Tag Archives: Customer

February 20, 2012 Posted in Business Leave a comment

It’s All About Sharing–Xero Delivers A Community Hub

By Ben Kepes

One of the things I’ve learned over the nearly 20 years that I’ve been in business is just how valuable the peer network is to businesses. This understanding was part of the rationale for introducing the CloudU program and in particular the LinkedIn community – it’s a chance for people

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January 27, 2012 Posted in Business 3 Comments

On Privacy, and Software Vendor’s Access to Customer Data

By Ben Kepes

A mini firestorm broke out recently when 37Signals posted about their 2011 growth statistics. As part of the post, 37Signals told the world that the 100 millionth file to be uploaded to their software was the picture of a cat. Naturally those who subscribe to conspiracy theories got all fired

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January 11, 2012 Posted in Business Leave a comment

Automation Only Goes So Far–Google Apps Launches 24*7 Phone Support

By Ben Kepes

Awhile ago I wrote a case study about SmartPayroll who are bucking the trend towards automated customer service and support and providing real live people for customers to talk to. At the time it seemed that SmartPayroll were something of an outlier while other vendors were firmly fixated on human-less

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November 2, 2011 Posted in Business 1 Comment

Customer Support isn’t Binary–On Zendesk Voice

By Ben Kepes

I spend a lot of time talking with technology startups about the way they engage with customers and prospects. Much of that time is spent explaining (in the nicest possible way) that, apart from a few select cases, most technology companies will eventually have to engage non technical users and

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September 29, 2011 Posted in Business 2 Comments

Dropping Costs While Still Providing Support–A SmartPayroll Case Study

By Ben Kepes

Over the past couple of years I’ve spent a reasonable amount of time with Asantha Wijeyratne, CEO of SmartPayroll, a New Zealand Payroll provider. I’ve been interested to talk to him, partly because he’s a lovely guy with an interesting business ethic, but also because his business is growing rapidly,

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September 9, 2011 Posted in Business 4 Comments

Salesforce for Quickbooks for Salesforce for Quickbooks….

By Ben Kepes

Owning and running a bunch of small businesses, I have a real appreciation for just how important it is for SMBs to have a handle on their customers and deal flow – CRM, a concept foreign to many SMBs only a few years ago has become, with the growing importance

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The Author

Ben Kepes is an analyst, an entrepreneur, a commentator and a business adviser. His business interests include a diverse range of industries from manufacturing to property to technology. As a technology commentator he has a broad presence both in the traditional media and extensively online. Ben covers the convergance of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users. More on Ben

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