Month: April 2006

It’s the Future, Stupid: Why most CRM systems don’t deliver their potential

CRM, Thought Provoking

Sviokla’s Context delivers a very insightful article about CRM systems from a vendor-independent viewpoint. Basically, the essence of the argument is that CRM systems should begin by adopting a forward looking approach to customer management that focuses on the potential of customer to deliver new business rather than looking at past performance to provide rewards.

One of the few companies I know that treats customers based on potential is Harrah’s Entertainment. If Harrah’s sees you game at the “Diamond Level” — their highest level of status, they begin to treat you like a Diamond customer right away. They then track your actual behavior to decide whether or not you deserve this high level of status. (I think the time period is six months).

Sexy pictures and lacy underwear take men’s minds off getting a good deal.

Thought Provoking

Nature magazine reports that macho, testosterone men tend to drive a hard bargin, unless they have been exposed to images like the one below.

Researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium asked men to play an ultimatum game, in which they split a certain amount of money between them. High-testosterone men drove the hardest bargain — unless they had previously viewed pictures of bikini-clad models, in which case they were more likely to accept a poorer deal.

The sight of flesh had less effect on the bargaining tactics of low-testosterone men.

Too much self contemplation?

Thought Provoking

This article in the New Scientist finds self absorbtion disappears when concentrating on a task.

Everybody has experienced a sense of “losing oneself” in an activity – being totally absorbed in a task, a movie or sex. Now researchers have caught the brain in the act.

Self-awareness, regarded as a key element of being human, is switched off when the brain needs to concentrate hard on a tricky task, found the neurobiologists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

DIY Digital Photo Frame

Groundbreaking, Photography, Tech

This is really cool and something that I have thought about for a long time. How to display digital photos and get them to change just like a screensaver (for this you can try gphotoshow or slickr). The article shows how to take an old laptop equiped with wifi and upload photos remotely. I would try this for my own mother except that Ireland isn’t the best place to get a broadband connection.

Help win the bet

Web

This is yet another ingenious idea of how to attract people to a strange website. helpwinmybet.com was put together after an argument by a guy whose girlfriend didn’t think that he could develop a website that would attract 2 million unique hits. Basically, the girl made a bet that either the guy would wear a t-shirt that displayed a message saying he was an idiot or she would agree to a threesome. The counter at the bottom of the page is already at more than 2 and a half million. I wonder where he is going to find the other girl…..