Admin Corner

You have voted and the results are in - here's a list of the contributors who got the most Kudos during the past 30 days!

Thanks to everyone on the list for sharing your  insights with other readers!

To see the all-time Kudos leaders, take a look at the leaderboard in the right column of the home page.  Karios is number 1 with 53  Kudos!

So, what makes a post Kudo-worthy? Often it's a good answer to somebody else's question.  But it can also be an observation or comment that strikes a chord with other users. Or, even a question that was just begging to be asked.

If you see a post that strikes you as something special, take a moment and give it a Kudo!  Just click the star to the left of the text.

Andy  Rooney, the nostalgic curmudgeon from 60 Minutes, thinks it's "crazy" to close post offices to save money.

In this October 4 broadcast, he points out that,  "In 1900 there were 77,000 post offices around the country.  Today, with four times as many people, there are only 37,000 post offices." An email, he says, "has all the charm of a freight train."  Depending on what you think of freight trains, I suppose, that could be either good or bad. But his point is clear - as communications styles change and postal services disappear, we're getting a lot fewer of that more personal kind of letter that comes to the box by your front door.

Judging from the comments posted on the 60 Minutes website, however, it's not just nostalgia that is causing alarm about the trend toward fewer postal services.  Many of the comments are from workers in the postal industry who are watching the workforce shrink or have been laid off themselves.

One commenter said, "Andy, it is time for you to retire... NOW. Email and computers are part of the 21st century..... snail mail and typewriters are part of our history."  Rooney's response? "I would rather have a mail man or woman deliver junk mail to me than to get an email."

Take a look.  What do you think?

This morning, our Forum was upgraded to the latest version of Lithium's software platform. Most of the changes are big improvements behind the scenes - they make it work better but aren't visible.  But, you'll also notice lots of new things in the look and feel of the Forum as you browse and post! The new design elements give it a much cleaner, more modern look and, in my experience, improve the navigation and discussion experience.

Some of the familiar icons have changed, so here's a quick guide to the new signposts. The "Stack of Folders" indicating boards and messages has been replaced with a set of "Talk Bubble" icons - more appropriate for "discussions."  They are modified by an arrow, a padlock, color, or other symbols to tell you more about the topic before you dive in.

In the upper right corner, the "Private Messages" link has been reduced to an envelope icon.  The number in parenthesis at its right tells you how many new messages you have.

One of the  most noticeable changes is the new Kudos! icon. It's a star just beneath the poster's name. The number to the left of the star tells you how many Kudos! have been given to that post.  Click the number to see who gave the Kudos.  Click the star to add your own.

The accepted solution button and the reply button are now in the lower right, and posts marked as accepted solutions are indicated by a check mark.

Have you ever gone into "My Profile" and made changes?  It used to be a cumbersome and confusing experience.  That has changed.  It's now called "My Settings" (see the link in the upper left of the page), and it is now organized into intuitive tabs and groups.

I hope you all like the new look and feel as much as I do - at least once you get used to the changes. Please post comments below to let me know what you think!

We are submitting our User Forum to the 2009 Forrester Groundswell Awards. Based on the influential Forrester book, the awards recognize companies who have made highly effective use of social technologies. Here's our story.

Our Pain Point

In January 2008, the Global Online Group at Pitney Bowes began to consider how emerging social networking technologies could help us meet one of our major business challenges – supporting users though the annual USPS Postal Rate change.  Pitney Bowes provides postage meters more than a million businesses across the U.S. and almost all of them have to be updated whenever the  USPS changes rates. Such postal events typically generate several hundred thousand customer support calls over a 3-4 week period.  Traditionally, we have handled that peak volume by setting up and staffing temporary call centers.

The Solution

We decided to meet as much of that demand as possible with an innovative customer community based on the Lithium Technologies platform. Our two goals were to create a more highly-leveraged support channel and to provide a better user experience for Pitney Bowes customers. We were able to launch our community just three months after initiating this project and had a vital community in place in time for the May 12 rate change event. 

Results

As a result of the large number of customers using the online community to find answers to their May 2008 postal rate change questions, Pitney Bowes was able to dramatically reduce the number of incoming calls to its call centers, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Instead of fielding questions one at a time on the phone, we were able to post answers to the forum, many of which were viewed more than 4,000 times.  Users found this to be an easy and effective way to get help updating their equipment. 

