The Hidden Power of Your Customers

Social Media Live!

March 4, 2008 By Becky Carroll 2 Comments

The more I talk about and use social media, the more I have been stressing a few key points.

Social media is one tool in the toolbox for interacting with customers. It will work well if customers are willing to engage in that medium!
Social media is a great tool to help create and strengthen relationships.
It is all about the people.

In my recent talk on Social Media and Customer Loyalty for the Direct Marketing Association, I used the case study of the Washington Humane Society. Tara de Nicolas is their director of marketing, primary author of their blog, and director of their social media strategy – which includes Facebook, MySpace, flickr, and YouTube, for the moment. (For more info on their blog, see Geoff Livingston’s post where he interviewed Tara - thanks for the info, Geoff!) Tara and her team use their social media channels to connect with potential adopters, families that have already adopted, and donors. Quite a community has developed, with the photos of the WHS staff being one of the areas that are most widely viewed. As Tara told me in my interview with her, it is all about connecting with the people and putting a face on the Society. Way to go, Tara and team!

Blogging is also about connecting with others, mostly online. Recently, I have had the opportunity to connect live with two wonderful blogging friends: Doug Hanna of ServiceUntitled and Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing Blog: see the photos at the top of the blog post!

As much fun as it is to send emails and connect via blogs, there is nothing like a good ole fashioned face-to-face meeting to strengthen relationships. Doug and I had the opportunity to connect in San Francisco for the Customer Service is the New Marketing conference, put on by Get Satisfaction, where we both gave workshops. Toby and I met up for dinner when she came to San Diego to give a workshop for the American Marketing Association. Both meet-ups were great fun, and I could see the blog personalities in the person, very clearly. Toby even sent me a nice thank-you note afterwards, with a small toss of her trademark pink boa. Thanks, Toby!!

A whole group of marketing and PR bloggers is getting together next month in New York City for a Blogger Social, put on by CK and Drew McLellan – wish I could be there! Steve Woodruff is even profiling all the bloggers who are attending to help them get to know each other better. You guys all rock!

Social media is indeed about building relationships and making existing bonds stronger. It is a great way to get to know customers, as well as to make your organization seem more personal and authentic. Use it as part of your marketing strategy, but be sure to complement it with the old-fashioned way of building relationships – face time – where you can.

Filed Under: Blogging, social media Tagged With: Buzz Bin, Customer loyalty, Geoff Livingston, Get Satisfaction, ServiceUntitled, social media, Toby Bloomberg, Washington Humane Society

Customer Service Event and Call for Authors!

January 18, 2008 By Becky Carroll 8 Comments

Customer Service Conference in San Francisco, February 4

In just two weeks, I am hosting a lunch workshop at the Customer Service is the New Marketing event in San Francisco, CA on Monday, February 4. I am honored to be on a program also featuring speakers from Zappos, Virgin America, Flickr, Google, and Geek Squad (to name a few). My blogging friend Doug Hanna from Service Untitled will also be hosting a lunch workshop, along with some other smart folks.

There has been some debate as to whether customer service is the new marketing. I would say that everyone who is in customer service is also doing marketing, as every touch to the customer counts. Often, it is these customer touches that make the most impact, as the customer spends more time using a product or service than purchasing it (one hopes!). Customer service is the face of the company, and organizations that see it as only a cost are missing a trick.

There is still time to register for the conference. The price is $495 for this fabulous one-day event being held at the gorgeous Presidio in San Francisco. Customers Rock! readers can get a 15% discount if you use the code CRNT when registering; here is the link.

Come to the event, and make sure to say HI to me and tell me you are reading Customers Rock! I’ll even buy you a drink at the after-event bash.

Call for Authors for Round Two of Age of Conversation

Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton are at it again. They are spearheading the effort to create the 2008 edition of the Age of Conversation book. Over 100 authors from around the world came together to write short essays and raise money for Variety Children’s Charity; not one penny went to any of us. The book focused on this conversation age and what it means to marketers and businesses.

Some of you expressed disappointment that you missed out on the last book. Here is your chance! Just email Drew and let him know you want to participate. See his post (linked to his name above) to find out the rules. You can even vote on the topic (on Drew’s blog).

I am going to be in again; come join me!

