November 7, 2009 by Susan Ellsworth
If you are still using GoldMine Standard Edition, this blog definitely is for you.
Front Range, the manufacturer of all GoldMine in its various versions, stopped distributing GoldMine Standard Edition some years back. Users of GoldMine Standard Edition cannot receive technical support for that version directly from FrontRange.
It’s not the GoldMine you started out with on your laptop years ago. The only officially-supported GoldMine now lives on a corporate server. Sorry, a local workstation does not count as a GoldMine server.
That’s the bad old—very old—news.
Now the good news—and the catches.
Until December 18th 2009, GoldMine Standard Edition users can upgrade to GoldMine Premium Edition at $355 per seat. Additional seats for the same price are available if the additional seats are included on the same order.
If you place your order after December 18 but by January 29th 2010 you can upgrade from GoldMine Standard Edition to GoldMine Premium Edition for $405.
Longtime loyalists from Standard Edition days, GoldMine Premium Edition has a very different “look and feel” from what you are accustomed to working with. And there are many more new features. I recommend going to the test drive to check it out. The Pequod Systems order desk is at 301.445-6206.
The Catches: You must order a minumum of five (5) GMPE licenses with maintenance required on all seats. Orders—which go through a GoldMine partner such as Pequod Systems—must be received by the FrontRange GoldMine partner in time to reach FrontRange by the deadline.
P.S. Not sure which version of GoldMine you are using right now? Launch GoldMine and look at the splash screen. It’s written right there. If you are already in GoldMine, click on HELP. Then click on ABOUT.
Twitter
LinkedIn
FaceBook


Tags: GoldMine, GoldMine Premium Edition, GMPE Rock-bottom Prices, customer experience, technology, Return on Investment
Posted in CRM, Campaigns, Customer Relationship Management, FrontRange, FrontRange Solutions, GMPE, GoldMine, GoldMine Premium Edition, Opportunities | Leave a Comment »
October 13, 2009 by Susan Ellsworth

Unless yours is a one or two person business and you conduct most—if not all—business on a personally-owned laptop and/or your cell phone, managed IT services should be a standard part of your present and future business plans. Why? What’s wrong with “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?
On average, companies lose thousands of dollars a year to network downtime—in the incremental minutes and hours of lost productivity and lost opportunities as people wait for problems to be resolved. Furthermore, on average, 70% of IT management budgets are spent on systems maintenance, leaving only 30% to invest in new technologies
Consider IT support that significantly reduces your downtime by identifying and solving issues before you and your staff have identifiable problems—and solving the problems took minutes instead of hours to resolve the remaining issues that were not anticipated.
Now consider shifting funding from administrative tasks to more strategic infrastructure investments that would keep your network more secure and save money in the long run.
Managed IT services generally include
- Remote support for rapid problem resolution
- Detailed site inventories of hardware and software
- 24 x 7 x 365 proactive network and security monitoring
- Scheduled maintenance and upgrades in consultation with the customer
Those who offer these services successfully generally
- hold standard industry certifications
- are experienced partners of major, leading hardware and/or software solutions
- are experienced partners of major hardware and software vendors
- regularly receive product updates and notices about special offers from those vendors
Transparency Tip #2 Hardware today comes with internal code that identifies its manufacturer, its version number, and its serial number. Reading that information and knowing how long that hardware has been in service and paying attention to special offers not advertised to end users can give the managed services provider some insights as to cost-savings for upgrades.
Twitter
LinkedIn
FaceBook
Pequod Systems in FaceBook

