"Good people distinguish things in terms of categories and groups."
In prior Confucianism-inspired posts, we talked about the benefits of using Content Management (CMS) at your website. We've made the case for organizing, ordering, and arranging web pages, so now onto breaking bottlenecks in controlling costs and maintaining efficiency while moving forward with today's standards. With navigation management addressed, here are some other bottlenecks that we eliminate by using a CMS:
1) Without CMS, each time you redesign the website look-and-feel you create a need for extensive programming. This becomes both a people management and a cost issue.
2) Now add the need for multiple contributing editors/authors having to get their content to a "webmaster," and costs explode. Again.
3) Adding functionality, like forms, e-commerce, and online payment? More programming and webmaster skills get added, too. A CMS reduces the costs associated with these—tremendously.
CMS makes life easier by separating/disentangling content editing, copy writing, and navigational elements of your web site, design, and functionality.
1) Design becomes a separate module- a wrapper for the web pages. With CMS you change this design wrapper in one place, and the changes take effect globally throughout every page of the website.
2) As many content editors as you need can login, protect pages, and change just the content they're responsible for without the risk of breaking the design.
3) Applications that "do stuff" are programmed and arranged independently, so modification and re-programming creates no risk to the rest of the website.
4) And while we've already mentioned this, it bears repeating for the cost savings it brings you: changing the order and hierarchy of the navigational links becomes as simple as making a few clicks with a mouse.
Sounds almost like magic, right? With a CMS, the magic comes from putting all your stuff inside a database, grouped and categorized with an eye toward Internet presentation as needed to suit your company's needs relative to customers, vendors, employees, and whomever else stumbles upon it. The pieces are stored separately so they don't get entangled with one another, and "global site elements", like search engine META tags, polls, online payment, and sign-up forms are all grouped separately so changes to them only have to be made once!
And with a database, EVERYTHING is easier to categorize and group. For example, if you set up and write an FAQ section and it grows unwieldy, it's stored in the database so modification of the Q&A is a snap.
CMS is all about simplicity. How much so? Let's take our buddy's words, and summarize them as though he was hosting a radio program, circa 2010:
Confucius, out. (thanks, Ryan Seacrest!)
-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC
-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President, Answer Guy Central Business Support Services
Monday, February 8, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
From Web Pages to Web Sites, or Confuciansim Part III
"Good people order and arrange"
Had enough Confucius yet? 'Cause that old dude had the Internet pegged!
Remember the days of the coal-and-steam-powered internet, when you had to walk miles in the snow to a university to make changes to your website, and ration your disk space usage because there wasn't enough to go around?
Ah, sweet memories. Your personal "Home Page." Your Corporate "Home Page." Build it once and it'll last years . . . just like a when-the-heck-did-they-last-change-that-thing old billboard!
Guess what? They don't make 'em like they used to, and you can't build 'em the way you used to.
That shoddy billboard became the cover page for a leaflet, as you created specialized pages with unique information to grab peoples' interest. And yep: that Web PAGE became . . . a Web SITE!
Content multiplies. Suddenly there are more pages, more information, more content that needs to be grouped and arranged according to context.
Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? It can be. Without site management tools, or a Content Management System, whenever the hierarchy of the web pages changes, a new navigational menu needs to be programmed. And today a good website has to change fast. Monthly, weekly, even daily, depending on your objective and audience.
This is not your father's shoddy old billboard.
One (huge) benefit of building your site on a Content Management System is the automation of menu creation. Manually programming a navigational menu on every one of those pages becomes a thing of the past. And you can even make the changes yourself, easily, using a method that feels just like using a word processor.
Ordering, arranging, re-ordering, re-arranging, it's all simple.
So why aren't you using a CMS ? It probably comes down to inertia. Your old, billboard-style web site is good enough for your needs.
Maybe, but that's becoming a less-and-less valid way to look at doing business on the Internet. No, you may not need an e-commerce system, because not everybody "sells stuff" online. But if your web site is to be worth any more than your "when-the-heck-did-I-last-use-one, anyway?" business cards, you need more. And without a CMS in place, you're making your job harder, and more expensive.
And that old billboard? You know how you laugh every time you pass it and wonder why its owner doesn't update it? Case closed.
