Misc. Ramblings

Although you never want to be in a position to provide bad service due to, in equal parts: bad business decisions, software, and hardware failures. If you end up there anyway, I believe it's best to be honest with your customers. Why? Well, it's about trust.

Nobody trusts someone who hasn't been honest with them. I mean, if someone lies to you, even once, without a darned good reason, then you probably won't trust him or her. And if you don't trust someone, you probably won't give your money to them for something you want. By definition, this is a barrier to an open marketplace. Where you are afraid to trade your money for a product or service, everyone looses.

But, over time, if you've built a relationship with your customers based on trust, telling them the truth about your problems will strengthen that trust. I know it sounds a bit paradoxical that letting your customers know about your problems actually increases the probability that they will stay your customers but there you are. By telling them the truth, you increase the probability that they will trade with you.

Of course, you need to lay out a plan that has a reasonable expectation of correcting the problems. But assuming that is the case, being honest with your customers empowers them. It gives them the information they need to make informed decisions. Having done that, they will usually reward you by continuing to trade with you.

Hence, I have nothing but praise for Six Apart's Mena and Ben Trott for writing about their data center problems relating to their TypePad service. I should note that I use their MovablType (MT) application to run my blog. And though it is not perfect, I gave them money to support its development even though the personal version I use is free.

For those that don't want the hassle of installing MT, and are willing to pay a fee, Trott's TypePad service is an option. For as little as $4.95USD per month, you can be up and blogging in no time.

It is their TypePad service that has been having problems over the last few weeks or so. From what Ben says, due to the exceptional growth of the service, and the one-time software/hardware problems, they must move to a bigger data center to handle the three terabytes of data being pumped out by their customers every day. Once the move is completed, I trust that the exceptional service people have come to expect from TypePad will be restored.

For what it's worth, I trust Ben and Mena. Even though I've been a critic of MT when I felt there were problems. But SixApart has made an effort to address those problems. So if you are a current customer, hang in there because help is on the way. Conversely, if you are looking for such a service, you can't do better than TypePad.

These are honest people. I can't give anyone better praise then that.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone - Aloha!