As marketers, we hope that the relationships we build with our clients will establish a trust that extends into all phases of the brand experience. A good brand will consistently deliver its promise; from the marketing and advertising phase, to the retail, warranty and customer service phases. If the brand over-promises, you will fail as a marketer, and so too will the client at retaining the customer.
With the service industry, the retail phase extends to the duration of the service. Consider a restaurant experience: sometimes, we merrily pay $100 for $5 in ingredients. Why? Because the collective experience is worth it. The ambience, the presentation, the talents of the chef and staff all culminate into an individual experience within a community environment. We radically trust that the food is of a certain quality, the experience will be consistent with the price and that later we will not be vomiting due to spoiled food or gross negligence. In turn, the restaurant radically trusts that we will pay before we leave, spread the word and come again.
In other service industries the sprit of the restaurant example is continued - house renovations, electronic repairs, etc...
When we register a URL, host a blog, or hire an email provider, we radically trust (sometimes with our reputations, our careers, our business) that the tech support will be there. I don’t know what happens in the backend when I register a URL and I have no idea how to point that URL to a server. In fact, this knowledge and the tech support that goes with it is really what I'm paying for. The amount of server space has little to do with the service - I have more memory on my USB key chain than I have files posted on the server for this blog. Much like the value of the ingredients in a dining experience has little to do with the price of the dinner.
As a consumer, you trust that your blog/email will be "up" all of the time and if there's trouble, someone knowledgeable will be there to fix it, and if they can’t fix it right away, they'll give you a plan to solve it.
What happens when the service provider offers no service at all?
Wait staff, taxicab drivers, contractors, auto mechanics - they all deliver their services first and you pay upon satisfactory completion. Why is it that with technology, you must pay for the service first? You may have noticed that radical trust has been down for several days. A simple hosting upgrade with Netfirms turned into a technical drama that silenced this simple blog. It makes me wonder if there's a service provider out there that allows you to pay for their services at the end of the month, simply to prove they're not going to fail as miserably as Netfirms did for me this week.
Once paid, Netfirms didn't care what happened to me, my site, or my domain. This scenario seems to be too true and too common in the technology service industry. There are technical things in this world that I don’t understand, and don’t want to understand. The people that make the machines work will always have my full respect and adoration. Even trust. They should trust me in return to pay them for a job well done.
With all of that said, I recommend Netfirms for customer service as much as I'd recommend a restaurant that makes you puke.
Netfirms: a radical don’t
Service for a fee: a radical do.
Consumers, take the power back, give this old classic a visit...
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7 Responses to “Netfirms: a Radical Don’t”
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April 11th, 2007
April 11th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Glad to see Radical Trust is back online! ;+)
April 11th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Thanks Bill…
It’s good to be back.
collin
April 11th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Collin:
I really liked your analogy of technology and food:
- they both fuel something else (content creation, meal -> enjoyment)
- they both cost little at the start, take some work to set up and can yield amazing results
- they can both go horribly wrong quickly and spoil (pardon the pun) the experience
Good food for thought on the pay-up-front, too.
April 12th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Thanks for the comment Valeria!
A great metaphor best served cold!
cheers
collin
April 13th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Netfirms emailed us yesterday to let us know our site was back online. The geniuses suggested they fixed the problem when if fact, we went to a new company and it was up again in a matter of hours.
stay away from NetFIRMS! Stay away!
April 13th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Good to have Radical Trust back. I was afraid an April Fools joke had gone awry.
Interesting idea on the “pay upon receipt of service” concept. I can see most web firms shying away in fear that people will just disappear without paying; but that’s largely paranoia, I would think. I’d like to see how something like that would turn out.
Who did you switch to, if I may ask?
April 18th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Hi Jason
Hooked up with Webnames.ca for my registrar. Can’t vouch for them yet, but they got me up in a 10th of the time that it took for Netfirms to return my call.
cheers
collin