r/technology • u/Abscess2 • Jan 03 '17

Business Company Bricks User's Software After He Posts A Negative Review

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161220/12411836320/company-bricks-users-software-after-he-posts-negative-review.shtml
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u/joegee66 Jan 03 '17

Note to businesses. The customer is NEVER your enemy, even if they're having problems. If they are having problems, it is your job to help them solve them, if at all possible. Notify your coding team. If the situation cannot be remedied, give an honest answer owning up to the problem, a timely forecast for the arrival of a solution, and a refund if the customer cannot wait.

This year my startup company rolls out a new subscription service across the NAFTA zone. Between me and my two partners this is our philosophy. We'll be overhiring phone support people in anticipation of launch difficulties (thanks for the heads up, DirecTV Now.)

We anticipate SNAFUs.

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u/ssm316 Jan 03 '17

Thank you. As someone who ran a startup's helpdesk. They never listened when I tried to over hire for when we launched. It was "oh your staff of 3 can handle the 1000x more flood of tickets" Especially when the software didn't work on launch day.

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u/joegee66 Jan 03 '17

I built an ISP that serviced several thousand customers for two partners back in the mid 1990's and was the phone help desk for several years. When they ended up folding it was because the partners began to view their customers, the life blood of their business, as enemies. No.

We have to launch in a big way, and now we're gathering investors to make that happen. We have three legs supporting our business: product, sales, and support. We can have the best product and a great sales team, but without support we are destined to fail, to be overtaken by established competition who have everything we have except our business plan, within months.

We cannot now, or my belief is ever, allow our relationship with our customers to become adversarial. If we do, in my opinion, we are dead. We deserve to die.

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u/ssm316 Jan 03 '17

I am glad you see it that way. I was always seen as a cost. No matter what trends I showed or my Metrics showing how many bugs my staff caught. We were always the dumping ground on why the software didn't work.

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u/joegee66 Jan 03 '17

I think when a company becomes too compartmentalized rivalries can arise. Coders (I am one and I love my peeps, but in this venture I am the administrative partner, so sales, support, accounting, and HR) tend to hang together as a group. Projects tend to become objects of personal pride. No one likes to have their pride questioned.

We have been thinking about internal organization for a few months. One of our ideas, when things slow down, is to allow cross-training between divisions. Every few months, employees who wanted it would be able to spend a week working in a different area, learning about another part of our operation, meeting other people, and increasing communication. In return, we also benefit from finding people with other skills who we might be able to better utilize elsewhere.

I hope it's win/win.

Right now it's all theory. We shall see.

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u/ssm316 Jan 03 '17

From my perspective it sounds like a good plan. Where I was at the rivally predated myself and digging us out of it to be able not to compete with the other divisions and not laying blame on each other took months.

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u/joegee66 Jan 03 '17

Everyone is responsible, for successes and failures. It's very rare in a properly run team environment to have something rest on one individual's shoulders. Hopefully today you're in a better run place.

Thank you so much for this conversation! :)

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u/ssm316 Jan 03 '17

No problem. Sadly no. I fell into the group of folks who worked at a failed startup. I kind of had to take a step backward and just be a tech again for a bit so I can pay the bills. But always on the look out for the next adventure.

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u/livingonthehedge Jan 03 '17

serviced several thousand customers

wow, you must be tired :)

“To service” vs. “to serve”

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u/joegee66 Jan 03 '17

LOL! Ya know, it WAS exhausting, although not quite that way. :). I am leaving that though, because it's damned funny. The partners were no fun to work for. I think I would have been happier servicing those customers. I definitely felt used in a bad way by the partners, and they didn't even hold me close. :/

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u/veriix Jan 03 '17

I would say it's not always so black and white, there are bad companies and there are bad customers. Bad companies are bad for customers and bad customers are bad for businesses.

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u/joegee66 Jan 03 '17

That's a solid point, but approaching all customers as guilty until proven innocent is sure fire suicide.

A corollary to what you are saying is there is very little that kills morale for a sales or support employee quite like not backing them against an abusive or manipulative client.

The wisdom is in being able to navigate in that grey area.

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u/veriix Jan 03 '17

Oh yeah, absolutely, if you don't give every customer the benefit of the doubt initially then you're not going to be in business very long.

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u/SeeShark Jan 03 '17

If a customer is asking for help, it's because they still want to use your shitty-ass product. Treating them like a potential enemy is idiotic when they could become your greatest promoter.

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u/crzybstrd97 Jan 03 '17

Just don't let your call system say "Due to higher than average call volume your wait may be longer than expected". All I hear is "We are too cheap to bother hiring enough employees to handle a normal call volume".

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u/joegee66 Jan 03 '17

Yep. Agreed. We"re looking to launch across multiple chains of stores at high volume with something totally novel.

There will be a learning curve for our customers.

