The Importance of Customer Service (and listening to your customers)
Wednesday, October 11, 2006 at 6:59 AM
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If you want to hold your finger to the pulse of what Sirius' customers are truly feeling, there's no better source than Sirius Backstage. It amasses the largest online community of Sirius customers (and potential customers) into a single hyperactive website.
While Sirius Canada is busy trying to solicit feedback by building an online community of their own, there already exists is a well established (and independent) thriving community today.
So when Sirius Backstage writes a piece on the poor quality of Sirius' Customer Service, you better hope that the suits at Sirius are listening. A company that ignores it's online buzz is a company with it's head in the sand - the influence of online communities has never been stronger - and managing online WoM has never been so important. And if consumer-generated websites are poo-poo'd by management, perhaps similar complaints on more major media sites like SI.com will raise the alarm?
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Comments
The same goes with XM and XM411 and XMFan. I know for a fact that XM has people that read the forums... people in programming, people in suits (ok, so they might have someone do it for them), people in technology development... Many changes have been made over time due to postings on unofficial fan forums. Even though we (the users of such forums) only make up a small percentage of the total subscriber count, we're the most vocal, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease. :-)
Posted by: MikeV ? | October 11, 2006 8:01 AM
Hey Ryan - does anyone from XM or Sirius tell you they read anything here?
Posted by: Pete ? | October 11, 2006 12:45 PM
Pete: Constantly. :) Both companies have a very different approach to fostering an online community though... that may be a subject for an entirely different post though.
MikeV: As they should. Online communities can gather intelligence far more efficiently and accurately than any focus groups or study. Yes, the obvious trolls need to be ignored, but the overall voice of the community is extremely valuable to any company.
Posted by: Ryan Saghir ? | October 11, 2006 2:44 PM
I have nothing but kudos for the Mods at XM411, and the site in general. A unique and intellignet crowd of people who are IMHO the best out there.
Posted by: plowboy1 | October 11, 2006 6:14 PM
Heh, just wondering if anyone saw my rant on the XM rock channels' "muddled" programming... ;-)
Posted by: Pete ? | October 11, 2006 10:05 PM
Ryan, you are exactly correct. The Internet is the future and all companies should pay attention to it. XM and Sirius should both communicate with blogs and forums (and perhaps make their own blog to communicate), this could go a long way in improving their services.
Posted by: TW | October 12, 2006 12:56 AM