So it might be good marketing to relabel "Help" as "Customer Service" and make it easy for users to suggest additional features. (None of the web services mentioned in your post use the term "Customer Service"; most could do a better job of directing users' suggestions.)
Matt Fleckenstein
· 3 years ago
Brad:
Great post and great insights from your conversation with Craig. I also was not an insider at YouTube, but was a college roommate of one of the two founders...so, I had slightly more visibility than some others.
I can tell you, the idea of lettting users place an embeddable player on their MySpace page came from within the company. Over coffee in San Mateo, Chad told me this was a critical part of his strategy with YouTube.
I'm not sure if it came from Chad Hurley (the CEO) or from Roelof Botha (the Partner at Sequoia). Both Chad and Roelof were early employees at PayPal and realized the value of creating a service that could tap into/leverage an already-existing customer base. In the case of PayPal, they leveraged eBay customers. In the case of YouTube, they leveraged MySpace customers.
So, for what it is worth, in this case -- I do think the idea for an embeddable player on a MySpace page came from the company (YouTube) and not consumers (MySpace users)...but, clearly the success of YouTube was largely dependent upon YouTube providing great customer service to those MySpace users.
Your post is right on the mark. Thanks for sharing.
Keith Teare
· 3 years ago
Hi Brad
Did you discuss data openness with Craig? We would love Craig to use edgeio as a distribution engine for listings in the same way that Amazon, eBay and CafePress now are. As a by-product edgeio.com is becoming a search engine for "stuff". We don't scrape/crawl (steal?) listings so Craig would need to buy into the idea if we were to distribute and index his list.
Best
Keith Teare
ceo/founder/edgeio
Nic Brisbourne
· 3 years ago
Hi Brad,
Great post. I am with you that the smart play has been, and still is, to get a basic service out there and grow it with your users, and have blogged to that effect. That is a mindset which has taken hold better in the US than over here in Europe.
BUT
I am starting to think that the game may change. It could be that this approach has worked because rudimentary has been better than anything else out there and so was good enough to attract users. As web services get more complex and move mainstream it may be that for new products to get heard above the noise it will take $m in development (like the old days). For example I am forming the view that social nets and virtual worlds will start to collide, and if so it will become much more expensive to launch a new social network.
This could have a knock on effect of increasing the importance of time to market leading to increased marketing spend.
In fact I think this merits a full post, so if you are interested check out www.theequitykicker in a couple of hours.
best,
Nic
Eric Ni
· 3 years ago
Customer service has always complemented good long term vision. It's well understood that "word of mouth" will always be the best form of marketing.
What about that other reasons? I believe there are ways for a website to speed up word of mouth "the virility" for a website.
I framed it in my "Virility Model" outlined at my blog that startups can use to make their site more viral. Common sense to say the least, but important nonetheless considering that web 2-0 startups should spend nothing on marketing.
Thank goodness a VC realizes this. I write about it every day on my blog and it seems that investors usually pass off customer service as an expense, not a potential way to build a brand, to wow customers, or to get repeat business.
I interviewed Craig Newmark on my blog and what he says about customer service is pretty much right on the dot. He knows the importance of customer service and if you look at Craigslist, it's worked.
Dawn
· 2 years ago
Hi Brad, I loved your blog on customer service, and I couldn't agree with you more! Customer service is the core, the backbone of any business and the business owners should really evaluate their employees and possibly start regular training for all of their employees. I am so fascinated by the lack of customer service out there. I, on a regular basis, go out and test all of the customer service in all industries. From that I make sure I tell my friends and family members what I have found, the good and the bad. I just recently started posting about customer service on my company blog and I'd love for you to check it out sometime.
All Comments
So it might be good marketing to relabel "Help" as "Customer Service" and make it easy for users to suggest additional features. (None of the web services mentioned in your post use the term "Customer Service"; most could do a better job of directing users' suggestions.)
Brad:
Great post and great insights from your conversation with Craig. I also was not an insider at YouTube, but was a college roommate of one of the two founders...so, I had slightly more visibility than some others.
I can tell you, the idea of lettting users place an embeddable player on their MySpace page came from within the company. Over coffee in San Mateo, Chad told me this was a critical part of his strategy with YouTube.
I'm not sure if it came from Chad Hurley (the CEO) or from Roelof Botha (the Partner at Sequoia). Both Chad and Roelof were early employees at PayPal and realized the value of creating a service that could tap into/leverage an already-existing customer base. In the case of PayPal, they leveraged eBay customers. In the case of YouTube, they leveraged MySpace customers.
So, for what it is worth, in this case -- I do think the idea for an embeddable player on a MySpace page came from the company (YouTube) and not consumers (MySpace users)...but, clearly the success of YouTube was largely dependent upon YouTube providing great customer service to those MySpace users.
Your post is right on the mark. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Brad
Did you discuss data openness with Craig? We would love Craig to use edgeio as a distribution engine for listings in the same way that Amazon, eBay and CafePress now are. As a by-product edgeio.com is becoming a search engine for "stuff". We don't scrape/crawl (steal?) listings so Craig would need to buy into the idea if we were to distribute and index his list.
Best
Keith Teare
ceo/founder/edgeio
Hi Brad,
Great post. I am with you that the smart play has been, and still is, to get a basic service out there and grow it with your users, and have blogged to that effect. That is a mindset which has taken hold better in the US than over here in Europe.
BUT
I am starting to think that the game may change. It could be that this approach has worked because rudimentary has been better than anything else out there and so was good enough to attract users. As web services get more complex and move mainstream it may be that for new products to get heard above the noise it will take $m in development (like the old days). For example I am forming the view that social nets and virtual worlds will start to collide, and if so it will become much more expensive to launch a new social network.
This could have a knock on effect of increasing the importance of time to market leading to increased marketing spend.
In fact I think this merits a full post, so if you are interested check out www.theequitykicker in a couple of hours.
best,
Nic
Customer service has always complemented good long term vision. It's well understood that "word of mouth" will always be the best form of marketing.
What about that other reasons? I believe there are ways for a website to speed up word of mouth "the virility" for a website.
I framed it in my "Virility Model" outlined at my blog that startups can use to make their site more viral. Common sense to say the least, but important nonetheless considering that web 2-0 startups should spend nothing on marketing.
http://www.nextintuit.com/?p=8
Thank goodness a VC realizes this. I write about it every day on my blog and it seems that investors usually pass off customer service as an expense, not a potential way to build a brand, to wow customers, or to get repeat business.
I interviewed Craig Newmark on my blog and what he says about customer service is pretty much right on the dot. He knows the importance of customer service and if you look at Craigslist, it's worked.
Hi Brad, I loved your blog on customer service, and I couldn't agree with you more! Customer service is the core, the backbone of any business and the business owners should really evaluate their employees and possibly start regular training for all of their employees. I am so fascinated by the lack of customer service out there. I, on a regular basis, go out and test all of the customer service in all industries. From that I make sure I tell my friends and family members what I have found, the good and the bad. I just recently started posting about customer service on my company blog and I'd love for you to check it out sometime.
http://marketingdivas.blogspot.com/
Thanks again for explaining what true customer service is!