This blog post is worth a quick read. Hat tip to Gavin for finding it.

I love talking about customer service. It's one thing to call out bad customer service, but it's just as important to help bring focus to good customer service. This story certainly fits the bill.

Man, now that's personal business.

I just read Gavin's post on using tootsie rolls to bribe upset customers. Completely ignoring the humor behind Gavin at an Amscot, that has to be the most brilliantly laid plan I've ever heard. Follow that up with Marc Andreessen's reposting of a woot.com customer service letter, and well.. I guess I'm just in the mood to wax on the subject some.

Humor is a double edged sword. Too many people think that they are funny who aren't, and when they try to mix in their cheesy jokes in a presentation or an email, the whole thing can fall apart. In the case of customer service, I'd suspect thats especially true. Fortunately for woot.com, they totally pull it off. They know their audience, they know the demographic and they write to it. Simply reading the letter makes me excited to see what the next woot off is, and I don't even know the context in which it was written.

I'm probably not likely to find my self in an amscot (a check cashing type place) anytime soon, but it is an interesting case study. The jest of it is, for those who didn't see the post, is that whenever a customer is made to wait or is otherwised bothered, they slide them a free tootsie roll. I'd love to see the data for before and after implementing that. We Americans love our candy, and it's just enough of a gesture to give us pause. It might cost them ten cents a customer, but how much does it end up saving them? Hell.. marketing wise, here I am writing about it on the internet.

In the case of Emurse, we do our best to hand reply to everything that comes our way. At first, I was super snappy in getting back to folks. 4am and they'd have a response in 30 seconds. When that happens, there is a huge chance that they'll upgrade to a premium membership. There's most certainly a direct correlation. Unfortunately, as we've grown, it becomes much harder to get back to folks as quickly as I'd like. All the sudden, things like standard replies for certain issues and FAQ type answers seem logical. We haven't made the move to that yet, but it may sadly be inevitable. I can't keep spending my weekends on gmail, ya know? The question then is whether or not such a change would affect conversions. Would they be higher, would they be lower? I don't know. If they're lower, would it justify hiring someone to do nothing but respond to emails and blog posts? Maybe.

There's some sort of old fashioned attraction that I think most people share. Something that responds positively to a high level of service. It's a simple acknowledgment that you, as a customer, are an actual person living an actual life. The anonymity of business, especially online, makes transactions all too often boring and stale.

Chris Heuer gave a presentation at blogOrlando where he talked about business becoming personal again. In context, it was specifically about real life social networks and how we're all more tied. Individuals have been impowered through social media kind of stuff. I wonder though, if that mindset, that personal feeling towards business, will gravitate to other aspects of the market? I'd love to see less cost cutting on customer service, and a more human voice out of companies instead.

Apparently, the CEO of Spirit Airlines doesn't understand how the "Reply to All" button works. I've received e-mails directly from Spirit Airlines folks not wanting to have their name mentioned on my blog suggesting to me that Spirit's current problems originate at the top. With all their layoffs (outsourcing, I'm told) it's tough to say. But this really does seem to back it up.

A curious comment from Christy came in earlier on the Spirit Airlines post tipping us off. Basically, she and her husband sent in a complaint, and Ben Baldanza hit "reply to all" with his jerky response. Christy was kind enough to forward me the full e-mail she received, including headers showing the e-mail originating from legitimate Spirit Airlines servers.

Taken by itself, I'd shrug my shoulders. Just another arrogant CEO. In context to the now 80+ comment thread taking place on this blog, it would seem that Spirit Airlines doesn't even understand the basics of modern customer service. Judging by the e-mail sent to Christy, they don't care to learn.

Christy found the e-mail addresses for the Spirit Airlines executive team because a user identifying themselves as "John Smith" posted them here. Just in case, you know, you'd like to join in. (no need to flame, just share with them your experiences.)

Stuck on the Palmetto was right. Spirit Airlines does in fact suck, and neither myself, nor SotP, are alone in feeling that way. Who knew.

Here's the e-mail, which was sent not just to Ben Baldanza's colleagues, but also to Christy. I'm following the text with the complete e-mail/headers (including what he was responding to) for anyone doubting the legitimacy.

UPDATE (8/22): I went through and removed everyone's last names except for Mr. Baldanza's. Originally, I left them thinking it might help someone legitimize this e-mail. These folks are just trying to do their jobs, and this isn't meant to be a personal attack in any way. It's not even about Christy and her husband's specific complaint, it's about the way that it was handled in context to the now 100+ thread of customer service issues.

UPDATE #2: Consumerist picks up on the story. (in addition to Gadling, SotP, Jaunted, Elliot.org, Upgrade: Travel Better and others) I posted a follow up on all my various thoughts here.

UPDATE #3: BEFORE COMMENTING, PLEASE DEAR GOD FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH OUR CONVERSATION. This is not the "start" of the discussion. This was taken out of the comment section of a larger post. Orlando Sentinel is the only media outlet that I've actually spoken to, and their story is probably the best starting point outside of the original post.
Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him nothing as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He's never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny.

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My Spirit Airlines rant is now third when searching for Spirit Airlines on google. Yikes!

So.. Gavin and I saw a commercial a couple days ago for Vongo.com -- a new movie service that lets you stream movies for $9.99. Basically, it's my dream come true. If I could do it from my tivo, I'd pay probably three times that.

But I wasn't without questions. I travel a lot, and since I travel a lot, a lot of my dvd watching takes place on planes. Can vongo fill this need?

Eric Becker from Vongo responded via a blog comment yesterday. Here's the kicker though, I never actually asked the question, and was completely shocked to see someone answer a question I never got around to asking. Huh.

Turns out, Gavin did over at HowSo, but HowSo doesn't support comments. At least, thats what we think happened. The point is, Vongo's got mad service -- that's how you pander to bloggers, listen to what's being said, and answer questions timely. Too bad OS/X users are currently locked out... but..

Either way, I'll anxiously be waiting for mac support.. From what I saw on Gavin's laptop, the site looks incredible (he runs a pc, like the rest of the unclean.)