Update: Here is a list so far of those planning to contribute this year:

Drew McLellan, Luc Debaiseieux, Ryan Karpeles, Greg Verdino, Lori Magno, Gavin Heaton, Connie Reece, The Kaiser, Katie Chatfield, Tim Jackson, Doug Meacham, C.B. Whittemore, Becky Carroll, Gordon Whitehead, Daniel B. Honigman, Daria Rasmussen, Jay Ehret, Jasmin Tragas, Jamey Shiels, Organic Frog, Bill Gammell, Nathan Snell, Stephen Landau, Stephen Collins, Stephen Smith, Mark Earls, Steven Verbruggen, Neil Perkin, Brett Macfarlane, Dino Demopoulos, Chris Wilson, Asi Sharabi, Mike Sansone, Angela Maiers, Sandy Renshaw.

Here is the list of contributors from last year, and many of these are now friends as well.

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Luc Debaisieux
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Robert Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair

CB Whittemore
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
G. Kofi Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiel s
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Polinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman
S. Neil Vineberg

Filed Under: Blogging, Community, Customer service, Marketing Blogs Tagged With: Age of Conversation, Drew McLellan, Gavin Heaton

Holiday Reading List: Outstanding Blogs

December 18, 2007 By Becky Carroll 14 Comments

About this time last year, Mack Collier, blogger extraordinaire, started a list of blogs that were not yet well-read but deserved more attention (this is per Mack – great speaking with you the other day, BTW!!). I was honored to be one of the original 5 on the Z-list:

Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim

The Z-list then went all over the world, and it is hard to say where the final list is these days. A good, comprehensive listing of great blogs to read over the holidays can be found in the Z-list wiki, put together by Gavin Heaton. It lists the name of the blog, the author, the location of the author, a category for the blog, and a short description.

Fast forward to this year. Troy Worman has come up with his list of Outstanding Blogs, or O! Blogs for short. This list has some overlap with the Z-list, but there are also many new blogs that I hadn’t seen before. Thanks for the Christmas reading list, Troy!

Here is the O! Blogs list (taken from Drew McLellan’s version), along with some of my favorites at the top:

Becky’s adds:

Communication Overtones

They Talk Back

Troy’s list:

(Photo credit: elnur)

Filed Under: Blogging, Memes Tagged With: Gavin Heaton, Mack Collier, O! Blogs, Troy Worman, Z-list

BrandingWire: Communicating with Customers

December 14, 2007 By Becky Carroll 1 Comment

We communicate with our customers in many ways. In fact, customers pick up communication clues from not just our words, but also from tone of voice, demeanor (yes, a smile can be heard!), and body language. In certain settings, the sense of smell plays a large part, even impacting long-term memory. In written communications, words aren’t everything – pictures and color make up a large part of the story. One of the masters of using non-verbal communication was one of my favorite directors, Alfred Hitchcock:

“Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.” Alfred Hitchcock

This brings me to the latest BrandingWire challenge about color. Rachel is a color consultant for business and helps organizations use color as an effective tool in their marketing arsenal. She is relatively new to the market of color consulting, and she wants to spread the word about what she can do (and keep in mind that she is moving states within the year!). She also writes a blog about color called Hue.

The new BrandingWire model is to leave the case study open for others to share their advice, expanding it beyond our original “posse”. There are already several comments on Rachel’s challenge, including mine today. Here were my suggestions for Rachel:

1. Do some quick research with small businesses in your area; you can use them as a “proxy” for what small businesses in other areas might think.

Talk to those who see the inherent value in being color-conscious and those who don’t. What were the drivers and motivators behind the color decisions made by the savvy businesses? What helped them make the choice to use color in marketing?

Talk to those who don’t yet know the value using color can bring them. What are their thoughts/concerns/objections? Understanding your customers and potential customers is a key step towards business success for you! This will also help you with Chris Brown’s suggestion of finding the right client.

2. Your blog is potentially a very powerful tool for your business! You have a strong writing style and good insight. However, I am not convinced it will appeal to your potential customers – yet.

You can make your blog content more relevant by adding insights at the end of each post with how it can apply to small business. This would help your potential clients to see that they could use these concepts in their businesses, and by the way, Rachel seems like she really gets how I could do that!

