Customer Service

The suspect: The confusing WSJ subscription page. Click to view larger.

Wall Street Journal meant well when its staff created the email center page. I like that it has all the e-mail subscriptions on for managing. When a resource has multiple e-mail newsletters, listing all of the newsletters in one page serves readers well.

Here comes the “but.” If you’re already subscribed, the WSJ page doesn’t show it. At the bottom of a WSJ newsletter, it shows:

TO VIEW OR CHANGE any of your e-mail settings, go to the E-Mail Setup Center: http://online.wsj.com/email

Everyone sees the same page and options regardless if they have a subscription. Subscribed users should see their subscriptions reflected on the landing page. Sure, they have a link so you can log in to subscriber Email Center to check your settings — but we read fast and I didn’t notice this on the first reading. Only “here” has a link and it’s not obvious when you scan.

So I click “here” and it’s a dead end:

No Information Available
Your subscription does not include access to this service.

If you want to unsubscribe to ALL WSJ newsletters, you have to go through the entire list and click every “Remove Me.” If you want to change subscriptions (unsubscribe to some, leave some alone, etc.), you feel the pressure to select all the “Add Me” and “Remove Me” because you fear leaving it along will automatically subscribe you.

In reality, it won’t do that unless you click either the TEXT or HTML boxes. But that’s not so clear, is it? What do you think? Know of another Web content suspect?

Go to jail and do not pass Go.

I haven’t bothered much with Twitter (not linking on purpose — it’s very sick) lately because it’s in a deep funk. Today, you couldn’t page through conversations, see “Twitter exceeded” messages, or have the annoying bird greeting you with another “It’s down” message.

Many of us have submitted suggestion after suggestion (and plenty of obvious ones at that) to Twitter and never see them become reality. MarketingProfs has a lively discussion about the downtime as do many other bloggers.

But the folks behind Twitter do care. Don’t believe me?

• They’re listening according to Get Satisfaction.
• Twitterblog also tries to interact and inform.
• Twitter status page provides… well, the status… but it does require Twitter to be up.

In today’s competitive world, some would argue that a competitor should and could take away Twitter’s audience. It’s a free service — does it have the right to ask this much of us? After all, this is what happens when it ails:

• New Tweeters get tired of trying to see what the big deal is.
• Current Tweeters give up on posting meaningful messages knowing no one might see it.
• Current Tweeters stop posting waiting for the problems to pass… only to find they don’t return as they move on to other things.

Mack Collier ends the MarketingProfs asking, “Twitter users, what say you? Would you feel better about the constant problems if Twitter was active in the space and giving us feedback and support? Or should we all shut up and take it, since it’s a free service?”

I know I’d feel better about Twitter if they had taken our suggestions seriously back before it started having problems.

Just tried Pownce and it’s doesn’t grab me like Twitter does — let me know if you have an ID so I can hear you talk — it’s too quiet. Find it more work to use. I guess there’s just no place like Twitter and we’ll just have to be patient and seek out each other through our blogs.

If your PR and marketing folks aren’t tracking your company, brand, and competition online, they need to get up to speed to better do their jobs. If you play all of the roles, tracking your company and brand isn’t as time consuming as it sounds.

Remember alert services, blogs, and social network sites. Many of these can deliver updates to your inbox or phone.

Alert Services: Sends e-mail, text, etc. whenever your keyword shows up somewhere. Media services such as BBC News and TMCNet have their own alerts — so check out sites that cover your industry and sign up for their alerts. Here are general free keyword alert services.

1. AOL Alerts
2. Clip and Copy — three free searches in Basic account.
3. Google
4. GoogleAlert (not from Google) — gives three free searches).
5. Reuters
6. Twitbeep — Google alerts for twitter.
7. Twilerts — Google alerts for twitter.
8. Twitter Search — Even if you check your own @replies page, someone may have mentioned you and it’s good to check here.
9. Windows Live Alerts
   
10. Yahoo

Blogs: You can most likely find blogs for every industry. Numerous blog directories exist that to make a list here would be futile. MasterNewMedia has a hey-ugggeee list.

Social network sites: Also too many to list, but it should include Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, and conversations like Twitter and forums. Also look for social networks covering your industry. The following sites/tools let you search Twitter with keywords:

• Summize
• TwitterMap search
• Google’s twitter search
• Terraminds
• Tweetscan

Track forums and other conversations with these sites:

• Boardtracker
• Omigili
• Klostu
• Twing
• Boardreader
• Twing

Resources

• Copybrighter
• Online Reputation Management Blog
• Online Reputation Management Guide
• Radically Transparent

Updated: January 16, 2009

Karen Putz asks how I do it — balance full-time writing and being a parent to three kids. I should be asking her how she does it — she interviews Marlee Matlin!

