Archive for the ‘Customer Focus’ Category


Bumbershoot 2023 takes us by the wrist

It’s been a decade since we last attended Bumbershoot, the music and arts festival that happens at the Space Needle each September in Seattle. This year was something of a “back-to-basics” theme due to the show owners skipping the big budget event operators and doing it more or less themselves. The benefit to showgoers:  You […]

A tale of two preorders

I recently had two preorders with two different online stores go wrong. One a digital game on Xbox, and the other physical media from Amazon. I think there are lessons learned from both of them, if you’re a marketer and/or work on an online ordering system. Stray This is a game I previously bought when […]

When ‘Surprise and Delight’ goes wrong: How Regal, Universal, and Comixology almost won me over only to fail on fulfillment and support

I’ve worked in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for years and have run many email campaigns designed to engage and reward customers. Fulfillment is a crucial piece of this, and it’s often hard to do well despite the best intentions. Things like data lag can mean you either have to do extra work to reward customers […]

The customer is always at least a little bit right

Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes is a good way to validate whether your marketing campaigns and customer support processes reward or unnecessarily punish those who purchase or subscribe to your offerings.

Three common social media misfires (and how to avoid them)

Social media has a critical role to play in your overall marketing campaign. A well-executed campaign will spread naturally through shares on the major outlets. You must invest the time and yes – money – required to nurture each individual outlet. Here are four common misfires made by marketers in the social media arena, and […]

Market segmentation: Lessons learned from the gaming industry at PAX Prime 2011

Our consulting business shifts from time to time. Sometimes we’re heavy on content creation, other times community building, and – right now – we’re focused on marketing support in the videogame industry. This means spending a lot of time considering different market segments and how to effectively reach them with a message that customers want so they’ll […]

Worker solidarity: 6 ways you can win points with coworkers when you’re out of the office

The final days of the year are fast approaching, which spells vacation time for many office workers across the land. December is filled with excused absences tied to shopping trips, travel adventures and the ever-popular HR vacation threat, “use it or lose it.” Whether you plan to be out for a day, a week or […]

Labor Pains: How grocery strikes impact communities – and it’s not what you think

There has been a strange charge in the air at several major Seattle area grocery stores these past few weeks. Employees at regional chains Fred Meyer and QFC (both owned by national grocer Kroger), plus Albertson’s and Safeway have been working without a contract since May. Contract negotiations began in February, and came to a […]

TMI, dude! Why asking for too much information is the wrong marketing move

I recently clicked through an offer to get a free Back to the Future game episode from Telltale Games. It’s a promotion designed to hook you in to purchasing the full series of games when they’re released. The site prompted me for my login, which I had created the last time they did one of these […]

Do these people look like they want to help you? A customer support big phish story

You probably get loads of spam. And you probably have noticed that some of those mails try to trick you (phish) personal details, such as credit card numbers and personally identifiable details that could be used to scam you. And these phishers are getting smarter. Once happy to prey only on newbies and the truly […]