Category Archives: Best business practices

A not so fun afternoon dealing with customer service at American Airlines and Verizon

Posted on April 15, 2011 by markkolier

Everyone I know that flies a lot has their own horror stories to tell. Everyone that has a mobile phone or mobile broadband service has complained about their carrier. While my experiences with American Airlines and Verizon yesterday would not … Continue reading →

Posted in Best business practices, Communication, Customer Experiences, Marketing stuff | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

How Citi Field’s Acela Club turned around a potentially terrible customer experience

Posted on April 11, 2011 by markkolier

Friday afternoon was opening day at CitiField for my beloved New York Mets or as Steve Somers of WFAN coined it – the Wilponzi’s. Ouch. It was a cold and dreary day like many days in early April at baseball … Continue reading →

Posted in Best business practices, Customer Experiences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Will today’s teenagers be the last generation to type on a keyboard?

Posted on March 28, 2011 by markkolier

This thought has been popping up in my mind consistently over the past few years. With voice recognition technology continually improving (I admit it still has a way to go), the need to actually keystroke in words is possibly becoming … Continue reading →

Posted in Best business practices, Communication, Customer Experiences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

College Textbooks getting it on with Inkling

Posted on March 25, 2011 by markkolier

A business associate of mine recently moved to an interesting new startup in Silicon Valley called Inkling. The more I learn about this iPad application the more I like it – and like Adam Lashinsky’s fine March 23rd article in … Continue reading →

Posted in Best business practices, Customer Experiences, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Where are the tour guides and advocates for the Travel Agency business?

Posted on March 21, 2011 by markkolier

Maybe they are on vacation. After travel agencies and travel agents themselves are vanishing one by one and have been for a long time. Like most people I had thought of this many times before although I don’t frequently arrange … Continue reading →

Posted in Best business practices, Communication, Marketing stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The golden days of group couponing are almost over

Posted on March 16, 2011 by markkolier

Groupon http://www.groupon.com and Living Social http://www.livingsocial.com are red hot as the two of the most successful online social couponing sites with IPO’s in the offing for both companies. I’ve been getting the daily emails from both sites for quite some … Continue reading →

Posted in Best business practices, Marketing stuff, Social Media, Technology | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

March Madness equals a drain on worker productivity – or does it?

Posted on March 14, 2011 by markkolier

The NCAA basketball tournament begins this Thursday (or Tuesday/Wednesday if you count the new 2 games pre-tournament tournament to get from 68 teams to 64 teams). I always enjoy the NCAA tournament and in particular the Thursday and Friday games … Continue reading →

Posted in Best business practices, Living in the World Today | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

To get new ideas and experiences think about getting out of your comfort zone

Posted on March 11, 2011 by markkolier

While I am hardly qualified to be a psychologist, I do constantly observe behavior in people and things in and around my life. One thing I have observed (and this is no revelation) is that people consistently fall into routines … Continue reading →

Posted in Best business practices, Marketing stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Direct mail grows in defiance of ‘print is dead’

Posted on February 25, 2011 by markkolier

Despite all the talk about marketing via social networks, mobile marketing and digital display, the ‘traditional’ consistently performing channel – good old direct mail – continues to grow. While mass mailings of the 1980’s and 1990’s have diminished (I still … Continue reading →

Posted in Best business practices, Marketing stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

IHOP and Denny’s 0pen 24 hours a day – a good thing or bad thing?

Posted on February 23, 2011 by markkolier

If you are on the road and hungry at 3AM do you find it comforting to see a sign for an IHOP or Denny’s? I don’t travel in the middle of the night but once every few years so a … Continue reading →

Posted in Best business practices, Customer Experiences | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments