The field of customer service is a constantly evolving one, particularly as technology advances continue to come at a fast and furious pace. While this can present new opportunities for companies in terms of their customer service, it can also create new challenges that must be overcome. Check out these five challenges currently facing companies on the quest for top-rated customer service departments.

Unresponsive Social MediaMore and more customers are turning to social media avenues like Facebook and Twitter today to ask businesses questions or voice complaints. Companies that continue to be unresponsive on social media may find themselves at a distinct disadvantage in the service realm. Businesses are learning they now require designated employees to monitor social media and respond to customer messages.

Phone Calls from HellAs technology advances, customers are becoming less and less patient with the phone calls to customer service hell. These might be defined as the interminable hold (complete with elevator music), bouncing from one employee to the next and the completely unnavigable menu system. Now is the time to streamline your phone options to make the process easier, faster and more convenient for your customers.

More Customer ChoicesCustomers now want more choices in how they contact a company. While old-fashioned phone calls are still often preferred, busy customers also want to look to email, live chat and social media to get their issues resolved. Companies interested in catering to all their customers will need to incorporate as many of these options as possible in their customer service department. In addition to providing more channels, customers want those channels to be as seamless as possible. That means when a customer switches from live chat to a phone call, he expects the person on the other end of the line to have all the same information as the one he was talking to online.

Digital CapabilityDigital technology overall is becoming essential to any customer service department. From  social media to mobile apps, customers want to be able to business with you from any device and location. In addition to making these digital channels available, companies must find ways to raise the service bar from a wide range of venues. Customer service takes on a whole new definition in the realm of these venues.

Data Collection and AnalyticsEvaluating your customer service today involves big data – a flurry of information that must be categorized and analyzed in the most efficient and useful way. Big data consists of both structured and unstructured data, which adds to the challenge of finding ways to organize the information into a usable format. However, companies that learn to use big data to their advantage will be in the best position to adapt their customer service options to the ever-changing needs and demands of their customer base.

There is no doubt this is the era of unique challenges for customer service departments. Technology has given birth to changing expectations from customers – expectations that must be met if companies want to maintain their loyal customer base. The good news is these challenges also bring opportunities for companies to surprise and delight their customers in exciting and innovative ways in 2014.

by Madauda Hannah

EFFECTS OF NEW MEDIA
By Kidendei Segereti

New media

Refers to the content available on demand through the internent accessible in any digital device. The new media contains interactive user feedback and creative participation. Before the emergence of the new media there was the use of traditional media which was printing and broadcasting.

Later there was an introduction of computer and internet whereby they connected the traditional media to work with their computer and that marked the beginning of new media. The new media came into use through the media convergence whereby it is the process by which traditional media is merged together with the new media technologies

Looking at social media, it is easy to see that there are some powerful forces driving changes across our cultural, our social and even our political landscape. Media technologies have made great impact on how we communicate personally and professionally. Technological convergence has accelerated the speed of media technologies. It is important that we understand the different new media technologies that are available today. This is because our lives have become dependent on them.

The positive impact of new media is:

New technologies have made our communication life easier than we ever imagined. Unlimited media is becoming less expensive for many people to purchase.

The internet has become the fastest growing and widely used medium, especially in the western world. Through the social media e-mails, face book,blog, twitter people communicate easily and fast without any boundaries.

Technological convergence has made it increasingly easier for employees to work from home or anywhere instead of always being physically present at a particular location.

Experts coming under pressure from new voices who are early adopters of new technology.

New organizations emerging to deal with the social, cultural and political changes.

There is struggle to revise the social and legal norms-especially in relation to intellectual property.

There is a struggle to revise the social and legal norms especially in relation to intellectual property

The concept of identity and community are transformed

New forms languages come into being.

Educators are pressured to prepare their students for the newly emerging world.

On the other hand new media technologies have created some challenges and made our lives more complicated than we imagined.

We have become consumed by these technologies that we have lost interpersonal communication among our family, friends and professional colleges. The person who watches television does not interact with anyone while watching television.

The new economy

 is the result of the transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy. This particular use of the term was popular during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. The high growth, low inflation and high employment of this period led to overly optimistic predictions and many flawed business plans.

