United Airlines

Some worries come with opening any new tech channel — that bad guys might be able to use it to access your data, steal customer identities, pass an employee some malicious software, etc. — but the casual and explosive nature of conversations in Web 2.0 may expose retailers to a new world of risks, some more commonly associated with media companies.

For the last year I’ve been saying — screaming actually — that companies better have their acts together, otherwise they're sitting ducks in this new age of customer centricity. If your customer service, products and brand image aren't all buttoned up, you risk getting skewered on the internet, i.e., the peoples’ media.

As the editor of a publication that covers the catalog/multichannel business, I don’t really have any business devoting a column like this to an airline. But having just endured one of the worst nightmares of my life, I believe catalogers who rely on offshore, third-party customer service reps might care to take note. My saga started on Sunday, Oct. 14, shortly after I arrived at O’Hare Airport in Chicago for the DMA07 conference. As I waited at the baggage claim carousel for my garment bag containing three suits and assorted other precious items (to me), for some reason I thought to look at that

By Alicia Orr Suman Cataloger/manufacturer United Receptacle supports its distribution sales network by creating and producing ready-to-use catalog layouts. You're flipping through a 500-page catalog for a major player in the janitorial and sanitation (jan/san) supplies market sector when you happen upon a section displaying waste containers. The catalog carries a host of well-known brands — including wastebaskets, can liners and other products made by United Receptacle. What you may not realize is that the other company's catalog that you're viewing actually features page layouts, photos and graphic designs produced not by that catalog, but by manufacturer and distributor United Receptacle. In

You’re flipping through a 500-page catalog for a major player in the janitorial and sanitation (jan/san) supplies market sector when you happen upon a section displaying waste containers. The catalog carries a host of well-known brands — including wastebaskets, can liners and other products made by United Receptacle. What you may not realize is that the other company’s catalog that you’re viewing actually features page layouts, photos and graphic designs produced not by that catalog, but by manufacturer and distributor United Receptacle. In addition to producing its own catalog each year to showcase its full product line, United Receptacle also helps many of