I want your idea

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

how about why customer service sucks so bad within so many businesses?!

I bet it's by design!!!!

This is definitely a problem. It's not by design though, except to say that the system design itself is flawed.

What needs to happen is to provide a "vested interest" in good customer service, that the service rep understands and is working toward.

In other words, if a customer service rep is measured by the number of calls they take, then their vested interest is in making sure the time spent on each call is a short as possible. That would obviously have a negative impact on good customer service as perceived by the customer.

So, the goal then would be to design a system that aligns the vested interest of the service rep with what is perceived by customers to be good service.

Once you get a properly designed system in place, then it becomes easy to weed out the poor customer service reps.

On a side note, this is in a nutshell why people generally receive poor service from government agencies, which are ALWAYS designed around internal vested interests that are not concerned with a customers perception of good service.

[cyseymour]

One business problem for the 21st Century is how companies deal with climate change in a world of conspicuous consumption.

Another business problem is that many companies today outsource, but the labor conditions in the factories of the third world countries they outsource to can be dismal.

Another key business problem, especially in today's economy, is ensuring that workers receive a living wage. There are too many low-paying jobs - not enough quality jobs are being created.

Another topic could be how companies, and manufacturers manage waste. Particularly in a world that is running out of space or has constrained resources, how can waste be most effectively managed/reused/stored/recycled?

Hope those provide some food for thought...

[mart8081]

Jamie - post above - nice ideas.

Following on - what about comparing the Life Cycle Assessment of an e-reader compared to a book? This opens up lots of issues - resource use, energy use, reuse or sharing of a physical book where this is not possible with an electronic version.

[tachyonbb]

Along the lines of another poster is the wages of current professional baseball players compared to the average worker and how that impacts perception and attendance at a game.

Another would be to see if people going to one of the new minor league parks (with game areas, kids areas, lots of between inning events) even know what the score is at the end of the game. Perhaps compare to those attending more traditional parks.

A more general topic would the the escalation of CEO wages as compared to the wages of the average worker, compare the United States with Japan or other market economies.

[glchen]

How to make collecting baseball cards popular with kids without resorting to short prints or inserts.

How to reduce shilling in auctions.

Are TPG's necessary for collectibles?

How to deal w/ forgers, counterfeiters, card doctors in the collectibles market.

[tschock]

I thought one of the forum rules is that politics are not to be discussed. Some of the suggestions surely hit the borderline of this rule, if not crossing over it. Just saying...

[Paul S]

Originally Posted by tschock

I thought one of the forum rules is that politics are not to be discussed. Some of the suggestions surely hit the borderline of this rule, if not crossing over it. Just saying...

I don't see it Some posters have phrased their topics for dissertation in a way that you know how they lean, but it's nothing that hasn't been discussed freely here many times before. Anything can be political if that's how we want to read it.
Here's mine: