StomperBlog

Using The Power Of CRM

2017-08-10T16:02:07Z

Plenty of sites serve as good resources for CRM information. ITtoolbox CRM , CRM Forum, and CRMGuru.com offer listings of CRM products, consultants, and services, as well as numerous articles and access to free e-mail newsletters. Most articles advise companies to begin by focusing on customers, a step that involves evaluating support strategies and processes.

“Historically, many companies’ first step toward CRM was sales-force automation,” says Pombriant. “Next came customer service and support.” But careful consideration and a willingness to change to benefit customers is the most important key to success. This can work for either large enterprises, or small businesses, says small business idea website Launchscore.com.

The Works

One of the oldest providers of online customer-support tools is Siebel Systems. With products in almost every CRM niche, Siebel serves businesses of all sizes, including the small and mid-size companies it defines as those with 50 to 1,000 employees. The company also targets specific vertical markets, including telecommunications, finance, and energy.

Though large enterprise customers such as Ford pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for Siebel’s CRM applications and more for implementation services, the company has formed partnerships with both Compaq and IBM to deliver packaged products to smaller companies. It even offers its Siebel Sales Personal Edition 6.0 as a free download at Oracle.com. This sales and contact- management program is geared toward small- and home-office professionals, and focuses on tracking sales leads and managing contacts and activities. It’s a good introduction to the company’s products, and if you decide to upgrade later, you can upload data from the Personal Edition to the Midmarket Edition. This product comprises three sets of applications, designed for your employees, your customers, and your partners.

A La Carte Menu

If all you’re really after is a way to provide round-the-clock customer support, even that function can be outsourced. C-Cubed Solutions offers live customer “chat” sessions 24/7 at a relatively modest cost by maintaining a support staff in Bangalore, India, the “Silicon Valley” of that country, where English is widely spoken. If demand spikes, C-Cubed can triple the staff members assigned to your account within an hour. The setup charge ranges from $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the complexity of your products, and around $500 per operator per month thereafter.

Don’t be concerned that chat-based support may be less popular with customers than live phone support. Interviews with top computer companies revealed that online customers, given the choice between chat-based support and speaking with a technician, chose chat-based support by a three-to-one margin. If your customers are on the Web, chances are they’re comfortable with instant messaging and online chats.

Once at your site, about a third of your customers will go first to your search function, according to Atomz, provider of a “hosted site search engine.” The company’s Atomz Search product gives you the code you need to provide the site-search function as well as customer-feedback information. Atomz Search is in use by more than 40,000 sites worldwide, according to the company, including those of Macromedia, Webmonkey, and The Bank of Canada.

The service “crawls” your site to perform an initial index, then performs incremental indexes as often as you wish. (Informing you of broken links is an incidental side benefit.) Because the service is a hosted application, someone else handles the maintenance headaches associated with the search function, and the reports and feedback you receive let you tailor your site according to customer desires. Atomz Express Search is free for sites with fewer than 500 pages; Prime Search, which includes the crawling and indexing services, costs $500 per year.

Even the best search engines can leave site visitors frustrated. Hipbone’s hosted “cobrowser” application lets you provide live assistance to help customers find what they’re looking for. This is a particularly valuable feature for e-commerce sites. Lands’ End, whose Web-site business has been more profitable than its catalog sales for the past two years, credits the use of cobrowsing technology. Non-e-commerce sites can also use Hipbone’s technology for training purposes, and companies such as insurance and real-estate agencies can use it to help customers complete forms. Basic setup typically costs about $10,000, and the basic service costs $950 per seat per year.

How are you doing so far? You can find out using the Automated Response Watch service from Atesto Technologies. It remotely monitors response times for both Web pages and transactions. The service tests your site every 15 minutes from server sites spread around the world, and reports response times in real time. Set a critical level of response, and the service alerts you to poor performance. This gives you the information you need to evaluate issues such as the adequacy of your hosting service, server, or ISP. Pricing starts at $3,500 per quarter for 100 concurrent users.

Maintaining the highest possible customer-satisfaction levels is key to building customer loyalty. But you don’t have to go it alone. Plenty of affordable services are available to help you develop a useful, informative, even profitable site, and you’ll find a wealth of online resources to help you find the best solutions.

