I did a presentation about the use of Social Media to a great group of people who mostly are different kinds of service professionals (attorneys, accountants, consultants, etc.). Undoubtedly, this post will reach far more than that. While I will continue to do presentations, there is a real question of which is the better use of time. Blogging Tactics In the presentation, I spent a fair bit of time discussing some different things you might want to do as a service professional just getting started. I promised that I would do a follow-up post with some thoughts out of the presentation and providing links.

Not long ago I had the pleasure of meeting someone dedicated to and passionate about customer service, whom I’ll refer to as “The Restaurateur.” We spoke at length and I drank up his insights, and couldn’t help but think to relate them to IT Service. Generally, IT Service provides a Means to an End. What is it the customer really wants? It depends, but it’s certainly not that some SLA is met.

I went to an event by Amazon on their Amazon Web Services in Santa Monica today. The focus was S3 - storage service, EC2 - their compute cloud, their queuing system, and their flexible payment system. The S3 system is not a transactional object system, it's for larger objects, larger updates. The EC2 is very similar to having a Linux box in a colocation facility.

San Diego-based RoyaltyShare said this morning it will be developing a new system for tracking limited downloads and interactive streaming. According to RoyaltyShare, it will be rolling out a platform which tracks and automates the tracking of music subscriptions and streaming, based on the recent agreement by the music industry on revenue sharing for streamed music. RoyaltyShare that the platform is currently under development and will be available in Q4.

Santa Monica-based Zag.com , the online car buying software firm headed by Scott Painter, announced this morning that it has inked a deal with the AAA, to power a new service called AAA Automaker. Zag provides the technology to power affiliate car buying services, allowing members of associations like the AAA to get fully configured, exact quotes on new cars at pre-negotiated prices. According to Zag, the firm will provide a turnkey, fully integrated auto buying program for the site, which will offer resources to research and compare vehicles, read AAA editorial reviews, and configure and purchase vehicles.

Calabasas-based National Technical Systems , a provider of engineering services, said today that it has acquired Unitek Technical Services, from Bureau Veritas, in an all-cash deal. Unitek Technical Services provides supply chain management services and related technical services, including aerospace and defense suppliers. Tags: technical services merger acquisition Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Unitek is based in Centreville, VA. ...Tags:

Newport Beach-based CircleUp , a startup developing group communications tools, is setting its eyes on online payments, saying today that it has launched a new service to collect money via email for teams and groups. According to CircleUp, the new service--called SmartPay--will allow teams and groups to collect money via credit or debit cards. CircleUp said The firm is using a payment service from Amazon.com, Amazon Payments, to enable the feature. The company said the new service will be free to groups, but that payers will be charged a convenience fee of $.99

That type of thinking is dated, archaic, and doesn’t really address the root of how mind-blowing customer service is developed. In my opinion mind blowing customer service doesn’t start with the customer. Armed with this knowledge it was extremely easy for me to define what mind-blowing customer service was and how I would deliver it through Make It Work! “Employees First, Customers Next” is my philosophy and how we roll at Make It Work . Let me elaborate…

Agoura Hills-based Symark , a developer of identity management and access software, said Thursday that the firm is launching a new division focused on professional services. The firm said the new service will help to reduce the risks associated with new deployment of its products. Tags: unix linux symark services software executiv Matthew S. Collier has been appointed EVP of the new practice, the firm said.

Not long ago I had the pleasure of meeting someone dedicated to and passionate about customer service, whom I’ll refer to as “The Restaurateur.” We spoke at length and I drank up his insights, and couldn’t help but think to relate them to IT Service. Generally, IT Service provides a Means to an End. What is it the customer really wants? It depends, but it’s certainly not that some SLA is met.