Author Archives: Eric Suesz

May 9, 2008

Birth of a Bag

A diaper bag. They asked Timbuk2 for it. Repeatedly.

The first diaper-bag query started eight months ago, and since then, there have been a lot of new conversations on Get Satisfaction imploring Timbuk2 to cater to the mommy (and daddy) crowd.

Should Timbuk2 branch away from the messenger bag market? Over the past few years, they appear to have made their brand even stronger by getting back to the basics. And that means messenger bags. This strategy has been very successful. Their customer community has grown to include tons of new customers. But some of those new customers apparently want a diaper bag.

Obviously, you don’t want to lose your legacy customers. Then again, some of Timbuk2’s legacy customers may fall into the used to be a bike messenger category. Surely some of them now identify solidly with the raising a little bike messenger demographic. They want diaper bags, too.

I’m not sure if Timbuk2 resisted the idea of making a diaper bag. But, they definitely did think about diaper bags in the last eight months. At one point, one of their employees even offered up her own Diaper Bag Hack Kit, a how-to for turning a regular Timbuk2 bag into a baby-accessory tote bag. Perfect gift for a baby shower.

The clamor from their customers apparently made a difference. Last week, Timbuk2 gave a sneak peek at their diaper-bag prototype. Yep, they’re building it.

But watch out, Timbuk2. As of yesterday, you’ve got a new request from your customers. A doggie bag.

Woof.

By Eric Suesz | Posted in customer service, community, design | Comments (2)
May 2, 2008

3, 2, 1… Contacts!

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If you’ve spent any amount of time on social networking web sites, you’ve probably experienced a moment like this:

Hey, this site is pretty cool. Invite my friends? Okay. I know that my buddy Jimmy Pop will dig it, for sure. Let’s see, just enter your e-mail address. There’s the Submit button — Wait a second! Did I just spam everyone in my GMail???

Whether by accident or by design, many social networking sites have a confusing way of getting people to invite other people into the system. As we’ve been working on adding Contacts — other customers in the Get Satisfaction system who you may want to follow or refer to on a regular basis — we’ve made it our goal to avoid the pitfalls that many other sites have fallen into. We want to make sure you know what each “next step” in an invite process will be before you click that button.

So, give it a shot. Add some Contacts from your dashboard.

Tip: If you’re a Twitter or Flickr member, start by importing those. It’s lickety-split fast.

Feedback: We think we’ve gotten pretty close to what we envisioned when we started designing this new feature, but if you have any advice, kudos, or complaints, share them with us.

By Eric Suesz | Posted in design, development, Satisfaction | Comments (0)
May 1, 2008

Comcast Cares. No, Really.

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Comcast, who hasn’t exactly had a great public image in the last few years, appears to be slowly changing that.

When Comcast showed up on Get Satisfaction, they had a lot of complainers. Hell hath no fury like an Internet junkie scorned. Boy, there were some angry folks.

But then, someone from Comcast stepped in and said, we hear you and we’d like to help make it better. And they keep on saying that.

If you haven’t read about him, Frank Eliason is the man at Comcast who seems to be spearheading this new approach. He swoops in on conversations on Get Satisfaction and offers to help fix problems. Plus, he’s set up a Twitter account (follow him!) as an additional way to monitor and respond to Comcast customers who are broadcasting their cable and Internet frustrations on Twitter.

That Twitter/Get Satisfaction combo seems to be working pretty well, as evidenced by this conclusion from a Get Satisfaction user today:

Wow, I stepped out for two hours and by the time I got back I had 3 voicemails from Comcast — from Corporate HQ in Philadelphia, from the California Executive office, from the local office here. An hour later I had the Comcast tech out here, he removed the trap outside, on the street just as I expected, then phoned in to close my order and enable the boxes again. I’m all settled now.

Learnings:

- Get Satisfaction works. Publicity is powerful.
- Comcast listens, kudos to them (including @comcastcares on Twitter)
- The execs and techs involved in such elevated customer care are doing a wonderful job, but it’s like putting out lots of little fires. I think at one point it will rise to the level that will convince Comcast to invest more ( a LOT more) in training their support troops so that there would not be fires to put out in the first place.
- Oh, have I mentioned that Get Satisfaction works? :-)

After reading that today, I feel like I need to give a tip of the Get Satisfaction community manager’s hat to Frank Eliason for pushing for the kind of consumer change that everyone wants and needs. Keep it up, and I bet you’ll be seeing more customer outbursts like that one.

By Eric Suesz | Posted in customer service, community, reputation, Satisfaction, delight | Comments (0)
April 29, 2008

Fast Company Article

Woo-hoo! We just got a write-up in Fast Company.

When you’re the one being written about, it’s easy to spot particular places in articles where you think journalists have gotten it wrong. You might say, “Well, that’s not exactly what I said,” or, “The author is just trying to spin this to fit the headline.” There’s a million ways to pick apart an article, and the only one who usually thinks they got it right is the one who wrote it.

But, everyone in the office seems to agree that Kermit Pattison did a really great job with this one. And we love the headline: “Does a New Website Hold the Secret to Great Customer Service?”

Give it a read.

By Eric Suesz | Posted in Satisfaction, press | Comments (1)
April 28, 2008

Web 2.0: Sharing Slides

Last week’s Web 2.0 conference here in San Francisco was stimulating. I know I learned a thing or three.

In case you missed it — or wouldn’t throw down the cash for entrance to the full convention — we’ve collected the slides from our two biggest presentations of the week.

First, here are the slides from Lane and Thor’s presentation, Customer Service is the New Marketing:

And here are the slides from Scott’s talk, The How of OAuth, about that scrappy up-and-coming OAuth protocol:

Thanks to everyone who showed up and asked all those great questions.

Plus, thanks to everyone who attended Cameron’s OAuth Hackathon on Saturday. We had a huge turnout, especially considering it was such a stunningly sunny Spring day. Thanks for spending it indoors with us!

By Eric Suesz | Posted in customer service, conferences, development, Satisfaction, web 2.0 | Comments (0)
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