Making Your Photos “Float”

2015-08-05T01:01:50Z

Wanting to do something different, I recently came up with a fun and beautiful way to photograph an ethnic bride. And you can easily adapt my techniques for your children or other portrait subjects. My photographs began with an image in my mind of my Indian bride floating among flowers. I considered how I might achieve the effect digitally, with the sparkling blue water offsetting her outfit and jewelry. But there’s just no substitute for the real thing!

Luckily, my model went for the concept and was an extremely good sport, consenting to use her parents’ pool. Because of the veil and flowers, we needed some assistants. I positioned her mom in the pool arranging the flow of the head covering and nearby floating flowers. My assistant pushed flowers into the picture frame on the opposite side from the mother. Without as many details to worry about, it would be possible to do a shoot with only one assistant or even solo.

For clothing, I recommend using washable fabrics, which is what I used for my water bride. Chiffon floats

…

Taking Your Best Pictures Outdoors

2015-08-05T01:00:28Z

As with most outdoor photography, you’ll find the most dramatic lighting first thing in the morning or in the late afternoon, when the sun is low in the sky. If the day is very hazy or windy, don’t bother going up–haze makes for murky photos, and strong winds cause turbulence and image blur due to camera movement. Shoot with the lens wide open in aperture-priority AE to get the fastest possible shutter speed, and lock focus at infinity (over populated areas, regulations require you to be at least 1000 feet above the highest building within 2000 feet of your flight path).

From an Office Window

If you work in a high-rise office building (or can visit someone who does), you have a great vantage point for photography. It’s even a great way to get “aerial” photos without leaving the ground. We’re on the 18th floor of a 20-story building, and it’s amazing the scenes we see out the windows as the weather and time of day change. When shooting through windows, watch out for reflections (although you can use reflections …

Experience The Magic Of Chromogenic Film

2015-08-05T01:03:39Z

In 1980 Ilford Imaging introduced a consumer variation of chromogenic film called XP1. This was an ISO 400 chromogenic film that was easy to use and gave incredible results. Eventually this emulsion evolved to XP2, and today’s XP2 Super. Agfa introduced Vario-XL later the same year, but discontinued it a year later. Many of the staunch traditional film users thought the chromogenic concept to be a passing fad, but this new type of film caught on before long. Kodak later picked up on the idea and introduced chromogenic films for both APS and 35mm cameras. Even Konica came on board with their Monochrome VX400 film.

Currently, there are five chromogenic black-and-white films available in 35mm format: Ilford XP2 Super 400, Kodak Black & White 400, Kodak Professional Portra 400BW, Kodak Professional T400 CN, and Konica Monochrome VX400. Portra 400BW was designed specifically to be printed on color paper; the others produce best results when printed on black-and-white papers, but can also be printed on color papers. XP2 and the two Kodak pro films are also available in larger formats; Black …

How Non-Profits Successfully Leverage The Web

2016-09-15T16:26:56Z

Marketing is not only about raising money. Savvy marketing influences people to come alongside you and help you do things they may never do on their own. An intelligent Web site content strategy provides you with the foundation to attract visitors, keeps them interested in your mission or cause, and encourages them to keep coming back for more. And yes… you can and will raise funds in the process, says the experts at a business opportunity search engine for entrepreneurs.

When people read an article or story on your Web site, for example, do you know precisely what you want them to do? Give you money, provide feedback, volunteer, be entertained, be informed, request more information? Whatever response you seek, you must first have settled on a clearly articulated content strategy. Here’s what we know for sure: the more options you give your visitors to become involved with your organization, the more relevant your Web site will become in their lives. The next most important thing we know: if you begin and sustain the conversation on issues your visitors want to discuss, you will come closer to finding advocates for your mission than if you simply talked endlessly about what is important to you. What are we saying? Simply this: encourage your visitors to help you shape your content. That may seem like a risky endeavor. In the end, however, the facts prove it is not.