Feel free to go to the BrandingWire site and add your own ideas for Rachel. There are also many other great ideas in the comments, so grab a cup of coffee and take a few minutes to peruse the thoughts of some smart bloggers. (Photo credit: nruboc)

Filed Under: B2B Marketing, Blogging, BrandingWire, Customer experience, Customer strategy, Marketing Blogs Tagged With: BrandingWire, color consultant, customer research

Free eBook: Customers Rock Tips

December 11, 2007 By Becky Carroll 6 Comments

It’s here! I have put together a free eBook to thank you, my valuable readers, for your continued loyalty to me this past year. The eBook is a compilation of five of my favorite blog posts from the last 12 months. I have also included the comments along with each post so readers can continue to follow the conversation; many of these were quite enlightening!

Topics include:

Taking care of existing customers
Customer or client?
Tips for listening to customers
Stories and the personal touch
Measuring customer relationships

Feel free to share it, post it, print it, or copy it. Send it to someone you think would benefit from information about keeping customers longer and strengthening customer relationships. I would love to have this eBook shared with as many people as possible.

Let me know what you think, and thank you again!

Download free eBook: Customers Rock Highlights

(Photo credit: Spanishale)

Filed Under: Blogging, Customer experience, Customer loyalty, Customer service, eBooks

Thank You for a Wonderful Year!

December 7, 2007 By Becky Carroll 17 Comments

Pop the cork! Today is my one year blog-iversary of Customers Rock!, and I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you! Without you, my readers, I would just be talking to myself (it’s been known to happen). Read on to see my plans for thanking you all.

I have had a great time putting these posts together for you, and I am very proud to be a positive blogger. In other words, I make a real effort to blog on positive examples rather than ranting about all the things that go wrong in the world of marketing, customer service, and customer experience. I think that you, my readers, like it as well because I get many compliments from you (you are so kind!). However, my best compliments are the comments I get on my blog; thank you to so many of you for conversing on a regular basis (Lewis, CB, that especially means you, as you are my top commenters!).

To celebrate my first year, I am putting together a free eBook for you to read and share some of my favorite posts. The finishing touches are going on now, so either leave your name in the comments or send me an email, and I will send it to you when it is out this weekend! Alternatively, watch my blog, and I will put up a post when it is ready.

Thank you all so much for a great year; here’s to year number 2!

Here are a few stats and interesting facts from my first year:

Number of posts: 175

Number of comments: 977

Total views: 88,716

First commenter: Mack Collier on my Harley-Davidson post (within 2 hours of my posting it – amazing, Mack!)

First link from another blogger: Mack Collier in his Viral Community News (thanks!)

7 – Becky has decided to join the addiction that is blogging, and here’s her new blog, Customers Rock! Check it out as she’s off to a great start!

Original member of the Z-List (Mack was definitely one of my early fans!)

Listed on ToddAnd Power 150 member (now the AdAge Power 150)

Listed on Top 20 Power Women

Listed on Top 25 Marketing Blog

(Photo credit: Erdosain)

Filed Under: Blogging

I Want Your Blog-iversary Ideas

December 4, 2007 By Becky Carroll 6 Comments

The one-year anniversary of the Customers Rock! blog is approaching on December 7, and I want to turn to you, my loyal readers, for help in celebrating. What was an especially memorable blog-iversary post that you have seen or participated in? What could I do to celebrate? I want it to involve as many of you as want to be involved!

I have seen several things done: thanking all those who have referred, commented; reviews of popular posts throughout the year, etc.

What would you all recommend?

Please email me or leave a comment with your suggestions for Friday’s post. Thanks… you guys rock!

(Photo: nruboc)

Filed Under: Blogging

Conversation: Customer Support in a Web 2.0 World

August 29, 2007 By Becky Carroll 5 Comments

There is a new dynamic taking place in support. Customer service is becoming very public. The world now hears the details when a consumer has a poor customer support experience as it is bantered about on blogs, parodied in YouTube videos, and finally picked up by the mainstream media. The effects are spilling over into technical support as well. Customer expectations are higher than ever. The need to engage with customers in an honest and transparent way is becoming a business necessity.

As the support industry makes the shift from break-fix service and support to providing value to customers beyond the product purchase price, there is a need to practice the ancient art of conversation.This art has two components: listening and talking. In order for the conversation to be successful, the first component, listening, is really more important than the second. Support organizations have become very good in the art of talking at customers; the art of listening to customers is often less practiced.

