Wow! Companies that actually want ideas from their customers!
All too often, companies seem to be more committed to avoiding customers (after they get our money, of course) rather than asking, listening to or even - gasp - helping us. (Are you listening out there - MBNA? Comcast? AOL? Sears? Of course not…I’d be delighted to be proven wrong.)
The good news is that some do “get it” - both re service and technology. Here’s just a couple of examples:
Intuit QuickBooks I love their “Corporate Line” disclaimer - they actually appear to trust their employees and are willing to take a chance at open communications…I like it so much - here it is in its entirety:
The Corporate Line.
The individuals who post here work at Intuit and are some of the best and brightest. The opinions expressed here, while probably right and certainly smart, are their own, and are not necessarily reviewed in advance by anyone but the individual author. Sometimes, the author is audacious and decides to post an opinion without a buddy reviewing it, and at other times, she may seek counsel of a friend. Regardless, these opinions do not necessarily reflect the view of Intuit or any other person or company. Although, since these people are smart to begin with, Intuit might agree with them - or might not. :
Here’s another example:
37 Signals (cool project mgmt. tools and more)
Do you know of a great corporate blog? let me know!
You know the times - they are achangin’….IBM is actually encouraging their employees to blog.
View the Blog Roll
June 2nd, 2005 at 3:58 pm
I am compelled to note that the companies I’m slamming above - MBNA, Comcast, AOL, Sears - have good people working in them - if you can reach them through the maze of service avoidance systems…and they would like to help - if they had the power to really do anything. One of the people in the MBNA CEO’s office actually said she hated the way they set up their programs, “I feel like we punish our good customers!” Having been in her position before - where I had to field customers issues on behalf of the CEO - I know how hard the job can be, particularly when you can’t “go against policy.”
June 6th, 2005 at 11:47 pm
I cannot begin to describe the horrendous customer service experiences I ahve had with Intuit re: quickbooks, The text looks nice on w web page, but it holds no muster ont he phone with a machine (real or human).
June 7th, 2005 at 11:01 am
Yikes - Sounds to me like you need to be hitting the Intuit blog hard. I personally pretty much hate any accounting software (You mean I actually have to read the documentation? Oh Nooo….)….
Thanks for the real-world experience input. Yet another example of a company saying one thing, doing another. Let me know if they reply to your comments on their blog (and what they say!)
June 21st, 2005 at 5:55 pm
Bare Feet and Mary,
I’m the guy who wrote this blurb you refer to…thank you for seeing it and referring to it. Since I wrote it, I just HAVE to respond to Bare Feet.
The Intuit blog you were referring to is QuickBooks Online Edition at www.qboe.com. We’re a division of QuickBooks that takes serious pride in our customer and Technical service. Our customers tell us our Customer Service is “the best customer service on the planet”…and that’s not the exception comment, it’s the rule.
While I am so sorry you have had poor experiences with other QuickBooks products, please know that as a company we are reinventing what it means to provide our customers with the highest support levels. Without “saying” and not “doing” I’ll just share that you should be seeing a difference in the future. And I really appreciate you sharing your honest opinion here. My goal in writing is to express other things going in that you may not be aware of and also to demonstrate that QuickBooks DOES provide great service - and of course, we need to get better too.
June 21st, 2005 at 6:00 pm
Paul,
Thanks - and your ever-so-reasonable response is an excellent example of how great blogging can be! All too often, companies go on the defensive - versus pulling up their socks and talking about the issues with their customers.