No Need to Reinvent Yourself

Question: What kinds of information, stories, testimonies, curriculum, questionnaires, polls and other forms of content already exist within your organization that can be “repurposed” for your Internet presence? The good news is that you do not have to reinvent yourself–contrary to what you may be hearing in the media today. It’s nonsense. Don’t reinvent; instead build on your present strengths and re-frame what you can to set the stage for more effective dialogue with your donors and friends. The most successful non-profit Web sites today are those in constant conversation with their visitors which in turn helps those organizations shape their content and work through a content strategy in concert with who they represent themselves to be. What is your organization’s category of knowledge? If you are a college or university, you will empower your visitors with an ongoing conversation on such content issues as academic excellence, course offerings, sports, alumni affairs, and the strength of the faculty. If your non-profit is a jail ministry, you will discover–through conversation – what interests your friends, visitors and donors most. For some, it may be how your organization is helping to reduce the rate of recidivism among prisoners. Others may not be able to relate to your well-informed statistics, but instead will be avid readers of the stories you tell them of changed lives. Your ability to differentiate between what interests whom, and to what degree, will help you provide relevant content to the right people at the right time.

Another Baker’s Dozen

Here is my Baker’s Dozen of practical, proven ideas to help you think through the content that needs to appear on your Web site…

1. Provide all essential corporate information on your site so your visitor will know clearly who you are, and what you represent. This is the nuts and bolts part of your Web site-a good place to articulate your mission statement, to make reference to the strength of your advisory board and board of directors, and to produce your 990–essential for credibility purposes.

2. Provide a brief overview of your organization–from its inception to the mission you are carrying out today. Do this with graphics, captioned pictures, and easily downloadable graphs–if they help you to communicate your message. Consider including a succinct 3-5 year strategic plan that describes your organization’s objectives, why you are passionate about achieving them, and why you need the help of others who also believe in your mission.

3. Use hyperlinks for contact information, requests for more background on your organization, e-mail addresses for key personnel, etc. Make these contact points easy to identify and to use. Your visitor is accustomed to ease of communication on the Internet–whether it’s buying a product, downloading software, or sending an electronic communication to a friend. To be effective in your communications, you must produce the same quality connections with your visitor.

4. Tell lots of stories about how your non-profit is helping to change the lives of people. These stories need not to be long or detailed. However, you must write them for maximum impact so that your visitors will want to know more and ultimately choose to become one of your loyal supporters. Your mission may be anything from support for the local ballet to soliciting funds for cancer research. Whatever your cause, tell lots and lots of stories that describe the life-changing benefits you offer to others.

5. Solicit third-party endorsements from people who love you and who speak words of encouragement on your behalf. These Web site testimonials can be from those men, women and children you’ve helped get back on their feet, quotes from city officials, selections from books which make favorable references to your organization, comments from other Web sites pertaining to your work, or positive articles written about your organization. Find out what people are saying about you and your non-profit: Share the good news with the world by putting these endorsements on your site.

6. Produce an FAQ section (Frequently Asked Questions) When you provide answers to the questions most visitors want to ask about your organization, you save staff time, display your openness, and move the communication process further along. This proactive set of FAQs is one of the most important content areas of your Web site. If you don’t know what FAQs to ask, review other non-profit Web sites for ideas.

7. Make good use of your existing audio and video. The technology is continually improving, and this quality is now appearing on thousands of Web sites– although bandwidth issues still persist. Based on our experience, these forms of media are still not important enough to justify spending money you may not have to produce audio and video content for your Web site alone. Stay current with the advances in this technology; however, use streaming audio and video only when it makes sense for your organization to do so. At this stage, the technology is neither a make nor break situation.

8. Your Web site has become the ideal location for you to display online press kits, news releases, captioned photos, regular updates on your organization, and links to your other conversational Web sites. While most sites are capable of generating adequate images, now may be the time for you to focus on arranging specific, content-focused photo shoots, or you may wish to buy some of the excellent stock photography now available to give your media promotional efforts a boost. Check out your content and make it media-friendly. Then, spread the word to writers and journalists worldwide.

