Archive for March, 2009

Julie Roehm and Elizabeth Kanna are writing / curating a new crowd sourced book called Phoeix Rising.
We, the crowds, are asked to contribute our story own case study of how innovation helped us rise from the ashes of a tough period.
I like crowdsourcing projects and I believe that successful project as such need firm handed curators and a strict agenda in order to succeed. This project has what it takes to succeed.

It’s an historical time. America is burning and people are feeling the heat.  Interesting enough as we are immersed in the deepest of recessions we are also experiencing the most open times in history. It’s a natural fit to ask people to share their “how I survived” stories.

The question is if we can actually write a heroic recovery story in the midst of the battle… can we really tell how our actions today will rewrite tomorrow? We need the perspective of time  to be able to realize the value of our stories.

Today we can report history as it is about to happen… well not history, just events. Events and thoughts, opinions, insights, ideas- it’s all out there tweetered, blogged, FBed, delicioused and etc. constantly. The number of creators is not falling much short than the number of consumers- all of us are creators. Information is a commodityand publishing it became an act of creating products with temporary existence.

The idea of printing a book – a real book- that thing with paper pages and fresh smell of press- out of those temporary stories of success that might not be there tomorrow is intriguing and risky at the same time. The writers liability is not high- as the stories are donated by the crowds, the risk is in creating an irrelevant piece. Julie and Elizabeth are well aware of this point and declared that the published book will be followed by a retrospective book, which will analyze the stories through the lenses of time. That second book will probably be the more interesting one.

By the way, Julie Roehm’s new blog juliearoehm.com was designed and built by our friends at 230i.

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending the opening of Joseph Scheer Installation and Exhibition at  Bergdorf Goodman.
Scheer’s work is a great example of how technology can be leveraged and manipulated for the creation of art.

Through years of experiments, Scheer was able to develop an effective workflow that allowed him to scan moth specimens in extreme resolution using the Kodak iQsmart and EverSmart high end scanners (formerly known as Creo / Scitex). In his work he is able to expose the amazing microscopic details, along side to providing the rare opportunity to experience the visual impact of x30 enlarged moths.

More info about Scheer’s work:
rubybeets.com
NY Times
National Geographic
Info about the Kodak Scanners Scheer used:
iqsmartscanners.com

For a long while, I had my business account with WAMU. When I opened the account it was long before the banking turmoil and I was pretty much Bank agnostic. I was compelled by the low rates that WAMU offered (free…) and the fact that the local branch was very local and the fact that people were nice. Things went pretty well for a long while, I deposited checks and withdrew funds- nothing special. The back end system seemed a little outdated but nothing to write home about. From time to time I was amazed by the length of time it took them to clear checks- even reoccurring ones- the same amount from the same bank account- but we learned to live with that as well… until… a few months ago I deposited a check through the ATM in my branch- the funds appeared immediately. a couple of days later I looked at my account and realized that the check bounced. It was late at night and the rep in their 24hr call center didn’t have access to view the source of the problem. The official cause was: “Third Party Check”- which means that the check was not intended to me. This was of course ludicrous. After a few days of anger (I wasn’t channeling my frustration through twitter at the time…) I received the check in the mail, went to the bank and it was all sorted – including an apology. They made sure that from that point and forward my checks would clear immediately- no waiting period. I was happy. A couple of weeks ago I was planning to travel to Chicago, and I received a check on Saturday. It was important for me to deposit it immediately to ensure cash flow for the upcoming expenses. Since my branch was recently closed (following the Chase acquisition, they consolidated with a brunch about one mile away), I didn’t make it on time to a live teller, and had to use the ATM deposit again. I was not surprised when three days later, while in Chicago, I found out that the check has bounced. Reason- “Third Party Check”. When I called the bank’s customer support I told them exactly what happened and hoped that they could expedite their research of the case and release the funds to my account. Instead I received the worst possible response one could expect from customer support- especially in an organization that manages business’s life line… They were helpless and blew me away. I spoke to a supervisor who was helpless but more assertive and skilled in diverting the bad feeling back to me… “Sir, I am sorry to hear that you are feeling that your issue was not resolved and very sorry to hear that you are considering to leave the bank”. Feeling?! Feeling?!?!?! I wasn’t feeling that the issue was not resolved. the issue was not resolved. Period. we negotiated this point for a few more seconds and eventually she agreed to admit that “the issue was not resolved in the time frame I expect”… well that’s kind of correct, but time was of essence- the bottom line- the issue was not resolved. The first thing I did after I came back home was to go to the TD Bank (a little due diligence showed it’s doing ok) which replaced Commerce Bank in my neighborhood and opened a new account. I called WAMU to tell them that I am disappoint of their repeated mistakes and inability to resolve the situations that they cause, just to hear that they didn’t really care… A couple of weeks later, I received a letter from WAMU with the results of their research- it was a scan of my check which had the name of my business on the front and on the back (in the signature area), my name in hand writing on the back and my signature. My name and signature were marked as the unidentified words that invoked the “third party” claims. Great research… how hard is it to check if the name is related to the account or the signature resembles the one recorded in the account?! At that point it was just funny since I stopped using WAMU for good. This post is not just a rant about a dead bank. This post is about Customer Experience and how it influences the brand image. When I tried to understand what made me so so furious, I realized that it’s not the mistakes or the arrogant response of the representatives. The reasons for the anger is the dissonance between the image that the bank built and the harsh reality.

The image of the customer friendly bank that is not afraid to think out of the box and differentiate itself from other banks through it’s great customer experience…  was far from my experience and was responsible for my departure.

Even strong brands, and by all means WAMU was not the strongest among brands, are not immune to disappointment. The higher the expectations the better the execution must be.