Michael Maoz

All I wanted was to order a replacement cartridge for my ink-swilling HP OfficeJet 5610, standard issue. I went to the site where our company has a corporate account. Nice search feature. But I wonder how much this cartridge costs versus a competitor? Now THAT would be interesting. But 692 reviews of a product that [...]

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I often am asked if I really experience the customer service stories that I talk about during conferences. I answer the question with a question: “Haven’t you got a story that is equally improbable but true about a service experience?”
That usually wins me another great anecdote to tell at another time. My most recent was [...]

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I was in an endless loop of telephone branching logic last week, uncertain whether to Press 2 for this, 3 for that, 4 or 5 or…. Then I forgot what Press 2 was for and got into another branch of logic and dead ends. I finally did what I often do: I tried #0, then [...]

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One of the first discussions parents used to have with their children as they emerged into teenagers might have been dating, jobs, savings, and responsibility. But it wasn’t mine with my oldest daughters. It was not about the person they are, but about the persona they want to be known by on the internet.  As [...]

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I’ve gotten nine automated calls from Sallie Mae. I don’t know Sallie. My name is not Erica (that is who they are looking for. I’ve never taken out a student loan from Sallie Mae. I’m in the guise of a modern day Mephistopheles – having helped companies move their processes to self service, the devil [...]

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As you know, I moved homes. Not far, but to another town. I also bought a home (cheaper than renting and you get to rip things up and rebuild them), but didn’t take out my mortgage from my primary bank. I wanted to. I tried to. No one seemed to care. I found a new [...]

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I received my first cable bill at my new home. There were about 28 line items over three pages and two columns. Who’s on first? I already had had the run around during installation when cable guy left the house without turning on the internet and leaving me to make four calls and finally hacking [...]

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If there were 100,000,000 leaders, would anyone be a leader? I’ve thought about this since beginning the process of having an occassional weblog. Every now and then I get a stinger email from a reader that includes a reference to the head of someone elses religion (mine has no head, which likely explains why I [...]

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My last blog brought out the brickbats from IT professionals who, to a person, said, “Hey, don’t blame us: we’re powerless.” Funny enough, I took that point of view when I wrote the piece the first time. Then I thought of the calumy that would be heaped upon my poor head. Dare I say IT [...]

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The joys of home ownership. Mortgages, cleaning services, lawns, plumbers, roofers, electricians, carpenters – it’s like you have hooked up a powerful vacuum cleaner to siphon off your cash from a declining asset class. But it does give a person a view into the world of consumer retail operations from the outside. It’s not that [...]

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