-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC
-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President, Answer Guy Central Business Support Services
Had enough Confucius yet? 'Cause that old dude had the Internet pegged!
Remember the days of the coal-and-steam-powered internet, when you had to walk miles in the snow to a university to make changes to your website, and ration your disk space usage because there wasn't enough to go around?
Ah, sweet memories. Your personal "Home Page." Your Corporate "Home Page." Build it once and it'll last years . . . just like a when-the-heck-did-they-last-change-that-thing old billboard!
Guess what? They don't make 'em like they used to, and you can't build 'em the way you used to.
That shoddy billboard became the cover page for a leaflet, as you created specialized pages with unique information to grab peoples' interest. And yep: that Web PAGE became . . . a Web SITE!
Content multiplies. Suddenly there are more pages, more information, more content that needs to be grouped and arranged according to context.
Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? It can be. Without site management tools, or a Content Management System, whenever the hierarchy of the web pages changes, a new navigational menu needs to be programmed. And today a good website has to change fast. Monthly, weekly, even daily, depending on your objective and audience.
This is not your father's shoddy old billboard.
One (huge) benefit of building your site on a Content Management System is the automation of menu creation. Manually programming a navigational menu on every one of those pages becomes a thing of the past. And you can even make the changes yourself, easily, using a method that feels just like using a word processor.
Ordering, arranging, re-ordering, re-arranging, it's all simple.
So why aren't you using a CMS ? It probably comes down to inertia. Your old, billboard-style web site is good enough for your needs.
Maybe, but that's becoming a less-and-less valid way to look at doing business on the Internet. No, you may not need an e-commerce system, because not everybody "sells stuff" online. But if your web site is to be worth any more than your "when-the-heck-did-I-last-use-one, anyway?" business cards, you need more. And without a CMS in place, you're making your job harder, and more expensive.
And that old billboard? You know how you laugh every time you pass it and wonder why its owner doesn't update it? Case closed.
-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC
-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President, Answer Guy Central Business Support Services
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Planning Your Business Web Presence, or Confucianism Part II
The exact quote from our old friend Confucius is "When they do good things, good people plan first".
In fifteen years in this business, we've seen a lot of web development projects, and gained a wealth of experience.
Typical, our clients come to us saying something like "Build me a web site with an awesome design. Make it look sharp/cutting edge/cool/like xxx site".
Then we hear the "secondary" issue; it's usually expressed as "Here's what we want the site to say. This message, that functionality. We want a business overview, employee profiles, contact information . . . you know, all the usual stuff. And here's what we want the website to do: Shopping cart, pay online, FAQ's, password-protected client/employee center, everything categorized in a way that makes sense both to us and everyone who visits, search-able, and with an easily browse-able library of PDF documents. And don't forget user registration!".
Then, as the project is heading toward completion, we hear the big one: "Why don't we come up first in Google? What do we need to do to improve our search engine ranking and get closer to the top?"
Real estate agents tell you that the three most important things in their business are location, location, and location. In the business of creating successful internet presence it's all about planning, planning, and planning!
And the real secret to a smooth and cost-effective website project is to concurrently and proactively plan the above three stages. Not incidentally, this is what CDLLC does.
We used to be shocked when we came across work that hadn't been executed that way, and we come across it often. Of course, it's usually exactly such a failure to plan that leads new clients to us, wondering why their web presence isn't yielding the kind of results they were sure they'd achieve when they hung their bright shiny virtual shingles.
Why does concurrent planning matter?
Businesses that plan their design first and the content and functionality afterward often discover that their content doesn't fit into the design. For example, websites with lots of sections and snippets of information may need a very modular design, while sites with large chunks of content, like publications, reviews, or editorial content are (usually) better served by a wider, vertically stretchable design. Are you selling things directly over the Internet? Designs for special applications like shopping carts or document libraries must be tailored to fit those applications.
Simply put, putting design before content usually results in a redesign, which costs money. Call us crazy, but we like to save our clients' money.
Then, amazingly, it's only after design and content are addressed that the question of marketing and traffic gets looked at!
Did you start your business without a marketing and sales plan already in place? Of course not. So why would you build a website without knowing how you were going to attract the right traffic and deliver your sales message? You can build out your web site and fill it with loads of rich content, and not until months later discover that the site doesn't come up in the right place or rank highly for the for the right keywords in Google.