A 1983 cover article in Time magazine, "The New Economy", described the transition from heavy industry to a new technology based economy.^[5] By 1997 Newsweek was referring to the "new economy" in many of its articles.^[6]

After a nearly 25-year period of unprecedented growth, the United States experienced a much discussed economic slowdown beginning in 1972. However, around 1995, U.S. economic growth accelerated, driven by faster productivity growth. From 1972 to 1995, the growth rate of output per hour, a measure of labor productivity, had only averaged around one-percent per year. But by the mid 1990s, growth became much faster: 2.65 percent from 1995–99.^[7] America also experienced increased employment and decreasing inflation. The economist Robert J. Gordon referred to this as a Goldilocks economy-the result of five positive "shocks" – "the two traditional shocks (food-energy and imports) and the three new shocks (computers, medical care, and measurement)"^[8]

Other economists pointed to the ripening benefits of the computer age, being realized after a delay much like that associated to the delayed benefits of electricity shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. Gordon contended in 2000, that the benefits of computers were marginal or even negative for the majority of firms, with their benefits being consolidated in the computer hardware and durable goods manufacturing sectors, which only represent a relatively small segment of the economy. His method relied on applying considerably sized gains in the business cycle to explain aggregate productivity growth.^[9]

According to another point of view, the "new economy" is a current Kondratiev wave which will end after a 50-year period in the 2040s. Its innovative basis includes Internet,nanotechnologies, telematics and bionics.^[10]

Dot-coms

In the financial markets, the term has been associated with the Dot-com bubble. This included the emergence of the NASDAQ as a rival to the New York Stock Exchange, a high rate of IPOs, the rise of Dot-com stocks over established firms, and the prevalent use of such tools as stock options. In the wider economy the term has been associated with practices such as outsourcing, business process outsourcing and business process re-engineering.

At the same time, there was a lot of investment in the companies of the technology sector. Stock shares rose dramatically. A lot of start-ups were created and the stock value was very high where floated. Newspapers and business leaders were starting to talk of new business models. Some even claimed that the old laws of economics did not apply anymore and that new laws had taken their place^{[citation needed]}. They also claimed that the improvements in computer hardware and software would dramatically change the future, and that information is the most important value in the new economy.

Some, such as Joseph Stiglitz and Blake Belding, have suggested that a lot of investment in information technology, especially in software and unused fibre optics, was useless. However, this may be too harsh a judgment, given that U.S. investment in information technology has remained relatively strong since 2002. While there may have been some overinvestment, productivity research shows that much of the investment has been useful in raising output.

The recession of 2001, disproved many of the more extreme predictions made during the boom years, and gave credence to Gordon's minimization of computers' contributions. However, subsequent research^{[citation needed]} strongly suggests that productivity growth has been stimulated by heavy investment in information and communication technology. Furthermore, strong productivity growth after the 2001 recession makes it likely that many of the gains of the late 1990s may endure.

 BY PROTAS LEVINA   BAPRM 42657

FORMS of virtual communities

Internet message boards

An online message board is a forum where people can discuss thoughts or ideas on various topics. Online message centers allow users to choose which thread, or board of discussion, users would like to read or contribute to. A user will start a discussion by making a post on a thread. Other users who choose to respond can follow the discussion by adding their own post to that thread. Message boards are not conversation based because user responses do not have to take place right away. Whenever the user revisits the message board, he/she can make a response. Unlike a conversation, message boards do not have an instantaneous response and require that users actively go to the site to check for responses.

Anyone can register to participate in an online message board. A message board is unique because people can choose to participate and be a part of the virtual community, even if they choose not to contribute their thoughts and ideas. Registered users can simply view the various threads or contribute if they choose to. Message boards can also accommodate an almost infinite number of users, while the number of users who can be accommodated by a single chat room is limited at least in practice.

Internet users' urges to talk to and reach out to strangers online opposes real-life encounters where people are hesitant and often unwilling to step in to help strangers. Studies have shown that people are more likely to intervene if they are the only one in the situation. With Internet message boards, a user sitting at his or her computer is the only one present in their online experience, which might have to do with why they are more willing to reach out. Another possible reason for this is that people can withdraw from a situation much easier online. They can simply click exit or log off, whereas they would have to find a physical exit and deal with the repercussions of trying to leave a situation in real life. The lack of status that is presented with an online identity also might encourage people because if you choose to keep it private, there is no label of gender, age, ethnicity or lifestyle associated with yourself.

