Tata Indicom Uses Account Statements to Invite Customers to Participate in Its Blog and Forum
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I was pleasantly surprised recently to see that Tata Indicom is using its account statements to invite customers to participate in its blog and forum –
I have been presenting slides on how real employees (including old friend Nidhi) use the Tata Indicom corporate blog to have real conversations with their customers –
I tend to be very particular about building the right customer community platform using the right software (which, very often, is something like Lithium), and for a reason. The right platform enables and encourages the right behavior, opens up new degrees of freedom, both for community users and the administrators.
However, the Tata Indicom example is a reminder for me that brands can do a lot of right things without using sophisticated software. Their blog is built on the free Wordpress blogging software and their forum is built on vBulletin, not a particularly sophisticated forum software. The forum user interface is unwieldy, the different pieces of software don’t speak to each other, and there’s only so much that Tata Indicom or their customers can do with it.
However, even though Tata Indicom doesn’t have the right software to run a customer community, it sure has the right soul and, in the end, the right soul matters more than the right software.
When we build online communities for our clients, we work hard to get both the software and the soul right. Ask us how.
Cross-posted at 2020 Social: Because Business is Social.
Mark, 
nahiaali, 
Kiran 2:01 am on July 18, 2008 Permalink |
Considering that you are moving to the US in another 20 days…don’t you think buying an iPhone 3G in the US would have been a better choice?
And even Nokia E71 would have come at a much cheaper rate with a one year contract here!
Balaji Dutt 7:54 am on July 18, 2008 Permalink |
Ever since I heard about this phone about 6 months back, I’ve been in love with it! Eagerly waiting for the day when my current contract expires and I can upgrade.. although I don’t really have a good data plan to go with the phone
RE: Wordpress on your phone – check out WPhone. Although optimized for the iPhone, it works very well even otherwise.
Hari Kishore 4:41 pm on July 18, 2008 Permalink |
My brother recently bought this phone. As you said, its truly a wonderful stylish productivity tool!!
Kaustav 5:58 pm on July 18, 2008 Permalink |
That’s an excellent phone. I use a Nokia N82 with a Bluetooth keyboard which is excellent for typing a lot of text very fast. Not so relevant for you on the E71 as it has a QWERTY keyboard but the layout and size of the BT keyboard is very nice. Works particulaly well for bloggers using a non-QWERTY phone. Here’s a photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/astrolondon/2642861075/
Olaf 6:32 pm on July 22, 2008 Permalink |
I’m still using the E71’s predecessor, the Nokia E61i, and it’s been invaluable as a productivity tool! Use it for everything from browsing, to email, instant messaging, video, social networking tools and even some word processing.
I have also added a bluetooth Garmin GPS receiver, which works wonders with the Nokia car windscreen mount.
Its only drawback is the slow processor, which leaves a little to be desired…
Amit 1:45 am on July 23, 2008 Permalink |
whatever happened to off-consumption? :\
Amit 11:56 am on July 29, 2008 Permalink |
not quite off consumption, I gather. and unwilling to clarify too.
bright.
Gaurav Mishra 11:45 am on July 30, 2008 Permalink |
@Kiran: I really want the iPhone 3G but there’s the little question of AT&T’s 2 year contract. Plus, I have to return my office phone tomorrow and I would have been without a phone for two weeks.
@Balaji: Thanks for the WPhone tip. Wordpress now has an iPhone app. It will be interesting to see if it works on my Nokia E71.
@Hari: Yes, the Nokia E71 has totally changed how I create and consume content. I’m now accessing my feeds and e-mails almost entirely on the phone.
@Kaustav: Dude! The bluetooth keyboard totally rocks!
@Olaf: Yes, I had heard about the E61i’s slow processor. E71 is usually great, but the GMail app hangs sometime.
@Amit: Like there’s no end to acquisition, there’s no end to relinquishment too, and the only absolute ideal in both cases is to give up your life for your pursuit.
When I watched ‘Into the Wild’, I felt fake. My own experiment seemed but a shadow in front of the extremes to which Chris went.
So, of course, my off consumption experiment is fake.
But it’s fake because I need a (any) mobile phone to begin with, not because I want a high-end smartphone like Nokia E71.
It’s a version of the breakfast cereal argument I once had with a reader: if I consider breakfast cereal to be a necessity, I might as well buy the high-end, branded version that I like, instead of the cheap store brand version that tastes terrible to me.
From the beginning, my experiment has been about wanting fewer things, not cheaper things. There’s a difference between the two, even though it’s a subtle one sometimes.