The result? Content re-writing, and even modification of the design so search engines can find you. Oh: and maybe even a whole new cost item added for search engine marketing, post-budget creation.
The takeaway? Work through all of the steps for creating a successful web presence concurrently and you'll save money and not go over budget with surprises & re-works.
So let's re-work Confucius, with an added slice of Gordon Gecko: "Planning is Good. Planning Works."
-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC
-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC, and
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services
In fifteen years in this business, we've seen a lot of web development projects, and gained a wealth of experience.
Typical, our clients come to us saying something like "Build me a web site with an awesome design. Make it look sharp/cutting edge/cool/like xxx site".
Then we hear the "secondary" issue; it's usually expressed as "Here's what we want the site to say. This message, that functionality. We want a business overview, employee profiles, contact information . . . you know, all the usual stuff. And here's what we want the website to do: Shopping cart, pay online, FAQ's, password-protected client/employee center, everything categorized in a way that makes sense both to us and everyone who visits, search-able, and with an easily browse-able library of PDF documents. And don't forget user registration!".
Then, as the project is heading toward completion, we hear the big one: "Why don't we come up first in Google? What do we need to do to improve our search engine ranking and get closer to the top?"
Real estate agents tell you that the three most important things in their business are location, location, and location. In the business of creating successful internet presence it's all about planning, planning, and planning!
And the real secret to a smooth and cost-effective website project is to concurrently and proactively plan the above three stages. Not incidentally, this is what CDLLC does.
We used to be shocked when we came across work that hadn't been executed that way, and we come across it often. Of course, it's usually exactly such a failure to plan that leads new clients to us, wondering why their web presence isn't yielding the kind of results they were sure they'd achieve when they hung their bright shiny virtual shingles.
Why does concurrent planning matter?
Businesses that plan their design first and the content and functionality afterward often discover that their content doesn't fit into the design. For example, websites with lots of sections and snippets of information may need a very modular design, while sites with large chunks of content, like publications, reviews, or editorial content are (usually) better served by a wider, vertically stretchable design. Are you selling things directly over the Internet? Designs for special applications like shopping carts or document libraries must be tailored to fit those applications.
Simply put, putting design before content usually results in a redesign, which costs money. Call us crazy, but we like to save our clients' money.
Then, amazingly, it's only after design and content are addressed that the question of marketing and traffic gets looked at!
Did you start your business without a marketing and sales plan already in place? Of course not. So why would you build a website without knowing how you were going to attract the right traffic and deliver your sales message? You can build out your web site and fill it with loads of rich content, and not until months later discover that the site doesn't come up in the right place or rank highly for the for the right keywords in Google.
The result? Content re-writing, and even modification of the design so search engines can find you. Oh: and maybe even a whole new cost item added for search engine marketing, post-budget creation.
The takeaway? Work through all of the steps for creating a successful web presence concurrently and you'll save money and not go over budget with surprises & re-works.
So let's re-work Confucius, with an added slice of Gordon Gecko: "Planning is Good. Planning Works."
-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC
-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC, and
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services
Monday, January 25, 2010
A History of Web Content & Confucianism
"Study the Past if You Would Divine the Future"
Confucius would say: The Internet is a Big Deal. And Big Deals Change, but then return to whence they came.
Or something like that.
The Internet has been “around” now for several decades. We can trace its beginning to when Tim Berners-Lee “invented” it (and no, Al Gore was not in the room), but the Internet didn’t start doing anything until 1991.
That's when the first web page went live. Hardly anyone noticed, since if you were on-line at all it was through a company like Compuserve or America Online, but the Internet was starting. What went on line was simple, though: the pages all looked the same, with either left or center alignment throughout, and a single column of text formatted in one font with a few different sizes for emphasis.
A few years later, we had tables, which originally were designed for presenting data in rows of the same ugly text. But them something amazing happened: people commandeered the tables for formatting how you saw things in addition to what you saw, and then CSS (bye-bye tables) came along, and that idea for consistent presentation was adopted by the pretty police, too.
It was a short jump to limited interactivity. First we had Javascript, which when combined with CSS became Dynamic HTML. But at the same time there were problems between different browsers as we all started noticing that Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari didn't do quite the same thing.
