Google+ iPhone Client Update Turns Huddle Into Messenger and More

You are in an iPhone Post

Google's Plus take on social networking is getting really popular among Android users but Mountain View is trying to get iPhone users away from Facebook and onto its own social network. The Google+ client for iOS has been updated with quite a lot of features.

Using the mobile application you can now join Hangouts and what's even better is that Huddle has turned into Messgener, where you can also send pictures now. +1 option on comments has been added and the new version also brings several improvements and bugfixes. Get it from the iTunes link below or check with your application on your iPhone for the update.

Source: iTunes

Previous Page Next Page

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Google+ iPhone Client Updated With Added Reshare Option

You are in an iPhone Post

The official Google+ client for iPhone has been launched on July 20 for those of you who are mixing the Apple platform and its phone with Google's social network. An update is now available for the application which you can download for free in the iTunes App Store.

The new version of Google+ for iPhone will allow you to "reshare" cool stuff on the network. In addition to this new feature, the application refresh also brings a couple of bug fixes as well as performance enhancements to the table. Follow the source link, check with your computer's iTunes or your iPhone's AppStore for an available update in order to install.

Source: iTunes
Via: MobileBurn

Previous Page Next Page

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Client Service as a Competitive Advantage

As someone who has been heavily involved facilitating strategic planning processes with organizations during the last 15+ years, I often find it somewhat amusing how people answer the questions I pose.

For example, if I ask people, "What is your unique differentiation in the marketplace?" or "What does your organization really excel at?" They will almost always reply, "It has to be our client service." Almost no one will admit to being "lousy" in client service, any more than they will talk about living in an average town with average kids. Instead I see the "Lake Woebegone Syndrome." In Lake Woebegone it seems all the women are pretty, all the men are handsome, and all the kids are well above average.

If while getting to know someone's agency or company, I ask the question, "If I hauled you into a court of law and accused you of being a 'world class' client service provider, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Many times, unfortunately, their answer is, "Probably not."

Therefore, if so many people think client service and satisfaction is so critical to the success of the vision and the execution of the strategic plan, why is it not usually monitored with the same intensity as the financials? After all, financials are a lagging indicator (telling what happened after the fact) while client satisfaction may be a leading indicator (it can be predicting what may happen in the future).

Many organizations go through all sorts of trial and error and purchase various software programs to keep their finger on the pulse of dollars and cents because they want to know where they are and minimize opportunity for loss. For years it has been known that "what gets measured gets done."

If that is the case, why is it that many organizations choose to almost ignore measuring client satisfaction? By doing so, they run the risk of losing established clients to the competition.

Client Service as Overarching Philosophy

In 1960, Professor Theodore Leavitt wrote the groundbreaking article, "Marketing Myopia," in the Harvard Business Review. To paraphrase, he basically concluded that the purpose of all business is to attract and maintain customers while generating adequate profitability today and improved profitability in the future. That balancing act still holds true today. How many organizations do you know that are masters at bringing business in the front door only to lose it out the back door just as quickly? We have also dealt with organizations that service their existing business so well that the owners and principals "never get around to developing new business."

Those organizations and agencies that see customer or client service as simply a department to be managed rather than a point of strategic differentiation may be looking at the business through the lens of short-term focus. So many people that we talk with have never calculated the lifetime value of a typical insured and even those that have usually aren't communicating that number to their staff at every level of the organization on a regular basis. Knowing that number can provide a framework to make decisions for the long haul and maintain the client relationship rather than looking at it from a "transactional" basis.

To calculate the lifetime value, take the number of years that a client/insured usually stays with the agency multiplied by the estimated net profit per line of business (auto, P&C, E&O, DB, etc). The total dollars can give you some idea of what is at risk in the future if you under serve your client base.

For example, if a typical insured stays with your agency 15 years and has 3 different policies with you each generating $200/year in profit, each new insured is worth approximately $9000 going forward (15yrs x $200/policy x 3 policies = $9000) if they are treated so well that they won't even consider moving to someone else. Now ask yourself, how cavalierly would you treat a check written to your agency for $9000? Would you do the equivalent of going into your back yard, digging a hole, burying it there and walking away from it forever? In essence that is what happens when clients are taken for granted. The cause can either be by default ie. not paying attention, understaffing by design, allowing a lack of systemic follow-up and follow-through, or it can be attributed to a management team with so strong a focus on short-term results that they become almost greedy.

Does your organization have a client service strategy?