As I mentioned in my how I became a writer story, the whole thing started as a part-time venture while managing a part-time corporate job (for most of it) and three kids. I believe writing on the side while holding down a corporate job is a better route than chucking it all for the freelance life.

Yes, life is about risks, but you’re more likely to succeed by building up instead of starting with zip. Had I chucked it all back in 2000, I would’ve had less than a part-time amount of work and no health benefits. My spouse got laid off in 2003, right before #3 came along. We would’ve been in deep trouble had I chucked, which would’ve been more of an upchuck (holds back from the woodchuck routine).

I also volunteer and sit on several PTA boards. My mom was a full-time volunteer for the second half of my childhood. I wanted to be like her. Living a balanced life is important to me. My kids will grow up, so I need to enjoy them NOW.

Prefer to be all about your career? You might want to read Wake Up, Damn It! If your career makes you happy, then go for it and ignore everything here.

So how do I manage all of this? Not without a little insanity and stress at times, but these tips help make it easier:

1. Enroll younger kids in pre-school. Keeping them at home isn’t doable (unless you have a nanny). My youngest has learned amazing stuff he would never have learned had he stayed home. He enters kindergarten in the fall (sob).
2. Rely on a personal information manager complete with contacts, calendar, and to do lists. The Palm desktop has been my trusty sidekick since 1995. Use Outlook. Use any of the many online web-based applications.
3. Balance your schedule for the week. Non-work appointments take too many of my slots this week. I’ve rescheduled two. I try to spread out appointments, but that doesn’t always work and find a week becomes overloaded. So when I realize it, I start moving things around where I can. I review the week ahead sometime between Friday and Monday to ensure balance or to do something about it.
4. Accept working off hours. While I work a standard work week, appointments and kid events can cut into my work time. So I make it up in the evening or on weekends, but never at the sacrifice of sleep bring us to the next point…
5. Get sleep. Everyone requires a different amount of sleep to function well. If I stay up late working on something, I’m hurting more than helping my clients and business. While I might get something done late at night, I’m useless the next day and lose an entire day. So better to sleep and finish in the morning.
6. Avoid waiting until last minute to do work to make deadline. To avoid late nights, I make sure I have room to meet the deadline. This prevents racing the clock or sacrificing quality to make a deadline.
7. Make “No” part of your vocabulary. Or else, get stuck with deadlines close to each other, overload your schedule, and turn yourself into a stress machine (which affects your health). I believe, “When mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” So parents, it may feel selfish to say, “No,” but your family benefits.
8. Drop stressful clients. I’ve dropped a client or two because I didn’t enjoy the work and dreaded working on their projects. Add these together spells energy drain. Worried about replacing them? Writers should always include marketing a part of their job.
9. Balance your kids’ activities. Who says they need to take music lessons, play sports, dance, and do scouts all at once? Kids need a break, too. Try to limit younger ones’ — who are trying things to find what they like — current activities to one or two. When one ends, you can try something else. After all, fewer activities means fewer chauffeuring jobs for parents.
10. Use your “I can’t write now” time wisely. When we find ourselves unable to write or work, we can easily fall into the trap of needlessly surfing the Web or doing other wasteful activities. When I’m in a stupor, I fold laundry, exercise, play games (that I need to review) — Things that benefit me.

How do you balance your writing life with your personal life?

Noticing another (the first being the gray text on white background) trend and it ain’t good. More and more newsletters require you to click a link for the full newsletter. To make the situation worse, some of these are in — ack! — Acrobat pdf format!

I like Acrobat files, but not for e-mail newsletters. E-mail newsletters generally load fast unless the issue has too many images that aren’t optimized (you won’t find me subscribed to those that do this every time). But to click the link to go to the PDF page takes longer.

I still read some newsletters that use this method because they offer high quality content and I respect the editor behind the newsletter. I just might not read every issue or refer back.

E-mail newsletters work for me because I can file them, search them, and read them whenever. Yes, you can file the “click link for newsletter” e-mail, but you can’t search it. You won’t remember if the content you need came from that newsletter or another.

Yes, trying to get an e-mail newsletter to display the way you want it in every e-mail client is an impossible task. But that’s not an excuse for chucking the idea and going PDF where the newsletter doesn’t have to deal with e-mail application idiosyncrasies.

Remember all of us have lots of information coming at us… and we all have our preferences how we like to get that information: RSS, e-mail, Web. A successful newsletter provides readers with choices in how to obtain the content.

