons and their procedures...so much for *this* bank's customer relationship management program.

That woman onrepparttar 106753 service desk failed miserably at CRM:repparttar 106754 cardinal rule is thatrepparttar 106755 customer is always right, even when s/he's wrong. She didn't *have* to tell me that using another's PIN is not recommended; from Spitzbergen to Tierra del Fuego, everybody knows *that*, already! Additionally, she didn't even haverepparttar 106756 courtesy to address me by my name...

And, to cap it all, instead of apologizing to *me* forrepparttar 106757 inconvenience, she made me feel as though I had beenrepparttar 106758 one to inconvenience *her*. Some service, huh?

Y'see, she was intent *only* on enforcing procedure, even to my detriment, instead of trying to get torepparttar 106759 root cause ofrepparttar 106760 problem...which, byrepparttar 106761 way, may also be happening to other customers. Even as I speak...

I was thinking about *that* as I drove back home, but put it aside, while I enlistedrepparttar 106762 aid of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. First things first, after all: getrepparttar 106763 card back, then worry about why I was card-swiped! This was going to be interesting, I thought, as I knew that Sherry had already had a run-in withrepparttar 106764 personnel in *that* particular branch some months ago...

Oh,repparttar 106765 joys of online banking! ;-)

P.S. Part 2 will complete this sorry saga...

Roger Burke has been involved with computers since 1967, and has managed to break quite a few, over the years. He, and his wife Sherry, are now actively engaged in online self-publishing and promoting specific affiliate programs at http://online-wealth.com . If you have any comments or questions about this article, please send emails to mailto:webmaster@online-wealth.com . Copyright 2001, Online-Wealth. All rights reserved.




Is ebusiness for my business?

Written by Michael Bloch


Continued from page 1

I spend as much time marketing "Tamingrepparttar Beast" as I do developing it; most professional webmasters will tell yourepparttar 106738 same. The topics of preparing sites for promotion & other marketing techniques is covered in various articles on my site.

As I mentioned, interactiviy and content isrepparttar 106739 key to creating "brand" loyalty. Several years ago I was involved with Recruitment and Training in Eastern Australia. In our area, there were a number of organisations we were competing with. The other groups had "Here we are" pages, but we went a step further. We had allrepparttar 106740 usual details regarding our company; but we also posted up positions vacant on a daily basis, gave employers and candidates an easy way to contact us via forms, had a number of articles and information resources for job seekers and employers in place, links to resume generators etc etc etc. The end result was an excellent traffic flow, added incentive for employers to advertise with us, more suitable candidates forrepparttar 106741 positions we were advertising and we also received a substantial grant fromrepparttar 106742 government to further developrepparttar 106743 service. We wererepparttar 106744 "little guys" in terms of physical resources - but we wererepparttar 106745 biggest online presence in our area, and well known via our web site. The site also added dollar value torepparttar 106746 business itself as it became an important asset. When tendering for other services,repparttar 106747 web site became an important selling point.

In my next articles, we'll start examining various ways of conducting business online, including shopping carts, establishing merchant accounts and how credit cards are processed.

It is no longer "cool" to have an interactive web presence for your business - it is vital.

Michael Bloch  michael@tamingthebeast.net  http://www.tamingthebeast.net Tutorials, web content and tools, software and community. Web Marketing, eCommerce & Development solutions. _____________________________________________ 

Copyright information....If you wish to reproduce this article, please acknowledge "Tamingrepparttar 106748 Beast" by including a hyperlink or reference torepparttar 106749 website (www.tamingthebeast.net) & send me an email letting me know. The article must be reproduced in it's entirety & this copyright statement must be included. Thanks. Visit www.tamingthebeast.net to view other great articles FREE for reproduction!

Michael is an Australian Information Technologies trainer and web developer. Many other free web design, ecommerce development and Internet articles, tutorials, tools and resources are available from his award winning site; Taming the Beast.net (http://www.tamingthebeast.net)


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