We’re not just Internet famous. We’re Apple famous. (Take that, fake Bigfoot.)

The folks at Apple called us up some months ago wanting to find out what we do and how we do it. They were looking for all-Mac organizations to profile on their Web site. How could we say no?

We’re definitely an all-Mac operation at Get Satisfaction. Everyone here drank the Apple Kool-Aid a long time ago. We all proudly sport Mac laptops, we all have iPhones, and we’ve developed everything at Get Satisfaction using Apple technology. It’s almost comical when a phone rings (or even vibrates) in our office. Everyone immediately reaches for their iPhone. I think we need to institute a mandatory “unique ringtone” policy. Seriously.

The Apple people came to our office a few times and interviewed each one of us and took a ton of pictures. (We hid the one PC laptop we keep around for testing purposes.) Sadly, they didn’t decide to use the picture of me looking all cool and casual with my feet up on my desk as the big, glossy face of Get Satisfaction. I think I squinted too much that day. The pictures they did include are quite good, and the words that accompany the pictures sound great to our ears.

Thanks, Apple, for including us on the business-facing section of your site as an example of a scrappy start-up full of people who live and breath Macs. We’re honored.

Read all about it right here.

This week, Twitter got a big boost in traffic to its Web site from an ABC News Story that showed how an everyday consumer got help from Comcast’s Frank Eliason on Twitter (we’ve written about similar things on this blog in the past). I’ve gone ahead and coined a silly phrase for this kind of outreach: “micro-service”. Thank me later.

All that mainstream-media-led traffic inevitably led to additional traffic to Get Satisfaction, and we were inundated with a wealth of people who had a lot to complain about, but who hadn’t ever used Twitter or Get Satisfaction before. Unexpected events like this are always a great way to see how well we’re framing our service. If they don’t get it, perhaps we aren’t explaining it well enough.

I’m seeing a lot of stories like this ABC News story popping up. Reporters are trying to find a way to write about Twitter, and they seem to want to frame the story in a particular way. More stories like these are surely coming, and most of them will probably be following up on the same Comcast/Twitter story that’s already been written by other, more astute journalists.

I wouldn’t mind seeing stories about Twitter that focus less on complaints. There’s so much more to Twitter. Tons more. When they frame the story as “how to complain and get a company’s attention” rather than “look at all this unexpected interestingness that comes out of new ways of communicating,” I don’t know that they’re accomplishing much — beyond prompting the big complainers to reach out and rant to someone.

Not that I’m complaining too loudly myself. They’re reporting on customer service. That’s a start. More please! I’m ready to direct the traffic.

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.

Wal-Mart has been criticized for both sucking and blowing, but it looks like they may actually have a chance to polish their tarnished reputation.

After a number of years of dismal public relations blunders (in particular, an ill-fated PR-hatched Web site) Wal-Mart has finally figured out that people desire authentic experiences.

So, they’re letting their merchandising buyers blog about the products they come across. In fact, they’re actually encouraging them to speak their minds.

That’s a refreshing change of pace from a company that has continually refused to sell just about anything that might remotely offend anyone.

Will it work? Only time will tell, but — like any decent blog — it’s already started a few contentious arguments. There are already knee-jerk doubters accusing Wal-Mart’s PR firm of rigging the blog and an article in the New York Times lending credibility to the idea.

It’s tough to dig out from this kind of mess. I think that Wal-Mart’s reliance on short-term results over long-term reputation has put them in this spot. But, it’s nice to see them try to dig out.

[Wal-Mart and The New York Times are both on Get Satisfaction.]

Rock stars crave an in-depth feature in Rolling Stone. Debutantes pine for a profile in Vanity Fair. Hipster crafters hope in their heart of hearts for a quarter-page in ReadyMade.

From where we’re sitting, being written about in “the newspaper of record” — The New York Times — is pretty big. We’re thrilled to report that they’ve just published a business story about Get Satisfaction and our unique take on helping people get answers to their customer service quandaries.

The story is partly about complaint-oriented Web sites. Sites like Complaints.com and PlanetFeedback are vying to take pent-up customer anger and turn it into an ad-supported forum for, well, customer anger. We believe that the value in that kind of conversation goes only one way, and the negatives rarely really get turned into positives. Indeed, the point of true “complaint sites” may simply be to get unhappy consumers to sound off for the sake of sounding off.

We, by contrast, believe that encouraging authentic, two-way conversations between customers and companies is the only effective way to create a place where stuff gets done. It’s gratifying to see our idea of a “Switzerland for companies and customers” broadcast out into the world from such a respected name in publishing.

The article describes our business model in a way that may be confusing to some of our users. It says that our goal is “to persuade companies to buy the software it has developed.” To some this may seem like the same thing as our real model — providing fee-based services and tools on top of our current free Web services — but we see them as different animals. Stay tuned for more details on premium services.