Community 

Customer support is not the only objective for the online community, which now also serves as a key vehicle for a company-wide initiative to improve the overall customer experience. Pitney Bowes management routinely reviews ideas that surface in the online community, as well as other customer insights gained from direct engagement and collaboration with the online Pitney Bowes customer community.

"Engaging directly with our customers in a more open dialogue is a priority at Pitney Bowes from the CEO on down," says Rudy Chang, Vice President of the Global Online Group. "We know that customers are having conversations regarding our products and services, and an online community is a great way for us to host the conversations and an opportunity to participate – and  most importantly -- learn from them."

Pitney Bowes' online community provides discussion areas where customers can engage with one another and with Pitney Bowes employees regarding various mailstream topics including postal rate changes, equipment, software, and postal regulations. The online community also hosts "Ask the Expert" forum events where a Pitney Bowes expert hosts a week-long discussion on a specific topic of interest. These events generate enormous buzz within the community, as customers discover new solutions, perspectives, and engage with other community members with similar interests.

Pitney Bowes has also launched a "Think Tank" forum where customers can post and vote for ideas regarding Pitney Bowes products and services. Pitney Bowes management routinely reviews ideas that surface in the online community, as well as other customer insights gained from direct engagement and collaboration with the online Pitney Bowes customer community.

Visit the Pitney Bowes User Forum at http://forums.pb.com

The  Forum is a collaborative effort - the more people are involved, the better it gets.

The most obvious way to contribute is by posting messages - ask and answer questions. Users put more faith in answers from other users than from any other source.   So, if you've already solved another user's problem, let them know how you did it!  Chances are the person who asked will find your answer to be better than ours because you have "walked in theirs shoes."

But there's are other ways to make the forum work better for everyone as well -- use Kudos and Accepted Solutions!  Answers marked as Solutions appear first in the results of a search query. If you get an answer to a question that works for you, mark it "approved"  - other users will thank you for it.

Kudos also help the best stuff rise to the top. A Kudo is a way of giving someone a pat on the back for a great post.  It doesn't have to be an answer - good questions and interesting observations also deserve Kudos. In fact, the only criterion for giving a Kudo is that you think it's interesting!  The user who posted the message also gets credit when you give Kudos. Take a look at the Kudos leader boards on the Home Page to see who our current leaders are.

What's your favorite post? Which solutions work best for you?  Let us know!

We're having a changing of the guard.  Andrew has been our foum moderator since we launched the Community in April, 2008. He's been a big factor in our ongoing success -- helping to focus and moderate discussions and keep the gears turning. Andrew is now moving on to work with other communities -- best of luck, Andrew!

Moderators work mostly in the background, reading all the posts, moving them to a better location when needed, replying to move the converstaion forward, and just generally looking after both the community interactions and the internal housekeeping. Andy has also been a big help to me in planning the layout of boards, setting up Ask the Expert events, and introducing new features.

Andy's capable shoes will be filled by SandyD and her backup moderator, ShannonS. Both have had a lot of experience visiting, participating in, and moderating communities. If you have any questions about how the foum works or how to participate, drop a Private Message to Sandy or to  Shannon - they'll be glad to help. Also let either Sandy or Shannon - or me - know if you have a good idea for making the forum better.

Welcome, Sandy and Shannon - we look forward to hearing your voices.

Please welcome our 3,000th registered user -- "TaxLady"!!

I've been watching our population of registered users grow steadily since we launched the Forum in April, 2008, but I don't usually get to find out much about who each person really is. So, when "TaxLady" became number 3,000, I decided to take a big step... just ask! 

TaxLady (winner of the handsome personalized "3,000th-user" coffee mug at the right!) actually is what her nickname suggests. Bonnie Lewis is a tax professional operating (for now!) out of her home in Johnstown, PA. Soon she hopes to expand to an external office "...somewhere in town."  Bonnie's an "enrolled agent," which means that she can practice in front of the Internal Revenue Service. She says, "I use a K700 small postage machine which has saved me time and money over the past two years. I joined the forum to ensure that I am getting the most out of my machine." So far, she has found our forum to be, "a wealth of answers."