Tags: "customer service", customer experience, front-end planning, hardware, Managed Services, Return on Investment, software, systems, technology
Posted in Innovations, Managed Services, Opportunities, Projects | Comments Off
September 8, 2009 by Susan Ellsworth
One of our Pequod Systems core values is to speak the language of business. No geek speak here. Since an offer of managed IT Services will soon be one of our offerings, it’s time to talk about what “managed IT services” means in plain business English.
What I have said before is worth repeating: IT managed services allows a non-IT business with serious investments in computer technology to get on with its own efforts without worrying about backups or cash flow unpredictability due to a sudden hardware breakdown or unplanned, software incompatibility as a result of an inappropriate upgrade.
While some people have no interest in knowing how the technology behind managed services works, we believe that offering some simple, easy-to-understand basics is an important factor in developing successful working relationships. Transparency works for us.
The next blog will talk in detail about inventory of computer hardware, the use of hardware vendor-supplied information about your hardware and what this information can do for you. You will read about how a system can read your hardware serial numbers and what good that does for you. After that, look for some detail about printers and, possibly, other devices on your network. Next will be a blog about software. After that, some notes about customer meetings on the subject of preventive maintenance based not on our recommendations, but on manufacturer recommendations.
Transparency Tip #1 We work with your favorite IT support person to make that support person even more efficient and effective than you might have experienced before.
Twitter
LinkedIn
FaceBook

Tags: "customer service", customer experience, front-end planning, hardware, Managed Services, Return on Investment, software
Posted in Managed Services, Service | Comments Off
August 3, 2009 by Susan Ellsworth

Serendipity. Yes, this edition of the Pertinent Pequod Posts is the result of serendipity. First, it was a software engineer and fellow Toastmaster writing about the process of considering “not just the ideal or expected way to input and interface with the code but also look at how the code handles an error or an improper input so the program would not crash or cause problems.”* In other words, this software engineer PLANS AHEAD before simply wasting time writing code. It’s a best practice used not only by software engineers but also by systems integrators and successful professionals in many different fields.
Then a Pequod corporate opportunity came up to offer IT managed services to business customers. One we just could not refuse. More detail is forthcoming soon!
The basic delivery of IT managed services is fairly straightforward. It allows a non-IT business with serious investments in computer technology to get on with its own efforts without worrying about backups or cash flow unpredictability due to a sudden hardware breakdown or unplanned, software incompatibility as a result of an inappropriate upgrade. It includes an automated survey of computing assets and infrastructure, which will form a basis for planned updates. All the business has to pay attention to is an agreed-upon Service Level Agreement by your managed services provider. Staff in businesses with a Service Level Agreement for Managed Services are now completely engaged in doing and managing those tasks for which they were hired to do.
At the same time, a high quality provider of managed services makes a point of having status conversations with the customer on a regular basis. Hardware assets purchased five years ago may or may not be on their way to final failure. Hardware assets purchased five years ago may not provide the performance needed for today’s software applications. Regardless of the economy, no customer should discover these facts because a piece of hardware fails.
Similarly, no organization or company should proceed down a course without total front end analysis of what happens if Plan A (or perhaps no plan at all!) does not serve well, or starts to crash and ultimately fail. Large organization (think 225,000 members) or small business (think 50 employees), every enterprise will have greater opportunities to succeed when its focus is on its primary mission rather than on the details of the infrastructure that gets it there. Toastmasters International should have consulted with professional change management experts before it went down its current path. A businesses that thinks it cannot afford managed services really needs to reconsider its corporate mission and what infrastructure services it depends on to achieve that mission.
*Thanks, Will Hsiung, for your blog about Proposal A.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/SusanEllsworth
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/susanmarshellsworth
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Susan-Ellsworth/1388452899


Tags: "customer service", analysis, customer experience, front-end planning, hardware, Managed Services, software, technology, Toastmasters
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Managed Services, Projects, Service | Comments Off
July 21, 2009 by Susan Ellsworth
With thanks to Bruce Temkin for The 6 Laws of Customer Experience: The Fundamental Truths that Define How Organizations Treat Customers , this essay looks at telling the truth to all your Toastmasters club members and prospective members all the time. In a word, it’s about transparency.
You can fool some people for some of the time, but most people can eventually tell what’s real and what’s not. Club members can sense if their happiness is not really a top priority with the executive team (Sergeant at Arms, Secretary, Treasurer, VP/Public Relations, VP/Membership, VP/Education, President. )
Second, no matter how much money, time and effort you spend on advertising, you can’t convince potential members that you provide better experiences for them than you do. They will discover exactly what your club is like on their first visit.
Here are some suggestions.
Don’t hide behind a 4th priority. While it’s possible to come up with a long list of priorities, there’s no way that many will get a great deal of attention. Anything below your 3rd priority is absolutely not a priority at all. Make your club members’ experiences one of your top three priorities.
Sometimes it’s better not to start. If you’re not committed to excellence in member experience, then don’t start a major initiative; it’s a lot of hard work. And if member experience isn’t a top priority, then your club will likely fail. Frustrated club members will be increasingly reluctant to re-engage in membership retention and building in the future.
Advertise to reinforce, not to create positioning. Since members ultimately know how you treat them, the best you can do with marketing is to reinforce the truth. If you want to change how you are perceived, then start by treating your members better. Then use advertising to reinforce the new way that they’re being treated. Talk about how individual members succeed and how they perceive those successes.
IF YOU ARE NOT COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE IN MEMBER EXPERIENCE, YOU CAN ONLY FOOL YOURSELF.
Twitter
LinkedIn
FaceBook


