Got a Beef with That?!

David Byrd : Raven Call
David Byrd
David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.
| Raven Guru Marketing http://www.ravenguru.com/

Got a Beef with That?!

Friday I enjoyed my favorite pizza for dinner. It had been so long since I order it the owner of the business asked me if everything was okay. It was, of course, but with travel and other activities, I just hadn’t thought of having pizza. Anyway, Saturday was also a special treat. I made veal parmigiana. Using tenderized veal cutlets pounded to ⅜ of an inch thick, the dish was fantastic. I know most of you would rather head out to your favorite Italian restaurant but homemade is best. There is more meat than breading and with my marinara sauce this is far more flavorful than most restaurants. I served it with a salad and fettuccini topped with more of the marinara sauce. Sunday, I grilled a Cornish game hen that had been marinated overnight with a salad for me and cheese fries for my wife. She finished the cheese fries while I ate my half of the Cornish game hen. I know that some of you do not eat veal so I am giving you two beef recipes this week. One is a Grilled Steak Marinated in Soy Sauce and Dijon Mustard. The second is the Veal Parmigiana. You can make one or both but with either you will have a great dish. Enjoy!

Customers have a Beef with Netflix

Netflix’s market capitalization has dropped over $4 billion since it announced the separation of its DVD rental and streaming movie service. The stock price has fallen from $208 per share to $117. They lost 500,000 thousand subscribers last month while Blockbuster gained 600,000. After insisting that the creation of Qwister would benefit the company and its customers, today they decided it was not such a good idea after all.

There are several lessons to be learned from their mistakes. Companies cannot just make changes to their service without appreciating how their customers will be impacted. In addition to irritating their base by dramatically raising the cost of the service, Netflix also complicated things by requiring access and passwords to two websites. While the decision to create Qwister, (more like Jokester), was good for the managing the business, it was terrible for customers.

Similarly, companies, like Broadvox, that offer hosted services need to reflect carefully on any changes that will impact the ease of use and habits of its customer base. Features should be migrated to new platforms as technology and services evolve. Price increases should reflect either an improvement in value or match inflation. Finally, offer real apologies not the in genuine, “If I offended anyone...” You know you offended someone, so just say you are sorry.

As more services move into the cloud, there exists the risk that more companies will underestimate the impact of change on its customers. In which case, don’t be surprised when customers have a legitimate beef.

I am going on vacation Wednesday and so the next blog will not be until Friday. See you then.

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