Happy New Year everyone, some people are still in 2014 while this is being composed, but hour by hour each part of the world will join the wonder that will be 2015.
I was checking my email this morning and came across a note from the CEO of SmartSheet. They produce an amazing tool for business collaboration, powerful spreadsheet functionality, gantt charts along with a raft of cool tools.
What struck me with this letter was the fact that Mark was upfront, no sugar coating, just told it as it was, they had problems, took action and resolved it. The approach to tell their customers exactly what went down I feel was something other CEO’s should take on board. I hate not knowing what went wrong when tech doesn’t work, worse I hate being lied to and hoodwinked. There are so many services we are dependant on these days, glitches are going to occur. Of course I’m likely to be upset when it does, but I’ll get over it. It goes a long way to keeping my custom when letters like the one above are sent though.
The other thing that I noticed is the phrase … “Your passion and commentary exhibited on social, email, and via phone” – how often do we vent on Twitter or other social media outlets when something is wrong, and it got me wondering how healthy or fair that really is for a business. In the case above there was a problem, but a quick look at some accounts and you can see individuals ranting and publicly ridiculing products when in fact the issue was their lack of understanding or knowledge on how to do something.
Well, kudos to Mark for the letter and I hope as we usher in 2015 more companies will be transparent when dealing with the masses.
HAPPY NEW YEAR !