Thanks to boingboing for the reference to this exhibition at the Arario Gallery in Korea, Hyungkoo Lee’s”Animatus” …
“This Korean art exhibition explores the fictional anatomy of cartoon characters, with elaborate faked-up skeletons for Looney Toons characters, anatomical drawings of Mickey and friends, and many other artifacts from the study of toon anatomy.”
You gotta see this to believe it. My favourite: Mickey Mouse.
Tags: Friday Link, humour.
As you enjoy your long weekend in the States, something to think about in this post from seth godin today…
“Once you start compromising, when do you stop?
“If your goal is to be remarkable, please understand that the easiest way to do that is to compromise less, not more. And no, this wasn’t a post about breakfast.”
Tags: customer satisfaction, seth godin, whack.
Mary Jo Foley has an article on eweek today…
“I think Microsoft may have a tougher time making the business upgrade case than the home one for Vista. Here’s why. One enterprise user, who asked not to be named, recently posed an interesting question to me (via instant messaging), regarding how Microsoft is expecting to make a business case for Vista.
MR. Biz: how are they going to make a business case for Vista?
MJF: that’s a good question…. I’m not really sure
MR. Biz: no matter how much tweaking MS does, it’s still not going to solve the resource requirements issue
MR. Biz: vista will NEVER run on a $1000 PC
Really?
One of our family members just priced a new laptop with a decent processor, >100GB HDD, memory configuration and graphics system that is touted as “Windows Vista Capable” for under $800. (OK, the price included a special $200 “coupon” promoted on the company’s web site.) When I looked today on a couple of major build to order OEM sites, I found “Windows Vista Capable” desktops starting at around $499: that took all of a few minutes to find as they systems are pre-configured.
At home, I have a system I built for, I’m guessing, under $400 that will run Vista.
IMHO, where’s the moderating comment from Mary Jo that calls this out? (All comments on the blog are my own.)
See also…
Ro Parra is senior vice president for Dell’s Home and Small Business Group. Today on the Direct2dell blog, he wrote about Dell’s Response to Wall Street Journal Article:
“Some of you may have seen yesterday’s story that appeared in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). Our view is that it only tells part of the Dell story. What’s missing is the progress we’re making against four key areas for consumer and small-business customers: post-sales customer experience, sales customer experience, pricing simplification, and improving how we reach customers through marketing.
“The online community is important to us. More than half of our consumer customers buy from us through the Internet. You’ll be hearing more from me and other members of the Dell blog team about changes we’re making for the better across the business.”
It will be interesting to see what they have to say. (Disclaimer: We have Dell computers at home, among others, and have written here and here about some of my (generally positive) experiences with Dell’s customer support (all, so far, via chat and email).
Click here to see the customer experience posts from Dell’s blog.
Tags: microsoft, customer satisfaction, Onecare, Dell.
I was thinking about a recent post on how to complain (and get results), and took a jaunt over to Peter Davidson’s blog, which I like. I remember that, with a nod to a past post from Josh Ledgard, that Peter wrote some time ago on his BeConnected blog about how to be a good customer.
“Sarah Eaton over at my sister blog BeTuitive talks about being a good follower. That got me thinking. I talk about developing tools and systems that help you know more about your customers. In a sense leading your customers. As a customer are you a good follower?”
His Eight Ways to Be a Good Customer (click for more details):
1. Participate in Customer Intuition Systems
2. Speak Up
3. Offer Constructive Criticism
4. Link To Them
5. Comment on Their Corporate Blog
6. Respond to Surveys and Questionnaires
7. Refer a Friend or Colleague
8. Buy Their Product, Service or Experience
Also linked to Peter’s list was this post from The Church of the Customer blog, which looks at hwo to prepare yourself for good customers: here at the top three points, visit the blog to read all eight ways:
1. Have a customer communication system – Allow customers to update their contact information easily on your website. Send a regular email newsletter to your customer list, no less than once a month.
2. Acknowledge customer correspondence – Send handwritten notes to customers thanking them for their letter. No one wins points for form letters with <name inserted here>.
3. Reward constructive criticism – Encourage customers to provide constructive feedback. Make your contact information (phone number, email address, etc.) easy to find on your website. Send customers a small gift for taking the time to send their suggestions.