North American Network Operators Group

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Re: The MSN Messenger

  • From: Peter Galbavy
  • Date: Mon Jul 09 12:26:03 2001

> In our last poll, I asked if our customers wanted the "Alerts"
stopped.  To my >surprise, a 100% of the users that replied stated, "No,
keep up the good work."  So, I >don't believe you can go wrong,  if you
keep your customers informed.  It doesn't >matter if you are an ISP or a
Software Company.  The more information you can supply >to the customer,
the happier the customer.  Even if they don't understand everything >in
the e-mail...

I agree that 'real' customers are happy knowing about problems and their
state. The unfortunate thing that I have observed over the years is that
there is a downward spiral that can occur to many service providers (not
just Internet) when they 'mature'.

Your marketing-droid decides to appeal to it's peer group in so-called
blue-chip companies, so that they can start charging more for the same
service, since the other marketing-droid (customer) doesn't care about
prices, but about being seen to buy 'the right thing' (whatever the
fashion might be in that industry). You grow selling this high value
service. Of course, after some time you, the service provider, thinks
that this is now your core market - without realising you are mearly a
fashion victim - and then style-over-substance sets in. Meanwhile, the
original high value customer base is moving on to the next big thing,
but you cannot go back to the old ways, that would be 'unprofessional'.

'It has to look right' is the cry, and 'shareholders must not see fault
reports' is another. 'Making our faults public will affect the stock
price.' La di da...

Peter