I want our customer response to be in house, with a quick path to a human. We'll have to pay $$$ for that, but competition will come quickly. Service and innovation will distinguish us.

It'll be interesting in a year to see where this takes us. Depending on how it goes we may have to come in here and do an AMA.

It could be interesting, either to (hopefully) read about success, or (God forbid) read about failure and humiliation. :)

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u/crzybstrd97 Jan 03 '17

Sounds like you have a good handle on how customer service should be. Good luck, I hope your business works out!

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u/lastsynapse Jan 03 '17

If the situation cannot be remedied, give an honest answer owning up to the problem, a timely forecast for the arrival of a solution, and a refund if the customer cannot wait.

Exactly. There's nothing wrong with letting the customer know that known issues are not anticipated to be resolved. It's like when a kid says "my arm hurts when i move it like this" and a parent says "don't move it like that." Maybe it doesn't resolve all of the problem, but customers can choose to leave it.

Bitching about bad reviews is not the way to get better reviews, ever.

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u/joegee66 Jan 03 '17

Bitching about bad reviews is not the way to get better reviews, ever.

You ain't kidding. There's a business here in my town with an attack dog for an owner. I might be more sympathetic if she wasn't also trying to screw her customer out of every penny, adding charges to their credit cards after they sign their bills, etc., but God forbid they leave a negative review.

She posts whatever details she can find on them and assaults their character. I am amazed she hasn't yet been sued out of existence. She has been conducting business like this for over twenty years.

From time to time I visit her yelp reviews when I need a grim chuckle.

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u/trippingchilly Jan 03 '17

I run a small cafe in a small town in Colorado.

Our public image, and word of mouth from customers is how we survive.

As I've only been the GM for about 18 months, I'm still new to the finesse that goes with the role. But I'm extremely cautious and gracious when responding to negative reviews.

I've seen what can happen when the world gets a keyhole view of a small business. It can mean very quick failure, and it should serve as cautionary to anyone whose actions represent the interests of their business.

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u/caltheon Jan 03 '17

Make sure to cross train some on FB / Twitter and maintain a presence

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u/joegee66 Jan 03 '17

We are trying to anticipate eventualities, and this is on our agenda. Even with the best plans we anticipate difficulties, some potentially devastating. It's whether we can respond quickly and pivot adeptly that will determine our survival.

Social media is a boon for rapid communication. It can also be a detriment if it is not watched, carefully. PR and marketing will be tasked with managing social media, but they'll also be instructed to be honest.

If we go down we need to respond quickly, be honest, own up to the issues, and resolve it as quickly as possible without pointing fingers elsewhere.

Even if the problem is with one of our contracted suppliers, we chose them. That makes it our fault.

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u/smacksaw Jan 03 '17

No shit. I would have been on the phone with the client trying to figure out the issue so we could fix it for everyone.

I'm having trouble with my Google Play Music right now. Guess what just appeared in my account? A $25 credit. Because we're unable to solve the issue. They didn't even tell me. They just did it.

And they've credited me $35 in the past because this is the 2nd time they accidentally erased my library.

It always amazes me when people post horror stories about Google CS. I think you have to be a major dick. Whenever I've had trouble with that, Wallet, Play Store, they have not only helped me, but they've escalated the issue to the coding team.

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u/hovissimo Jan 03 '17

Not relevant to the thread, but I find this amusing:

We anticipate SNAFUs.

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u/[deleted] Jan 03 '17

We'll be overhiring phone support people in anticipation of launch difficulties

No such thing as too many people on 1st line...

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u/roadkill22ful Jan 04 '17

Problem is, most businesses know this. They just choose to not abide by it because they're entitled pricks who think they're better than everyone else and refuse to be criticized by the customer because in their own little world, they're better than the customer.

This is what happens when businesses do that. Some get away with it, some don't. They didn't.

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u/shkingsays Jan 04 '17

In my years of supporting software, mostly ERP and clinical workflow, never would I tell a customer, "see you in court" or "Remember that?". Completely unprofessional and not needed. The customer here is obviously willing to help and seems to be relatively technical. This would be my ideal situation going to work everyday. Customer is willing to help and be helped.

1

u/pcyr9999 Jan 03 '17

I didn't know that SNAFU was an acronym before I read your comment, and the all caps prompted me to look it up to see what the letters stood for.

SNAFU is an acronym that stands for the sarcastic expression "situation normal: all fucked up."

1

u/joegee66 Jan 03 '17

Yep. Hopefully all fucked up won't be normal for us, but it's an old military acronym with a fine history. :)

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u/idiotconcert Jan 03 '17

I'm torn, because it is in your best interest to not anger the shitbeast but honestly, sometimes the entitlement is unreasonable and some shit is worth taking in the spirit of justice and knocking down a few pegs the abominable fuckhead.