drew olanoff dot com.

Remember those people called people?

I’ve watched the landscape of the internet change over the past years. Mostly in good ways. Great ways in fact. However, there are still some things that burn my ass.

The first glaring thing is that we have all of these tools to connect with people. FriendFeed, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Jaiku, DoppleGanger, BabbelBoomy, FruitNNutz, Friendfinderfeedster. Yknow the drill. So we have all of these tools, everyone signs up for them in our web circle. No big deal right?

Yeah, it’s a problem. Why? Because 90% of the people who use these tools the MOST, don’t know anything about how to deal with people. They don’t know how to listen properly or speak to and treat someone with respect. I’ve seen this happen time and time again via email and IM conversations..and most recently, in person. Our group lacks some skills on that front.

So why are we spending so much time playing with and building these platforms?

Beats me.

How does Robert Scoble talk to 343,342,212 people on Twitter? I have no idea.

I would rather have 10-20 close people that I converse with on a regular basis, than constant access to passively ignore and disrespect 30,000.

But hey, that’s just me.

Facebook doesn’t have a built in Asshat-fixerator. It’s not an app. It can’t be built in PHP, it’s not in flash. It’s inside of you.

Lets focus on that before we create yet another site where everyone and their brother invites me to join.

Twitter Request Live (Karaoke) is Tomorrow

It’s that time again, for the second time.

Twitter Request Live. Indy Hall does Karaoke at National Mechanics and you send your requests.

This time you can do it directly through twitter by @ messaging http://twitter.com/requestlive

9pm ET tomorrow (Tuesday). Be ready.

It's all about the customa, whut!

I’ll keep this as short as possible.

In any business, web or otherwise…you live and die by your customer service.   Even if you don’t sell a product, you have customers, consumers,  or people as I like to refer to them.   I hate the phrase “users”.   A lot.   I piss techie people off with that.   Fuck em.

Anyways.   The people that use your whateveryouhave are your lifeblood.  Keeping them happy, informed, interested, and content should be your #1 focus.

Already with ReadBurner, a lot of people who care are helping us.  They test, they suggest, they give honest feedback.   Some of it hurts my gut, but in that good way.

Companies who don’t focus on the people are stupid and will fail.

Amazon.  Great customer service.  Win.

Comcast.  Ass customer service.  Lose.

I just went with RCN because Comcast killed me during a 2 hour livechat conversation.  Even Frank the Comcast Twitter guy gave up on me.

ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS START NEW SERVICE AND GIVE THEM MONEY.

See what I’m saying?

Customer service reps are usually paid the lowest, and have high turnover rates.   I can answer why the high turnover…it’s a tough job, and the pay is suck.

Why not pay customer service folks more money, and treat it like a skill, rather than as a janitorial like need?  Janitors rock by the way.  

Treating a person with respect, listening to them, and taking their feedback and helping them should be your #1 focus.   If you don’t.   You will fail.   Comcast will eventually fail.  They’re just lucky because they’re a monopoly.  The chicken is coming home to roost for them.

Take care of the people, and the rest will take care of itself. 

Ballmers Letter to Microsoft Employees (The Short Short Version)

Moving.

There’s something about moving. It’s exciting.

I like it. But I’ve moved a lot. This place in PA, I’ll be at for a while and that excites me even more. I don’t stay in one spot too long. I’m changing that.

So if you want to help me move, let me know. :)

Anyways, please share your moving stories with me in the comments if you like, courtesy of the awesome disqus!