Tags: "customer service", creativity, customer, customer experience, Distinguished Club Program, engagement, good will, learn by doing, member experience, Temkin, Toastmasters, volunteerism
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Potpourri, The People Side, Toastmasters | Comments Off
July 21, 2009 by Susan Ellsworth
With gratitude to Bruce Temkin for The 6 Laws of Customer Experience: The Fundamental Truths that Define How Organizations Treat Customers , this fifth of six essays now looks at the importance of measuring, incenting and celebrating positive actions that lead to healthy Toastmasters clubs.
Soclub officers and/or Area Governors struggle to understand why clubs don’t deliver better experiences to each other and to potential members. But it shouldn’t be such a big mystery. It’s all about how club officers deal with members and with each other. Members tend to conform to the environment that they’re in. What are the key elements to the club environs? The metrics that are tracked, the activities that are rewarded, and the actions that are celebrated. These three items collectively drive how members behave and how they ultimately treat each other —- and potential members.
Here are some suggestions:
Don’t expect members to do the “right thing.” While members may want to treat each other and potential members well, you can’t just expect them to do it. Why not? Because club officers and, very often District officers want club members to do a lot of things. But they often fail to link behaviors to measurements, incentives, and celebrations . So without any explicit intervention on behalf of new members — or even longer-term member experience, the environment will push members to focus on just about anything except member experience.
Clearly define good behavior. To do that, define and describe the types of behavior that you want from members. Do you want members to strive earnestly to meet the written requirements of the manual(s) they are working in? Or do you want them simply to get through exercises so they can contribute to Distinguished Club Plan goals? Measurements, incentives, and celebrations should be adjusted to reinforce those behaviors.
Watch out for mixed messages. You can only get consistent behaviors from members when all three levers (measurements, incentives, and celebrations) are working together. If you celebrate things that are different than what you measure, for instance, then members aren’t sure which signals to follow.
DON’T BLAME MEMBERS. FIX THE ENVIRONMENT.
Twitter
LinkedIn
FaceBook

Tags: "customer service", activism, Activities, creativity, customer experience, good will, leadership, learn by doing, Temkin, Toastmasters, training
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Potpourri, The People Side, Toastmasters | Comments Off
July 20, 2009 by Susan Ellsworth
With gratitude to Bruce Temkin for The 6 Laws of Customer Experience: The Fundamental Truths that Define How Organizations Treat Customers , this fourth of six essays now looks at the importance of keeping members engaged in their Toastmasters experience.
If you want to improve member experience, then it might seem obvious that you should focus on both current and prospective members. You cannot sustain great members experience unless everyone else is bought in to what you’re doing and are aligned with the effort. If members have low morale, then getting them to “wow” potential members will be nearly impossible.
As Walt Disney said, “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”
Don’t under-estimate the value of training both in your club and beyond. You can’t just change some club conventions and processes and hope that members will be treated better. Just about any change to the experience a prospective member has requires some members to change what they do and how they do it.
Make it easy to do the right thing. If it’s hard for members to do something, then they are less likely to do it — and more likely to get frustrated. Encourage the use of enabling technologies, such as posting partially-completed membership applications on your website. Include your club name and number, your District number and city your club is in on the membership application form. It’s a rare guest who knows your District number.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. If you want to have members feel like they’re a part of something, then you need to tell them what’s going on. So develop a robust communications plan that not only tells members what your club is doing, but also explains why you’re doing it. (This is a vital part of making the Distinguished Club Program work.) Look for opportunities to catch people doing the right thing.
Find ways to celebrate. If members do things that helpother members and bring in more members, then celebrate those actions. Thank that special helpful member in front of the club—if the person is comfortable with such attention. With some people, a simple one-on-one “Thanks!” is all that is needed or wanted.
Measure member engagement. Clubs need to put the same rigor in monitoring member relationships that they do in monitoring members performance. Progress in the Distinguished Club Plan is an excellent tool not only to measure overall club performance; it is also a rough guide to member satisfaction.
THE BOTTOM LINE: MEMBERSHIP RETENTION AND GROWTH TOTALLY DEPENDS ON THE EXPERIENCE AND SATISFACTION OF CURRENT MEMBERS .
Twitter
LinkedIn
FaceBook

