A Message From Dovetail Software CEO Stephen Lynn
We started the Dovetail blog at the beginning of the year, and to be honest, I didn’t know what the reaction might be from the Dovetail/Clarify community, or how our employees would act in their role as company spokespeople.
We had numerous discussions within the company in regards to corporate policing of employee posts and employees believing that the true value of the blog was keeping it open without company monitoring. I checked what other companies were doing, and even read Robert Scoble and Shel Israel’s book, Naked Conversations, looking for insight into what we should do. From our beginning over a decade ago, when we were known as First Choice Software, we’ve had a culture of openness in the company; therefore I decided I needed to continue that tradition with our company blog. Furthermore, since I already emphatically trusted my employees with our customers on a daily basis, I knew I could trust them to represent the company well in their blogging practice. While I’m sure they won’t admit it, the employees had to be skeptical that I would invoke the company name and censor many of their posts.
The results have been wonderful! Our company couldn’t be better reflected in our employee’s posts, and besides representing the company proudly, they have been a wealth of information to Dovetail and Clarify users. It’s no wonder that our customers have always been so impressed with our employees, from how knowledgeable they are about Dovetail and Clarify, to how accessible they are for customers needing help or advice, or simply wanting to share their own latest in-house developments.
As for the Dovetail/Clarify community, many users have told us they find the blog extremely valuable in managing their CRM environment. Some of our posts have generated thousands of views, far more than I expected. We talk to each other, and we talk to our customers. Sometimes it’s hard to say who learns the most from these discussions, but from our point of view, the day we stop learning, we’re dead.
I have watched our blog site as an observer, but have decided it is time to jump into the water and start posting myself. Future posts will talk about subjects near and dear to my heart – customer support, “The Forgotten Space” as we call Customer Service and Support CRM, and the future of CRM software.
Until next time,
Stephen