Then e-Commerce came along. Site management tools. Software to make creating web pages easy. Everything was exploding by the year 2000, and over the last ten years all the tools, all the technologies, and huge changes in the way people do business evolved into what we have today:
Everyone is a web publisher.
But all the tools and all the ancillary ideas that the tools have created (or is it the other way around?) haven't made this any simpler. "Site Management" has become "Content Management", and while it's more precise, it's also more involved. Distribution of your information is important, too; not everyone who wants to hear what you have to say wants to take the step of coming to your web site, and many people who do so are using SmartPhones with tiny screens. We have blogging, Social Networking, and now the dreaded Search Engine Optimization. Yikes.
So the future is based on the past, and while we all might like to think that we're creating cool new stuff the point of all these tools remains getting your information in front of your clients. A simple task, made far more complicated by technology.
At CDLLC, we manage the technology for you. We know the past, and can future-proof your web/business needs. We use (for example—here's one more piece of "progress")—database-driven web sites separated from your content to make redesigns easy.
You become a content editor, not a programmer. We do everything else.
Because even as things get harder and harder, easy still matters.
-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC
-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services
Confucius would say: The Internet is a Big Deal. And Big Deals Change, but then return to whence they came.
Or something like that.
The Internet has been “around” now for several decades. We can trace its beginning to when Tim Berners-Lee “invented” it (and no, Al Gore was not in the room), but the Internet didn’t start doing anything until 1991.
That's when the first web page went live. Hardly anyone noticed, since if you were on-line at all it was through a company like Compuserve or America Online, but the Internet was starting. What went on line was simple, though: the pages all looked the same, with either left or center alignment throughout, and a single column of text formatted in one font with a few different sizes for emphasis.
A few years later, we had tables, which originally were designed for presenting data in rows of the same ugly text. But them something amazing happened: people commandeered the tables for formatting how you saw things in addition to what you saw, and then CSS (bye-bye tables) came along, and that idea for consistent presentation was adopted by the pretty police, too.
It was a short jump to limited interactivity. First we had Javascript, which when combined with CSS became Dynamic HTML. But at the same time there were problems between different browsers as we all started noticing that Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari didn't do quite the same thing.
Then e-Commerce came along. Site management tools. Software to make creating web pages easy. Everything was exploding by the year 2000, and over the last ten years all the tools, all the technologies, and huge changes in the way people do business evolved into what we have today:
Everyone is a web publisher.
But all the tools and all the ancillary ideas that the tools have created (or is it the other way around?) haven't made this any simpler. "Site Management" has become "Content Management", and while it's more precise, it's also more involved. Distribution of your information is important, too; not everyone who wants to hear what you have to say wants to take the step of coming to your web site, and many people who do so are using SmartPhones with tiny screens. We have blogging, Social Networking, and now the dreaded Search Engine Optimization. Yikes.
So the future is based on the past, and while we all might like to think that we're creating cool new stuff the point of all these tools remains getting your information in front of your clients. A simple task, made far more complicated by technology.
At CDLLC, we manage the technology for you. We know the past, and can future-proof your web/business needs. We use (for example—here's one more piece of "progress")—database-driven web sites separated from your content to make redesigns easy.
You become a content editor, not a programmer. We do everything else.
Because even as things get harder and harder, easy still matters.
-Crockett Dunn
Owner CDLLC
-Jeff Yablon
Chief Operating Office, CDLLC
President
Answer Guy Central Business Support Services
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Idiot Dance!!!! All the Big Web Companies are Doing it!
Idiot Dance, defined: spending at least 30 minutes with technical support, repeatedly going through the same circuitous set of troubleshooting techniques that you already tried before phoning, yet not having your problem resolved by the support "pros."
At CDLLC, we do not do the Idiot Dance. We retain such close business relationships with our clients, and we are fortunate enough to have the privilege of selecting our clients, that the possibility for Idiot Dancing can never arise.
And now, I present you with the Idiot Dance of one of nCrockett Dunn, LLC's newest customers (all names have been changed to protect all parties involved). NOTE, CDLLC crack squad of engineers resolved this in 30 minutes:
Take a deep breath.... here it is:
----------------
SUPPORT: Thank you for visiting BigBad.com's Live Support. How can I help you?
