Now That’s What I Call Customer Support

November 18, 2011 By 1 Comment

Books Bike Rack

My hubby and I have been bike aficionados for several years now and when we were first getting into the sport we purchased a Bell Bike rack from Walmart. During our recent trip to the beach, we took out bikes and rode just about every day. I am a big fan of riding on hard sand. And the view was amazing, but I digress.

On the way home, I’m zooming down the highway and I look back in the rearview mirror and think that things (being the position of the bikes) look a little odd. I comment to hubby about it. Hubby is one of the most laid back people you’ll ever meet so I fully expected him to say, “I don’t see a problem.” or “That’s nothing.”

He said “you’re right. It looks like something’s broken.”

Those are not the words you want you hear when you’re clipping along the highway at 70, er 75, okay 80-ish miles per hour with two hunks of metal hanging off the “broken thingy.”

We pulled over ASAP to investigate and sure enough, the “cradles” that hold the bike had broken. They’re plastic. Old. Brittle. And evidently those south Georgia roads were just too much for them. The “cradles” cradle the bike and a strip of velcro wraps from one side of the cradle over bike and loops back to keep your bike (and fellow drivers) nice and safe. We fiddled as best we could and then prayed the entire way to the next convenience store. And at 45 miles per hour, it was a long trip.

We were thinking duct tape. But we settled for packaging tape and hubby wrapped that bad boy tighter than a cheerleading outfit on a hog. The bikes were safe. And it took us almost as long to get the bikes loose when we got home as it did to drive home. The dog was royally confused as to why we didn’t just-take-the-bikes-off-the-rack-and-let-him-out-of-the car-already.

Fast forward a few months (because really, it takes us a few months to do anything.) I decided we should go riding again and I also decided I needed to stop procrastinating about getting replacement parts for the bike rack. How hard could it be to replace plastic cradle gizmos for an 8-ish year old bike rack?

The answer? Really hard.

Finally, I found a phone number and called Bell’s customer support. The lady on the other end was a real peach and she took my name, address, and phone number and promised to send me two new pair ASAP. ASAP because they’re currently back ordered but just as soon as they arrive she’ll put them in my hot little hands FREE OF CHARGE.

Hello customer service!

I totally intend to buy that new Bell bicycle helmet I’ve had my eye on because now I truly understand that they stand behind their product.

Bell – you’ve got a customer for life.

super awesome bike rack photo by: bigoteetoe

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: ,

Klout for Authors: Influential Topics

November 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As a registered user of Klout you’ll find all sorts of metrics on your profile page. One that has people sitting up and taking notice is the Influential Topics section.

You’ll see three topics/categories listed on your profile page.

influencetopics

Klout’s super algorithms have decided that I’m influential about Facebook, Marketing and Branding. This could be because I a) talk about these topics frequently, b) I discuss these topics with other people, c) I post links about these topics, d) others RT/share the links I post about these topics or e) all or any of the above and any other secret voodoo that Klout has going on.

If you click on the "see all…" link below the three influential topics you’ll be taken to a page that lists all the topics that Klout thinks you’re influential about.

What does this mean to authors?

This is a good general idea of what you talk about most frequently. And this would be a good brand building tool.

If you want to be known for your writing advice, you’d want to discuss writing topics rather than food, sports, kids.

Klout friends can also +K you, meaning they deem you influential about certain topics. All they have to do is click the little +K icons next to topics on your Influential Topics page (aka, see all…)

Stay tuned for more Klout related posts for authors. If you’d like to be notified of new posts, please insert your email address into the form on the left of my blog. You may also want to sign up to my newsletter to receive my free ebooklet, 55 Tips for Authors.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: , ,

Klout for Authors

October 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Twitter users will likely recognize the newest name in the social networking game: Klout.

logo-newKlout measures your influence based on your social network profiles. For instance, you’d register with Klout (free at klout.com) and link your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger (and any other networks that Klout supports) accounts.

Klout then reads what you’re writing about, who you follow, who follows you, how many times people share what you have to say, and so on. There’s some crazy math going on behind the curtain, but all you need to worry about is your Klout score.

From 1 – 100, think of Klout as a social networking candy thermometer and your score as your temperature. In this case, similar to when you were a kid and wanted to skip school, the higher the number the better.

Why does Klout matter?

As an author trying to build my platform, I often wonder "am I doing enough?" or "am I visible enough?" Klout, in my opinion, is a handy tool just to check how you’re doing. It’ll give you an "instant read" on how much you’ve been interacting lately, how much you’ve been sharing, how focused you are when it comes to the topics you talk about, and how after other people are reading and reacting to what you have to say.

Rather than sit there and wonder if social networking is doing you any good, let Klout take your temp and tell you how much progress you’re making.

All that said, it’s easy, too easy, to get caught up in the numbers. I see some people who stress over the fact that their Klout score has dropped a point.

That’s not what’s important. Think of your Klout score as a guide. The highest Klout scores I’ve seen belong to celebrities. People with hundreds of thousands of followers are bound to have their words shared more and they’re bound to have more people talking to them. It’s a numbers game. You can’t compete with that.

Let me repeat: you cannot compete with a celebrity with 2 million followers. So cut yourself some slack if you’re at a 35 and Ashton Kutcher is a 72.

What to do next:

  1. Sign up for Klout. (www.klout.com)
  2. See where you currently stand once you’ve linked your current networks.
  3. Watch your score once per week over the next month.
  4. See what topics Klout says you’re influential about. (More on that in another post.)
  5. Use the search box at the top of the Klout website to see where your friends and peers are sitting on the Klout list.
  6. Carry on as usual and don’t worry about your Klout score too much.

Up next week, a deeper look at Klout and what are those influential keywords anyway.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: , , ,

Farewell Dennis Ritchie (and that Steve Jobs guy too)

October 14, 2011 By 3 Comments

My husband popped into my office today for fresh batteries (why the recharger is in my office, who knows?) and lamented the fact that the creator of C and the Unix operating system had died. My hubby knows C and is heavily “invested” in Unix based systems.

He quickly reminded me that my cell phone, his cell phone, his operating system, and even Mac computers owe thanks to C and Unix. And, to Dennis Ritchie.

Dennis Ritchie. A name I’d never heard before, but according to DH, he had more to do with where we are as technological society than even Steve Jobs. More important than Steve Jobs? Really? Since Jobs’ death a week ago, that’s all the world can talk about.

But I understand my husband’s point. Without Ritchie’s advances in technology, your iPhone might be completely different (or not exist at all.)

So why is the world mourning Jobs and not Ritchie?

“Was he a millionaire?” I asked DH about Ritchie.

“No,” he said. “He was just a creator, not an entrepreneur.”

And that’s the difference. Steve Jobs built a company and created a brand. He created a community of die hard Mac lovers. He was a walking sound bite and enough of a character that people who don’t even use a Mac or like computers knew his name. He had a platform. And he used it very well.

Ritchie was a creator. He did not have a platform. He did not build a brand around himself and his creation. He did not step into the lime light. He was the quiet to Steve Jobs flamboyant. He created things…things that will affect billions of people.

And that my friends is the clearest example in recent memory of what a platform is. What a brand is. And what the difference is between branding yourself (and becoming well known because of that brand) and simply, quietly creating something great.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: ,