Dealing with a customer’s idea OR where Startups trump Enterprises

A few days ago I had yet another phone call from a telemarketer. Thinking about the issue I sketched out a simple idea on how to put an end to unsolicited phone calls. Pretty simple & no rocket science essentially by crowd-sourcing phone number categorization approach in combination with phone or operator level blocking.

Being a good customer I called up my phone company and told them about my issue and idea. After a 60 second rehearsed “we’re taking phone spam very seriously” speech I was able to tell them the simple idea. The lady on the phone was very courteous and thanked me for the input. I asked that the idea get’s passed on to product management and that I be given some very short feedback, I even offered to type it up. She said that’s very kind and told me where I should submit it on the website.

After having typed up the approach I went to the website, selected the form and submitted my document. 30 minutes later I get a phone call from another lady and she jumped into a 60 second rehearsed “we’re taking phone spam very seriously” speech. After I thanked for the input and pointed out that I had already spoken to another representative and was looking to get some feedback eventually from product management things turned interesting.

“You have submitted your idea using the wrong form. Instead of submitting it under customer feedback you have to click on innovation, navigate to input and select your field of input from the drop-down list”. Slightly amused I was unsure whether she was serious. Since I had followed the exact instructions from her colleague earlier I asked her to pass it on to the product management team directly. Her feedback was that she couldn’t do that since they do not have the proper internal contacts.

At that point I asked back whether she was being serious, since even I can find 10 people in the product management function for mobile voice in that company using LinkedIn. Eventually I was referred to her shift leader and got the same feedback…

One can debate the quality of the idea I had, but if a customer reaches out, goes through the trouble of typing up a small proposal, you should use that opportunity to give some form of feedback. Referring to internal processes and walls of communication is certainly not the best approach nor does it build trust. And what better idea to sample input to pivot & develop your business model, harvest potential beta tester and build a small community of enthusiasts than engaging with people who have reached out to you?

This is a typical example where a startup can trump a large corporation by being closer to the customer, reacting quicker and being generally more nimble when reacting to input. Something we aim to do everyday.