

Do the Right Thing: A lesson by Netflix - rodericksilva
http://www.rodericksilva.com/post/1546097944/do-the-right-thing-a-lesson-by-netflix

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jbail
We had a discussion at a previous software company I worked at regarding
credits for outages.

We were debating whether to give out credits automatically or to send an email
with a link to get your credits (like Netflix did). We went with giving
credits automatically.

I'd be curious to hear opinions on both approaches and why other businesses
went one way or the other regarding credits.

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rodericksilva
Why not do both? Give the credit and send the email.

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jmreid
I wonder how many people don't redeem the credit. Those who didn't have an
issue might feel guilty doing it but happy to know that Netflix cares enough
to inform it's entire base.

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rodericksilva
I never noticed so I didn't claim. I figured they should get "paid" for their
honesty.

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isleyaardvark
More like "Do the Cheap Thing". The email says he has a 1-DVD plan, which is
$10 a month. So he gets a whopping 30 cent credit. Imagine if you were a
customer who actually had noticed the issue. Would you consider 30 cents to be
reasonable credit? All this is, is cheap advertising. A marketing gimmick.

The way to judge a companies customer service is to look at how they handle a
problem you have. One of the reasons I have a negative view of Netflix is
because I had a problem with their service, and they handled it poorly. I'm
still unhappy about it. So if you're thinking about how wonderful Netflix's
customer service, ask yourself if you ever ran into a problem significant
enough for you to contact Netflix, and how they dealt with it. I think a lot
of the praise for Netflix's customer service is either based on cheap
marketing like this, or (and I have to give them credit), the easy
process/leeway they give to common problems (wrong/damaged DVD).

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drags
3% is about one day's worth of service. Seems pretty fair to me to refund for
the amount of time the service was unavailable.

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andyv
Netflix goes farther than that.

People used to accuse them of sometimes shipping from a non-local center in
order to let the mail delay slow down the rental cycle, cutting costs by
throttling the service.

Now, if a movie is not available at the nearest center, they'll still ship
from the remote center, but they'll temporarily give you an extra DVD, shipped
from your local center. For a minimal cost, they've completely shut down this
criticism...

All I can say is... Wow.

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baddox
I bet even deliberate false positives like this would make customers feel that
a company cares about them.

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rodericksilva
I know they don't love me but it's much better than what most do.

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The_Igor
I have always been pleased with Netflix as a customer. Adding instant watch at
no additional charge was something I really admired as well when they first
rolled it out.

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staunch
On the other hand they're charging me $10/mo for a 1-DVD plan when all I use
is Watch Instantly. It's still a good price, but I'd rather pay $7/mo for a
no-DVD plan.

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sebg
I always appreciate when companies do this. They build social capital ahead of
major outages. This is something I try to keep in mind when helping other
people or working on my projects - How can I take care of people so they don't
need to worry about whether I am taking care of them or not.

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radioactive21
All I ask from a company is replace or refund for a product that is bad. Make
the process quick and easy.

I recently had my Kindle's USB cable start cracking and literally crumbling
apart. The plastic casing for the cable was very cheap, you bend it and it
just cracks.

Called up Amazon and they immediately had me log in, added replacement to my
cart, with free 1 day shipping. It took about 5 minutes. Guy was very polite.

Stuff like that, is what gets customers talking positively about your company.

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LiveTheDream
I got this email a few days after experiencing trouble with Netflix (on Safari
on a Mac Mini). The movie false-started a few times and didn't work, and I
moved on to some other entertainment. That was the first time I'd ever had
trouble with Netflix, and I was equally pleased by their customer service.