9. Everything you offer offline, make available online now! This means newsletters, direct mail, brochures, corporate statements, downloadable booklets, books, research, sermons, pamphlets, etc. In the future, undoubtedly a certain type of visitor will come to your site who will only want to read your content online. Do not make this person “write in” for materials you can just as easily place on your Web site. Again, review all the communication pieces you have created offline, and if they are worthy of reproduction, repurpose them and include them for easy online reading.

10. Provide a privacy/security statement for your visitors that explains how you plan to use the personal information you receive. Will you share their names with others? How safe is your Web site for donations? In general, how secure is your site? We suggest you look for model “privacy statements” and other useful information that can help you craft the verbiage that will assure your visitor of the online safety of your Web site.

11. Create a section on your Web site where visitors and friends can share their own stories of how they have been touched by the mission of your organization. Perhaps they are volunteers who help feed the hungry at a local rescue mission, or they may teach English to refugees, or perhaps they help build schools or churches for the poor across the border. This could be one of the most important communication modules on your Web site, because it excites the faithful, encourages others to become involved, and gives you an opportunity to promote it as emotional feedback on how and what you are doing to help change lives. Include photos, thumbnail sketches and anything else you feel will give your visitors and donors the opportunity to help shape the content of your Web site.

12. Design an area on your site that is foundation and/or major donor specific. When you make a future major dollar request, you will now be able to ask the foundation or major donor simply to click on this section for a quick tour, which will describe your major fund-raising needs. In addition, this section will act as a status report to foundations and major donors, allowing them instant access to the most recent progress made in relation to their specific gift. This section will never take the place of your personal contact to foundations or major donors, but it will be an important add-on to your formal request because you can incorporate a Microsoft PowerPoint[R] presentation, project-specific graphics, and on-site photos and comments from the field that may not have been part of the written proposal. You may also want to create a “wish list” of future needs for easy reference, namely material items such as blankets, medicine, vans or automobiles, school supplies, paint, pharmaceuticals, building supplie s, etc.

13. Whatever content you provide, do it with excellence. Keep the conversation with your visitors alive and strong. Deliver value at all times. Be a good conversationalist–just as you are with your friends and supporters when you are offline. If a task is once begun, never leave it until it’s done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.

It’s a Team Effort

This final note. When you are working through the content of your Web site–either at the outset or as you update your material–it’s critical that you communicate clearly and often with everyone involved. If you send a regular e-mail to your team, send it to everyone at the same time, every day, without exception. No surprises is the watchword here. Consistent communication fosters trust, reliability and stability. When you want to modify your content, let your colleagues know what you are thinking. When you receive feedback from your friends and donors–good, bad or indifferent–again, pass the word along. (But emphasize the good stuff!) Instill the pride of accomplishment in your staff. Encourage off-the-wall ideas that will help make your site unique. Keep improving your content with every modification. Continually search for new, strategic opportunities to stay ahead of the curve. It’s your mission, and it’s your mandate to make your site’s content the best it can be.

Respect your Deadlines

Of all the Web sites we’ve designed at Grizzard, one of the primary reasons for any delay in going live has been the lack of timely content from clients. Content deadlines for your Web site should be taken as seriously as any other communication deadline. Set realistic benchmarks for having your content ready to go, and then help your colleagues meet those deadlines so the world will be able to know who you are, what you do, and why your cause is worthy of wider support.

As you press on with the creation of content excellence, there will be many reasons for your site to be noteworthy. These will depend on how well you have carried a unique conversation to the heart of your donors and friends, how carefully you’ve listened to their concerns, and how seriously you’ve taken their feedback–and acted upon it. The result of this interaction is the stuff that will invariably give you the necessary insights to create that special “look and feel” for your site–which is the underlying nature of good Internet design.

An Exercise In Portal Management

2017-08-10T16:03:10Z

Although there is no guarantee that block exemption will be outlawed, manufacturers are concerned that any change in the legislation may cut off their all-important channel to the customers, which is primarily through the dealer network.

“The dealer network is the manufacturers’ interface with the customer. If the legislation changes, it could become extremely difficult for manufacturers to keep that tie with the customer,” Alfredo Filippone of the Association of European Automotive Manufacturers (ACEA) explained.

