"The more I find out, the less I know."
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Weather at the Frozen North
This is my personal blog. My professional blog is The Customer Service Survey I've written a book called Gourmet Customer Service. You can buy it on Amazon. (in)Frequently Asked Questions AIM Screen Name: DFNfrozenNorth
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Last Updated: Aug 07, 2008 03:29 PM
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Thursday - December 16, 2004 at 02:57 PM in1.9% Sold Out!
Writing a book is a lot of work. Writing a short book is even more work, since every page has to be tight. I'm in the process of putting the finishing touches on a short book my company will publish in January. Called Gourmet Customer Service, it is about using a rigorous and scientific approach to improving customer service in call centers. Today we started taking preorders through our website.
We started this project six months ago, with the idea that it could serve as a vehicle for marketing, customer education, and building a reputation. You'll notice that "making a profit" isn't on the list, though we would like to sell enough copies (about 300) to cover our expenses. We sent out an E-mail announcement to our internal E-mail list of 1,000 names about three hours ago. That's a psychologically important step: until you actually start taking orders, there's always the chance to back out, to change your mind. Now we can't do that anymore. For better or for worse, we're committed to publishing a book in January. When the orders start coming in, there's a moment of truth. It's gratifying that someone actually wants to read our baby. But when we look at the names of people preordering--clients, prospects, respected people in the industry, plus my wife's boss--there's a sinking feeling that this better be good. We can no longer afford to publish a book just for the sake of publishing a book. Someone's actually going to read it! We're planning on printing 1,000 copies. After three hours, we've got preorders for 19. That's 1.9% sold out, and better than we thought we'd get on this initial mailing. Now we just have to get it off to the printer on time... Posted at 02:57 PM | Permalink | | | |