Posted June 11th, 2010 by sharkdancer
In part I of this article, we examined the effects of management ignoring customer service to focus on “sexier” parts of the business, and introduced a couple of the negative things that can happen as a result. Let’s continue on:
VOICE MAIL HELL
This is my pet peeve and the pet peeve of many other people as well. I’m a tech guy, and love the application of leading edge technologies to reduce labor costs. But enough, already! A number of otherwise good companies have taken automated voice mail attendants way too far. They make you feel like a mouse in a 6 square mile maze. Companies need to remember that when you pick up the phone to call, it’s with the intention to TALK TO SOMEBODY. Using technology to quickly route people to the correct department, or answer simple inquires like directions to the company, is an efficient use of technology for both the company and customer. But making it extremely hard to get through to ANYONE, even after wading through seemingly endless nested menus—is just ridiculous. The only purpose it serves is too alienate your customers and prospects. This is truly the definition of “penny wise, pound foolish”.
UNTRAINED OR UNDER-QUALIFIED CUSTOMER AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT REPS
After waiting in voice mail hell, you think it can’t get any worse. But wait. After the one half hour wait, your call is now answered by someone so green, so incompetent or so rude that frustration turns to rage. You are asked to enter your account number on the phone pad. Then the rep answers, and again requests the exact same information. You haven’t reached the right department, of course, so you are transferred to another department, where the rep asks you, yet again, for the exact same information. After this rep finally fills in his or her form (not answering ANY questions until it’s complete), you ask them about your situation, that cries out for an exception to normal company policy. The rep robotically and coldly repeats the company policy—which you already knew. Think someone will want to do business with this company again? Customer and technical support is CRITICAL in the long run. It’s one of the true long term differentiators in the market. Spend a little more to hire and retain good people, train them well, and empower them to actually take care of real world customer issues. It will pay back many times in the future.
UNFRIENDLY HOURS OF OPERATION
I’m on the West Coast of the US, so this happens all the time. Try to call customer support in the early afternoon, but the office closes at 5P Eastern Standard Time. This is a particularly important issue for those of you serving consumer markets—many people can’t easily call support lines from work, without putting their employment in jeopardy. In this day of inexpensive, fast communications technology and worldwide commerce, there is no excuse for inconvenient business hours for the markets that you serve.
PREDATORY SUPPORT COSTS
This is something that has continually degraded for customers over time. It used to be that technology companies supported their products for free. The economics of competition has, in the long run, made this go the way of the dinosaurs. Many times, this is with good reason. A well-priced maintenance contract, from a B2B software company which provides an 800 number, unlimited supported, and all major and minor updates, can be a really good value. If it is priced at the industry standard 18-20% of product cost, and enables the vender to provide excellent support—that’s great. But what if the support is lousy and it’s priced at 30% of the cost of the product annually? Or how about a consumer software company that is charging $100/hour, without even the benefit of a free 30 day startup window, to troubleshoot their buggy and non-intuitive product? Give me a break! If you want to stand out in today’s market, try providing an intuitive, bug free product, coupled with free or reasonable support (there won’t be many support calls needed if you do this!). People will beat a path toward your door—and tell every friend they have. This won’t show up in the Controller’s cost control report—but the benefits to your company’s top line will be enormous.
So these are some of the low tech ways to screw up a high tech business. Software and Tech CEOs, keep your eye on the customer service ball. Otherwise, a savvy and opportunistic competitor, with lesser product technology, may take advantage and steal a piece of your market share.
Posted June 4th, 2010 by sharkdancer
Forex Robot software is popular but very few traders win with a robot, here we will look at the main reasons why and how to find a Forex trading system that wins…
Forex Robots fail in real time trading because the vast majority are based on unsound logic and have never made any money in real time trading sure, the track records says they have but look a little closer and you will see the reality which is:
The track record is a simulation in hindsight or presented by the vendor with no independent verification.
The claims are extraordinary and are obviously not true:
Double your money each month, little or no drawdown, trade with over 90% accuracy etc and you can get access to these systems (which beat the best traders in the world) for the cost of a night out.
If you listen to the sales copy, you have to make no effort and simply make money while you sleep. Common sense tells you these systems don’t work, they simply look to good to be true and they are.
Now I am not saying you cannot make money with automated Forex software because you can – but let’s look at the reality of trading robots and leave the fantasy behind.
The reality is there are some good solid programs you can use which have made real gains and the best normally make about 50 – 100% per annum with drawdown being around 20 – 50% depending on the risk profile of the system and a typical drawdown period will last for a few weeks.
So great long term gains, if you can ride out short term drawdown with discipline.
So if you buy a Forex trading system, look for real gains and check the logic so you can follow it with discipline.
You can buy a system and surprisingly, there are a few great free trading systems you can use that work (we like Richard Donchian’s 4 Week Rule) and they can if applied over the long term, lead you to currency trading success.
Posted June 3rd, 2010 by sharkdancer
Would you like to know about a new robot that works for you even when you are asleep?
Let me tell you about Zeus. . . he is a simple, intelligent, internet robot that builds a link directory and creates reciprocal links for your web site.
Zeus is the first of a new breed of innovative, robotic software products for webmasters.
Zeus is a smart internet robot that traverses the web, spidering sites and creating for any webmaster, a vertical themed link directory.
Train him to find web sites, matching your unique themes or subjects, and he will zoom off to find thousands of them. Zeus then helps you to review and organize them into vertically-themed categories and possible inclusion within your link directory.
