Comcast's trust agent and customer service innovator Frank Eliason has a great post on his blog about the need for business (of all sizes) to embrace social media and listen to customers. Eliason is known for bringing Comcast to Twitter with his handle @comcastcares. I have enjoyed numerous interactions with him via Twitter that have helped build my confidence in an otherwise faceless corporation. His clear and candid answers to questions regarding service outages have helped me better understand what problem has manifested and what Comcast personnel are doing to remedy the situation.

Eliason's post suggests firm's adopt a "cohesive listening plan" and examine customer stories on Blogs, Twitter, Technical Forums, and Facebook.  I couldn't agree more with Eliason's thoughts on this and the idea that companies need to engage in the discussion about positive or negative customer experiences.

Take a look at Eliason's post on Fixing Customer Service

Richmond CBS affiliate WTVR 6 features Boulevardizen.com as its blog of the week:

RICHMOND - THE FAN - Time for this week's Best of the Blogs, our weekly segment on Virginia Tonight featuring local bloggers doing the best writing and reporting in their Richmond community. Our pick this week is boulevardizen.

Boulevardizen.com covers neighborhoods on and around "The Boulevard" in Richmond's Fan District. Boulevardizen is the blog formerly known as 10SBoulevard - made up of former apartment building tenants.

The blog has since renamed itself and taken on all the happenings around this historic street.

Get the full story at CBS 6

If you have an email account and use it for it for work there are two absolute certainties you will face: 1) There are lots of great deals for v1agra and c1alis for the discriminating email shopper and 2) The ambiguous email request for help or support with a problem will blow a good chunk out of your otherwise productive afternoon (and perhaps evening if they time it right). The Productivity 501 blog has the quintessential example of the ambiguous request:

My computer doesn’t work. Help!!!!!
– Jane

An email like this will guarantee three things: 1) Frustrated tech support 2) Multiple back and forth emails to clarify and remedy the problem and 3) an ultimately frustrated user. Emails requesting an action of someone should be as concrete yet as concise as possible to clarify the problem and work towards a quick resolution. Productivity 501 has some great tips for crafting more efficient emails that will reduce confusion and result in a remedy to the request.

• Write from the reader’s standpoint - Make sure you pay attention to the knowledge and experience level of your reader. Define unfamiliar acronyms and use their language.
• Include necessary background information - I will often write a short email asking a question and then at the bottom add additional background or clarifying information. For example, if I’m writing to someone who is new in their position, I may include a bit of background history explaining the current state of affairs. By putting it after my signature, they can continue reading if they have questions, but it does not make my message overly long for people who are already familiar with everything that is going on.
• Anticipate questions - As you compose your email, keep asking yourself “what questions will this statement likely prompt from the reader?” Sometimes this may lead you to add another sentence that will clarify your meaning. Sometimes it may prompt you to add an attachment of related information. In some situations, it might even make sense to put a FAQ (frequently asked questions) at the end of your message.
• Keep messages short - Long messages tend to get ignored. Try to keep your message short. If it needs to be longer, be sure the first paragraph gives a good summary. I’ve found that writing a one or two paragraph message, my signature, and then the bulk of supporting data (after my signature) helps increase the chance that they will read the first part of my message.

Take a look at Productivity 501 or the rest of this great article and some other suggestions for better use of e-communications.