Six Apart Once Again is a Model for Service
Everyone who has issues with customer service from time to time should take a page from Six Apart's blogging playbook. They are consistent in how they explain when their TypePad service is lagging, which it has been over the past few days. TypePad powers this site. Unfortunately, my blog was down for hours on Tuesday (as was Scott Adams' Dilbert blog on the day it debuted), yet the CEO took the time to email me. I am sure they will work out their issues as they begin to migrate to their new architecture, Project Comet.
Technorati Tags: CustomerService, Six Apart, TypePad
Steve,
Yes, of course the CEO of Six Apart took time to email you - he's not stupid. He didn't email me, though my blog was down as well.
I'm sure it is problematic growing at the rate they are - but they should be able to anticipate it better. To announce that you 'ran out of space' in your hosting centre frankly doesn't cut the mustard here. Some things we allow for, disasters, catastrophes, but running out of space - that's Hosting 101, surely?
Posted by: Ivan Pope | Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 09:05 AM
Amen. Six Apart has been customer-focused from day 1 when it was just two people. I've been using MovableType since its early days and could always find help and fast.
The best thing to do when things are going wrong in a business is to owe up to it not try to duck the issue like Kryptonite did with its bike locks.
Posted by: Meryl K. Evans | Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 09:09 AM
Millions of sites were down Steve. And for a number of hours. I didn't realise it was down until 2 posts just sat there going nowhere and a 'Gateway error' message came up - whatever that means. At one point none of the TypePad sites could be viewed let alone anything else. I wonder how many others were affected in that way. There was no notification in my TypePad control panel, no email. You must be one of the chosen few...
Posted by: Dennis Howlett | Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 10:08 AM
Too generous in your praise, Steve. A model for service? I don't think so.
TypePad has had service issues at least since mid year. Still unresolved. So we now have some information as to precisely what the issues are. According to Mena Trott's post yesterday, they're not small ones.
So it's good to learn a) what those issues are and b) what they're doing about them. I'd say this is their last shot for credibility to permanently fix them.
Posted by: Neville Hobson | Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 11:25 AM
Hi Steve,
I suspect you do get special consideration (not that you don't deserve it!). For the rest of us mortals, we gotta kvetch... and kvetch some more. I'll take a bit of credit for Mena's posting yesterday on her SixApart blog. I've been blogging for weeks about how 6A should be more forthcoming about TypePad's service problems. It's not enough to read those cryptic postings to SixApart's Status Weblog about "temporary service degradations." I'm a TypePad fan (and user) and am also delighted that the top dogs at 6A finally spoke up.
Posted by: Debbie Weil | Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 11:35 AM
Why doesn't Mena demonstrate some good old fashioned accountability and offer a refund or discount on future services? Their outages impacted my business. Perhaps they scale their fees in the future based upon performance? I too found her apology hollow and totally lacking. I don't want apologies. Just results please.
Posted by: Mike Smock | Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 01:06 PM
Must admit I had the same thought about a refund or service extension after reading Mena's post. They should consider it. Too bad 6A's "Fall Special Offer" email arrived in my inbox today. Bad timing. It's hard to get it right. But I'm still sympathetic and hanging in there as a customer.
Posted by: Debbie Weil | Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 06:23 PM
Hi Steve, et al:
I'll offer my own apologies here as an employee at Six Apart. I think Mena and Ben have said it best in their post, but please, if you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to contact me.
Posted by: *ginevra | Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 07:54 PM
Hmmmmm ... nope, wrong. At the BlogOn dinner, I casually mentioned that one of my Typepad blogs was down (the same day yours was) and that there was no message on the homepage - which is where the average user is going to look.
Why should I have to read a corporate blog to find out about issues?
Posted by: Jeremy Pepper | Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 09:32 PM
Steve, if anything your post - and the various responses - point out that Six Apart doesn't think "all" customers are important ... just a select few.
No customer base wide notification? Actually allowing themselves (a hosting provider) to run out of server space? (Is that what happened?) Expecting people to read blogs of company leaders, not the firm's main site?
Amazing that you think preferential treatment to one (or a few) is the model for customer service.
You wouldn't just contact one customer when all deserve the heads up, would you, Steve?
Is that your "NewPR"?
Posted by: Robert French | Thursday, October 27, 2005 at 09:42 PM
I guess that it is clear from many of these comments that you got the wrong spin on this one.
Posted by: Jeff Clavier | Friday, October 28, 2005 at 12:45 AM
Steve, you are the PR Blog dude..no doubt. But I can't help but wonder if six apart is taking customer service lessons from Michel Dell -
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1866256,00.asp
Posted by: Toby | Friday, October 28, 2005 at 01:03 AM