Sven's comments

Kevin hit a homer. I'm much happier when someone just shows me what's wrong and let's me ask questions. When someone tells me their hard drive is making noise I used to send out a tech with a new hard drive and some data transfwer tools. But too many times the coient calls their tower a hard drive nad the problem would end up being a fan.

If you're not a techie you'll show us as soon as you use the wrong term. Personally I'd rather a person use a term like gizmo or thingie than lead me down the wrong path.

Love it! Being a techie myself and running a business that puts techie folks in harm's way every day, this should really help my customers understand us. Even though I try to hire techie people, non-techie folks just try too hard to explain things sometimes. Thank you! I'll put a link to this article in my blog.

I like big apes. I want to see how they can help me market!

Seriously, this should be fun!

I'll try to get there. I've got a seminar myself, but it didn't promote it much. If no one shows I'll hot-foot it over there.

It was a great event indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing the videos on line soon. So many great tracks and so little time!

A few of us in the eWomen networking group are going to get together on Monday to compare notes, but there was just so much great content!

I am so sorry to miss the opportunity to meet with you. Caroline has sung your praises through out our office. I will sign up for the next opportunity as soon as I can.
Sven

I think this applies to a business of any size. We're a small company (five of us), and we live and die by standards of service. Not all my employees love me all the time, but they do seem to love their jobs and it shows through to our customers.

The nature of our business puts us on the road most of the time, so I thought it would be a splendid idea to give customers the opportunity to talk to their favorite tech whenever they called. I invested in a system that would allow the caller to push 1 for Alex, 2 for Sven, etc. and they would be transferred to that person's cell phone. The backlash was immediate and angry. Turns out that folks by a wide margin would rather leave a message with a live person than go through a VRU to get to the person they wanted to reach.

Live and learn

Hi Zita,

Like Bob, I'm not sure this would apply to the majority of mu coffee dates. I like them to be less structured. If I get someone who turns out to be trying to strongarm me into their downstream or whatever, I've learned to shut them down pretty quickly.

That being said, you've given me a great insight in how to improve my networking. I'm inspired to save time and learn more about others while giving others the same opportunity. You've always talked about the three oe so folks you want to connect with at larger events. Setting up a "mini event" could be great for all concerned.

Thanks for another great idea!

Great article! You should do a seminar on this.

I'm so disappointed I missed it. I was really looking forward to it :-( Customer emergency at the lasy minute. I hope we schedule another one soon!

I'll do a blog post, too. No wonder I never have any tome ;-)

Maybe we get get C. to post it on craigslist. I'll put it on my site. I'd love to see if we can generate some buzz here, though. That's what this is all about, right?

This is an outstanding service. We offer the on site side if you have a hardware problem or can't connect to the Internet. Talk about a power team!

Kevine, we gotta talk...