If you examine your strategic plan, it's necessary to differentiate the agency strategy and plan from the client service strategy. They are not identical. Organizations need to implement a "Client Bill of Rights."

Leaders in organizations need to ask themselves if they are willing to pay the price for excellent client service vs. good client service. Excellence costs, but it also pays off. Being even a little better than the competitor pays huge dividends. Yet many organizations are not willing to pay that price. Instead they are content with processes, technology and staff who are "good enough."

As mentioned before, "what gets measured, gets done." Client expectation measurements are important as are ways to monitor them. It is necessary for organizations to take the time to discover why a client has signed on with you and not the competition. It's also necessary to determine what they really want to have happen as part of the client experience. It is then up to you to make sure you are delivering what your client wants. Failure to do so most likely will result in the loss of that client to your competitor.

Once you determine what it is your client really desires, make sure you match those expectations in terms of pricing and service. Make sure you are not trying to sell a champagne policy to someone with a beer budget and vice versa. It's necessary to have processes in place to support excellent client service from beginning to end. That is, do you have the right amount of staffing resources to meet their needs? Make it as easy as possible for them to conduct business with you.

While having the proper talent is vital to ensuring excellence in client service, it is also known that 94% of failings are the result of process/system failures and not people failures.

My car recently broke down. While it was being towed to the dealer, the towing company damaged another part of the car. The dealer was willing to go ahead and fix the damage, but the towing company wanted the damage they caused handled by their insurance carrier. They had a local agent connected to an insurance company in Arizona. The problem was that the local agent did not have the necessary claim number or phone number for the agent handling the claim in Arizona. Therefore, the dealer, who was willing and able to fix the car, didn't have the information they needed to work with the towing company. As a result, repairs that could have been completed in 48 hours took four to six weeks.

The problem was that no one owned the entire client experience, each company only owned a piece of it. Anytime there is an opportunity for a hand-off where something can go wrong, organizations often rely on the client, who has no knowledge of the situation, to be able to handle the details. It is vital for organizations to own the entire client experience.

Of course, no matter what the situation is, things don't always go smoothly. Problems arise, that's why organizations should make sure they have a process in place for "service recovery." That is, if something goes wrong suddenly, they should be able to recover with minimal damage.

Finally, organizations should make sure their policies protect the right people. Often, they have policies in place that protect themselves against the 1% of clients who abuse the system. This makes the other 99% of their clients who play by the rules pay the price. Many organizations, unfortunately, don't look at what they are doing through the eyes of the customers. Rather, they only are looking to protect themselves.

Excellent customer service demands a price. Are you willing to pay it?

Doug Brown is the CEO and Chairman of Paradigm Associates LLC, a strategic and executive leadership development firm based in Cranford, NJ. He combines an innovative thinking style with his conversational questioning ability to help organizations recognize and breakthrough their existing paradigms. This naturally leads them to solve stubborn problems and work through difficult situations. A Certified Facilitator for the Total Quality Institute (TQI), Brown understands the distinction between simply conducting ?training sessions? and facilitating meetings with potentially complex subject matter.

Visit http://www.ParadigmAssociates.US or call (908) 276-4547.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Facebook Video Calling will replace Skype client for most Mac users

Facebook launched a bunch of new features Wednesday, including group chat, a redesigned chat user list, and the biggest of all, video chat via a partnership with Skype. It’s this last one that will have the biggest implications for most average Mac users.

I used Skype video calling approximately three minutes after it launched (with pal and web developer Wes Bos), and it worked perfectly. Installing the plugin on my iMac required a tiny Java app download that’s virtually foolproof to use, and making and receiving calls is as simple as clicking a few buttons and confirming you want to share video.

Video chat doesn’t appeal to everyone. It works well for people who have close relationships with one another (like parents and children) and who live far enough away from each other that face-to-face interaction is rare. But when you add the complication that both parties have to install a dedicated app and have that app open and active, the pool of people who’ll actually use it are even smaller. With Facebook chat, if they’re in your network, they’re potentially available for video calling. No Skype registration, no calling people ahead of time to tell them to open the Skype client so that you can call them, since people are much more likely to be Facebook users (there’s 750 million of them, Facebook announced today) and online at any given time on that site.

Skype’s Mac client also isn’t winning over any fans in terms of its design, mainly because that design feels unnecessarily cumbersome. Facebook’s Skype integration is the opposite of that: It’s invisible, blending in with Facebook’s web presence without drawing too much attention to itself or changing the Facebook experience that users are comfortable with.

