Category archive: Customer Service

Friday, September 22, 2006

Stila founder doesn't appreciate customer feedback

Dave Winer and Robert Scoble, to name just two notables, have been blogging recently about how there is a lot of money to be made for companies who are willing to listen to what their blogging customers have to say. The way companies tend to work now with bloggers is that, if you’ve got a highly-trafficked blog related to their product (for me, it’s the beauty blog, for which I receive many shipments of freebies to review each week), they send you their product(s) in the hope that you’ll give them a rave review and a link. Dare to give some less-than-thrilled feedback, and they get can get rather huffy.

To give an example away from the technology ground of Winer and Scoble, check out what happened when I blogged a note of constructive criticism - and a commenter on my post added their own disappointment as a customer - to the creator of major make-up brand Stila.

The person I was addressing, Jeanine Lobell, found my note through Google (we rank on the first page of searches for her name) and left a snarky comment. Oh, but guess what? The point the commenter made - about the flimsiness of the company’s packaging - was valid enough that Stila introduced a new product which addresses the problem. Still, Lobell couldn’t resist getting sarcastic with good, evangelistic customers (my post praised the colour in question as the best I’d ever found, and no, it wasn’t a freebie; I bought it, and many other Stila products, with my own money). Now things are getting really interesting in the comments to my post, and other Stila constituents are not happy.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Campaign against cruelty to customers: TextAmerica

Alan Moore and I like to promote the successes of companies as we move into the Connected Age. But in a radical transition as we are now, moving from the Networked Age to the Connected Age, there will be players who make mistakes. Some make fatal mistakes. Now TextAmerica seems to be on a collision course with disaster. The iceberg watchman of the Titanic has an alarming announcement…

"Campaign against cruelty to customers: TextAmerica" continued...

Monday, May 22, 2006

United Airlines

United Airlines sure does put the “Kill me now” in customer service. I had my own run-in with United’s inept, apathetic staff back in March, but that’s nothing compared to what happened to my friend Nancy Rommelmann (linked above).

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Lego redefining value in our online world

In Lego Factory, now not broken, Chris Anderson talks about Lego creating value in the digital age. You just need to think sideways sometimes to crack the thorny issue of how a company survives in today’s world.

Lego Factory is the company’s service that allows you to design your own models and have the parts sent to you in a cool Lego kit-style box (and share your designs with others in a Lego marketplace). It’s a great idea, but it’s been hampered in the past by gnarly fulfillment issues that inflated the cost of the kits by including too many pieces you don’t need.

Read the whole thing.

Cross-posted at Communities Dominate Brands

Saturday, May 13, 2006

They're all in the ad business now

When the demand side of a voluntary exchange starts supplying itself, the traditional suppliers are going to get scared. To wit, all of the exploding business models around us (newspapers, music, movies, and TV just for starters).

The same fear is being felt by companies when it comes to their ads. This is, of course, because it’s so cheap and easy for people to bring to life their own creations - people who are connected to the most powerful distribution network in history.

These companies usually aren’t connected to that network, though they think they are. 

"They're all in the ad business now" continued...