Chris Brogan and others are giving thought to working remotely, and that got me thinking about a closely related topic - business phone services. You see, I've effectively abandoned my hard-wire phone. Not everyone has, of course, and businesses in particular are pretty much forced to maintain their traditional phone service in order to have a single phone point of entry into their operations. It doesn't matter whether it's a PBX system, VOIP/IP Telephoney, or KSU-based; the common thread is that current business phone systems are physically tied to a specific location.

But why does it have to be that way? Why isn't there a wireless phone plan that provides a central call-in number that permits customers to reach anyone with a phone associated with the plan by dialing an extension? It should work in the same way that current business phone systems work but include only three options - dial an extension if you know who you want to talk with, select the department you would like to be connected with or stay on the line for assistance from a real, live human being. Any contact beyond that point should be with a person (or their voicemail). An added bonus would be to include a fax-to-computer phone number in the plan and do away with any real reason to have a hard-wired phone.

That's the business phone system I'd like to see. It may already exist, but I've not heard of it if it does. And if it doesn't, it should.

How hard could it be?

One of the most painful customer service experiences I've had lately came my way thanks to the Dell online ordering system. But one of the most pleasant customer service experiences I've had lately came may way thanks to one of Dell's customer service representatives.

The thing is, I should have never had to talk to the representative in the first place. I did, though, because Dell's online ordering system managed to lose two orders. It didn't matter that I had Purchase ID numbers; the orders did not exist. I'm not exactly sure how you design an order processing system that can spit out order numbers while simultaneously losing the actual orders, but it's obviously doable.

To Dell's credit, the luck of the draw put me in contact with a friendly, understanding and helpful customer service rep. Andrea went out of her way to make what had started out as a painful experience as simple and pleasant as possible. But while I was extremely impressed by the service Andrea provided I'm still disappointed with the overall experience with what should have been a routine online transaction.

So consider this as a cautionary tale. The moral of the story: No amount of extraordinary customer service will fully salvage your reputation if your customer's initial experience does not meet their expectations.

UPDATE: Looks like it's not just me...

Email one comes in saying, your order is verified, life is good, let's rock -n- roll.

Email two comes in time stamped AFTER email one, 10 minutes or so later saying, just want to let you know we're thinking about this and we'll send you another email shortly verifying/confirming, etc, etc.

Hmmm.. This don't look good for moose and squirrel....

My presentation this past Saturday at Podcamp Ohio was my first go at leading a session in an unconference format. If you're unfamiliar with the term "unconference", here's the wikipedia definition -

An unconference is a facilitated, face-to-face, and participant-driven conference centered around a theme or purpose.

As you can see, rather than serving as an "instructor" or "presenter," my role in an unconference is to be a facilitator. The idea is that "we" are smarter than "me" - that the aggregate knowledge of the group will provide far more value than the knowledge of an individual - in this case, me.
I tried hard to honor that concept, but taking a presentation developed using a traditional seminar model and turning it into a facilitated conversation was more difficult than I expected. It generally went well, but I walked away with a few lessons learned:

Have a Roadmap - While the intent is for the discussion leader to facilitate a conversation, the participants will get the most out of your session if you have a basic plan of what general themes or ideas are important to the topic at hand. That's not to say that you have to adhere slavishly to your plan (after all, sometimes you get the most out of unplanned side trips), but you should have one.

Listen More Than You Talk - Aside from your opening and closing remarks, the participants should do most of the talking. This may feel unnatural if you normally operate in the seminar/instructor mode but it's the heart of what an unconference is meant to be.

Turn The Projector Off - How can you prepare effective slides if you don't know what the participants are going to talk about? If you feel naked without a slide show, at least limit it to a few (emphasis on 'few' - no more than 2-3) introductory slides to establish your credentials and the session topic.

Pick Up A Marker - Use a whiteboard or flip chart to record the key points of your session. Ask someone to be a scribe if you're not good at simultaneously leading a discussion and writing.

The Participants are the Experts - Even if they're not. In  an unconference everyone's ideas and opinions are welcome. Your job as facilitator is to lead the participants in discussing the validity of those ideas and opinions.

In my presentation Saturday I'd say I batted about 50% at honoring those points; the hardest for me as a traditional speaker being the "listen more than you talk" precept. I enjoyed the experience, though, and have become a believer in the effectiveness of the unconference format. And, since practice makes perfect, I'll be looking for more opportunities to facilitate unconference sessions.

I'll be spending most of today putting the finishing touches on the presentation I'll be giving tomorrow afternoon at Podcamp Ohio.  According to the most current draft of the day's schedule I'll take the stage at 4:00 PM to present "Dude, Your Podcast Sucks: Six Steps to a More Powerful Podcast." The focus of my discussion will be on how to use some of the tips, tricks and techniques of professional speakers in order to produce effective and entertaining podcasts. It should be a good time, especially since I'm trying out a new opening that, assuming it works as planned, should be a lot of fun for everyone.

