An interesting article about employees today. The writer, who worked at Google, calls them a “full stack” employee because the skill set required for employees is a wide range today. We want biz types with tech skills and vice versa. It is a little long, but worth the read. Mind you, everyone would like to hire full stack employees; however, does your environment, culture, management style allow for that?

25 Mind Blowing Email Marketing Stats by salesforce. “According to a study by ExactTarget, 77% of consumers prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications through email.” It is all about the Subject Line (and the sender’s name/email). BTW, social media is for reach, but email is for closing sales.

3 great ways to get attention via email!

The secrets of Unicorn companies, that is, companies that are fast and scalable (also known as ExO, exponential orgs. Here is a list).

The future of content marketing from Seth Godin: “You Need Editors, Not Brand Managers!”

Content marketing is about building trust and ‘being human beings connecting with other human beings’.

‘My argument is: Real content marketing isn’t repurposed advertising, it is making something worth talking about.’

I have said this before, privacy is a premium service. If you sell to consumers, especially the NRA members, then protecting their freedom and privacy should be part of your marketing.

“AT&T wants customers to pay the company not to spy on them.” But at least they admit that they are spying on them. VZW has super-cookies, but rarely admits it. It is an opportunity for you to set yourself apart.

You could make extra money by teaching people about privacy, PGP for email, encryption, cookies, simple VPN. There is a market for it, for certain. This would also make you the expert in this field. If you have an IT shop, it would get you more business and you could raise your rates as the local expert.

There is also a chance to capitalize on the data caps. The cable companies have them, but don’t tell anyone. It could be your differentiator.

Side note: cable companies are facing an uncertain future on pay-TV. they have a long reputation for crappy service. ““The future of TV is going to be decided less by mergers between these players and more by evolution in the customer experience they provide,” Jan Dawson, an analyst at Jackdaw Research, said, referring to cable companies.” [Bloom]

Some interesting stuff from telecompetitor this week.

“More and more commercial and multi-tenant buildings in the U.S. are being wired with optical fiber. Back in 2004, fiber’s penetration rate in such buildings stood at 10.9 percent. As of year-end 2014, that had nearly quadrupled, rising to 42.5 percent, according to the latest market research from Vertical Systems Group.” Read the rest here.

To help it close the deal with the FCC on buying TWC, Comcast announced FTTH 2 Gigabit Service coming to metro Atlanta. See here and here.

2 GB fiber to the home….

This seems paltry in comparison, but WOW!’s Wholesale division has teamed up with iFiber Networks in Illinois to deliver 1 Gbps FTTH to Gilberts, Ill.

Frontier owns some FIOS assets and will be adding a lot more next year when it takes over TX, FL and Cali from VZ. VZ FiOS offers symmetric service, because why not it is fiber and you can make fun of cable’s assymetric speeds. Now Frontier is offering symmetric speeds called 2 Fast on its FiOS assets.. See more here.

Consumers between 26-34 have no patience for video buffering, according to this study. No kidding! More than 75% bounce after 4 minutes, via telecompetitor article.

BTW, “By 2016, over 50 percent of respondents will be running some of their unified communications (UC) applications over either a private or public cloud service.” [cv]

Often I hear companies tell me that it is their service that separates them from the pack. Many point at the lack of service from the Duopoly. All that tells me is that the bar is so low for customer service.

“While it’s not news to customers that a majority of organizations don’t “get it” when it comes to customer service, it may be news to the companies themselves. After all, they’ve invested money in customer support software, they’ve hired teams of agents and hand-picked a manager. They’ve even included the fact that “customer service is their number one priority” in all their marketing materials. But customers are still complaining. So what gives?” [ccc]

“Companies don’t care about you. The question, then, is this institution owned and organized and run by people who will allow the people who work there to care?” That is a Culture Question. Rackspace, Zappos, Nordstrom are a few who do have a culture of service.

“A recent report issued by Forbes Insights and commissioned by Oracle found that 62 percent of companies still fail to grasp the full importance and impact customer service can have when it is an organization-wide strategic goal, according to a recent SMBWorld Asia editorial.” [ccc]

“Customer service is difficult, expensive and unpredictable.” [Seth]

“Customer service succeeds when it accomplishes what the organization sets out to accomplish.” [Seth] That is if you have a culture of service wrapped around strategic goals for service.

One use of customer service:

“To create a significant competitive advantage by engaging with customers in a way that others can’t or won’t.” [Seth] I think this is what many think they do, but there are ways to do this that turn your customers into Raving Fans, Brand Ambassadors, referral agents and your churn goes to zero, your ARPU goes up, and your customer acquisition cost declines.

“Customer service, like everything an effective organization does, changes people. Announce the change you seek, then invest appropriately, in a system that is likely to actually produce the outcomes you just said you wanted.” [Seth]

Have you complied?

FCC Form 477 filings for data as of December 31, 2014 are due March 1, 2015.

The FCC is “reminding telecommunications service providers, VoIP providers and advanced communications service (“ACS”) providers and equipment manufacturers of their obligation to maintain records of their efforts to implement accessibility requirements, and to annual certify their record-keeping efforts. The April 1, 2015 filing will certify to compliance during 2014.”[law monitor]

The FCC’s New Disabilities Access Requirements: What Advanced Communications Service Providers Need to Know Now (Before It’s Too Late) “to ensure that people with disabilities have access to advanced communications services (“ACS”).” [kelleydrye]

Who has to comply? Section 716 of the CVAA extends new accessibility requirements to:

Providers of non-interconnected VoIP service (e.g., one-way VoIP)

Providers of electronic messaging service (text, IM)

Providers of interoperable video conferencing service

What has to be done?

There are three separate components to what has to be done to comply: (1) substantive accessibility and useability of services and products requirements, (2) record-keeping requirements and (3) an annual certification filing requirement.

The certification can be completed online in the FCC’s Record-keeping Compliance Certification and Contact Information Registry.

More info HERE and HERE.