For both the above reasons, I think Facebook Video Calling will unseat Skype as the video chat option of choice for Mac users, at least when it comes to consumers. Pro users might need the advanced Skype features offered through the dedicated Mac app, but some of those might make it to Facebook eventually, too, it was suggested at today’s press conference. And things like calling out to landlines and cell phones might be better handled through Skype’s smartphone clients anyway.

Facebook still has to bring video calling to groups and mobile, but the groundwork is laid for that to happen, and while some are saying Google+ is still in the lead thanks to its Hangouts group video chat, I think that’s underestimating Facebook’s advantage in terms of its huge network size lead.

I’m seeing a lot of negative reaction to this announcement on Twitter in general, but I think it will do wonders for the adoption of video calling among less techie users. What do you think?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Web TV: Roku XD/S, Boxee Client & LG BD590 Blu-ray

By Richard V. Burckhardt

OK, had a chance to play with the Roku XD/S player, the Boxee client software and the LG BD590 Blu-ray Disc player with Netcast net apps for quite a while and here are some observations about my Internet TV viewing experiences with all three.

The Roku XD/S menu scrolls left to right and includes banner ads.

Roku XD/S

The Roku XDS Streaming Playeris the current top of the line Roku box and includes 1080 HD, enhanced remote, wireless, component video and a USB port for playing media. It’s a tiny, hardly noticeable box that is easy to hook up and use.

The remote is as simple as it gets – extremely small with very few buttons.

As with most streaming options these days, Netflix is among the first and foremost on the list of available services.

When you open the Netflix app, you are presented with your Watch Instantly queue. You also have the option to search the Netflix library, but it is a painful process with the tiny remote and on-screen keyboard, not QWERTY, but an alphabet to click on. Agony! Better to pull out the PC and make choices from there.

The other stars in the Roku lineup are Hulu Plus and Amazon Video On Demand. Both offer their own form of paid streaming. I’m not a Hulu Plus subscriber at this time, but the app includes several sample shows to watch to get an idea of how it works. Video was smooth and nice to watch. You can also sign up for a free trial week, but you have to do that on your computer or tablet. Unfortunately, there is no way to subscribe through the Roku box.

The Amazon app allows HD or standard movie rentals, typically $3.99 to $4.99 along with the option to purchase some videos. One kind of neat feature is the ability to preview two minutes of the film before renting. Of course, the ones I previewed started from the beginning, meaning most of the preview consisted of credits.

At half the price of a Boxee Box, the Roku XD/S has an assortment of channels to choose from, including music (including Pandora and Last.FM), religion, old movies and TV shows. Pretty impressive for the money and the combination of Netflix and Hulu Plus on this box makes for a huge library of viewing choices.

LG BD590 Blu-ray Disc Player with Web Apps

Netflix is right up front in the Netcast web apps on the LG BD590 Blu-ray Disc Player

Chances are, if you’ve bought a Blu-ray player lately, it will have Netflix on it and the LG BD590 250GB HD Network Blu-ray Disc Playeris no exception. In fact, Netflix comes up again as the first selection in the Netcast apps, which includes Vudu, CinemaNow, MLB.TV, YouTube and, the most recent addition, DIVX TV. Also included are apps for Pandora, Napster, Picassa and AccuWeather.com.

After owning this Blu-ray for several months, I have used the Netflix app the most, almost every night. The interface and picture are clear and easy to navigate. But, you still have to go online with your computer to select movies or TV shows to watch. That’s my main complaint with this app. Once I’ve made selections from the Netflix streaming catalog (still meager compared to DVD choices), it works great, though.

Vudu offers a great selection of HD movie rentals and CinemaNow has a nice selection as well, but, it’s got to be something I REALLY want to see that is NOT already available on Netflix before I rent a video these days. So, I’ve only used each of these once at this point. The quality for each was very good.

YouTube is still, in my opinion, a service best enjoyed on a computer or tablet, not a TV. When I use YouTube, I am usually searching for something, a chore which is tedious at best using an on-screen keyboard with the remote that comes with this player (don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice remote, just not for typing). It makes hunting and pecking seem like speed typing. I watch something in my history or favorites using this app once in a while, but that’s about all I do with a YouTube app.

I guess I’m not geeky enough for the DIVX TV app. It’s a recent addition by virtue of a software update and includes Internet video from Engadget, Blip.tv, CBS and a number of other mostly tech geek sources. Some interesting stuff, primarily short videos, but nothing I want to curl up in front of with a hot cocoa. So, I occasionally browse the selections, but rarely spend much time with it.