Since I live about 4 hours from Columbus, and the event begins at 9:30 AM, I'm in for a very long day. But there are sessions I want to attend and plenty of people I want to meet so I'll be hitting the road before 5AM in order to not miss a beat. I've been following the planning of this one through both the Podcamp Ohio site and the Podcamp Ohio Twitter feed and it's certainly shaping up to be an excellent event. They've got everything covered - from schwag to eats to providing space to escape the insanity if you find the need. I definitely appreciate the work the organizers have put in up to this point and will be surprised if the event isn't a rousing success.

Of all the methods you can use to help you achieve your goals, one of the most effective is to form an accountability partnership. Just as the name implies, in an accountability partnership you and a partner hold each other accountable for staying on task to complete specific tasks. Beyond that basic requirement, there are very few limits on how you form your partnership and with who. For example, although I've been involved for the past year in an accountability partnership with Dan Weedin, we have yet to meet each other face-to-face. Regardless, I've found our weekly discussions to be extremely important in keeping me focused on achieving my goals (and I'm confident that Dan feels the same).

While that lack of limitations makes it very easy to form an accountability partnership, there are some steps you can take to make your partnership as effective as possible. Beyond joining forces with someone who you believe will be a good 'fit' as a disciplined and supportive partner, here are five tips for forming an effective accountability partnership:

1. Set a specific day of the week and time of day to talk. This will make it easier to develop the habit of talking on a regular basis as well as provide some needed predictability.
2. Use a strictly enforced agenda for your discussions. If either of you needs to discuss something outside the agenda schedule a separate call/meeting. Your accountability calls/meetings are strictly for accountability discussions.
3. Adhere to a 1/2 hour time limit for your calls/meetings. Anything less makes it difficult to accomplish a full accounting while anything more can encourage wandering off-topic.
4. Send 'read-ahead' information to each other whenever possible. If one of your goals for the week was to complete a written document promise to send it to your partner. Not only does that provide an even more tangible deadline, your partner may notice something (spelling/grammar/etc) that you missed.
5. Be brutally honest with each other when it comes to what you have and haven't accomplished - and why. This is the cornerstone principle of using an accountability partnership to its best advantage.

While I consider these 5 tips to be the most important to forming an effective and productive accountability partnership there are no doubt others that warrant consideration. If you have any tips that you think are equally important I'd love to hear about them in the comments.

I'm trying a different weblog api (since MarsEdit doesn't explicitly support Drupal) so, of course, this means you get to read a test post. The high point of your day, no doubt.

Honoring those who served before me and remembering those who served with me.  All gave some, and some gave all.

You may recall that I attended Podcamp Nashville back in February. For that matter, some of you may have even seen me at Podcamp Nashville back in February. It was great to get back to Nashville, and the event itself helped me focus in on the power of podcasting as a tool for building reputations, relationships and resumes. In fact, I enjoyed the event so much that I vowed that I would make a concerted effort to attend any podcamp that was held within a reasonable driving distance from the farm.

As luck would have it, Podcamp Ohio has been scheduled for June 28th in Columbus Ohio. It's a town I know well (having grown up in Ohio) and is well within reasonable driving distance. It looks like they already have some excellent sessions planned (I'm particularly interested in one in particular, but more on that in a future post....), and I'm sure there is even more goodness in the works. So yes, I'll be heading north to Podcamp Ohio at the end of June.

See you there?

I spent last evening in Louisville at the monthly Social Media Club event. The draw this month was an expert blogging panel featuring Rob May, Chris Pearson and Michelle Jones with moderation duties under the able hand of Jason Falls. I would love to share with you the many pearls of wisdom that the panel came up with, but sadly the venue was so loud that I was unable to hear anything they said. Not to worry, though, as the organizers swear that video will be posted on the SMC-Louisville website. (UPDATE:  Videos and photo links can be found here)

I've got to admit, though, that I was more interested in some of the sidebar conversations that I was involved in (isn't that usually the case?). The event was an excellent opportunity to spend time with some of my friends in the Louisville tech scene and to make new connections with quite a few talented and interesting people. One question I asked of many I talked with was whether quality or quantity should drive our web presence. To a person, the consensus was that quality is the key to success. I also asked a number of people whether they were familiar with Michael Gartenberg, since his post (see my previous entry) on the subject was the driver behind my first question. Most were unfamiliar with him (sorry, Michael), which just goes to prove that you don't have to be an A-lister to understand the basics of using these tools we call social media.

Now I just need to teach you to use these tools to bring out the full potential of you and your organization. Let's talk, shall we?

Want to know how to successfully deploy social media tools (services such as blogs, Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube, etc)? Jupiter Research Analyst Michael Gartenberg sums it up nicely -

It's not about the number of readers or followers you have, or the size of your networks or the even the number of people you read or follow. It's the quality of the people in them and the quality of the conversations you're having with them. I've been blogging for a while and use services such as Facebook, LinkedIn and more recently Twitter. Of course, it's nice to be followed, read or part of a network. The way to do that is with interaction. One thing I always tell new bloggers is to send readers away to attract them to come back. Linking to other people as well as adding something new to the dialogue is important. Same with twitter.

Used properly, the wide variety of social media tools that are available to even the casual user can do wonders to get your message out. Emphasis on "used properly." And Michael's comments provide an excellent start point to understanding what that means.