SUPPORT: Hello CLIENT.
SUPPORT: May I have the domain name you are contacting us about today?
CLIENT: extremely frustrated over the past week. i have had an enormous amount of losses via email. i have 70 employees and this has to be resolved now.
SUPPORT: Thank you for this information and I apologize for any inconvenience.
CLIENT: what can you do to help beyond my 10 or so attempts to get this resolved?
CLIENT: are you there?
CLIENT: CLIENT@CLIENTDOMAIN.COM
CLIENT: http://www.CLIENTDOMAIN.COM
CLIENT: password: **************
CLIENT: hello?
SUPPORT: Sorry for any delay in response.
SUPPORT: What problems are you facing?
CLIENT: i can't send or receive email; when i press the send/receive button on outlook a box appears asking for username and password; when i type the password [which i've had since 2001] the box reappears and i can go no further; i also cannot log into webmail; i changed my password and still can't get into webmail;
CLIENT: are you still there?
SUPPORT: Yes.
SUPPORT: Client, username should be your complete email addresss.
SUPPORT: Password: - Same that you use at http://MAIL.CLIENTDOMAIN.COM
SUPPORT: Are you sure that you have correct information?
CLIENT: Support rep, I have been using this email service since 2001. I know the username is the full email address. I have had the same password since 2001. I know what this password is. I just recently changed this password. I still can't log into my account. Please reply with advanced instructions.
SUPPORT: Let me access your email account with this login information.
SUPPORT: It seems that your password is not correct.
SUPPORT: Please change the password by logging into your Account Manager and then use that password to access your email through your POP 3 email client.
CLIENT: new password: ***********
SUPPORT: It is also not working.
SUPPORT: Let me try reset the password of your email account and login to the email account.
SUPPORT: For security purposes, before discussing or changing anything today I need to confirm you to this account.
SUPPORT: To do this, I have sent you a Security Code to the email address anotheremail@alternatedom.com, please paste it into this Chat Window.
CLIENT: ****** is the password
- - -
CLIENT: From: "support@BigBad.com"
To: anotheremail@alternatedom.com
Sent: Monday, July 6, 2009 9:55:10 AM
Subject: BigBad.com - Your email password has been modified
Dear Valued CLIENT,
Thank you for choosing BigBad.com.
As requested, we have modified the email password for the email box for *******.
If you have any further questions about this process and wish to consult with a CLIENT Service Representative you can contact us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by submitting a request online at
http://help.BigBad.com/enduser/idiotdance.php or by contacting one of the numbers below.
Thank you for choosing BigBad.com.
Support
http://help.BigBad.com BigBad.com, Inc Toll free in the U.S. and Canada: (555) 555-1212 Outside the U.S. and Canada +1 (555) 555-1234
CLIENT: i have a meeting in 10min and will need you to expedite this session
CLIENT: please give me an estimated time of completion
CLIENT: hello?
SUPPORT: Can you please provide me the security code sent to anotheremail@alternatedom.com?
CLIENT: what i sent you above is what came into my email box
SUPPORT: Please check all the folders of your email account, you should have received email with the Subject "Your Security Code" from the email address support@BigBad.com.
CLIENT: #########
CLIENT: please give me an estimated time of completion CLIENT: are you there?
SUPPORT: Yes.
SUPPORT: I will try my best to assist you as quickly as possible.
SUPPORT: Sorry for any delay in response.
SUPPORT: Can you please wait for a few minutes while I check your email account after resetting the password?
SUPPORT: I am sorry, by mistake I have changed the password of anotheruser@clientdomain.com to ********
SUPPORT: I have reset the password of client@clientdomain.com to ******, still I am unable to login.
SUPPORT: I will have to forward this issue to the appropriate department and they will contact you soon via email in this regard.
CLIENT: Support rep, this is not good enough. I need a CLIENT service rep to call me at 205.907.8007 immediately.
SUPPORT: I once again sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation.
SUPPORT: We have a different department for phone support.
SUPPORT: However, I will ask them to contact you soon via email or phone.
CLIENT: i don't care. i need you to get someone to call me IMMEDIATELY
SUPPORT: I can provide you phone number for our phone support.