Welcome to the community, TaxLady! 

From July 28th to July 31st, our experts Jeremy Canfield and Elizabeth Lombard will host an Ask the Expert forum on some of the USPS value added services.

• Are you interested in learning more about E-Return Receipt or getting signatures online at My Account?
• Contemplating using E-Return Receipt instead of the Green Cards?
• Are you able to process Certified mail pieces on your Mail Machine, Ascent or Sendsuite program?
• Perhaps you need some clarification on the difference between Signature Confirmation and Return Receipt?
• Need some clarification on the difference between a DUNS# and Mailer ID#?

Bring your questions to the Forum!  Elizabeth and Jeremy will be online every day to provide answers!

Where did the old Forum boards go? And what are these new ones?

All of the old messages are still here!  But, over the weekend we changed the way they are organized.  Here are the basics:

The old "Postal Rates and Regulations," "News You Need," and "Mailing and Marketing Strategies" boards have now all been rolled up together into "All Things Postal: News, Views, and Rules."  All of the old messages have been moved into the new topic for postal discussion and information.

I hope the new lineup makes it easier to find what you're looking for and makes it clear where to post your comments and questions. 

Has your company switched from the "Green Card" to e-Certified and e-Signature services? How did your legal department react to this idea? Have you been seeing all of your delivery confirmations?

These have been some of the hottest questions on the Forum. Switching to e-Certified can save your company money, but many of you have found that the process can be a rocky path!  Here are some comments from the Forum:

Karios: Occasionally, I could verify on the USPS website that the article had been received by the PO, but there was no record that the article had been delivered (when, in fact, it had been delivered).

readn10: With the amount of return receipts we do, it will save us several thousand dollars per year. My problem is convincing the attorneys to let go of the green card.

2MuchPaper: We have been using the electronic return receipt for close to two years now.  It is a great cost saver....This method has worked well and our attorneys approve as well.

If you're thinking of trying out these services for your company but aren't sure how to get started, there are several informative threads on the Forum. Browse or search through them to pick up tips from other Forum users. Here are some starting points:

• Certified letter, signature files and E-Return Receipt 
• eCertified 
• Certified/E-Certified
• Certified Mail  from Ask the Expert - Elizabeth Lombard: Postal Rules and Regulations

Pitney Bowes' postal regulations expert, Elizabeth Lombard, points out that e-certified and certified aren't the only ways to get confirmtion that your mail was delivered: "You really need to consider what the objective is when you add an Extra Service such as Certified Mail, Registered, Delivery Confirmation, etc.  There are a lot of ways to get delivery information, but some of these clearly cost more than others!"

Find Out More at Our Next "Ask the Expert" Forum

If you want to find out more about e-Certified and other USPS Extra Services, bring your questions to our next Ask the Expert Forum, July 28-31 on Using the Right USPS Extra Service to Meet Your Mailstream Needs.  Elizabeth Lombard and Jeremy Canfield will provide answers.

Lori Bovalacco is our Guest blogger today with a wrap-up of what she learned on the 2009 Rate Change Roundtable -- thanks, Lori!!

---

1. Communications - the consensus is that most of you received a letter and/or email notifying you that the new rates were available for download
2. Instructions - many of you stated our written instructions were better understood than in the past, that they were "more clear" and "easy to understand"
3. New price displayed on effective date - for those who processed the download prior to the effective date, the new rates were present on your meter on May 11 without having to do anything.  This is great! This means that most of you have your meter set to a "class", for example 1st Class Reg.   Because of this, you'll never have to change the meter display (Normal Preset Setting) again when the Postal rates change, you'll just have to process the download.

1. Update took too long to download - for most of you who experienced this, it appeared that a software version update was being processed along with the new rates.  This is the reason for the extra time which caused some inconvenience for those who waited to the end of the day, on a Friday and wanted to go home.  I recommend that whenever your meter displays there is an update or add on available, you should always go through the process so that your meter will be up to date with the latest software version.
2. Restart meter or meter got stuck - many times when a software version is updating or rates are downloading, you may need to power cycle your meter.  This can take longer than we want due to modem speed and the volume of meters trying to connect to the data center.  We do, however, offer some connection solutions such as connecting your meter to your PC as well as having a dedicated LAN line.  You can find out more about these solutions from your local Pitney Bowes sales representative.
3. Rates should update automatically - Guess what?  This is exactly what we're working on today.  We'll keep you posted.

