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37signals versus Get Satisfaction

micWell, one of my assistants tipped me off to an interesting debate going on between 37signals and Get Satisfaction. You can find the details here:

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1650-get-satisfaction-or-else

To summarize and over simplify, 37signals is mad because Get Satisfaction had a page out there where people were asking questions about their products. It was not obvious (enough) to some that this was not an official channel for support from 37signals and as such 37signals reputation was damaged because of this. They’re probably right.

However, should we be surprised? You could easily substitute Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. and the post would have looked exactly the same. The reality is that people will talk about you, your company, your products, etc. whether you like it or not. The answer is not to try and control these conversations, but to effectively participate in them. You need tools to better manage these conversations regardless of the platform. I am not at all ashamed to tell you is this is exactly what we are trying to help you do. With ChatterBox we want to let you find these conversations and participate even if it is not coming through an official channel.

There are a lot of comments on the 37signals post on both sides. It is worth a read. Just to set the record straight, I am a huge fan of both companies. That’s not easy for a monkey like me to say.

P.S.: I thought about adding some nice battling logos here, but with all the litigation talks on that thread, I figured it was best not to do that.  So, I used the mic logo instead.  If you don’t like it, sue me.  Um wait. Don’t do that.  Please send me a polite email offline requesting to take it down.

P.P.S.: 37signals please don’t be mad. We’re not even out the door yet and I would hate to end up on the wrong side of one of your posts… I’ll send over some ripe bananas if that will help.

- Charlie

Update: Get Satisfaction created a blog post on the topic as well: http://blog.getsatisfaction.com/2009/03/31/kissing-and-making-up-with-37signals/

Update 2: There is now also an open letter to Jason Fried: http://blog.getsatisfaction.com/2009/03/31/open-letter-to-jason-fried/

Update 3: 37signals posted a response on their earlier posting: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1661-follow-up-on-get-satisfaction-or-else

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Posted by: charlie  |  April 1, 2009  |  categories: Social Media  |  tags: , ,

Eric Suesz April 1, 2009 | 10:53am

Nice one! I like your take on it.

SB April 1, 2009 | 12:41pm

“The reality is that people will talk about you, your company, your products, etc. whether you like it or not. The answer is not to try and control these conversations, but to effectively participate in them.”

I think the problem was not so much the conversation (far worse things about 37S have been said on Reddit/Digg etc. and 37S never cared) but the fact that GS:

1) implied that their page was an ‘official’ 37S customer support forum (logo and all)

2) tagged on a statement saying that 37S was ‘not committed to an open conversation’ (paraphrased)

Bonnie Gibbons April 2, 2009 | 3:57pm

The main issue is that users might post their problems on Get Satisfaction, and blame 37 Signals when their issue didn’t get resolved. If I did customer service and even one of my customers decided I provided lousy service because I never answered the issue they submitted in good faith, I’d be absolutely furious.

A secondary issue is that the insulting wording about the the company (now changed) combined with the number of unsatisfied users waiting for answers could be used to “aggressively market to” the target company into becoming paying clients of GS. The presence of AdWords, showing competitor ads, was another “selling point.” Join GS for $99/month and those ads go away.

A tertiary issue is the sometimes sticky use of someone else’s brand to profit from SEO and SEM traffic.

charlie April 2, 2009 | 5:40pm

Thanks for the comments! Believe me, I understand the concern. What I believe, though, is that it’s going to be harder and harder to control these types of situations. Think of how easy it is to go on Twitter and create a handle called “Official37Signals” and start tweeting pretending to be them. This is true of any of the social networks. There is no official way to represent that a person/company/organization/etc is truly the identity they claim to be on that network.

So, folks should be defensive. There are lots of good suggestions out there for how to try and keep a handle on these conversations. Here is a good article for Twitter:

http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/03/31/how-to-monitor-online-conversations/

We’re working hard on a tool to hopefully make some of this easier, too.

I definitely appreciate the feedback.

- Charlie

John Moorhead May 8, 2009 | 3:40am

After seeing this debate, we also wrote a response here: http://facollective.com/2009/04/24/siteremark/

It just so happens that we were creating a competing product that still helped a company communicate, but it was true, honest and transparent communication. The technology is virtually imbedded into the company’s site.

It is about helping the company, not taking it hostage.

http://www.siteremark.com

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