Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Some of My Favorite Posts of 2013

In looking back at the year, certain themes and topics about the impact of technology on business stand out. Specifically, they highlight how much we have come to rely on tools, and how quickly we are forgetting about the people. It is also becoming clear to me that the discipline of writing (almost) daily on this site for more than seven years has helped me develop a more thoughtful approach to work. My focus continues to be on customer conversations, and how service and product experiences impact relationships and culture. I have been calling this the promise economy -- and... Read more →

Actual Conversation Delivers Better Customer Experiences

I am going to be a little obvious, given the name of this blog, and you are probably going to nod in agreement. Actual (read: unscripted) conversation with customers delivers better experiences (on both sides of the interaction), and greater results. Then, if you are a representative of say a bank, you are going to do exactly -- ready for it? -- nothing different about it. You will send yet another carefully prepared "customer retention" script as a response to candid feedback and ask your customer to log into his secure account to read it. We don't get paid to... Read more →

Making Message Sense, Making Product-Market Fit, Making it Beautiful

Making Message Sense The brands that Resonate, to say it like Nancy Duarte, are those that have taken the time to know and understand the customer so they can surprise and delight. The messages that make an impact have been thought through. Apple Thinks Different for Christmas. Ken Segall: Most of these people mistake their personal opinion, instinct, values and/or taste for actual marketing talent. There are tens of millions of people who will stop in their tracks at this commercial and wipe a tear from their eye. As a result, they will feel slightly more attached to Apple, which... Read more →

Top Posts for November-December 2013

Brand Stories with a Pulse A few days ago Dave Winer wrote a post on pulsing technology, about how Apple has a pulse and follows a pattern every year. The company builds expectations, then follows up with an established cadence. +++ No, Big Data Should not Replace Thinking Especially the strategic kind. But I'm getting ahead of myself, putting the conclusion horse in front of the post cart. Who decided strategy was a fixed, once and for all, proposition? Well, whoever that was, I will plead being a woman and an Italian to boot for not reading it. +++ 12... Read more →

A Christmas Tree

To those who love to sleep but wake up in a good mood. To those who still greet you with a hug. To those who work hard and play harder. To those who are late and make no excuses. To those who turn off the telly to talk. To those who have the enthusiasm of a child and the thoughts of a grown up. To those who get up early to help a friend. To those who see the glass always half full. To those who do not wait for Christmas to be better. Merry Christmas [Christmas tree made of... Read more →

Readiness and Maturity for Social Integration

The fourth of the 5 themes on the future of social is admittedly the one that interests me the most. This is where things get concrete and specific with operational execution -- we understand why we're doing this, we know who does what, and here is what the experience looks like. Visualize the social experience you engage in and provide as a prototype, regardless of the level of maturity you and your organization have reached in social. The minimum viable product could be: getting in the game -- figuring out how to break the "we're dabbling" impasse while at the... Read more →

How Social Currency Affects Behavior

It's the age of the connected customer and people are now comfortable using technology to share -- privately or in public. Numerous studies have been conducted about the impact of reviews on buying behavior. Instead of writing an explanation when someone asks a question we're now more likely to include a link to more information. Links are the currency of the Web. Thanks to the processors we carry in our pocket and can use to access, review, act upon, and share information, we're now starting to link online and offline experiences. Recent reports of the decline in people using the... Read more →

Making Sense of the Future, Making “New” Media, Making it a Story

Making Sense of the Future IBM's Wide-Eyed Local Shopping Predictions. Greg Sterling: Retailers will offer same-day delivery “wherever you are” (same-day delivery may become a reality in selected markets or from a few stores, but it will not be standard absent an Amazon-like existential-competitive threat). In 12 years of blogging, the more things change, the more they stay the same. GigaOm: despite my embrace of these new tools, I find solace in the act of blogging and my blog. I have been wondering about how do I evolve as an observer of the world (the technology industry being big part... Read more →

If You Want to Build a Ship

“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” [Antoine de Saint-Exupéry] +++ An example of teaching them to long for the sea story from my feeds today is a piece of news cast into the "how marketers worry about this" story frame. I cannot help but wonder, since I have held that role, wearing the overall brand strategy hat, if it isn't a case of transference. An agency worrying on behalf of a... Read more →

On Taking Your Turn

“You don't step straight up to the front of the ATM line. You don't cut in front of people at the ticket desk. You take your turn. You can learn great life lessons from board games.” [Gary Oldman] +++ The character of a person is in plain sight for everyone to see when they are faced with a choice -- for example, waiting in line or stepping right up to the front of the queue in Oldman's quote. How people act (or react) shows you what they value. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is one of my favorite Gary Oldman movies,... Read more →