Online chat rooms

Shortly after the rise of interest in message boards and forums, people started to want a way of communicating with their "communities" in real time. The downside to message boards was that people would have to wait until another user replied to their posting, which, with people all around the world in different time frames, could take a while. The development of online chat rooms allowed people to talk to whoever was online at the same time they were. This way, messages were sent and online users could immediately respond.

The original development by CompuServe CB hosted forty channels in which users could talk to one another in real time. The idea of forty different channels led to the idea of chat rooms that were specific to different topics. Users could choose to join an already existent chat room they found interesting, or start a new "room" if they found nothing to their liking. Real-time chatting was also brought into virtual games, where people could play against one another and also talk to one another through text. Now, chat rooms can be found on all sorts of topics, so that people can talk with others who share similar interests. Chat rooms are now provided by Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and other individual websites such as Yahoo, MSN, and AOL.

Chat room users communicate through text-based messaging. Most chat room providers are similar and include an input box, a message window, and a participant list. The input box is where users can type their text-based message to be sent to the providing server. The server will then transmit the message to the computers of anyone in the chat room so that it can be displayed in the message window. The message window allows the conversation to be tracked and usually places a time stamp once the message is posted. There is usually a list of the users who are currently in the room, so that people can see who is in their virtual community.

Users can communicate as if they are speaking to one another in real life. This "like reality" attribute makes it easy for users to form a virtual community, because chat rooms allow users to get to know one another as if they were meeting in real life. The individual "room" feature also makes it more likely that the people within a chat room share a similar interest; an interest that allows them to bond with one another and be willing to form a friendship.

BY PROTAS LEVINA   BAPRM 42657 

BY KIDENDEI CEGERETI

Internet message boards

An online message board is a forum where people can discuss thoughts or ideas on various topics. Online message centers allow users to choose which thread, or board of discussion, users would like to read or contribute to. A user will start a discussion by making a post on a thread. Other users who choose to respond can follow the discussion by adding their own post to that thread. Message boards are not conversation based because user responses do not have to take place right away. Whenever the user revisits the message board, he/she can make a response. Unlike a conversation, message boards do not have an instantaneous response and require that users actively go to the site to check for responses.

Anyone can register to participate in an online message board. A message board is unique because people can choose to participate and be a part of the virtual community, even if they choose not to contribute their thoughts and ideas. Registered users can simply view the various threads or contribute if they choose to. Message boards can also accommodate an almost infinite number of users, while the number of users who can be accommodated by a single chat room is limited at least in practice.

Internet users' urges to talk to and reach out to strangers online opposes real-life encounters where people are hesitant and often unwilling to step in to help strangers. Studies have shown that people are more likely to intervene if they are the only one in the situation. With Internet message boards, a user sitting at his or her computer is the only one present in their online experience, which might have to do with why they are more willing to reach out. Another possible reason for this is that people can withdraw from a situation much easier online. They can simply click exit or log off, whereas they would have to find a physical exit and deal with the repercussions of trying to leave a situation in real life. The lack of status that is presented with an online identity also might encourage people because if you choose to keep it private, there is no label of gender, age, ethnicity or lifestyle associated with yourself.

Online chat rooms

Shortly after the rise of interest in message boards and forums, people started to want a way of communicating with their "communities" in real time. The downside to message boards was that people would have to wait until another user replied to their posting, which, with people all around the world in different time frames, could take a while. The development of online chat rooms allowed people to talk to whoever was online at the same time they were. This way, messages were sent and online users could immediately respond.

The original development by CompuServe CB hosted forty channels in which users could talk to one another in real time. The idea of forty different channels led to the idea of chat rooms that were specific to different topics. Users could choose to join an already existent chat room they found interesting, or start a new "room" if they found nothing to their liking. Real-time chatting was also brought into virtual games, where people could play against one another and also talk to one another through text. Now, chat rooms can be found on all sorts of topics, so that people can talk with others who share similar interests. Chat rooms are now provided by Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and other individual websites such as Yahoo, MSN, and AOL.

