Admin Corner

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