We’ve been written up again. Oh wait, that’s a good thing.
Unlike in our days at elementary school, getting written up as an adult in a national publication is what many people strive for. It’s a sign that people are taking notice. Of course, that kind of spotlight isn’t always desired — especially if you’re being called out for not responding to customer complaints.
The article in question appears online in Computerworld as part of the ongoing Facebook controversy. In the article, Disgruntled Facebook Users Look to Get Disabled Accounts Reactivated, Heather Havenstein recounts the problems Satisfaction users have been having with their Facebook accounts.
Satisfaction users are still reporting problems on that front, and unfortunately Facebook hasn’t yet entered the conversation. But there’s plenty of room in this conversation for everyone, and we hope to hear from them soon.
3 Comments
“Satisfaction users are still reporting problems on that front, and unfortunately Facebook hasn’t yet entered the conversation.”
And why should they? Your page for Facebook is yet another unofficial place to talk about Facebook. There’s plenty of other places on the web with a similar conversation.
If those affected are interested in Facebook responding, they need to take the common sense route and take it up with Facebook directly.
I understand that you’re begging for a Facebook employee to leave a post here to try to elevate the status of this site, but do you realize that a Facebook employee doing so may be a violation of company policy?
Jon,
Thanks for writing! (Honestly!)
I feel like there are myriad reasons Facebook should have a conversation with their customers about this topic. Yes, this is in some ways an “unofficial” place for people to have conversations about companies and their products. But, these kinds of conversations are happening all the time, in lots of unofficial places. Facebook — and any other company for that matter — would be well-served by getting into these conversations. And, frankly, I value these kinds of conversations above corporate form letters. Doesn’t everyone?
Simply put, people on Satisfaction who are having problems with Facebook aren’t getting the response they need by going through the common-sense channels. That’s why they’re turning to other places to get answers.
Getting Facebook to contribute on Satisfaction could raise our profile, I suppose, but getting Facebook to answer their customers’ questions would certainly do one thing: make for a better customer service experience and open up the lines of communication so Facebook users can feel confident entrusting Facebook with their support and data.
Thanks again for commenting. It really is valuable to us, and please continue to join in the conversation.
E
@Jon,
We founded Satisfaction because even though there are many places to complain about issues online (blogs, forums, etc), there was no independent setting for customers and companies to engage together productively and openly. Our goal is to transform the customer-company relationship itself into one that is unshackled by the closed, dehumanizing systems (e.g. automated call centers, knowledgebases, trouble-tickets) we’ve grown numb to. And though it’s early, we think it’s working. The companies that have participated with their customers here on Satisfaction–including big ones like Google, Comcast, Oracle– act human, have real conversations. And everybody is the richer for it.
In the Facebook case, its users had *tried* to discuss their issue with the company directly (we’re all for that, by the way). The problem was that that channel wasn’t working for these users. As is so often the case with corporate support channels, customers weren’t able to get even basic answers about the situation. Satisfaction filled the information gap, and the community filled the empathy gap. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the attention the story has gotten, Satisfaction was able to amplify the problems that weren’t getting resolved, setting the stage for more sensitive handling by the company, even if they don’t participate here.
To your last point, we realize that many companies are scared to death of leaving their bunkers to interact with customers on the “outside.” We just don’t accept this as the way it has to be. We are 100% committed to helping companies meet their customers in the middle, because this is where real, trusting relationships are forged.