SUPPORT:
Our Customer Service department can be reached toll free in the U.S. and Canada at (555) 555-1212. If you are an International customer, please call
+1 (555) 555-1212.
CLIENT: NO. I CANNOT WAIT 20MIN FOR PHONE SUPPORT. THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR A FULL WEEK!
CLIENT: Are you there?
CLIENT: Hello?
SUPPORT: Let me once again try to reset the password.
SUPPORT: Please wait, I am trying my best to resolve your issue.
CLIENT: Support rep, we have now been communicating for almost 1hr. We have gotten nowhere. I need special attention on this matter.
SUPPORT: CLIENT, there seems to be some technical issue with your email account.
SUPPORT: Please note that these type of issues are handled only by the appropriate department.
SUPPORT: However, I will try my best to make sure your issue gets resolved at the earliest.
SUPPORT: Please be assured that they will contact you soon.
SUPPORT: May I have any of your alternative email addresses?
CLIENT: altemail@anotherdomain.com
CLIENT: I don't have time to spend hours each day to resolve this.
SUPPORT: Thank you. I will ask them to contact you at the earliest via email or phone.
CLIENT: when will they call?
SUPPORT: This needs to be done by a different department, therefore I cannot assure you approximate time limit. However, I will put a note for them to contact you at the earliest.
CLIENT: I cannot continue to go through this. I have been extremely patient. I am a paying customer. I need DIRECT SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.
SUPPORT: Yes, CLIENT. I understand your concern.
SUPPORT: I sincerely apologize once again but I know apologies will not work at this moment because business is at stake.
SUPPORT: I will ask them to resolve your issue on highest priority basis.
CLIENT: Business is already lost; What's more concerning is when I go through the proper channels and make the appropriate changes with customer service, nothing happens.
CLIENT: I will be waiting for a phone call. Make sure they leave a direct phone number on my voicemail if I am unable to take the call.
CLIENT: I have to go now.
At CDLLC, we do not do the Idiot Dance. We retain such close business relationships with our clients, and we are fortunate enough to have the privilege of selecting our clients, that the possibility for Idiot Dancing can never arise.
And now, I present you with the Idiot Dance of one of nCrockett Dunn, LLC's newest customers (all names have been changed to protect all parties involved). NOTE, CDLLC crack squad of engineers resolved this in 30 minutes:
Take a deep breath.... here it is:
----------------
SUPPORT: Thank you for visiting BigBad.com's Live Support. How can I help you?
SUPPORT: Hello CLIENT.
SUPPORT: May I have the domain name you are contacting us about today?
CLIENT: extremely frustrated over the past week. i have had an enormous amount of losses via email. i have 70 employees and this has to be resolved now.
SUPPORT: Thank you for this information and I apologize for any inconvenience.
CLIENT: what can you do to help beyond my 10 or so attempts to get this resolved?
CLIENT: are you there?
CLIENT: CLIENT@CLIENTDOMAIN.COM
CLIENT: http://www.CLIENTDOMAIN.COM
CLIENT: password: **************
CLIENT: hello?
SUPPORT: Sorry for any delay in response.
SUPPORT: What problems are you facing?
CLIENT: i can't send or receive email; when i press the send/receive button on outlook a box appears asking for username and password; when i type the password [which i've had since 2001] the box reappears and i can go no further; i also cannot log into webmail; i changed my password and still can't get into webmail;
CLIENT: are you still there?
SUPPORT: Yes.
SUPPORT: Client, username should be your complete email addresss.
SUPPORT: Password: - Same that you use at http://MAIL.CLIENTDOMAIN.COM
SUPPORT: Are you sure that you have correct information?
CLIENT: Support rep, I have been using this email service since 2001. I know the username is the full email address. I have had the same password since 2001. I know what this password is. I just recently changed this password. I still can't log into my account. Please reply with advanced instructions.
SUPPORT: Let me access your email account with this login information.
SUPPORT: It seems that your password is not correct.
SUPPORT: Please change the password by logging into your Account Manager and then use that password to access your email through your POP 3 email client.
CLIENT: new password: ***********
SUPPORT: It is also not working.
SUPPORT: Let me try reset the password of your email account and login to the email account.
SUPPORT: For security purposes, before discussing or changing anything today I need to confirm you to this account.
