Bootstrapper.com - Confessions of Serial Entrepreneurs

So Bluey got into a car accident last week. Thankfully, she’s okay but she was really shook up and focused on the fact that she left her lip gloss from Body Bakery in the hospital. Now, this sounds trivial but she was under a lot of stress and in pain so I sent a note to the founder of the Body Bakery saying how Bluey loves BB and lost her lip gloss (the one she lost was a special edition not for sale anymore) and you know what - Lia, the founder wrote back the next day AND sent a feel better gift basket. Talk about amazing customer service. She also sent a personal handwritten note and put band-aids on the packaging. Soooo sweet. Bluey loved it and got not just another limited edition lip gloss but a whole bunch of stuff. So to conclude Body Bakery is a great brand with an amazing founder who really understands customer service. Thank you!

Here’s the latest response…they still won’t put me in touch with anyone in charge, gotta love bureaucracy. The intelligent thing to have done would have been to send me a couple of free games and an apology note. Instead I get phone calls and emails. Yay.

Hi Mr.Hecker:

I have been trying to contact you since last week since you re contacted our corporate office. I spoke to you last month which you wrote a bloq about me. I do not know why you have chosen to contact Microsoft again but I will let you know that if you are looking for a call from Kathleen Hogan or Steve Ballmer that it will not happen and as per corporate contacts, I will be your contact.
I am going to attempt calling you on 12/14/2007. If I cannot reach you than, I am going to have to close this case.
I look forward to speaking to you.

Regards;

Frank
Xbox Escalations, Microsoft
1-888-236-0927 ext 7075
reference:1049602553

So if you’ve been following my blog, you will have read how over the weekend XBOX tech support was useless. You may have also read that i got through to voicemail and left KATHLEEN HOGAN - worldwide VP of customer service a voicemail. She has yet to call me back. So I tried calling again today and they wouldn’t connect me. They said I need to establish contact with their executive office in writing. Now, as someone who used to run a call center company and can speak volumes about customer support id like to say Microsoft - you are an idiot. Your top customer support person should always be available to the public. I don’t want to hear any excuses, none. The lifeblood of long term business is customer support. Calling tech support - i found not a single person with real authority beyond a script that i can get on the phone. When I had horrible Treo 600’s years ago (23 of them) I called Sprint’s executive offices and got their top person and she owned up, apologized and sent me the Treo 650 the next day. She did the right thing and i like sprint for it. Microsoft I have to establish contact in writing - wow that is bullshit.

So what am I going to do? Use my contacts to get an introduction to the right person? No.

I am going to cold call Bill Gates. I’m pretty sure their filters to their executive office are down on the weekends so I’m going to cold call him and leave him a voicemail - and EXPECT him to call me back. After all I am a customer of his - shouldn’t he care that his current management is fucking over his baby and throwing it down a well?

Ah the age old question. Very simple answer though: (disclaimer, Indians built this site)

NO
NO
NO

of course there are a few exceptions:
1) you are friends with the developer there (and I mean FRIENDS, not acquientances, if the developer isn’t someone you ask about his family then you will get fucked) - i’m friends with the guy who built this site and trust him.

2) You are a techie yourself and can project manage (I also am a technical project manager with over 30+ sites/tech’s under my belt.)

I don’t care how cheap the project is, don’t do it. You will get burnt and hard. The project will be longer than you thought, design will be shitty and it won’t work out well…

Who am I to say this? I founded an outsourcing company and ran it for 2 years. It was based in New Delhi and I will never recommend for people to outsource anything there again unless they follow my rules.

Now there are 2 other exceptions:
- outsourcing is fine for corporate sites if it is cheap, fast and they have good references
- outsourcing is fine for demos and projects under 2k. If its over 2k find the money and build it in the US.

Why is India bad?

- They don’t speak Amercian English
- They are Yes men by nature meaning they say yes and fuck you later. They do not set realistic expectations
- They are too far away for you to come over and ring their neck if they fuck you and they know that
= you can’t sue them (if you do, you’re probably an idiot)
- They have ZERO training in design. Design is an art and a science. Design is a marketing tool. Indians are taught functional design = does not market well. I dare you to name me 3 sites (do not count digg - they are the exception) built in india that are successful consumer facing sites
- they are 1 year behind in technologies. Tech tends to come out of US and Western Europe. It takes time to filter down. Sure they’ll say they’ve done it but it’s probably one programmer on their team did 2 hours of work on that tech once.
- you are being cheap!

See you’re reading this….marketing works… learn it….

And don’t you love inuendo? it works…

The web2.0 strategy of if its good people will come to you is wrong. Every great idea needs seeding. Just ask Brad Greenspan founder of myspace, the first huge web 2 play. Myspace was seeded by 300 employees telling all of their friends and by sending out millions of emails promoting the site. Always market.

Even if you’re site is invite only market. Do negative pr - make people wish they could have an invite

If you don’t market you fail or you don’t succeed as much as you would if do market.

I don’t care what your investor says, marketing is more important that fucking whizbang product. Go ask Steve Jobs how the EXTREMELY defective nature of ipods hurt their sale?

My GF’s ipod EXPLODED in her ear…

Apple sells millions of them still…Apple has NEVER made a good/useful first generation product. Steve Jobs is just a marketing genius.