Demand Satisfaction!

I want Sandy, the e-mail virtual personal assistant, has a fun name. I don’t always want that in a product.

When I see products branded with “people” names, I get a little suspicious. I still don’t trust Jack, the FM radio station format that pretends to be all about variety. I was initially suspicious that Drobo, the world’s first storage robot, might go rogue and decide to trash my collection of MXC TV episodes. Don’t even ask me about Jeeves. That guy’s a quitter.

But, not Sandy. She’s fun. Maybe it’s the fetching Archie’s comic fashion style she sports. In my mind’s eye, I imagine Sandy speeding down a sunny, tree-lined street in a cherry red 1960 Corvette, stopping only to take dictation — when I have an appointment to make, of course.

Apparently, everyone else has a vision of what Sandy does in her off time, too. The discussion on Satisfaction one morning earlier this week was all about how Sandy had neglected to send her morning reminders to some users. This spurred some speculation that Sandy had gone AWOL from her job:

• “Hey Sandy, are you on strike? No daily digest this morning or reminders.”
• “Sandy, are you OK? I’m worried about you (but relieved that it isn’t only me that you’re shunning).”
• “Personal day? Kid’s got the flu? Snowed in?”
• “Has Sandy quit?”

In all, 48 replies by 21 participants over the course of just a few hours added up to a bunch of disappointed people.

Thankfully, the disappointment was short-lived.

The CEO of I Want Sandy, Rael Dornfest, jumped into the conversation: “I am so terribly sorry to be so late in replying to this thread. We seem to have had a problem with a load balancer (a system that routes e-mail from the outside world to our e-mail servers), which caused some portion of e-mail to Sandy to be deferred.”

Big points to Rael for acknowledging the problem and giving reasons behind the problem. That is what people in the business world call a “best practice” — it’s something that doesn’t happen as often as it should.

Not thirty minutes later, the problem was fixed, and Rael was back with more info: “Once again, I’m sorry for the no-show this morning. If you’re a new client and this was to have been her first day on the job, rest assured that this is in no way the norm — please do give Sandy another chance… I appreciate your patience and (under the circumstances) rather good humor.”

Even Sandy’s boss can’t help but talk about Sandy like she’s a real person. The fact that everyone cottons so well to this “Sandy” character seems like a good indication that branding with a “real” name might just work in this case.

I think it’s a testament to the growing popularity of Sandy that so many people felt stressed out when they woke up one morning to find Sandy missing.

I personally think Sandy deserves a raise.

How about you?

• What’s your opinion of Sandy?
• What’s your favorite or most despised brand with a “real” name?

[ I want Sandy is on Satisfaction ]