More customer-support Stories

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sundaysky

AT&T has been reducing the number and length of calls to its call centers by relying on so-called smart videos from New York City-based SundaySky. The videos are personalized tutorials that are built on the fly using pre-scripted clips mixed with the subscriber’s own data. Read more »

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This week has been a bit of a challenge. I’ve been haggling with car dealerships over purchasing a new car. I’m sure I don’t need to explain how frustrating that process has been, but I will say that I’m surprised at the customer service lessons I’m […] Read more »

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A friend of mine who is new to teleworking was complaining that her overseas prospects wanted to speak with her on the phone. Since she didn’t want to have to pay for international calls, she turned down these lucrative offers. “I don’t want my fees to […] Read more »

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Many freelancers, especially at the beginning of their careers, may find themselves working with very difficult clients. When this has happened to me, either I helped change the client’s working behavior or stopped working with them altogether. While I always aim for the former approach, sometimes the better option is to end the working relationship. Whenever this happens I hope that if I do work with the client again in the future, they’ll be more cooperative — but that’s not guaranteed.

When one of your more difficult clients contacts you for a new project, how do you work with them again, without repeating the problems you previously had? Read more »

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Sometimes, the cause of freelancing mistakes lies in forgetting to ask the right questions. I know this because it has often happened to me, whether I’m applying as a contractor for a project or I’m the one hiring others to work with me.  Asking these questions, […] Read more »

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You can’t please everybody. There’s a reason why that line is a cliché.  I’ve yet to hear of a freelancer who never encountered a client who was disappointed in their work.  Some clients keep their frustrations to themselves or simply stop working with you.  Others, however, […] Read more »

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I emailed my brother a picture of us when we were little to use as the picture that pops up when I call him, but when he received it he wasn’t sure how to save it to his iPhone (which you need to do to assign […] Read more »

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Perhaps still smarting from their precious Firefly being killed off so soon, Joss Whedon fans are already mobilizing to save his next show, Dollhouse… before the first episode airs. The Underwire blog writes that rabid Whedonistas are activating, forming DollhouseForums.com (which sounds like it’s for an […] Read more »

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Ok, you’ve had days where you felt the way that this guy looks. Smaa-ck! Now consider this: He got on base. It’s just one more way that founding is like baseball. “Not everyone gets a home run, but sooner or later you’re bound to get hit […] Read more »

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No matter which name you call it, the new T-Mobile Wing looks to be a solid Windows Mobile 6 smartphone. Chris Leckness has one of the first reviews and videos of the handset and if I didn’t like my Dash so much, I’d strongly consider the […] Read more »

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Mercora, one of the place shifting companies I have written in the past is going mobile. To remind you all, Mercora is a peer-to-peer radio network which lets you share playlists of music on your hard drives with a certain set of friends, or listeners. The […] Read more »