In the second half of the article, the Times describes the real and sustained business advantages that companies like Timbuk2 have realized by adopting Get Satisfaction. As Patti Roll put it: “There were a lot of conversations going on outside of Timbuk2, on student blogs and other sites. Get Satisfaction is a way for us to aggregate that into a format that’s easy to utilize.”

We’ll certainly be picking up a few extra copies at the news stand. Look for that one in the mail soon, moms of Get Satisfaction.

Read all about it here.

[The New York Times is on Get Satisfaction.]

There is one special breed of company that seem to draw a lot of customer ire on Get Satisfaction — GPS device makers. What is the reason for this? In attempting to answer that question, I’ve gone down a few roads.

Is it outsourcing?

A number of GPS users on our site have complained about their calls being answered by phone centers in India or the Philippines. While it’s true that many GPS device makers have outsourced customer service to other countries, good customer service doesn’t have to come from within your own country’s borders.

There is one GPS company that does stand out for its refusal to outsource everything to India: Tom Tom. Although not a U.S.-based company, Tom Tom has U.S.-based phone centers for U.S.-based customers. They even received an award from J.D. Powers for the way they operate them.

And yet, Tom Tom has not joined us. I hope to see them soon. I was initially encouraged by this verbiage on their Web site:

“Tom Tom likes to keep in contact with their customers. If you encounter any problems, have any questions or just want to tell us how fantastic our products are please feel free to contact us, whatever the subject, and we will get back to you. We hope you find happiness and fulfillment, as well as your destination.”

I’ve contacted their PR and marketing folks three times, and they haven’t responded to me. Not even a form letter. Not so fantastic.

In fact, as I’ve tried to get more information about GPS device makers and how they structure their customer service, I’ve run into a few brick walls. I’ve contacted numerous GPS makers, and I have only received one timid response from a sole Magellan PR person. It often astounds me that people who claim to be public relations specialists will go to extreme lengths to avoid actually relating to the public.

So, what is it about GPS makers and customer service? What am I missing as I try to understand this special marketplace? I don’t think it’s outsourcing.

Is it simply product complexity?

That would be a bad excuse. These companies make it their business to sell as many of these new, complex electronic devices as they can, but they don’t always do a good job of supporting customers after they’ve plunked down a few hundred dollars for a device. They often set up large FAQ-style libraries, but those usually just end up making customers spend countless hours trying to find the answer to their specfic question.

To make matters worse, the software they (or third parties) sell as an accompaniment can be even more problematic. People often buy a device not knowing that they will need to purchase a special map for their trip to, say, London. I’ve seen countless complaints from customers who experienced a “gotcha” moment when they realized that buying the device was perhaps only the first step.

Maybe it’s simply that they’re focused on sales and not customer service.

I personally think that the market for these devices will die out fairly rapidly as GPS capabilities become cheaper and more ubiquitous. They’re already being embedded in mobile phones and automobiles. It’s only a matter of time before they’re part of kids’ toys in cereal boxes. (Geocaching treasure hunt in your neighborhood!) Perhaps the GPS makers feel this as well and focus on sales because they know their growth industry will quickly grow old. But until then, they still have a responsibility to respond to customers. Why won’t they?

I’m going to continue working on this one, and I’m sure there’s something I’m missing in this equation. I’d love to hear other peoples’ experiences with GPS and customer service.

We’ve been counting down to the big event: Our Customer Service is the New Marketing Summit. It’s here, and it’s now getting under way.

If you can’t make the conference, check out our live stream of the event, courtesy of Veodia.

More details on the conference can be found here.

[Update: Some users are reporting problems accessing the live stream. We're recording the Summit for posterity, and we'll have that content up in the coming week on this blog and in other spots. In the meantime, if you're having problems getting the stream to work for you, we have another option. We have blogging going on at the event as it happens. You can check it out right here.]

I’m just now catching up to this stellar New York Times article, Put Buyers First? What a Concept. It details Jeff Bezos’ obsession with customer service.

The author, Joe Nocera (who’s a great business reporter), gets a free Playstation 3 for his son (mm-hmmm) shipped to him from Amazon.com just in time for Christmas — even though his originally purchased Playstation had been delivered and signed for by someone in his apartment building.

The article points out that Amazon’s focus on customer service isn’t exactly a barn-burner of a strategy when it comes to pleasing Wall Street, but that it seems to be working when it comes to repeat sales.

Best part of the piece:

“

There is simply no question that Mr. Bezos’s obsession with his customers — and the long term — has paid off, even if he had to take some hits to the stock price along the way. Surely, it was worth it. As for me, the $500 favor the company did for me this Christmas will surely rebound in additional business down the line. Why would I ever shop anywhere else online?

I guess that’s what I just did.

”

Indeed, you did, mister journalist. I believe Amazon just spent $500 very wisely.

[Amazon.com is on Get Satisfaction.]

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.