You know that old quote from JFK? “The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger – but recognize the opportunity.”
One of the things I love best about working with the team here at Get Satisfaction is how focused they are on the real opportunity the events of the last couple of days have presented. Emotionally challenging as it can be to suddenly have the eyes of the world cast down upon your service, and difficult as it is to wade through the tone of some of the language that was used in the heat of the moment, the team has really risen to the occasion. From our initial discussions, where everybody on the team tried to take the blame from what happened, to the tech team’s willingness to quickly make the changes that could be made quickly, to the business team’s acknowledgement that some things just aren’t worth the revenue, it’s been quite a revealing and cathartic couple of days. We’re definitely a stronger, more focused team as a result.
Still, we’re not done. We knew there were simple changes to make, and we made them. But we also know there are some much deeper issues we need to grapple with, specifically around how we represent the areas where customers are actively engaging with each other but companies aren’t (and sometimes don’t want to!) participate.
We love having companies active inside Get Satisfaction, or using Get Satisfaction as a critical component of their customer service strategy, but we also still believe there’s a strong need for spaces where customers can talk to each other outside the company’s walls. Unfortunately, as recent events have born out, we’ve done a terrible job with our most recent redesign of making it clear which of the areas in Get Satisfaction are company-supported and which aren’t. We recognize that there are a number of significant changes that need to be made — from the look and feel of those pages, to the language we use, to the way certain elements are presented — in order for this difference to be made as clear and explicit as possible.
We are going to fix this.
But it is going to take us a little bit of time, because these are not quick changes — they require time to design, time to vet, and time to implement — and because we’re determined to make sure we’re effectively addressing the issues at hand, we’re going to check and double-check and then triple-check them before they go out. And we would ask everybody who’s involved, in the spirit of the third point of the Company-Customer Pact, to please be understanding and give us the time necessary to make these changes.
Which isn’t to say that we don’t want your help! We welcome your suggestions, your criticisms, your feedback — that’s the whole point of Get Satisfaction, after all! And in that spirit, it was with a lot of gratitude this morning, with the need for all these changes floating around in my head, that I read Jason’s most recent post, in which he details out the changes he wants to see us make on Get Satisfaction in order to effectively communicate that it’s not officially sanctioned by 37signals. He makes a number of excellent points and suggestions, complete with visuals! We are absolutely going to use this as the starting point for redesigning these areas, and we’re grateful for the input.
A few of you Web old-timers like me might remember that back before they were a web app powerhouse, 37signals was a fantastically talented design consulting firm, working on other peoples’ sites before they started launching their own. Though they’ve since moved on to sharing their knowledge through their books, applications, workshops, and conferences, I’ve always felt a little sad at the thought that I’d never be able to get their eye directly on something I was doing. But how lucky are we that we just got a little bit of consulting love from Jason Fried? I know some companies that would probably pay millions for the opportunity, and we just got it for free.
Well, mostly for free. Because, Jason, next time you and the 37signals team are in San Francisco, I’m buying the drinks.
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