
37signals sent me a gift for pwning their leaderboard - bengarvey
http://www.bengarvey.com/2011/09/23/37signals-sent-me-a-gift-for-pwning-their-leaderboards/
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kloncks
Reminds me of what Paul Graham once said:

 _Offer surprisingly good customer service._

 _Customers are used to being maltreated. Most of the companies they deal with
are quasi-monopolies that get away with atrocious customer service. Your own
ideas about what's possible have been unconsciously lowered by such
experiences. Try making your customer service not merely good, but
surprisingly good. Go out of your way to make people happy. They'll be
overwhelmed; you'll see._

<http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html>

~~~
georgemcbay
The great thing about delivering surprisingly good service these days is the
bar is so low. Treat your customer like a human being and they'll be very
surprised.

~~~
skrebbel
Remarkably true.

Anecdote: first real customer (a reseller) of a consumer product that involved
cell phone apps, web services and custom hardware. He had to drive by his
customer 3 times because our product failed 3 times (hardware failure,
configuration mistake, error in the manual). Each time the phone rang at our
office we were slightly afraid it was him again. Most of the times, it was.

After it was all over and the product flew and the consumer was happy, the
reseller sent us a mail about how much he enjoyed working with us and how we
really cared about him and his customer. We had given him cause to drive to
his customer, 100km away, 3 times too often. We expected an angry resignation,
not compliments!

The bar really is ridiculously low.

~~~
moe
With large companies the bar is often as low as being able to reach a human at
all.

Anyone ever try to report a bug to Apple? It's a black hole.

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eekfuh
This reminds me of when I pointed out an exploit on Zappos' website to them.
They gave me a $100 GC to use on their site.

Companies like 37Signals and Zappos are full of great people and know how to
show their appreciation.

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ashishgandhi
Reminds me of when I couldn't find a Smart Cover for my iPad. Frustrated I
emailed Steve Jobs and the next day I got a call from Ireland (I was in India
then) and they delivered one to me at my home. India does not have an online
(or offline for that matter) store and they don't do deliveries. Big company,
very good customer experience for me with the first Apple product I bought
myself.

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briandear
I love the 37signals guys, the Pragmatic Programming guys as well as the
Pivotal Tracker folks and the guys at Hashrocket. They really seem to put that
Rework stuff into practice. Contrast those people to the Facebook-type
companies that seem to essentially ignore individuals in favor of scale.

It IS possible for companies both large and small to provide some personal
touches to their service and really make their users feel special. It pays
dividends. The cost of those beer glasses and shipping was minimal, but the
value added to their brand was incalculable. The best part is that they
practice customer service like that quietly -- they aren't always talking
about how great they are simply as a marketing ploy -- they quietly do great
things.

For example, I am based in Shanghai and last weekend they had a server issue
that affected some of my users' Basecamp access here in China (although for
some reason my access had no issues) -- I emailed them about it and they
responded back within a few hours with specific fixes they did in response to
my general problem. They didn't just BS me and say that everything was now
fine -- they actually took action. By the time I received their response, the
problem was fixed and my users were back to full-speed access.

I've had similar good fortune with Andy Hunt and his folks at Pragmatic --
personal responses, sincere actions and quality followup. It's a simple
formula that should be taught in business schools because so many companies
seem to ignore that a single customer is the fundamental unit of your success
(or failure.)

I have a little psychology app we developed and it's amazing how surprised
users are when you take the time to email them back and respond to their
suggestions, complaints or compliments directly. Just from my limited
experience with my app users, it would appear that very few companies take a
personalized, sincere interest in their users. Nearly every time I've
responded to users emails (always within 8 hours, usually within 1,) I get a
baffled response expressing appreciation. Excerpt: "Wow! Thanks so much for
getting back to me about [my suggestions.] I never expected a response at all,
let alone such a nice email. I appreciate it that you'll be incorporating
[some my feature requests] into [the app] so quickly."

I'm not trying to blow my own horn, but merely illustrate that users are
starved of personal respect and a sincere interest in them. Users should
expect personal respect and thanks; it shouldn't come as a surprise! 37signals
and some of the aforementioned companies (as well as Zappos et al,) are doing
it right. Users deserve the best efforts of companies. After all, we serve the
user -- not the other way around!

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azulum
details matter in both product design and customer service

i had a second hand 12" powerbook G4 with applecare that gave me a lot of
problems—i think it was seven screens of death—bad joojoo. anyway, it had
finally gotten that usual suspects replaced all at once, and it worked fine,
until the week applecare expired and the devil came to take back it's own. so
the guys at the mac experience gave me a number to call and the conversation
went something like this:

 _so, i love the idea of this computer, but it doesn't seem to love me, any
chance i could get fair market value for it or something?_

_well let me take a look at its history_

and after two minutes or so

_well you're out of warranty…_

PAUSE _(oh shit, i'll have to sell it for parts on ebay)_

_…but that's a lot of fixes and we're gonna go ahead and settle with you.
since we no longer make a 12" powerbook, what would you like a 13" macbook or
a 15" macbook pro_

let's just say that that was the last thing i expected.

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typicalrunt
This title is mis-leading. "Pwn" is used in a humiliating sense, like hacking
a website. Pwning has never meant to become the person who helps the most
people.

However, kudos to this guy. I like when companies reward volunteers for their
hard work. Even if it's just a small token of appreciation. I wish more
companies did this.

~~~
latortuga
Online gamers often use pwn in the sense of "I accomplished a feat". In this
sense, he has made it near to the top of the list of their board. I don't
think anyone would argue that he was using pwned to mean "helped people".

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jrockway
Just thought I'd point out that you might want to blur your mailing address /
phone number. Probably doesn't matter, but who knows.

~~~
davidandgoliath
He's hoping for more beer related goodies shipped to him :)

~~~
briandear
At least now we all know where to go for great beer (and we know he has at
least 6 glasses with which to serve us!) So perhaps the next HN meet up could
be at that dude's house.. :)

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davidandgoliath
This reminds me of a few situations I was involved in back Not too many moons
ago I acquired a salaried position for helping out members of a company's
forum. Turned into years of learning and morphed into what I do today.

Kudos to 37signals for appreciating your contributions :)

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aclements18
This one has Gary Vaynerchuk's "Thank You Economy" written all over it.

