Posts in category services

Nokia USA promises changes, but still misses the point

May07
2008 Leave a Comment Written by Amy Gahran

Steve Jurvetson, via Flickr (CC license)

Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson had some nice things to say about the Nokia N95 in March 2007. Wonder what he thinks of the US service and support?..

Looks like Nokia USA is making some initial moves toward improving how it serves the US market. So far, these seem focused strictly on the hardware — and not the service, support, and availability problems American consumers face. These steps may improve Nokia’s chances in the US market in a year or two.

Well, it’s a start…

Still, there is MUCH more room for Nokia USA to improve significantly in the short term by offering better (i.e. reasonable) service terms for high-end phones. I’m puzzled why the company is not pursuing this low-hanging fruit. While the changes Nokia is planning for its hardware might please US carriers and retailers, the company is still shooting its US reputation in the foot among high-end US consumers with its abysmal US service and support.

This might end up being a surprisingly difficult market problem for Nokia USA. We high-end consumers — especially mobloggers and journalists (professional and amateur) — do talk! Right now, even though Nokia has the best mobile product on the market for our needs, more and more of us are frankly scared to buy or update a Nokia N-Series phone. Why? Because we suspect (with good evidence) that Nokia doesn’t really care much about our experience after we buy their phone.

We are willing to pay a premium price for a Nokia — but we’re not willing to risk being left twisting in the wind.

To catch up, here’s what Nokia USA has said it would do for the US market so far, and why (even though these are constructive steps) they’re still missing the point…

Posted in blogs, business, conversational media, mobile, PR & marketing, problems - Tagged business, marketing, N95, Nokia, PR, problems, service, support, US

Nokia USA: How to turn talk into action

Apr24
2008 2 Comments Written by Amy Gahran

Brymo, via Flickr (CC license)

Talk is a good start, and it need not be cheap, but by itself it generally doesn’t get much done.

Earlier today Nokia’s Charlie Schick posted a thoughtful comment about how Nokia and its current and would-be customers might, through talking openly together, improve the situation in the high-end US phone market. (Also, Nokia director of corporate communications Mark Squires also just left a comment on this theme.)

Here’s my response to the excellent points Charlie raised…
READ MORE »

Posted in accountability, conversational media, Conversations, credibility, distribution, journalism, mobile, PR & marketing, problems, Strategy, telephony, transparency - Tagged business, collaboration, community, Conversations, mobile, phones, PR, problem solving, Strategy

Nokia USA: Again, your service (not product) is the problem

Apr23
2008 5 Comments Written by Amy Gahran

MobileJones

Nokia Director of Corporate Communications Mark Squires (seen here in a recent MobileJones interview) has joined our conversation about Nokia’s US service problems.

This morning I was encouraged to see that yet another Nokia staffer, Mark Squires (Nokia’s Director of Corporate Communications) left a comment on my blog. He wrote:

“Hi Amy, I work with Charlie at Nokia and have just tracked to your posts. First up sorry that one of our phones has rolled over on you and thank you for your input/thoughts/patience. Charlie and I are based outside of the US but I’ve written to my colleagues who are local to you and brought this matter to their attention. Lets see what can be done, in the mean time feel free to get in tough directly. Mark”

Thanks for joining this conversation Mark. Rather than taking this to private correspondence, I think it’s more beneficial to keep our exchanges on this public, since it affects Nokia’s entire potential US market for your N Series phones. This isn’t just about my personal experience.

You wrote: “Sorry that one of our phones has rolled over on you.”

…Actually, as I explained in my most recent post on this theme, my N95 phone (the device) was NOT the problem in my case. As I’ve expressed several times: the phone itself was great, I loved it. And I do understand that a firmware update to any high-tech device always represents a slight a risk of malfunction.

The main problem was Nokia’s inadequate service for high-end US customers like me.

I’m sorry to harp on the service quality vs. product quality issue, but it’s very important that you and your company understand this distinction. So far, I’m not sure Nokia really gets it. But this key concern could easily make or break Nokia’s attempt to make serious headway in the US high-end cell phone market. I’m continuing to speak up about this because I really do want Nokia to succeed in the US….