Stefano Chmielewski, vicepresident of sales and marketing at Renault VI, confirmed that the portal, which is designed to build a direct relationship with customers by allowing them to configure their vehicle online, was set up in direct response to the expected end to block exemptions.

Aimed at people in the transport industry, the site allows customers to access an online version of Renault’s entire product range of 350 models, and 13,000 different configuration options, from which. they can configure a truck to their exact specifications.

Once the configuration is completed, an e-mail is sent directly to the nearest Renault dealer, who will make contact

…

Mastering Dental Photography: A Guide

2016-09-15T16:24:31Z

The bracketing technique requires three pictures to be taken (some digital cameras offer an automatic bracketing exposure). The first picture is captured at what is believed to be the ideal exposure (f-stop); the second at no more than two f-stops higher, and the third at no more than two f-stops lower, than the original exposure. The three pictures will document the subject at a graduated range of exposures, which increases your chances of capturing an image with accurate color fidelity. This technique is useful for capturing tooth shade and for calibrating the camera’s auto-exposure mode, says Remi Goulet of SSFODF, a French Orthodontists association. Images captured using slide film, for example, will vary even if the film is over- or underexposed by only one-third of an f-stop.

Aperture-priority mode also allows some control over depth of field. With a 100-mm lens, for example, the depth of field is quite shallow. For capturing &mil, such as an occlusal view, the aperture may need to be stepped down (decreased) to increase the depth of field. Most auto-exposure systems allow you to …

Three Rules For Managing Your Site’s Content

2017-08-10T16:04:05Z

RULE 1

Understand the when and why of change

Basic site administration, such as updating phone numbers and contacts or posting press releases, requires little or no strategic consideration, but almost every other site change calls for evaluating why you need the change and then mapping it back to original business goals. The beginning of any solid e-business initiative is rooted in a marriage of business goals and user needs, and any change must meet those same criteria.

Answering the question of why any change is necessary demands an understanding of user behavior, new corporate priorities, and/or how current business initiatives can be better served, and how they relate to overall objectives.

RECOMMENDATION: Here’s a simple method for evaluating change requests. If you can’t identify whom the audience is that will benefit/use the changed information, how it will benefit them, and how it will relate to other information on the site, then don’t make the change.

Consider the platinum partner program example. Marketing and sales want to use the program as a way to reward the most productive channel partners

…

Transitioning From Amateur To Artist: Selling Your Photographs

2015-08-05T00:55:26Z

Photographs are also relatively inexpensive, which makes them quite attractive to both collectors and the gallery owners who sell them. Galleries can test the waters, so to speak, without having to necessarily make a huge investment. “You can buy a picture by a contemporary master of traditional photography for $1,000 to $5,000, which is very little money compared to prints or original paintings,” said Perloff.

The potential collector base for photographs is also bigger than it’s ever been. No longer the darling of just the young and cutting-edge, photography has found a home in the collections of art lovers at all levels of the market. High-end collectors have been dropping millions at auction for work by such masters as Ansel Adams or Alfred Stieglitz. Yet other collectors are happy to plunk down a mere $500 to take home work by a yet-to-be-discovered artist.

“In a way, you have people with a lot of money at the high end and people with a little bit of money at the low end,” said The Photograph Collector’s Perloff. “Obviously, there are also any …

Take A Picture Already – Creating A Photo Website

2017-08-10T16:04:53Z

Judging from the expanding popularity of online photo sites, the vast majority of photographers are choosing photo Websites as a starting point. Many photo Websites offer free or nearly free Web storage and online albums. Some sites provide the space as part of the cost of processing, printing and scanning customers’ film. Others provide it entirely free of charge, making their money from advertising. With easily followed menus and guides, creating online albums couldn’t be easier.

There are a couple of things to remember before putting a Website together. First, make sure images are stored in the JPEG file format. (GIF will also work, but JPEG is preferred for imaging.) JPEG file compression is one of the best tools for keeping image size within reason. Finally create a folder or directory on the computer’s hard drive that contains the images to be uploaded. That makes it easier to organize the online album when the site asks for the location where images are being stored.

The actual process of registering and uploading images is remarkably easy. It’s pretty much the

…