More related posts on this topic

• HTML in Newsletters
• Designing Newsletters for all E-mail-Kind
• Spread the Marketing Wealth for Best Results
  

Am I off base here? Or do you like your PDFs?

Although Twitter hasn’t done much for my writing business, it keeps me in touch with friends and colleagues. It did contribute to my previous post. I decided to ask twitterville what they did whenever they become lethargic when they need to write. It worked well.

As much as I’d like to regularly ask questions, overdoing it could lead to the opposite results.

Also picked up a few more tips — in addition to the seven tips already posted — to make Twitter work for you.

1. Pick the right name that’s short as possible and stick with it.
2. Take care in using Twitter tools like Twhirl or else you won’t get work done.
3. Ask open-ended questions.
4. Skip the “tile” for the background image in your design unless you like to make people dizzy or it works (but very few people make it work).

Most importantly, keep participating (already mentioned in the first seven twitter tips). Twitter doesn’t work if you sit there hoping someone will @you.

That name thing came from a lesson learned. First, I signed up on twitter as “ContentMaven” since Meryl was taken. After using twitter for a few days, I realized that people might not know who I was as my name showed up no where.

Sure, the URL to my Web site was there, but you have to go to that person’s twitter page to see it. Besides, we don’t always pay attention to URLs. I changed the name to “MerylKEvans” since most people used first and last names. Another dumb move, but too late to change again.

Problems…

1. Many people misspell “Meryl.”
2. They might not notice the “K” in there. Call me weird, but I need my K! My middle and maiden names both start with K and “Meryl Evans” looks like it’s missing something.
3. It’s long for remembering and typing @name on a phone or without checking twitter.
4. Names count in the 140 character count when people @respond to you.

Changing your name is almost like starting over. So, pick the right name and as short as possible.

What twitter tips have you picked up?

Last week, my schedule contained too many appointments not related to writing work. So I planned to work whenever I had the chance to be at my desk… at least, that was what I told myself. Myself decided to rebel.

Unmotivated. Uninspired. Un-everything. I couldn’t and wouldn’t budge. I spent this time clicking “Check e-mail” and guilt-tripping myself.

Don’t you hate days like this? You want to work, but your writing fingers and brain just won’t tune in. It isn’t a case of writer’s block… more of a writer’s body refuses to do anything productive.

Unless you’re fortunate to have a partner or underlings, writing is a solitary business. My dog has no desire to motivate me, so I’m stuck being my own cheerleader. Rah rah turns into blah blah. “Cut it out,” I think to myself.

“Nuh uh,” myself responded like a stubborn toddler.

The first thing I did was agree not to work on one of the client assignments. Whenever I decided to work on this assignment for the day, it tended to make me freeze and this affected all other clients because I told myself I would do that assignment.

OK, well, I needed to work… so assignment removed from task. Barrier removed and myself cooperated and started working. Obviously, I should drop this assignment, but for various reasons… I can’t.

This situation meant removing a barrier. Other situations may call for something else. What could that be? How do you deal with days like this?

I asked Twitterers this question and got nice responses:

“Push through by doing brain stimulus things that will get my brain flowing on ideas and material. I watch Christian videos on TBN through their video portal. Also, read articles similar to my book’s topic. Another thing that I do is play word games such as WordTwist or Scramble online via FB.” Kim Beasley

“Wait until Monday? I’m kind of joking, but, honestly trying to work when my heart and mind aren’t in it is usually a waste.” Keith Robinson

“I don’t do it unless it’s a matter of life and death, i.e. too important.” Moshin Naqi

“Go outside, read something awesome, talk on the phone with someone who makes me laugh, then try again.” Chelle Parmele

“Take a nice walk and don’t think about anything but breathing.” Virginia DeBolt

Inspirational quotes on not giving up.

Recently, I lamented about the many blogging features available. I interacted with the blogosphere more than I usually do to see what works and what doesn’t. What took me so long to discover CommentLuv, I don’t know. But I did.

Since I use WordPress, it was a breeze to install. The plugin doesn’t even need you to copy code into your template or anything. If you’re not familiar with the plugin, just scroll down to the comment form to see it.

The CommentLuv automatically appears in the comments. The plugin retrieves the commenter’s latest blog post (if they have a blog), and links to it. Cool, eh? It’s nice to reward commenters.

I also added ShareThis, but not sure if it’s worth keeping. MenWithPens believes ShareThis should be replaced by Sociables. I asked why because ShareThis has one little low profile icon while Sociables contains however many social sites you pick, which can build a small crowd at the bottom of the post. James explained why use Sociables:

Social Media is for both the blog and the reader. Readers who use social media to find better content referred by others means they want to see their preferred social media icon so they can click and share.

