Archive for September 2006

I appreciate companies and organizations that take advantage of the Internet to make it easy for customers. This list includes Amazon, Carter Blood Care, and a non-profit organization that lets customers go to its web site to schedule a donation pickup.

The other option is to navigate the nightmare of an IVR system. I discovered an IVR system for the first time in the early ’90s and this wasn’t a trend I looked forward to. Read how difficult it is to work with an IVR system through the relay service. The entry also refers to two positive stories.

Good Experience explains that customer service isn’t the same as the customer experience.

Businesses need to offer multiple ways to reach them for help or support. Online AND telephone support. Though we prefer to reach a human without navigating the IVR system, realistically — some companies can’t handle the amount of calls they get and need help. IVRs aren’t going away. The key thing is for businesses to provide multiple contact routes and make it easy to find their contact information online.

Church of the Customer Blog shares many stories related to customer service. An important factor is for companies to listen to the blogosphere and the web about what people say about their products or brand. Looks like my old post on Earthlink picked up recently — but I’ve yet to see Earthlink respond.

This won’t do for me, but Design Observer offers fascinating insight into arranging books by color. One book arranger by color says it helps him discover new connections between books. I love organization.

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After reading this, I glanced at my three book shelves … now they look messy because the colors clash with each other. The aqua of O’Reilly books, the burnt orange of an information architecture book, the reds of the Degunking series, the whites of many books with a diversity of font colors and types. You know what? Most of these books have white spines with colorful text.

I have the famous orange style book — yes, that’s Chicago Manual of Style. The black with red tops of Microsoft certification books. The books in my office cover mostly writing, reference, computers, business advice, and web design. The self-advice, comics, fiction, puzzles, literature, and non-fiction (large books with photos not pertaining to business) books live upstairs in the game room.

One shelf contains dictionaries, thesauri, style guides, and other references. Another contains the more frequently used web design, Internet and computer books. Marketing gets its own shelf as well as writing. One shelf is so short that I fit whatever books fit in there (the shelf can’t move as one shelf is permanent) — so it’s a mix. One shelf has recent arrivals, books needing reviewing, and books needing abstracting.

The tall bookshelf contains mostly techie books, notebooks from tech classes, software boxes, and a spattering of books from the other categories.

I also sort the books upstairs. Did I say I was an organized freak? I generally don’t keep fiction unless there’s something unique like an autograph or we simply loved the book. But I get fiction books from family and they pile up on one shelf as those won’t get read for a long time. The bottom shelves hold the heaviest and tallest books. History of baseball uniforms, Broadway books about a songwriter, shows, or history. US and world history. These typically stand tall and include photos.

A top shelf gets to have fun holding all of our Baby Blues, Far Side, Non Sequitur, Dilbert, and other comic-related books. Parenting books rule one shelf. Religion takes up a shelf and one-half. Puzzles and general advice get along in one row. Cookbooks have a few college textbooks rooming with them. Professional training books live alone on a bottom shelf.

And how do you organize your books or don’t you?