The Self-Service Conundrum
While customer self-service is an important aspect of providing support when and how customers want it (in addition to potentially reducing support costs), there is a side-effect. Customer self-service takes away the human touch to the customer, the face of the company. Rather than a back-and-forth conversation about a support issue and its resolution, customers spend time on their own trying to figure out how to get the necessary answer. If they are successful, this can be a great model. If they are unsuccessful, the level of frustration mounts, only to be unleashed on the next unsuspecting CSR that answers the phone or the chat.

Value-added support is about people and continuing to build trust so that long-lasting customer relationships form. Value-added support is not about technology. Technology can be an enabler, and Web 2.0 technologies and social media help put people back into support. These technologies are facilitating conversations: customer to customer and also customer to company (and back).

Reluctance to Embrace
Some support organizations are part of companies that are quickly embracing Web 2.0 and social media. They have built large communities in the past and are re-engaging with those communities through blogs and wikis. Other organizations are starting to dabble in these new methods of communicating with customers. Many are still watching from the sidelines and a little leery of getting involved. At the recent SSPA Best Practices Conference in San Diego, I moderated a sharing session on web self-service, and the conversation turned to Web 2.0. Most of the companies in the room were considering how they wanted to use Web 2.0 technologies in support; only a handful actually had a blog, wiki, or similar social media in use with customers today.

Part of the reason for this reluctance to embrace social media is fear. There is a concern that customers will use this forum to start talking publicly about their issues with the company and all will turn sour. Guess what? These conversations are already taking place on the internet, with or without the company! One just needs to decide whether they want to be part of those conversations, even managing them from the company’s website.

Customer Support as a Conversation
If we are to truly transition support to a value-added model, a key ingredient is building customer relationships. This cannot be done through one-way communications. An ongoing conversation with our customers is necessary, as trust and relationship only take place over a longer period of time than one support interaction. If we just focus on the support transaction, we miss the opportunity for the relationship. If we view each support interaction as one part of an ongoing conversation with our customers and are willing to listen to them, we begin to look at the customer in a different light.

Customers want their immediate problems solved, but they also want proactive support. While the basics of providing customer support are still important, Web 2.0 and social media tools enable a conversation which goes past solving the problem at hand. Tools such as blogs, wikis, tagging, social networking, and even forums begin to create a sense of community and belonging as they facilitate proactive communication with customers. The potential return for the company is enormous. Transparency and honesty are required to play the game.

(This is Part 1 of a two-part post. Tomorrow I will publish the second part about using Web 2.0 tools for customer support.)

Filed Under: Blogging, Community, Customer experience, Customer service, Technical support

Women Bloggers and the W-List

August 9, 2007 By Becky Carroll 13 Comments

I was honored recently to be named to the Top 20 PR Power Women, which is a list of women who blog on PR and marketing. The list was put together by Kami Huyse, who brought to our attention that only a small percentage of The Power 150 top marketing and PR bloggers are women.

My friend Valeria Maltoni felt that perhaps the reason for so few women in the top lists is that they are as yet undiscovered. She was inspired to create a W-List to help promote these women bloggers. This is much like Mack Collier’s Z-List from last year (which, by the way, helped publicize my blog quite a bit). The Z-list was an effort to bring more attention to blogs which Mack felt weren’t getting their due. One offshoot of the Z-list was the original W-List put together by Tammy Vitale. This list was an effort to bring attention to women bloggers as well.

The New W-List

I am sharing Valeria’s new W-List with you. Regardless of gender, these are blogs which have quality content and provide new ideas. As with the Z-list, feel free to pay this forward by adding your favorite female bloggers. To the new W-list (taken from Lori Magno’s blog), I am adding these ladies:

Stephanie Weaver: Experienceology – Stephanie was one of my adds to the Z-list as well, and she writes a great blog on customer experience.

Maria Palma: CustomersAreAlways – Maria writes about taking care of customers and great customer service.

Tammy Vitale: Women, Art, Life – Since Tammy created the original W-List, I thought she should be on it! Tammy is an entrepreneur and artist.

Michele Miller: Wonderbranding: Marketing to Women – Michele’s blog focuses on marketing to women and how companies are meeting the needs or missing the mark.

Rosa Say: Managing with Aloha – Rosa is inspired by the values of the Hawaiian Islands, and she weaves them together with business concepts to inspire leaders.

Here is the list with my add-ins inserted in alphabetical order. Visit a few this weekend and expand your horizons!

