Michael Maoz

Watching the fortunes of the Fortune 500 gyrate in the chaotic machinations of world trade, you have to wonder if there is any advantage to investing in only one leg of a customer strategy.
The biggest names in software have been touting sales force automation (SFA) applications for years, and one of the fastest rising software [...]

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Last night’s flight from Toronto to New York was buffeted by the waning turbulence of Hurricane Ida, but aside from a delay and tumultuous descent, I arrived. It was late, and my aging Blackberry was having a senior moment as I tried to dial the car service to pick me up. Attempts to revive the [...]

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There we have it – Claude Lévi-Strauss passes into history. The man who interpreted myths was himself almost of the stature of myth. I hadn’t thought of him for 30 years and suddenly the newspapers are temporarily aflutter with news of his passing.
As I read through the summaries of his works I wondered what he would [...]

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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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One great part about summer is the spike in non-work related conversations. Weekends at the shore, dinner with friends, tennis with university and graduate students from near and far. I can’t leave well enough alone, though, and usually start asking questions about how others use technology, and specifically their use of mobile devices and the [...]

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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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