backpass.org

So I have survived my first week working on Beanbag Learning and it has to be said its been interesting!  I’ve never worked for a small company before (though often in small teams) and have certainly never worked with a job description or even a job title!  Still its been good so far and certainly has got my brain going as I’m getting my hands dirty alot more than I have had to in recent years.

I spent alot of this week concentrating on getting a steady flow of blog posts out of the door and reaching out to various people I felt could give us a bit of an initial boost in numbers as well as exploring some ideas about how to really stand out from the competition as far as tutor websites are concerned.

Next week I’ll try to keep the blogging up but also look at developing more of a Facebook presence, reaching out to those people who have already signed up to make sure they get the best out of the service and also start working on redrafting a great deal of the copy on the site.  Currently there is little contextual advice as you are using the site and the information that is there lacks a bit of personality so thats been added to my evolving role!

I’d also like to get a bit of coverage on tech blogs like Techcrunch UK, Mashable and the Guardians PDA as well as in the Bristol Evening Post and Venue Magazine but haven’t currently got much insight into how to make that happen so I guess I’d better learn fast (maybe I should get a tutor!)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Beanbag Learning and offered my take on the site and how it could move forward (not that anyone had asked!).  That started a very social media style chain reaction via comments on my blog, some Facebook messaging, a handful of emails, a few beers in the 7 Stars, a quick phonecall and finally a job offer!  So starting tomorrow I will be working for Jiva Technology on Beanbag for at least a few months putting my ideas about the social web into action and trying to build an early adopter community of educators and parents based in and around Bristol (to start with).  I don’t have a job description or a title just a remit to get busy and make things happen.

Its all been a bit of a whirlwind but a very exciting one and I am very much looking forward to getting started.

The only downside is my wonderful new fullsized Moo cards came yesterday but I might not get to use them much as they don’t mention Beanbag!

I’ve had quite a bit of time time to think about stuff just lately and in particular trying to get a better handle on what it is I actually do for a living and whether it makes any sense and particularly what is it that keeps me so committed to this pretty vague career.  So I’m taking a bit of time to post about the sites and ideas that interest me and that I think are important.

So as I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before I’m a big fan of Customer Service is the New Marketing which was essentially based around the concept of companies/products with top notch customer service/support benefit from that elusive word of mouth/friend of a friend marketing which lessens the requirement (though I’m pretty sure doesn’t do away with) reliance of more traditional methods.  There is nothing about this that I don’t agree with and I believe that great customer service does create great word of mouth and loyal customers but I think its only one (hugely important) factor in achieving a truly engaged customer base/audience.

Customer service is key though and especially in an online business or organisation its important to make use of all the tools at your disposal to provide a proactive and people focused service.  This is where I think Get Satisfaction really scores high as it creates the platform for you to do this - for free!  All you need to do is get knowledgable and personable people to monitor it and you are away.  Getting people with a genuine understanding of and passion for your website/application/product is invaluable as I doubt there is a person in the UK who isn’t tired to death of dealing with helpdesk robots who have little understanding of your queries beyond the scripts they are given.  Great customer service requires the ability to get things done - its lovely to deal with nice people (and it makes a change) but nice people who can sort your problems without needing to bounce it off a half dozen people - now thats something special!