Amy Bermar
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Posts by Amy Bermar
A Too Close Encounter With Customer Service
July 12, 2010
by Amy Bermar
in Miscellaneous
Six weeks ago, I spent four days in the hospital, after being on the wrong end of a close encounter between a minivan and a bike (me). The whole event became an interesting first-row seat on customer experience, from a decidedly non-tech perspective.
Prelude: Quiet suburban street, quick ride on a holiday morning. No traffic except for the van, which pulls up to the T intersection, and rolls right through it. Into my street, but I’m watching – no problem. Until the driver hooks a hard right, aiming straight for her parking lot, and me. I shout, she hears me. . But I’m not betting she’ll stop, More >
Customer experience lessons come from all sources
May 21, 2010
by Amy Bermar
in Miscellaneous
We just contributed to PR Week’s Insider Blog column. Here’s the second of 3 posts.
What can a 108-year-old Turkish spa teach a company about customer experience? On the surface, not much: It’s on a crummy little side street. It’s grimy, at least compared to the swankier spas. Some days, you can’t go in if you’re male; other days, if you’re female.
Then there are the ineffable rituals that are perfectly familiar, and perfect, to initiates, but off-putting, intimidating and alien to a newcomer. For starters, you have to pay the minute you walk in. And decide – before a chorus of whoever More >
So When’s the Last Time You Lost an Account? (Keeping Score)
May 18, 2010
by Amy Bermar
in Miscellaneous
We just contributed to PR Week’s Insider Blog column. Here’s the first of 3 posts.
How many clients do you lose each year? We’d like to say none, but that’s not realistic.
Of course, agencies pride themselves on client loyalty and retention, which sets up an inherent conflict. When you lose a client, who is to blame?
We specialize in business-to-business technology, with a focus on creating new markets for venture-funded companies. Almost by definition, this means that some – sometimes many – of our companies will fail somewhere along the way.
Prolonged economic downturns simply More >
Pulling the Plug… or Don’t Raise My Prices
May 18, 2010
by Amy Bermar
in Miscellaneous
I’m getting rid of my tie that binds. The one that pays Comcast $144 a month. For years, each time I opened the bill, I’ve felt a little bit gouged, probably because I don’t watch enough TV to justify the cost (I figure $1 an hour would be tolerable). But subscriptions – call it SAAS if you want – have a way of lulling you into compliance: “It’s already there.” “It’ll take too much time/energy/aggravation to switch.” “I probably won’t save that much, anyhow.” So the credit-card smack-down continues.
I’ve had a notebook hooked up to my TV for a few months, anyhow. So now it’s going to be More >
So when do you shoot a teenager?
May 6, 2010
by Amy Bermar
in Miscellaneous
Ok, so another stupid teen decided it was time to grandstand. You can practically predict it: A Pennsylvania high school student must have thought Monday night’s Phillies game wasn’t interesting enough – and decided to jump on the field. And a security guard decided to stun-gun him into submission.
We can talk about this country’s intermittent passion for using ‘deadly force’ – or whether baseball’s security force should have guns, and what kind of assets they were truly protecting. (A $20 million pitcher’s arm? Public peace? Commercial air time?)
Now, there is always enough foolishness to
More >