Voodoogoo Jam

Perfecting Good Taste

Friends from afar sent me not one but seven jars of assorted gelatinous delights for the holidays. Each homemade delectable is tastefully adorned with an elegant custom label and a short background regarding the origin of the harvested contents. Perfect.

I can barely wait to taste them all. But await I will.

The Assortment Include

Grape Jam · Wild Plum Jam · Apricot Peach Jam · Banana Butter
Chokecherry Jam · Black Raspberry Jam · Voodoogoo Jam

“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”

- Walt Disney

Uh Oh

Recently, the iSight Camera on my MacBook Air quit working. I’d purchased the three-year Apple Care program, but was hesitant to engage in the repair process. My past experience with technical support from other computer companies has been less than pleasant.

11:30 Sharp

From the Apple website, I learned the initial step is to call technical support to rule out any software issues. Argh.

Then I found “Ask an Apple Expert” on the website, with the option to have them call me at my convenience. I scheduled a call and at the appointed time on the dot, a very courteous technician called me from Northern California. She patiently walked me through the diagnostics, focusing only on my account—no interruptions, no multitasking. Within 30 minutes, she told me I’d need hardware diagnostics that could be done at my local Apple store. She even scheduled the appointment for me.

A Matter of Minutes

When I arrived, my name was listed on a plasma screen as the next customer at the Apple Store Genius Bar. After a 5 minute wait, I met my service Genius who apologized for the delay.

Within 10 minutes he’d performed the hardware diagnostics and confirmed the machine needed to be sent to a “repair depot” for service. He gave me an 800 number to call for a shipping box and told me the repairs would take approximately 4-5 business days.

This is where I started to get anxious. I needed time. Time to prepare myself to function without my laptop for 5 business days.

Next Day, 8:00 a.m.

I called the 800 number and by 8:00 a.m. the next day, a custom box with packing material, simple instructions—even packing tape—arrived at my office. I let it sit, procrastinating the separation from my laptop.

Finally, I ran Time Machine to back up my data, filled a thumb drive with recent docs, and prepared myself for 5 days without my computer. I packed up the MacBook Air, took it to my local Kinkos, and said my prayers for its safe trip to Houston.

Time Flies

The next morning, I logged into FedEx to track the package. It had arrived safely at 6:54 a.m. local time! Wow, a quick trip and an early start. Then I logged into the Apple site to check on the status of the repair. By 9:00 a.m. EDT, it was finished and pending return.

My laptop arrived via FedEx at 9:00 a.m. the next day. I pulled it out, tested my new camera, and crafted this post, amazed that my computer traveled 1,700 miles round trip, was repaired and returned to me—all within 40 hours.

Thank you Apple for great service and great tools to keep me informed all along the way.

Your brand’s reputation is established by your actions and interactions. The best example of customer retention management is the one you deliver today. Make it count and keep them coming back—and telling their friends.

Image: Marcin Wichary

Service or Sickness?

At a Loss

Just when you think you’ve seen all the internet has to offer, there’s IsThisYourLuggage.com.

Once airlines exhaust all means of reconnecting luggage with its rightful owner, unclaimed bags are sold at auction. IsThisYourLuggage.com purchases bags, then lays out and photographs the contents and posts it online in hopes that the owner will see and recognize their belongings.

Less Than Likely

With the content of only 5 suitcases currently posted, it may be a new venture or merely regional. Context for where the luggage was found or purchased might help the site’s credibility. But then, credibility may not be the end-goal since the site’s owner calls it “a little odd, but not as odd as stamp collecting” and invites visitors to email and chat about the project.

IsThisYourLuggage.com is in turns ingenious, creepy and fun.

via: Paul Ocepek
image: Jordan

Joseph Jaffe’s Join the Conversation

If you’re a brand marketer
or have a brand, or a market to reach,
read this book.

A Marketing Dialog

The foundation of Join the Conversation, How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership is author Joseph Jaffe’s distinction between communication and conversation. He describes communication as one-way and carefully controlled in its implementation, while conversation is organic, non-linear, unpredictable, and not initiated by any one person or organization.

Key Moments

As collective online conversations begin to spill into conversations offline, the book addresses the opportunities presented to brand marketers engaged in conversation with groups Jaffe identifies as producers, prosumers and consumers.

He presents many examples of what we here at Brainstorm refer to as key social media moments—moments when companies have either seized an opportunity or been seized by it.

If you’re not present at a key moment,
you can’t exploit that moment,
but it may exploit you.

Helpful Advice

The book provides a number of guidelines to consider when adopting conversational engagement over mere communication: The need to embrace consumer-generated content, the importance of honesty, an emphasis on product quality and service excellence—coupled with a balanced sense of transparency, as well as the benefits of partnering with today’s consumer, paired with cautionary advice.

About the Author

Joseph Jaffe, author of Join the Conversation and Life After the 30-Second Spot, is president and chief interrupter at new marketing company, Crayon. He’s a noted consultant and blogger and hosts Coffee with Crayon Thursdays at 9am EST on Crayonville Island in Second Life. This review is part of his UNM2PNM project.

Join In

Although it may take purists a while to get used to the conversational writing style, regardless of whether or not you’re already engaged in conversation, Join the Conversation is a read worth talking about.