The W List – Women Who Write
45 Things Anita Bruzzese

A Girl Must Shop Megan Garnhum
advergirl Leigh Householder
Back in Skinny Jeans Stephanie Quilao
Biz Growth News Krishna De
BlogWrite for CEOs Debbie Weil
Brand Sizzle Anne Simons
Branding & Marketing Chris Brown
Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk

Cheap Thrills Ryan Barrett
CK’s Blog CK (Christina Kerley)
Communication Overtones Kami Huyse
Conscious Business by Anne Libby
Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni
Corporate PR Elizabeth Albrycht

CustomersAreAlways Maria Palma
Customers Rock! Becky Carroll
Deborah Schultz Deborah Schultz
Diva Marketing Blog Toby Bloomberg

Dooce Heather Armstrong
Email Marketing Best Practices Tamara Gielen
Escape from Cubicle Nation Pamela Slim
eSoup Sharon Sarmiento

Experienceology Stephanie Weaver
Flooring The Consumer CB Whittemore
Forrester’s Marketing Blog Shar, Charlene, Chloe, Christine Elana, Laura and Lisa
Get Fresh Minds Katie Konrath
Get Shouty Katie Chatfield

Giant Jeans Parlour Anjali
Hey Marci Marci Alboher
Inspired Business Growth Wendy Piersall

J.T. O’Donnell Career Insights J.T. O’Donnell
Kinetic Ideas Wendy Maynard
Learned on Women Andrea Learned

Little Red Suit Tiffany Monhollon
Liz Strauss at Successful Blog Liz Strauss
Lorelle on WordPress Lorelle VanFossen
Manage to Change Ann Michael
Management Craft Lisa Haneberg
Managing with Aloha Rosa Say
Marketing Roadmaps Susan Getgood
Moda di Magno Lori Magno
Modite Rebecca Thorman
Narrative Assets Karen Hegman
Presto Vivace Blog Alice Marshall
Productivity Goal Carolyn Manning
Spare Change Nedra Kline Weinreich
Tech Kitten Trisha Miller
That’s What She Said by Julie Elgar
The Blog Angel aka Claire Raikes
The Brand Dame Lyn Chamberlin
The Copywriting Maven Roberta Rosenberg
The Engaging Brand Anna Farmery
The Origin of Brands Laura Ries
The Podcast Sisters Krishna De, Anna Farmery & Heather Gorringe

Water Cooler Wisdom Alexandra Levit
Wealth Strategy Secrets Money Gym author & Founder Nicola Cairncross
What’s Next Blog B L Ochman
Wiggly Wigglers by Podcast Sister Heather Gorringe
Women, Art, Life Tammy Vitale
Wonderbranding: Marketing to Women Michele Miller
Ypulse Anastasia Goodstein

(Photo by Forgiss)

Filed Under: Blogging, Memes

Magic, Marketing, and Memes: Oh, My!

July 24, 2007 By Becky Carroll 24 Comments

That Magical Reader Loyalty

(NOTE: no spoilers here!) The Harry Potter series of books is a great example of reader/consumer loyalty. After all, they have stuck with Harry through 7 books, 199 chapters, and over 4100 pages. Many waited line in the US this past weekend, some dressed in costume, all excited to be one of the first to get hold of the last book in the series. Parties were held all over the country (thanks for pointing out this Harry Potter event, Chris!). On the beach here in San Diego today, I lost count of how many people were sitting in chairs poring through the book.

Each fan has their own way of dealing with the end of the series. Some, such as Doug Meacham of NextUp, stepped around the aftermath of the Harry Potter Midnight Party at their local bookstore to buy a copy and start the read (although Doug had a hard time finding it in some places!). Ann Handley of Marketing Profs decided to take matters into her own hands and read the end first in order to avoid hearing about it accidentally.

Does the hype about the end, the spoilers, and the movie bother these people? No. They are loyal fans, and they are dedicated to reading the final book no matter what.

How can you make your product or service impervious to outside interference? Building strong customer relationships is one of the first steps.

Marketing Bloggers and Media Unite!

A great event is taking place in the community. Todd Andrlik’s Power 150 ranking of top marketing blogs is partnering with Ad Age! Todd has worked tremendously hard to continually rank over 350+ marketing and PR blogs. In his post today announcing the inside scoop, Todd quotes Jonah Bloom, editor of Advertising Age, as follows:

“Of course we could have put something together based on our own opinions or bloggers’ traffic numbers, but Todd’s brilliant creation goes way beyond that and creates a ranking that combines traffic, influence and quality into a ranking of the best out there. We’re excited to be able to bring that to our readers. We also hope it’ll be a great thing for all bloggers listed.”

