Welcome 2009

Quick Note

Let me begin by saying a quick thanks to all of you that read this blog. 2008 was a great year for VoiceSage. We have many new clients on board and I hope to be able to bring you some stories and research based on their experiences to date. We will also be running a series of webinars and conference calls to discuss issues relating to how you can get even more from the VoiceSage service, so if any of you reading this are interested, why not drop us an email or phone call and we will see what we can do to fit you in.

Credit Crunch To Precipitate Change In Buying Behaviour?

Jeff Nolan over on Venture Chronicles makes a good point about 2009 and the effect of the credit crunch: people behave differently when spending their own saved cash than when spending on credit. This will result in people turning to Utility in their purchasing. Although my head tells me "true", another older, atavistic, marketing brain tells me, if so, why are people still buying Fendi handbags? I think that marketing and customer service people are going to have to embrace the concepts of connectiveness and social media even more when its not the price that matters, its your confidence that this is the right price. Thus, I think we will see more use of (mobile) coupons, we will see more use of iPhone/N95/Blackberry applications that scan a barcode and compare prices/ tell you what friends bought this/ etc. etc.

Credit Card Fraud: Get Pro-Active

Not that I think crime is a direct substitute product for work but there is no denying that as times get harder, crime rates will rise, and we will see increased fraud attempts. There are some super practical tips on protecting yourself from Credit Card Fraud from Light Blue Touchpaper. I found one or two of the comments especially interesting: (1) If you can personalise your card, or you get a card that is designed to demonstrate success, are you signaling that this is a good card to target? (2) If you are a particular type of person, or travelling in a dodgy area, why can't you elect to get a phone verification on every purchase?

The Future is Social (and Green, and Friendly, and all That)

Paul Greenberg has a great end of year review of CRM, where he points out InsideView and Landslide. What I love about InsideView is that its liked a "link-weighted" search strategy for people (uh, yeah, what LinkedIn should have). Paul also points out HelpStream which he reckons is the prime example of a CRM 2.0 play that truly gets it. It makes total sense as long as you understand that not all the information pertinent to every decision you make resides within your own organisation. It also makes sense that not all the knowledge/ skills you need to service your customers might reside within your organisation. And as it happens there is no need to throw my two pence/ cent/ cents worth into this, because a recent series of posts by Bruce McVarish does it all so well.  Enjoy.

I picked up New Scientist this month and its theme of your social network influences you more than you know caught my eye (and reverberated with a RWW article on how smiling Facebook photo may indicated you may have more friends, and that happiness clusters). If it can be scientifically shown that 1st, 2nd and 3rd order contacts can actually influence our mood, and propensity for happiness, those that are able to attract the network to them and act as a co-coordinating node, will be those that succeed.

Note On Image: Symbolic Consumption will remain as strong an influence as ever in 2009 and beyond.