June 16, 2008
First day at the new job.
Wish me luck.
Posted by Your Protagonist at 03:22 PM | |
June 13, 2008
My 2008 Electoral College predictions
The day before Barack Obama quit his church, I almost blogged my suspicion that he'd do so. Imagine if I'd posted that piece of punditry: page views through the roof, and a grateful nation turning to me for more sage-like political analysis.
I couldn't let you all down again, so here's my prediction for the electoral college outcome. I really wanted to color AZ blue just to wind up the McCainiacs out there, but my friends, now is not the time for petty attacks.
Posted by Your Protagonist at 02:01 PM | |
May 26, 2008
Herb Alpert & Lani Hall, Yoshi's SF, 5/25/08
Years ago, while browsing the entertainment listings in the back of one of the free weeklies, I read that the great Nina Simone was scheduled to play SF Civic Auditorium. A lifelong fan of the High Priestess of Soul, I asked a few friends if they wanted to come along.
As it happened, the people I asked either weren't aware of her or already had standing plans (unless they were just letting me down gently). For lack of a companion, I ended up not going.
When I read her obituary about a 18 months later, regret coursed through me like an electric current. I can even recall a bitter, metallic taste.
I've come to understand myself a little better since then, which is why I purchased tickets to see Herb Alpert and Lani Hall in concert immediately after reading this review of their performance at Joe's Pub in New York.
Herb Alpert singularly informed popular music as a performer and producer. He shaped my tastes -- the transistor radio I possessed in the early 70s received only AM stations. Alpert is 73 years old, but it wasn't his age that compelled me to buy two tickets on the center aisle. It was the thought, "How many chances will you get to see Herb Alpert live in concert?"
Since the only logical answer was "I don't know," a decision was easily made.
Liz and I had a fine time at Yoshi's, our first trip to the new SF venue. The show was truly memorable -- a blend of traditional and Brazilian jazz, occasionally salted with a few bars from Greatest Hits material like "The Mexican Shuffle." Rather un-self-consciously, he seamlessly appended the beginning of "This Guy's In Love With You" to the end of "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face." His three-piece backing band was aces, though the pianist seemed a bit workmanlike to me.
Lani Hall's voice is in great shape. She fronted Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 and sounds just as smooth today as when she recorded "Mas Que Nada."
I wanted to hear some of the old stuff, but he didn't delve deeply into the back catalog, nor did he need to. He gave us just enough to satisfy the craving, but no more. C'mon -- he's Herb freaking Alpert! Everyone in that room could have hummed "Spanish Flea" in unison, it's so deep in our cultural DNA. Instead of exhuming his oldies, he spoke enthusiastically to the audience between songs, taking questions and telling stories.
Another thing that was particularly nice to see: he and Lani Hall really seem to be a lot in love. People on stage are intensely aware of how they present themselves, but there was something unguarded and open about the way they looked at each other that spoke to a deep and abiding connection. At least twice, he referred to her as "my bride" with that sense of awe and disbelief that nerdy guys sometimes display when they speak of the woman who said "yes."
Or so I hear, anyway.
Posted by Your Protagonist at 11:41 AM | |
April 22, 2008
I love my wife.
More than anything.
Posted by Your Protagonist at 12:26 AM | |
March 29, 2008
A timely response from Kayak CTO Paul English
(Sorry for the delay in posting this, but my excuse involves a hard drive failure, a clean room and much gnashing of teeth.)
Last week, I received a personal response from Kayak CTO Paul English after I blogged about a nasty post on their corporate blog that was published in response to a customer inquiry.
When I contacted him, I indicated that I'd share his response here. I've redacted his personal contact info, but here's his message:
Hi Walter,As I already said -- we screwed up. I pulled the dumb blog entry quickly for obvious reasons. This is common business practice.
Let me tell you a little bit about customer support at Kayak...
We have 50 employees, and last month we processed over 34 million consumer queries for travel. Any time any consumer has a question and contacts us - by phone or by instant message or by email - they get a personal response from me, or from my cofounder, or from one of our engineers or other team members.
Do you know any other major brand Internet companies who require that their company provide personal responses to every customer inquiry?
(FYI, I have a large screen monitor hung outside my office which charts our feedback response volume and response time per employee. And FYI, I'm usually in the top three of responders, even though I travel extensively.)
I am obsessed with customer service. Which is why I make our "overpaid" :) engineers do customer service. So we can connect with customers every day, having every Kayak employee learning from customers every single day.
Do you know other major brand Internet companies where every engineer (not just some customer service department) communicates with customers every day?
Walter, I do take this stuff seriously.
I'm sorry we screwed up. But I'm glad you called us on it.
Let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to speak about this stuff at any time.
I'm glad to know that Kayak takes customer service so seriously, but I think a point I made earlier still stands -- they didn't see their blog as part of an integrated community/customer service strategy.
Perhaps this was a teaching moment -- a commenter here directed my attention to a helpful, recent post over at Kayak that offers real value and directly addresses customers'needs..
Posted by Your Protagonist at 02:21 PM | |
March 21, 2008
Improved customer service from Kayak.com
In a previous post, I described how Kayak.com's corporate blogger publicly ridiculed some customers who took the time to write in and ask about a feature that would suit their needs. According to Liz, Kayak's API would permit the requested feature (which orbitz.com currently offers).