Tags: "customer service", activism, creativity, Distinguished Club Program, engagement, good will, learn by doing, member experience, Temkin, Toastmasters, volunteerism
Posted in Activities, Customer Relationship Management, Projects, Service, The People Side, Toastmasters | Comments Off
July 18, 2009 by Susan Ellsworth
Today’s blog continues my earlier Toastmasters view on Bruce Temkins’ Six Laws of Customer Experience — The Fundamental Truths that Define How Organizations Treat Customers. While Temkins wrote about commercial interactions with paying customers, much of what he said relates directly to the Toastmasters experience and the success of our organization.
Not many Toastmasters wake up in the morning and say “Today, I want to make life miserable for my fellow Toastmasters.” Yet every day, members — from Plain Ordinary Toastmasters to club officers to District officers—make decisions or take actions that end up frustrating, annoying, or downright upsetting their fellow members. It can even be a decision or an action by an International officer. But it’s often not individual actions that cause the problems. Often times, the issues come down to a lack of cooperation or coordination across people and organizations.
Given that most club officers want their clubs to better serve each other and fellow members, a clear view of what members need, want, and dislike can align decisions and actions. If everyone shared a vivid view of the target members and had visibility into members feedback, then there would be less disagreement about what to do to keep the whole club happy and productive. While it may be difficult to agree on overall priorities and strategies, it’s much easier to agree on the best way to treat our fellow members.
So here are some suggestions:
Don’t wait for your club as a whole to solve individual member problems. No organizational structure is perfect; they all have some flaws. And it takes a long time to make major organizational changes. So rather than waiting for a structural change to create alignment, use a clear focus on members needs as a way to align the decisions and actions of individuals — even if your club as a whole remains out of alignment with the needs of a fellow member. Vice Presidents Membership, heads up! Don’t wait for your club Treasurer to “collect dues.” Your club mission is to keep members happy and wanting to renew and renew and renew. To do that, you have got to connect one on one with each of your fellow members to discover his or her special wants, hopes, desires and dreams. Even if those wants, hopes, desires and dreams “have nothing to do with Toastmasters.” There is always some way to connect seemingly “non-Toastmasters-like” desires with our program….and it’s your job to find a way.
Broadly share member insight. While we all know that club officers affect members experience, almost everyone in the club also has some impact on how fellow members are treated. Think of your club as a large production crew making the stars (your fellow members) shine on stage. Since many of the decisions that impact members aren’t debated or discussed, they just happen. It helps for as many members as possible to understand our fellow members. Think of this as a silent alignment process.
Talk about member needs, not personal preferences. Disagreements are somewhat natural when people debate things from their own points of view. Instead of discussing what you like or think, re-frame discussions to be about overall member needs. If you find that you don’t really know enough about other members to solve the disagreement, then stop arguing and go get more information about your members.
THE BOTTOM LINE: FOCUS ON YOUR FELLOW MEMBERS’ NEEDS. What goes around comes around.
Twitter
LinkedIn
FaceBook

Tags: "customer service", Activities, creativity, customer experience, good will, leadership, learn by doing, Temkin, volunteerism
Posted in Customer Relationship Management, Potpourri, The People Side, Toastmasters | Comments Off