Full Sterne Ahead

by Jim Sterne

 February, 2000

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This issue is living proof that calling this missive the
Mostly Monthly newsletter is right on target. You didn't
miss me in January -- I missed you -- and almost missed
February as well. Are we all a bit busy? Welcome to the
year 2000. It's 1/6th gone already, so I'll be brief...

This month I catch flack from a reader in When Will They (I)
Ever Learn?, point to an abundance of Web marketing material
in Resource of Note, re-tune the corporate data focus in
The Big Idea, wonder how that re-tuning can be done in
While I Was Out, worry about domain control in You Can Do
It and ponder the depths of electronic greetings in Silly
Sighting of the Moment.
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WHEN WILL THEY (I) EVER LEARN?
--------------------------
The Net is fast. So fast you get caught up in it's speed.
One of my favorite signature lines is attached to Ivan Pope's
e-mail messages:

  > Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes
  > the fear of death.    Hunter S. Thompson

But one (I) mustn't let that thrill overrule the need for
clarity. Mr. Ken Pratt, managing editor of Peregrine Publishers
brought home this point after the last Full Sterne Ahead:

  > Mr. Sterne,
  >
  > I enjoy your monthly e-message but I get a little frustrated
  > with all the typos, lots of them.  Give this thing to a
  > copyeditor before you send it out and I believe you'll build
  > better trust with your people. There's still something
  > about the written word needing to be spelled correctly.
  >
  > All the best,
  >
  > Ken Pratt

Point take - and worth repeating (he said, donning his asbestos
suit).
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RESOURCE OF NOTE
----------------
I've been catching the eMarketer newsletter for months now
and continue to be surprised by the amount of information
out there that is useful and interesting. Fortunately,
Sam Alfstad's efforts bring a lot of that interesting
www stuff together in one place.

The eMarketer newsletter sends weekly roundups of tasty morsels
from E-Commerce Times, ClickZ Insider  Reports, International
eNews, and a healthy portion of their own insights from primary
research.

Worth looking into.
emarketer.com
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THE BIG IDEA
------------
Customer centric systems

You say you want to do Customer Relationship Management?
You say you want to have a single screen where any customer
service rep can access everything they need to know about
each customer in a key-stroke? Well, you've got two choices.

You can either implement a really wonderful layer of
middleware that allows the service rep's browser to
dip into all the systems you have that have customer
data in pico-second leaps of communication so the
rep can access all of it in real time ...(inhale)...
or... you can create a brand new data repository that
collects all of that data in advance. Guess which is
going to work better?

Oh, you still need the middleware. You'll still need
to collect all of that information from all of those
systems, but instead of worrying about reaching into
all of them in real-time, you only need to worry about
normalization.

Let's say you have a sales contact management system,
an invoicing system, and a customer care database in
each of four divisions. Let's say John Smith sends
you an e-mail from JohnSmith@Yahoo.com. Tell me, which
John Smith is this?

The big idea here is to think about ways to compare and
contrast customer records so you have multiple points
of comparison. Maybe JohnSmith@Yahoo.com let slip that
he was having trouble with your product while he was in
California for the first time - well, we can eliminate all
of the JohnSmiths who live in the sunshine state. Maybe he
mentioned which product or service of yours he was using.
That might help. Did he include his phone number in his
signature file? Excellent.

You begin to see the enormity of the problem.

Are you a smaller firm? When it comes time to implement
new systems of any kind, make sure you organize your
data and your processing around the customer, and not
around products or invoices.
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WHILE I WAS OUT
---------------
In the past couple of months I met with large companies
in the U.S., Germany, and Spain and I kept running up
against the same question combo: How small is too small
for autonomy? How big is too big for centralization?

There are economies of scale to be enjoyed by having one,
central point of Web management for a large company. The
investment in hardware, software, people and techniques
should not have to be duplicated over and over again by
each division or department or business unit.

But there comes a time when the Central Committee cannot
keep track of each industry segment. There comes a time when
the Committee is just going to move too darned slow, wrapped
up in the struggle to be all things to all people. It *is*
a Committee, after all.

Where does this centralization conundrum balance in light
of the need to build a single, customer centric system throughout
a company? Those who are now looking for that bit of blinding
insight are not alone. I too seek the light. Any hints would be
deeply appreciated.
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YOU CAN DO IT
-------------
Everybody has a story of woe dealing with Network Solutions.
Just the word "Internic" tightens the muscles in my neck.
So make sure somebody on your team stays on top of your
domain registration details.

At the end of December, like many other hapless Hotmail
users, Michael Chaney couldn't get his mail. Unlike many
others, Michael discovered Microsoft's authentication site
named Passport.com was unreachable because it's domain
registration had expired. So he paid the $35 and was able
to get his mail the next morning. Microsoft thanked him
and, yes, paid him back.

You don't have millions of faithful, tech-savvy customers?
Then you're going to have to keep an eye on it yourself.
Just don't forget to add this annual task to your list.
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SILLY SIGHTING OF THE MOMENT
-----------------------------
What happens when a good idea like electronic greeting
cards gets rolled around in somebody's head for a while?
Depends on the head.
Good head: www.giftgoodies.com
Odd head:  www.virtualinsults.com

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This newsletter is going to be better if it reaches more
people. You can help. The Net is a powerful word-of-mouth
mechanism, so if you know somebody who might like to be on
the receiving end, please point them to www.targeting.com
or have them send a message to subscribe@targeting.com.

And I'll bet you know what will happen if you send a
message to unsubscribe@targeting.com.
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Full Sterne Ahead contains the mostly monthly musings of
Jim Sterne, author, speaker, and Web marketing consultant
to business and industry.

Copyright 2000 - Target Marketing of Santa Barbara