To the wonderful members of this community:
I would like to enlist your help with a new project. I am starting a regular roundup post centered around this blog’s topics of customer experience and customer service. Based on my available personal bandwidth and the amount of content I have time to digest, I figured a monthly roundup would be most appropriate.
My roundup idol is Kristi Hines of kikolani.com. Though she addresses a different set of topics, her Fetching Friday roundup is simply the most consistent, focused, and well-curated roundup I follow. My goal would be to create something as helpful and, hopefully, of similarly high quality in the customer experience sphere.
So, here’s the part where I ask for your help…
Inspired by The Sales Lion Marcus Sheridan’s success tapping his community to help him choose a tag line, I would very much like to crowdsource the framework for the roundup. While I am sure the format will evolve over time, I figured I could shorten my learning curve and not test the patience of my readers by enlisting the wisdom of crowds and my not-near-Lion-level-but-still-awesome community. Below are some of my ideas for the roundup — some more fully formed than others. I would love to hear your revisions and additions to the following ideas:
Gini Dietrich has her Gin and Topics, a fun and often funny weekly roundup; Brankica Underwood has her Sweet Sunny Saturday, an excellent biweekly roundup on blogging, social media, and more; and, as mentioned, Kristi has Fetching Fridays. Here’s what I have… Uuggh.
Anything else… No, seriously, anything…
Bueller?
1. Customer Experience Resource: Website X
This section would highlight a blogger, web site, Twitter chat, etc. that could be valuable to those interested in customer experience optimization and customer service.
2. Links
Not sure whether to have set categories, have none, or let them develop organically each month relative to the content. Here are some categories I am considering. Thoughts?
3. Last Month’s Most Popular Post
This would highlight the most popular post on this blog during the previous month and give readers who missed it another chance.
4. Thoughts on the Customer
Most likely a quote or particularly insightful excerpt from a book or blog.
Other Ideas?
So, that’s it. I would love to hear what’s bad, what’s good, and any ideas for improvement. Should I add anything? Remove anything? Add something that is fun and not all business? If you made it this far, I thank you for your time and look forward to your comments below.
I will be at a business conference these next few days. So, please know I appreciate your input, even if I am only replying at night.
Please stay tuned: I am excited to announce that Laura Click will be babysitting this blog while I am otherwise engaged! Please stop by on Tuesday to see what Laura has to say about making your customers hate you.
By Adam Toporek. Adam Toporek is an internationally recognized customer service expert, keynote speaker, and workshop leader. He is the author of Be Your Customer's Hero: Real-World Tips & Techniques for the Service Front Lines (2015), as well as the founder of the popular Customers That Stick® blog and co-host of the Crack the Customer Code podcast.