The problem with Share This is that it’s one click too many. Every click you force a reader to take reduces the chance that they’ll actually take action and follow through. I think the numbers are something like 7% of potential loss with each click (don’t quote me).

So Share This means one click to open and one click to search for your social media and one click to send. With Sociables, you eliminate that. One click. That’s all you need. It’s right there for you.

Also, how many people actually email blog posts to friends? It’s more common to share links or URLS, which makes Share this a little unnecessary.

Excellent point, Gangbanger James (he goes on drive through shootings — legal ones… you know… shooting blog problems). Now I wonder if I should even use anything because ShareThis and Sociables benefit the blogger more than the reader (promoting a blog entry).

What y’all think? Shoot ShareThis? Add Sociables? Forget social anything?

What about the fact if you come here (thank you!!) on the blog’s main page or the home page and you have to click once or twice (from the home page) to see the full entry? I thought I was doing y’all a favor by keeping the entries short on the blog’s home page so you can scan. But then it adds a click if you want to see the full entry.

Frustration builds while reviewing this week’s calendar. Every day this week has something not routine and not work-related scheduled (and most of last week, too). I can only reschedule one appointment, but it’s not enough to lighten the load.

So what does a lone freelancer do? To prevent myself from going crazy and sacrificing sleep (if I do this, then I might as well mark myself as unavailable for the entire day after a short night’s sleep), I work through my fewer hours than usual:

• Cancel or reschedule appointments, if possible.
• Prioritize (Duh!)
• Contact regular clients notifying them of my reduced availability.
• Cut time spent on self-assigned work like blogging, Twittering, and social network sites. While these sound like time wasters — they aren’t. It’s part of the freelancer’s marketing toolbox.
• Be strict about fooling around on the Internet (This is the time waster.).

Even with deadlines, the freelancer should be able to plan the week to meet them while saving less urgent work for later. Most of the time, the freelancer meets the deadlines and then has time left over to work on the lower prioritized stuff.

I feel better knowing I will accomplish a few things this week, though less than usual. It’s better than panicking and getting nothing done.

For freelancers and solopreneurs, making a mistake on a task compares to a corporate employee receiving bad performance review. Facing mistakes — no matter how small — as a freelancer comes harder than those made as a corporate employee — and I’ve worked on the other side. The other side includes working for the U.S. government for three years and for corporations for all but the last 2 1/2 years.

Maybe it’s my perfectionist (not as bad as it used to be, however — busier personal and professional lives will do that) nature coupled with wanting to provide the best services for clients. But freelancers know clients can drop a contractor in a jiff and over the smaller things while a company has to jump through more hoops to fire an employee over bigger issues. Corporate employees also usually receive a warning, counseling, regular reviews, or whatever the company’s policies dictate.

We (especially me) have to remember we’re human not machines. We tire, we forget, we slip, we fall. I believe that how a person handles the mistake speaks louder than the mistake.

1. Apologize: I avoid making excuses. They don’t mean a thing. The mistake happened. Apologize. Move on and work so it doesn’t happen again.
2. Rectify the situation: Get a refund, fix the error for no extra charge, add a discount on the invoice.
3. Go the extra mile next time.
4. Request feedback: After I’ve worked with a new client for a reasonable time, I request a check up. I care about providing high quality services and improving.

Here are two cases where I blundered and how I handled them.

The case of the complicated PR service
I submitted a press release for a client through a service. I had done it before without a problem. The client e-mailed me and asked why I added an extra, which added charges. What extra charges??

In reviewing the receipt, I saw what happened and it was an honest mistake because of the way the site sets up its form. OK, this sounds like I’m blaming the form, but it’s confusing and I thought I filled it out correctly. Anyway, the site makes it hard to tell what you’re getting and doesn’t bother providing a page with the totals before confirming the order. Had I seen the extra charge, I would’ve looked closer and fixed it before confirming.

Rather than pouting and praying the client doesn’t drop me, I contacted the site’s representative and had the extra charges removed. I also asked for documentation that wasn’t available online. Now when I use the site, I remember the experience (and feel my heart thump a few extra beats during the tricky process) to avoid extra charges.

The case of the forgotten information
A client asked me to contact editors and provided specific details for one editor. I didn’t start with that editor, so by the time I e-mailed the editor… I forgot about the special instructions. Eep!

E-mailing the editor again was out of the question as I didn’t want to turn off the editor from contacting him more times than necessary. Since I couldn’t rectify the situation the way I would’ve liked, I included a discount on my invoice to that client and apologized without making excuses.

Got a story of dealing with a mistake? We’d like to hear it — remember, you don’t have to use your real name.