By now, the May 11 USPS postal rate change has come and gone and everybody's system is up to date and displaying the correct rates... right??

This is where social media like Forums really shine. On a phone support line, the customer service representative may give the same answer to person after person, one at a time.  On the Forum, our most popular question - How to Update Postage Rates on Your PB Equipment - was viewed over 57,000 times. Talk about "one-to-many"!  On average, each answer on the board was seen about 750 times. That's a big lever.

So, when you ask a question on the forum and get an answer, you're not only helping yourself - you're helping a lot of others as well. And it seems to be working: our 2009 USPS Postage Rate Change board has had over 355,000 views since we launched it last December, peaking right around the rate change date itself.  Hopefully, those of you who needed help found what you were looking for!

The biggest win for everyone comes when users answer each other's questions. Who can give you a better answer than someone else who has "walked in your shoes"? The moral of the story? -- Share your wealth!  You almost certainly have knowledge that someone else needs right now.

I just returned from an annual conference of Forum Admins.  There were about 40 companies represented, so I got to see lots of great ideas in action.  I also got a sneak peak at the future of our software platform. More on that in a minute, but first...

 Forum Factoids:

• Member Communities on the internet are now more popular than email! (Forrester Research)
  
• At any given time, 90% of forum visitors don't post, 9% post once or twice, and 1% provide most of the content. But... 50% of a forum's visitors will post sometime!

Fabulous Forums:

I got to see some great examples of what you can do in a forum with a little creativity. To see what I mean, take a look at the Barnes and Noble Book Clubs -- one of the coolest clubs is Mashups!

The Future:

OK.  What's coming down the pike? Over the next year, you will see many changes and new features on our forum. A few that I especially liked were:

•  Improved search - better display of results and a series of filters to narrow down your results.
• Tribal Knowledge Base - users who promote topics to a formal knowledge base or edit an article get credit for their efforts and rise through the forum ranks.
• Twitter Integration - a widget in the right column will feature a feed of tweets relevant to the displayed topic. Users can respond right from the forum page, link their response to a post, or convert a tweet directly to a forum post!

When the USPS changes the postage rates, just about everyone with a Pitney Bowes mailing system has to do something to update.  That makes the rate change a very big deal at Pitney Bowes. In fact, one of the motives for creating the user forum a year ago was to provide another channel for support during this crucial period.  Lots of people asked questions and a lot more read the answers. On average, each message was viewed 750 times!

Many people are finding answers on the forum again this year. How to Update Postage Rates on Your PB Equipment was viewed over 52,000 times before Jeremy updated it with this new post: Answers to your most common questions.  If you're looking for Rate Change help, that's a great place to start.

Here are some other tips for finding your answers:

• Use the "Search" tool at the top of  the Home Page. Chances are good that someone else has already asked your question and found the answer.
• Look for the "Solved" icon  - it means that the solution to the problem has been shown to work.
• Try clicking a tag related to your issue. The tag cloud is at the bottom of the home page and in the right column of every discussion board.

You can find more information on PB.com. Try:

• Rate Change Central - the hub for update instructions for your specific equipment
• Our Postal Information Site - a wealth of general information about postal rates and regulations.

It's time for a little celebration - our User Forum just turned 1-year old! Over that time, we've accumulated 2,300 registered users, 3,300 posts, and over a million page views. I hope we made last year's rate change a little easier, gave you a channel for getting product support, and provided some useful new information through our "Ask the Expert" forums. Let me know how we're doing! 

So now, heading into year two, I'm setting up this soapbox in my corner to let you know what's going on in the forum and around Pitney Bowes, give you a heads-up about new features and events, and open up some dialogue about things you'd like to see happening here.

To kick it off, here are some questions I'd like to get feedback on:

• What discussion topics are most helpful or interesting to you?  Least helpful?
• Can you suggest other topics for discussion?
• What could we be doing better to make the forum work for you?
• What should our next "Ask the Expert" event be about?

Add a comment below -- if you're not a registered forum user, no problem. Anyone can post.

Thanks!