Posted in accountability, blogs, business, Conversations, journalism, mobile, PR & marketing, problems, processes, social media, Strategy, telephony, tools - Tagged mobile, N95, Nokia, phone, problems, quality, service, US

Nokia USA: It’s Not Your Intermediaries, It’s YOU

Apr21
2008 17 Comments Written by Amy Gahran

I was so happy and excited to get my N95 (see video). I could be this happy again, if only Nokia would get its US service and support act together.

As I noted earlier, this morning Charlie Schick of Nokia USA left a comment on this blog to reach out to me about my recent heartbreaking experience with the Nokia N95. Here’s what he said:

“These are the nightmares that we never want to happen.

“I remember in the days before we allowed users to do their firmware updates, this was one of the worries that could have killed the whole process.

“I think what makes it hard for us is all the disintermediation – the, sometimes small but crucial, gap between us and you.

“And what concerns me is that we know when it happens to folks like you who write about it. Yet, that leads us to a one-time fix.

“How can we spread a policy or procedure down the line that helps anyone with this issue (and without costing the company or you an bundle)?

“I don’t know, and any more speculation on my part might be irresponsible.

“For sure, the more folks who bring this up, the more likely the company will come with a plan that can deal with this in a way we are both happy with.”

Here is my response — which I hope will lead to further constructive conversation and perhaps better options for current and would-be US users of high-end Nokia products…

Posted in accountability, Amy's Adventures, business, credibility, marketing, PR & marketing, problems, processes, Strategy, telephony, tools, transparency, Voices: Blogs, etc. - Tagged business, firmware, N95, Nokia, problems, service, US

New J-Skills: What to Measure?

Apr10
2008 18 Comments Written by Amy Gahran

Berbercarpet, via Flickr (CC license)

Journalism sudents need the right tools — and skills — for the kinds of careers and opportunities they’re really going to be making for themselves.

Picking up on my post yesterday, Univ. of Florida journalism professor Mindy McAdams challenged me (and her other readers) to translate my quick list of what j-schools should be teaching into a something more testable and measurable that could be translated into a curriculum.

Here’s my first shot at that:

Content management systems (including blogging tools): First, I’d have the students run a group blog on a topic of their choosing for a year to get comfortable with the content and commenting apects of blogging. (A group blog is likely to get more activity and discussion than individual blogs.) This blog should be based on an expandable, customizable tool like WordPress. Then the students should be taught the basics of information architecture, and from that figure out how to expand or customize their blogs to deliver or integrate new kinds of content or services. This could be as simple as finding and installing WordPress plugins to add features, or integrating content from other places (such as Flickr or del.icio.us). The goal would be to get them to not just understand, but demonstrate that on their own they can envision, research, evaluate, and act upon options to do more with their content online. There’s a lot you can do without getting too geeky. They need to gain the confidence that many options are within their personal grasp — they don’t always need to get permission or beg someone else to do things for them.

There’s a lot more on my list, of course…

Posted in blogs, business, careers, collaboration, community, content management, Content Style & Business, contributed content, conversational media, creativity, credibility, critical thinking, culture, distribution, education, experience, forums, General, innovation, journalism, Labels and Metadata, media evolution, mindset, mobile, networking, news, PR & marketing, processes, projects, research, Resources, search, skills, social media, Strategy, traffic, transparency, Wikis, world - Tagged business, college, community, education, journalism, skills, Strategy, technology, tools, university

Conversational Media Mindset 101

Mar02
2008 1 Comment Written by Amy Gahran

Gaetan Lee, via Flickr (CC license)

Is your wetware due for an upgrade?

On Monday I’ll be co-presenting a session on “Future Tools” at the Knight Digital Media Center seminar: Best Practices: Editorial/Commentary in Cyberspace. My fellow presenter Leslie Rule (who runs KQED‘s Digital Storytelling Initiative) and I will be explaining to a room full of news org editorial writers how they can use technology to do their jobs and serve their communities better. I’m going to focus on conversational and social media; Leslie will focus more on locative and location-based news and services.