Zeus creates qualified traffic to your web site in numbers you have always thought to be impossible. This is quickly accomplished through a series of steps utilizing dynamic website content, increased search engine activity and genuine, match-each-other reciprocal links.
Content is quickly added to a website with dynamically changing, Zeus-generated, link directory pages. With a single click, your Link Directory is built and uploaded to your web site. These themed pages are keyword-tuned to score high in search engine rankings. Search engines give higher rankings to websites with themed content that match each other through mutual reciprocal links. It is now possible for your directory pages to place in the top 10 search engine listings with a single search word! Imagine having hundreds of these pages, each page built around a single keyword or phrase. As a possible added bonus, re-submission to search engines is a forgotten chore once reciprocal links point towards your site. Robots will visit your site more often because they will find links to your website more frequently throughout the internet.
One good reciprocal link can give you the same amount of traffic as a major search engine and with a Zeus internet robot; you can have hundreds of reciprocal links. The best qualified visitors to your site are from reciprocal links. Zeus simplifies the tedious task of reciprocal link generation by providing, from your link directory, a pool of qualified, theme-matching, reciprocal link prospects, organized by themes or subjects. A contact manager is included allowing you to email an individually-personalized reciprocal link request to each website’s webmaster. Everything is easy to edit, organize and maintain. Link Partners receive a preferential graphic and listing at the top of each directory page providing a compelling reason to reciprocate the link.
Your link directory will also ensure your website’s visitors stay longer and bookmark it into their favorites for a speedy return. Zeus is non-invasive to visited websites and follows all the Robotic Guidelines as described throughout the Internet. You can use Zeus in multiple themes; great for web marketers, authors, researchers, webmasters or serious hobbyists.
Zeus is not for everyone but if you are a moderately to expertly skilled webmaster, with limited time on your hands, who could benefit from a vertical-themed link directory and increased website traffic, Zeus will automate almost every aspect of creating such a directory.
Posted June 3rd, 2010 by sharkdancer
An automated Forex software robot is a computer program that trades automatically for you on the Forex market. The computer watches the market 24 hours a day for you making trades for you when the timing is right. A robot is a great way to trade, but there are 10 things you need to know before choosing a program.
An automated Forex software robot is a computer program that trades automatically for you on the Forex market. The computer watches the market 24 hours a day for you making trades when the timing is right, even when you’re sound asleep. And you don’t get ulcers from all the stress either since the computer is making the hard decisions. An automated Forex software robot is a great way to trade, but there are 10 things you need to know before choosing a program.
1 – Installation – installing the program should be quick and easy. The better vendors allow you to download the program and get started right away. Problems encountered installing the program are a bad sign that could indicate trouble ahead.
2 – Quick Start – does the program have a quick start video to get you up and running right away? Short video or audio clips are a great help in explaining areas that might be unclear.
3 – Ease of Use – the program should be intuitive and simple. Does it make sense to you? Is it easy to navigate through the different screens? Do you understand the features quickly? Are the functions and controls grouped in a logical manner?
4 – Quality of the program logic – logic is the brain, the most important part of any computer program that makes the decisions. These decisions are based on a set of rules built into the system. Who developed these rules? Will these rules work well in a volatile market?
5 – Cost – Developing high quality software requires a staff of experienced professionals. Expect to pay well for quality software. Remember, you’re using this system to make money so good quality software means more money in your trading account.
6 – Demo Accounts – does the automated Forex software robot allow you to do real time trading with a demo account? You need this feature to get comfortable with the system. Here is your chance to experiment with all of the different trading options before committing real money.
7 – Your Computer – Will this program run on your computer? Does the software require Windows XP or Vista installed on your computer?
8 – Your Internet Connection – Will the program run on your internet connection? What are the bandwidth requirements? Are you able to leave your computer running for 24 hours a day? If not, is there another option such as a hosted account to allow you to run the program without a connection to the internet?
9 – Support – What support is available if you run into problems? Some vendors offer live chat and are able to resolve any problems immediately. Other vendors offer email support or an 800 number. Are all of your support calls free?
10 – Refund policy – You want a 60 day refund policy that offers complete satisfaction or a refund with no questions asked. A 60 day refund policy means 60 days to see for yourself whether the automated Forex software robot is for you.
And now it’s your turn to have some fun. Get a robot at http://www.getwealthyslowly.com and give it a real workout. Then for the ultimate test – how much money did you make in your demo account?
Posted June 2nd, 2010 by sharkdancer
Forex robot software is very popular and it’s the choice of most new traders but they quickly learn, it’s not the road to financial freedom which the marketing copy claims and they lose. The reason why Forex robots don’t win is obvious and the subject of this article…
Some Forex trading systems work and we will look at them in a moment but none of the heavily advertised robots do.
Forex robots look to good to be true and they are. If you could really make huge gains with no effort and only had to spend a hundred dollars or so for this automatic income, the whole world would be trading and not working.
These Forex robots never have any independently audited figures of performance to back up there claims, just simulations or figures they produce and that hardly inspires confidence!
I have seen most of these systems and the so called sophisticated algorithms are not sophisticated at all and furthermore, money management is poor or no existent. The reason there so cheap is they don’t work.
There are mechanical trading systems that work but they don’t tend to call themselves Forex Robots or Forex Expert Advisors or make ridiculous claims.
They call themselves Forex trading systems and they have realistic track records which are verified.
If you look around you will find them and there is also an excellent free Forex trading system called the 4 Week Rule, it works and will always work, so look it up in our other articles.
Don’t be taken in by hyped advertsing copy of the Forex Robots, always look for real gains which can be verified on any system you buy.