Chat room users communicate through text-based messaging. Most chat room providers are similar and include an input box, a message window, and a participant list. The input box is where users can type their text-based message to be sent to the providing server. The server will then transmit the message to the computers of anyone in the chat room so that it can be displayed in the message window. The message window allows the conversation to be tracked and usually places a time stamp once the message is posted. There is usually a list of the users who are currently in the room, so that people can see who is in their virtual community.

intranet

The Internet is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link billions of devices worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the
World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail , telephony , and peer-to-peer networks for file sharing .
The origins of the Internet date back to research commissioned by the United States federal government in the 1960s to build robust, fault-tolerant communication via computer networks. [1] The primary precursor network, the ARPANET, initially served as a backbone for interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the 1980s. The funding of the National Science Foundation Network as a new backbone in the 1980s, as well as private funding for other commercial extensions, led to worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies, and the merger of many networks. [2] The linking of commercial networks and enterprises by the early 1990s marks the beginning of the transition to the modern Internet, [3] and generated a sustained exponential growth as generations of institutional,
personal , and mobile computers were connected to the network.
Although the Internet has been widely used by academia since the 1980s, the commercialization incorporated its services and technologies into virtually every aspect of modern life. Internet use grew rapidly in the West from the mid-1990s and from the late 1990s in the developing world .[4] In the 20 years since 1995, Internet use has grown 100-times, measured for the period of one year, to over one third of the world population .[5][6]
Most traditional communications media, including telephony and television, are being reshaped or redefined by the Internet, giving birth to new services such as Internet telephony and Internet television . Newspaper, book, and other print publishing are adapting to website technology, or are reshaped into
blogging and web feeds . The entertainment industry was initially the fastest growing segment on the Internet. [citation needed ] The Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of personal interactions through
instant messaging , Internet forums , and social networking . Online shopping has grown exponentially both for major retailers and small
artisans and traders. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries.
The Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets its own policies. [7] Only the overreaching definitions of the two principal name spaces in the Internet, the Internet Protocol address space and the Domain Name System (DNS), are directed by a maintainer organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise
by protas levina baprm 42657

WHY PUBLIC RELATIONS

Q: Why is public relations important for my company?

A: According to Public Relations News, "Public relations is the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with the public interest, and plans and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance."

While the public part implies inclusion of things like public affairs, community relations, investor relations, public press conferences, media events, internal communications and crisis communications, it also involves a lot of behind-the-scenes, non-public activity. It could involve simply the writing of a press release, but it could also involve coordinating media contacts for an event or conference, securing credentials, lobbying for article placement and the like.

Sometimes public relations is an effort to influence the public. This is especially true for political action groups, associations and other groups. Sometimes public relations is community relations. Just look around your own community to see how many companies and organizations have a community affairs initiative or a person in charge with a related title. In larger, publicly held firms, this person is sometimes the director of investor relations. Investors are a public entity, so in this case public relations is appropriate.

What the public wants to hear is a good story. Good PR is the telling of a good story. The better the story, the better the acceptance by the public and the better the public relations. Of course if the story is especially appealing to those that could be your clients, then you could have a PR homerun. In this case, it is communication with your target market that may or may not be very public.

PR's importance is changing, according to The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR (HarperBusiness). American marketing strategists Al and Laura Ries argue that public relations has become the most effective way to build a brand. Well-known brands like The Body Shop, PlayStation and Harry Potter spend little on brand-name advertising. The same is true for many entrepreneurial companies like yours. Business owners become known in their respective fields of concentration many times through public relations and the associated media generated.

PR is communication in many ways with your target market. Maybe instead of public relations we ought to call it target market relations or TMR. You may be communicating about a new product, spreading news about your company or making a major announcement. You want to communicate publicly, but the only people you care about are potential prospects, customers or investors, in the case of a partnership or a public company. One exception may be communication to a group that you are trying to influence for the best interest of your company and target market. An example of this is lobbying government.

Define what your public or target is in your public relations effort. This is best done by defining your target market and then any sub-segment. Lining up publications and broadcasts with the market and the segments will define what the public is for your public relations.

The bottom line is to get word out about you, your company, your products and services to those who could potentially buy from you. Public relations is just one part of marketing, as marketing is made up of many things. The good news about PR is the cost and the effectiveness when it's in front of your target market.

SIRIKWA YASINTA THADEY