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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 March 21, 2008 08:31 PM