As far as MLB.TV, I’m just not a sports fan, so this one will collect dust. But I can see where this would be handy for a baseball fan.

As for the non-video options, I love Pandora and use it some and yes, I do check the weather once in a while with AccuWeather.com’s app.

One thing missing from the selection of apps? Nothing like Fancast or Hulu is included. And, as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, I’d love to see TVU Networks with an app on TV boxes. The TVU iPad app rocks!

The Boxee software is great for watching online movies and TV as well as listening to music or viewing photos.

Boxee

I debated over buying a Boxee Box- looks really great and I’ve been a fan of the Boxee software since before the actual box was released. But, I opted to put the money toward a new media center PC when my 2005 model finally crapped out. I wound up with an Acer AspireRevo AR3700-U3002 Nettopinstead, with the free Boxee Windows client installed. This also gives me the option to install the TVU Networks client, since an app is still not offered in any of the Internet boxes I have found available so far. The PC software isn’t as handy or easy to use on a TV, but it’s the best offered at this point. As mentioned in my post When Syfy isn’t Enough Sci-Fi, Go Online, TVU is kind of like worldwide basic cable and it’s free.

I must say that I love the Boxee client. I use the Boxee iPad/iPhone remote app (free, available in the Apple app store) to navigate the interface, which is fairly easy to get around in. I spent several nights watching the second season of “Merlin” which isn’t even on Netflix yet. I was in heaven until I started running into too many “Hi! We notice that you are trying to access Hulu from Boxee. It’s not available, but we’re working hard to bring our Hulu Plus subscription service to Boxee! Stay tuned for updates” messages.

I have two issues with this. One, why the heck are shows not available even coming up in the Boxee list of TV episodes? Most frustrating.

Two, I have no interest in subscribing to Hulu Plus at any time in the near future anyway. Nothing against the service. I just don’t need it right now.

One other minor annoyance – the Boxee client freezes up every so often.

But, the picture quality is good. The selection (with the above exception) is terrific. There are additional apps that can be installed for yet more content, including Netflix, Vudu, Pandora and a ton of others.

And, as opposed to trying to search using a typical remote, using the Boxee app on an iPad or an iPhone is much easier because you at least have a keypad for your fingers to use. For example, the Netflix app lets you search through the Netflix library while sitting in your easy chair, unlike the LG Blu-ray app mentioned above. Same with the YouTube app.

Boxee is great for movies, TV shows, images and videos. I don’t even mind the commercials, which are few and mercifully short. And, there’s a full blown (not just a remote) iPad Boxee app in the works!

Bottom line: I’m really lucky to have access to all of these options as none covers everything at this point. Despite being a gadget guy and loving installing the Boxee software and the Roku box, I still find most of my viewing time spent on Netflix and the DVD player option is the easiest for it. So, if you are not technical at all, I would recommend going with a Blu-ray (or TV) with net apps installed. It’s the most simple solution and you have the added benefit of watching DVDs!

If you already are happy with your non-Internet connected DVD player and you’re not a techie, grab a Roku box, remembering, of course, that all of these require either a wired or wireless Internet connection.

And, if you already have a PC, Mac or an AppleTV connected to a TV, it’s a no brainer. Download the Boxee software and enjoy! It’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux flavors. But, your computer needs to be speedy enough to handle it. My old Windows XP Media Center box, circa 2005, was too slow (before it died) and the image jerked terribly watching video through the Boxee software. Most recent PCs can probably handle it fine.

Pure techies, though, can never have enough. Combine all of the above with a digital antenna to pick up your local TV stations and you could conceivably replace your current cable TV. After all, you’d have networks (antenna, sometimes TVU), movies (Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, Amazon, TVU, Hulu Plus), independent TV stations (TVU) and TV shows (Netflix, Boxee, Roku, Amazon, Hulu Plus).

Heck, you can even replace those cable music channels with Pandora.

Isn’t choice wonderful?

This is a post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

Related Posts:

• LG BD300 Blu-ray DVD Player with Netflix Streaming
• When Syfy isn’t Enough Sci-Fi, Go Online
• iPad – Personal TV Anywhere
• Review: Jabra Extreme Bluetooth Headset
• Review: Griffin 9696 AirCurve Acoustic Amplifier for iPhone
• Powered by Contextual Related Posts

Web TV: Roku XD/S, Boxee Client & LG BD590 Blu-ray is a post from: SEO in The Desert | More about Palm Springs SEO

Generated by BlogIt

BlogIt - Auto Blogging Software for YOU!