When you’re updating your media toolkit, I think it’s important to upgrade the “wetware” first. So I’ve just written an introduction to the conversational media mindset — and why it matters to them and their communities.

Check it out over on the seminar blog.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. You can leave comments on that post, too.

Posted in Amy's Adventures, community, conversational media, Conversations, events, journalism, media evolution, psychology, skills, social media, Strategy, tips

Flickr Comment Spam: Any Solutions?

Jan28
2008 5 Comments Written by Amy Gahran

A great photo by Wolfpix seems to have attracted a lot of obvious Flickr comment spam.

(UPDATE: Turns out the comments I’m complaining here are not comment spam — but man, they sure look like it. See Karoli’s comment below for an explanation.)

I love Flickr and other photo-sharing services. Not that I’m much of a photographer myself, but I love that Flickr makes it easy to designate and find Creative Commons-licensed images. I even have a Flickr CC search plugin on my Firefox search bar, and I use it daily. That’s because I prefer to include an illustrative image with every post. It just makes blogging more fun.

Whenever I use a CC-licensed image, I always comment back thank the owner and let them know I used it as an illustration, and where. I figure it’s the least I can do.

Because I leave lots of comments on Flickr to thank photographers for their CC-licensed images, I’ve been noticing lately though that comment spam seems to be picking up on Flickr. That’s a bummer.

Case in point: This morning I used this great duck picture by Wolpix to illustrate this E-Media Tidbits post by Steve Klein. When I went to leave my comment, I noticed many other comments that appear to be spam — they’re identical, except they’re left by different “users” — as if someone set up fake Flickr accounts for the purpose of leaving spam.

Spam in this environment especially sucks because it cuts off conversation and dilutes relevance.

What could Flickr do – or are they doing something I’m missing — to either prevent comment spam or discourage it by making it harder?

Posted in conversational media, photos, problems, social media

Finding local Tweetups: A humble proposal

Jan20
2008 5 Comments Written by Amy Gahran

Tweetscan

The search tool Tweetscan may be one way to find spontaneous gatherings of local Twitter users.

A few days ago, it occurred to me that it might be nice if there was an online tool or service that would facilitate local “tweetups” (informal, spontaneous gatherings of local Twitter users). Right now, tweetups start when one person in a town or city proposes one — like: “How about a Tweetup at The Cup in downtown Boulder this afternoon, 2pm?”

…But this approach mostly works to assemble Twitter users who already know or follow each other. What about if you want to get together with local Twitter users you don’t already know, or who don’t follow you? Since I’m a big believer in serendipity, I’d love a tool like that. Knowing that there’s no such thing as a truly original idea, I checked on the logical domain for such a tool, Tweetup.com.

There’s nothing there yet, just a placeholder page. I e-mailed the domain owner to ask of their plans for this domain, and here’s the response I received this morning…

Posted in community, events, Microblogging, search, serendipity, social media

VOIP telephony: Getting frustrating

Dec17
2007 2 Comments Written by Amy Gahran

Hey, VOIPyourlife: I’m not smiling…

A couple of months ago I signed up for an internet-based (VOIP) phone service called VOIPyourlife. I’d growing increasingly dissatisfied with the high cost and lack of key features from my landline provider.

There are several things I like about VOIPyourlife — a good web-based interface for configuring the features on my account, and sending my voice mail messages as .wav files to my e-mail totally works for me.

However, I’ve been having connectivity problems. I’ve noticed lately that whenever I make a call, it takes up to 20 seconds fromt he time I dial to when it starts ringing. About 25% of the time it doesn’t connect at all and I have to redial. Even more frustratingly, sometimes I dial, it starts ringing, and then it disconnects or gives me a busy tone. What’s THAT all about?

Features aside, one thing I definitely need from phone service is that it just works. I’m now seriously considering going totally mobile, if I can find an affordable plan with an short-term contract (1 year or less) and understandable billing. Recommondations? Please comment below.

Posted in Amy's Adventures, help needed, telephony

Posts in category services

Nokia USA promises changes, but still misses the point

Nokia USA: How to turn talk into action

Nokia USA: It’s Not Your Intermediaries, It’s YOU

VOIP telephony: Getting frustrating

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