Congratulations go out to Todd for his perseverance; it paid off! Congrats also to the blogging community, as we are making an impact on the business world by writing quality content. Thank you also to Todd for including Customers Rock! on the list; it has been an honor!

In a related story, Kami Huyse of Communication Overtones points out that only 13% of the Power 150 are women. She shares the Top 20 PowerWomen of PR and Marketing (blogs) to help raise the awareness of top women bloggers. Thanks for the hat tip, Kami!

Meme-Mania: 8 Things About Me and Glass Half Full

Over the past few weeks, I have been tagged for the 8 Things meme by Janet Green, Steve Woodruff, Valeria Maltoni, Doug Meacham, and Nick Rice. This meme asks the person tagged to share 8 things about themselves, as a way of getting to know the blogger better. The tagged person should then tag 8 others to share some link love and to share great blogs. In addition to the “5 Things About Me” from awhile back, here are 8 more things …

1. I am a fan of science fiction movies and books (especially the “classic” movies from the 60s-80s such as Planet of the Apes, Logan’s Run, E.T., Close Encounters, Star Wars, and one of my faves Total Recall). Sharing them with my boys is a lot of fun, even if they do laugh at some of the “older” special effects!

2. I was once in the circus as a child. Ringling Brothers Circus came to town, and my sister and I were chosen to be in the parade. It was very memorable!

3. One of my favorite places on Earth is Maui. We vacation there on a regular basis and stay with some lovely friends. Aloha!

4. My husband and I love to travel. We have been all over Europe and the UK, and we hope to go again soon! I once travelled all the way around the world on a business trip for Hewlett-Packard when I was working there as a marketing manager - and I was 5 months pregnant!

5. I enjoy drinking red wine, especially if it is paired with Scharfenberger Chocolate. Yum!

6. I just learned how to knit this year. I think I will keep my day job, though, as I am not very good at it!

7. My favorite actor is Gene Kelley. What an amazing actor/singer/dancer! When my kids saw his “I Got Rhythm” tap dance in the movie American in Paris recently, one of them said, “Those aren’t really his feet moving! The computer did that.”

8. I am a huge fan of Disneyland and Disneyworld. One of the first things I did when we moved to San Diego was buy Disneyland season passes for all of us. Tell me if any of you come out this way, and I will meet you at Mickey’s house!

I was also tagged for the Glass Half Full meme a little while back, this time by Meikah Delid and Ryan Karpeles. Sorry to take so long to respond, guys! This meme asked the blogger to answer a few questions. Here they are:

1. How full is your glass?
2. What kind of glass is it?
3. What’s in the glass?
4. Reasons for #1, #2, and #3

And here are my answers:

1. My cup runneth over.

2. A red wine glass.

3. Ravenswood Zinfandel.

4. Reasons: My cup runneth over because I have been truly blessed in my life, much beyond what I could have imagined or deserved. The glass is a wine glass because I enjoy drinking red wine with family and friends while noshing on dark chocolate. The contents are Ravenswood Zinfandel because Ravenswood is a Customers Rock! company, plus it reminds me of my connections to the blogging community (fellow Ravenswood fan Steve Woodruff has been great at creating community with BrandingWire).

I now tag the following people (and apologies if you have already been tagged!): Daksh at TheMarketingBlog, Kevin Hillstrom of MineThatData, Katie Konrath of GetFreshMinds, Tim Jackson of MasiGuy, Daniel Sitter of Idea Sellers, Kevin Dugan of Strategic Public Relations, Dale Wolf of The Perfect Customer Experience, and Christy Brewer of The Diff.

You can choose which meme you want to respond to! Have fun.

(Photo by nruboc)

Filed Under: B2B Marketing, Blogging, Book reviews, Customer experience, Customer loyalty, Marketing Blogs, Memes

Customer Service Event and Call for Authors!

Holiday Reading List: Outstanding Blogs

BrandingWire: Communicating with Customers

Free eBook: Customers Rock Tips

Thank You for a Wonderful Year!

I Want Your Blog-iversary Ideas

Conversation: Customer Support in a Web 2.0 World

Women Bloggers and the W-List

Magic, Marketing, and Memes: Oh, My!

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