SUPPORT: To do this, I have sent you a Security Code to the email address anotheremail@alternatedom.com, please paste it into this Chat Window.
CLIENT: ****** is the password
- - -
CLIENT: From: "support@BigBad.com"
To: anotheremail@alternatedom.com
Sent: Monday, July 6, 2009 9:55:10 AM
Subject: BigBad.com - Your email password has been modified
Dear Valued CLIENT,
Thank you for choosing BigBad.com.
As requested, we have modified the email password for the email box for *******.
If you have any further questions about this process and wish to consult with a CLIENT Service Representative you can contact us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by submitting a request online at
http://help.BigBad.com/enduser/idiotdance.php or by contacting one of the numbers below.
Thank you for choosing BigBad.com.
Support
http://help.BigBad.com BigBad.com, Inc Toll free in the U.S. and Canada: (555) 555-1212 Outside the U.S. and Canada +1 (555) 555-1234
CLIENT: i have a meeting in 10min and will need you to expedite this session
CLIENT: please give me an estimated time of completion
CLIENT: hello?
SUPPORT: Can you please provide me the security code sent to anotheremail@alternatedom.com?
CLIENT: what i sent you above is what came into my email box
SUPPORT: Please check all the folders of your email account, you should have received email with the Subject "Your Security Code" from the email address support@BigBad.com.
CLIENT: #########
CLIENT: please give me an estimated time of completion CLIENT: are you there?
SUPPORT: Yes.
SUPPORT: I will try my best to assist you as quickly as possible.
SUPPORT: Sorry for any delay in response.
SUPPORT: Can you please wait for a few minutes while I check your email account after resetting the password?
SUPPORT: I am sorry, by mistake I have changed the password of anotheruser@clientdomain.com to ********
SUPPORT: I have reset the password of client@clientdomain.com to ******, still I am unable to login.
SUPPORT: I will have to forward this issue to the appropriate department and they will contact you soon via email in this regard.
CLIENT: Support rep, this is not good enough. I need a CLIENT service rep to call me at 205.907.8007 immediately.
SUPPORT: I once again sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation.
SUPPORT: We have a different department for phone support.
SUPPORT: However, I will ask them to contact you soon via email or phone.
CLIENT: i don't care. i need you to get someone to call me IMMEDIATELY
SUPPORT: I can provide you phone number for our phone support.
SUPPORT:
Our Customer Service department can be reached toll free in the U.S. and Canada at (555) 555-1212. If you are an International customer, please call
+1 (555) 555-1212.
CLIENT: NO. I CANNOT WAIT 20MIN FOR PHONE SUPPORT. THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR A FULL WEEK!
CLIENT: Are you there?
CLIENT: Hello?
SUPPORT: Let me once again try to reset the password.
SUPPORT: Please wait, I am trying my best to resolve your issue.
CLIENT: Support rep, we have now been communicating for almost 1hr. We have gotten nowhere. I need special attention on this matter.
SUPPORT: CLIENT, there seems to be some technical issue with your email account.
SUPPORT: Please note that these type of issues are handled only by the appropriate department.
SUPPORT: However, I will try my best to make sure your issue gets resolved at the earliest.
SUPPORT: Please be assured that they will contact you soon.
SUPPORT: May I have any of your alternative email addresses?
CLIENT: altemail@anotherdomain.com
CLIENT: I don't have time to spend hours each day to resolve this.
SUPPORT: Thank you. I will ask them to contact you at the earliest via email or phone.
CLIENT: when will they call?
SUPPORT: This needs to be done by a different department, therefore I cannot assure you approximate time limit. However, I will put a note for them to contact you at the earliest.
CLIENT: I cannot continue to go through this. I have been extremely patient. I am a paying customer. I need DIRECT SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.
SUPPORT: Yes, CLIENT. I understand your concern.
SUPPORT: I sincerely apologize once again but I know apologies will not work at this moment because business is at stake.
SUPPORT: I will ask them to resolve your issue on highest priority basis.
CLIENT: Business is already lost; What's more concerning is when I go through the proper channels and make the appropriate changes with customer service, nothing happens.
CLIENT: I will be waiting for a phone call. Make sure they leave a direct phone number on my voicemail if I am unable to take the call.
CLIENT: I have to go now.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
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