1964 did my mother run a salon in this hotel where I am speaking today. My father was a customer living here in The Elite Palace Hotel that did opened up in 1958. They did meet and I was born in 1965. This was not only my opening line as a speaker and moderator but also my personal history. My ONE book did start at this hotel before I was born; the meeting of company/mother and my father/consumer is the point of my book. Going back and looking at costumer service at that time in 1958 is interesting. Other costumers at the hotel could get more than a haircut they could get their car served (can you get that today anywhere?). Where is the evolution of consumer service going today?

Back to the conference: Email marketing conference (check out the speakers). One of the speakers was Tamara Gielen from eBay (check out here famous blog: b2bemailmarketing.com). Tamara gave us a good presentation and a lot to think about. One thing that was clear to me was that the sender/brand and the message that you send is the same think (if not it will not reach the receiver). eBay is for me more a tribe than a traditional brand. Tamara did point out that some consumers that do business on an international level become more loyal. I think that is because different local tribes connect and makes consumers see the big picture of being a member. One of my close friends have tribe friends in Norway, Japan, Great Britain because of he sells English old car parts (and owns more money on eBay than on his daytime work). For him eBay is the connection that the tribe and in the logrunner I believe that the tribe is becoming more important than the old car parts.

Back to the email part: In my opinion is today’s email software working to badly with now good standard. Why is not the email marketing industry providing the consumers with open source software that will work for good email business and against spam? The business of Email marketing is growing big time but have at the same time problem with an increasing level of spam. The speakers where giving a lot of advices in how to reach al the way on Internet and through firewalls to the receiver with their emails. The audience was really interactive and gave a lot of feedback at the conference. I think a lot of readers of today’s newsletters want to do the same thing: The monologue is over now is the time for the dialogue. Email marketing is good ways of connect with the consumers. If it is more of a dialogue consumers can give input in how to develop the company. Then we al would see that what we could do in 1958 in consumer service could take the next step in the evolution of business.