She contacted Kayak to point out a technical solution to the customer's question, but because her comment on their blog was subject to moderation before publication, she posted a comment on her own blog as well.
I pasted the full text of the insulting Kayak post here with a link back to the original page; click here to read it. Sorry, no screenshot. This afternoon, Liz noticed that the snarky post had been edited. We were in the car on the way to Caltrain, so I didn't have a chance to read the revised version on her iPhone.
She said it omitted this part --
Did your teachers always tell you there’s no such thing as a dumb question? Yeah, us too…but sometimes you have to wonder what people are thinking when they leave feedback on a site.
-- and said the revised article was presented as just a fun new Friday feature designed to initiate a conversation with customers.
By the time I got home, the edited version of the post was deleted entirely, leaving only a 404 Not Found.
Because I wasn't sure whether my feedback would ever clear the Kayak blog moderator, I'd posted it to my blog so there'd be a record of their original post and my response. Glad I did.
I also sent a note via the corporate contact form on Kayak's site. I'm glad about that, too, since it gave someone a chance to respond. I was hoping that because it's a startup, there'd be a number of execs on the email alias that accepts customer feedback.
Even though it was Friday evening east coast time, someone who identified himself as Kayak.com co-founder and CTO Paul English posted a reply at Cracking Foxy:
We screwed this one up big time. You won't ever see anyone from Kayak ever making fun of one of our customers again. This is very anti-Kayak.My apologies.
--Paul
Paul English | 03.21.08 - 7:47 pm
If there was an attempt to clean up the offending post and hope that all the snark had been sucked into the memory hole, I think that compounded the initial mistake. I know deleting the post was the best choice from their perspective, but it took away an opportunity to engage customers. I would have openly and immediately apologized for the faux pas before judo-flipping my mea culpa into a larger discussion of how valued customer feedback is to our organization.
And then, I would blog about customer feedback every damn Friday until air travel is supplanted by teleportation.
From a marketing perspective, leaving that post as it was originally published would be a non-starter. Instinctively, most firms minimize any public instances in which employees make fun of customers.
But, from a community perspective, it's hard to see the benefit of pretending something doesn't happen, especially after someone's called you out on it. If the person who submitted that feedback read it on the corporate blog, I'll bet you one first-class upgrade that they will now go out of their way to tell others not to use Kayak. Those crazy retirees sure do have a lot of time on their hands!
I sent my thumbnail of the situation to Seth Godin, who said he'd look into it. Seth, please link here and here, k thx.
I haven't spoken to anyone at Kayak, but my best guess is that no one is taking their blog or feedback channels seriously when it comes to using their customer base -- a community of interest -- to help propel their products. If the blog was really considered an integral part of how Kayak presents itself to customers (many of whom are real fans like me and Liz), this would never have occurred. Just my opinion.
And Paul -- if that's really you -- you get points for responding over on Cracking Foxy. If you're interested in elaborating on what transpired today, please send a note to info at gaudypatter dot com, and I'll be glad to post it here.
Posted by Your Protagonist at 08:31 PM | |
Simply awful customer service from Kayak.com
Apparently, Kayak.com thinks reprising MAD Magazine's "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" is the best model for their corporate blog:
Feedback of the Week (New!)by Tyler
Did your teachers always tell you there’s no such thing as a dumb question? Yeah, us too…but sometimes you have to wonder what people are thinking when they leave feedback on a site.
Now, every Friday you can check out the “Feedback of the Week” and see what users are saying, thinking, and need help with from Kayak.com…leave a comment and let’s see how YOU would answer!
Here’s the first installment:
“We are RETIRED, Flight dates are NOT important to us ONLY THE PRICE IS!
Please make it possible to search “within a window” say; in the month of April, OR From April 15 to May 15. I believe you do a lot of people a pleasure.
Please reply by E-mail
Thank you”Now is your chance to show us how we should be answering feedback! Leave a comment below.
Liz has blogged about this over at Cracking Foxy, but here's the comment I left in response to Tyler's post, just in case it doesn't pass Kayak's moderation:
I'm more than a little shocked that you'd insult your customers like this instead of thanking them for their suggestion. I'm a veteran of several startups, and many great ideas sprang from observing how our users interacted with the products we'd offered in ways we hadn't anticipated.You may not know this, but many retired people live on fixed incomes. Since they're not working, travel price is more important than the travel date. I'm guessing Kayak's API would easily accommodate this feature. One suggestion: have Kayak's product marketing team create a keyword-rich landing page with calls to action for retirees who are seeking a winter getaway or a trip to see grandchildren.
Travel searches that are pegged only to a time window could provide value for many people -- why are you making fun of them?
If you're going to represent Kayak on this corporate blog, please do a little research about community-based marketing and product management. The suggestions and requests you don't anticipate can lead you in positive directions, if you have the ability to listen. This is a valuable teaching moment for you -- I hope you can admit your mistake and learn from it.
Sorry if this comes off as sanctimonious, but I'm really staggered by your tone.(disclaimer: I share an IP address with someone else who's left a comment.)
Posted by Your Protagonist at 04:18 AM | |
