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August 22, 2007 | Benjamin Myhre: Is Insourcing the New Outsourcing?

Fortune Magazine recently highlighted a foreign owned call-center that opened in Reno, Ohio.  The magazine reports that this is becoming a trend and more companies are insourcing jobs in today’s market.

August 21, 2007 | Sarah VanNevel: Google: I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not…

Much of my day here at Sundog is spent doing research. I dig deep into the virtual world of homepages, blogs, and social networks for information on everything from the demographics of major cities to comparisons of different Javascript libraries. In order to be successful in my quest for top-notch information, I certainly need a high-powered search engine that satisfies my cravings, er…my research needs. I’ve always thought this search engine was Google—the king of blue links and quick results. Based on a recent user satisfaction survey, however, it looks like I may want to reconsider.

July 31, 2007 | Jon Gilbertson: Perception is Reality

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, there is little doubt you’ve read something or at least had a conversation with somebody about CRM, CEM or VOC. Not familiar with all these acronyms? They stand for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Voice of Customer (VOC). Simply stated, all of these areas focus on some aspect of understanding your customer’s wants and needs and then adjusting business practices to ensure you can deliver on those expectations. It seems simple enough…why all the hype?

July 24, 2007 | Benjamin Myhre: Consulting My Inner-Customer

Although I am a professional in the Customer Service field and a Support Coordinator at Sundog, I too find myself on the other side of the phone as a customer sometimes.  As a customer, I am not immune to long hold times, unhelpful staff, or continual transfers to “the right department.”  These humbling experiences force me to step back and re-examine the qualities my “inner-customer” is looking for.

June 04, 2007 | Greg Ness: More From TED

TED was highlighted in a post here last month. Now there’s more with a great demo of a product called Photosynth. Amazing stuff. (Fish, thanks for the point).

April 14, 2007 | Greg Ness: Salesforce.com Moving Aggressively Into A Broader Marketing Platform

Salesforce.com, a fast-growing on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) company, is rapidly broadening its scope to become more of a complete sales, marketing and customer service system provider. In doing so, it is likely to attract increased competition from some bigger rivals. According to this Business Week article, Salesforce.com grew 76% in 2005, 60% in 2006, and is expected to see 45% growth this year. That means quadrupling in size in three years! And talk about guerrilla marketing: their stock symbol on the NYSE is CRM.

April 06, 2007 | Dean Froslie: Reach Customers Through Online Video

Before your organization dismisses online video as too trendy, technical or expensive, consider the useful overview at WebInkNow. David Meerman Scott points out that while video as an online marketing tool is still new, getting it on the web – and getting noticed – isn’t as difficult as it may seem.

April 05, 2007 | Greg Ness: PS3: The Power Of One Consumer

According to the Association of National Advertiser’s (ANA) annual poll to senior marketers, the top two concerns are integrated marketing and accountability. The challenge for marketing integration is that today much of message is in the hands of the consumer.

The above video on YouTube about PlayStation 3 illustrates the point. Sony can buy a LOT of advertising and marketing to promote their product, but when a PS3 customer can upload a 4-minute video for free that has been viewed over one million times and has 7,000 comments, it clearly demonstrates how much power consumers now possess to affect brands and purchasing (in this case, negatively). Thanks to Christopher and Spike for the point).

March 27, 2007 | Dean Froslie: Drop-Down Menus: A Little-Known Usability Flaw

When we complete online forms, we’re frequently required to use a drop-down menu for selecting our state. Most organizations do not realize that this everyday feature is frustrating to users. In his latest Alertbox column, Jakob Nielsen builds a case for avoiding drop-down menus and other “user irritants,” as he calls them.

February 05, 2007 | Greg Ness: I Want This Now!

The future of computing is fascinating, but just think of all the screen cleaner you’ll go through. There’s more: another presentation of the new technology by Jeff Han on YouTube here.

Come to think of it, why hasn’t Windex come out with a special spray for LCD screens yet?

January 30, 2007 | Greg Ness: Don’t Let High Involvement Products Be Hamstrung By A Not-Ready-For-Primetime Website

The Web is becoming the prime brand touchpoint for most high involvement products, and an inferior website can seriously cripple your chance for success (or your dealers’/distributors’ chances) right out of the gate.

If your company sells high involvement products or services, you will need a capable, differentiating website that helps customers or prospects make big purchasing decisions in your favor. Recent research by Yahoo and OMD shows the product purchase behavior for high involvement products often exhibits a pattern called the long and winding path. This path represents consumers hungry for information, and when buyers are in this mode, marketers stand the best chance to convert prospects to purchasers. The research goes on to point out the Web is the ideal place to intersect with people on this long and winding path.

November 21, 2006 | Dean Froslie: Broadband Users Become More Broadly Understood

As broadband Internet adoption continues to grow, it’s tempting to lump all those high-speed users into a single category. However, a couple new reports suggest this audience is far more diverse and segmented.