Shyftr Treats Me Right, How To Build Loyalty

Discussion has been coming up again about how the web is changing, and those that change with it are seeing results.  After reading what is quite possibly the best thing I've read all year, I thought I would share my own example with you.

Today on RWW, Sarah Perez wrote the piece, Why Gen Y Is Going to Change the Web.  From the 'Marketing Has To Change' section, I quote:

Because Gen Y is media savvy and conscious of being marketed to, brands that succeed in the future will be those that open a dialog with their customers, admit their mistakes, and essentially become more transparent. Companies' web sites that want to attract Gen Y'ers will become more like today's Web 2.0 sites. Social networking will be just a feature. Blogs will be standard ways for companies to reach their customers. Customer service won't just be a phone call away, it will be available via non-traditional means, too. Today, savvy companies might be using Twitter, but that could change at any time if Gen Y moves on. Companies will have to keep up with Gen Y and not get too comfortable using any one format.

My favorite RSS reader, Shyftr, gets this.

Responding Under Pressure
A few weeks ago, there was a generalized issue that came up, and Shyftr was the scapegoat.  I discussed it briefly in, Why Are We Blaming Shyftr?  It was a hot topic over that weekend, as it seemed every tech blogger had something to say about it, creating a vast echo chamber.  They quickly responded to the issue, as Dave Stanley wrote on Shyftr's blog,  That was a good and rapid response to a hot topic issue, and they don't neglect what their users are saying.

How I Started
I had recently needed to do a clean install of my OS, and as it turned out, I had no backup copy of my feed list.  At the time, Shyftr had not yet implemented OPML importing (they have it now), but needing to recover all of my feeds individually anyways, this wasn't an issue.  This was one of my first steps to take more of my daily activities off the desktop, and Shyftr looked like a good choice.  I slowly found most of the feeds I had been reading, and added them to Shyftr.  Through the course of doing this, Louis Gray had written about them, and I had gotten the chance to discuss Shyftr with some of the founders.  Of the Shyftr team, Matt Shaulis has become my go to guy.  He is eager to hear feedback, bounces ideas off of me on occasion, and will quickly try to resolve any issues I have.

Communication
Now Shyftr is still in beta, so I usually cut them some slack and just go about my business, because like any good startup, they diligently work and tweak and improve their code.  However, when Matt started talking to me today, to find out if I had figured out something I had wanted to do with Shyftr, he immediately was able to tell me just what I needed to do, piece of cake.  He then proceeded to ask me about a new feature they implemented, seeing who else has added the feed you're looking at.  I like this feature, although I haven't had much time to do a lot with it.

Listen, Listen, and Listen
This is where they really helped me though.  I was having a frustration, when I would look through my feeds, and want to open up a post on its native site to read it in full and comment on it, I would right click the link to open it in a new tab.  This works the same as any other site, except that Shyftr would then scroll to the top of the page, forcing me to scroll back down the list of posts to resume my reading.  This isn't a major issue, but it is annoying.  I told Matt about it, and he did some poking around.  I was out and about for a few hours, but as soon as I got back, he spotted me, had me check, and the problem had been tracked down and fixed.  Now this is customer service, talk to the people, get immediate reaction, and rapid results.  He then bounced another idea off of me, and made note of my thoughts.  Listening to someone who already loves their product, treating them well, and getting results.  It's going to be one heck of a challenge to pull me away from Shyftr with this kind of service!

Be Available
This is what Perez was talking about when she said:

...brands that succeed in the future will be those that open a dialog with their customers, admit their mistakes, and essentially become more transparent.  .....  Blogs will be standard ways for companies to reach their customers. Customer service won't just be a phone call away, it will be available via non-traditional means, too.

I may have gotten to know Matt on Twitter, but most of our discussion is done over GTalk.  We don't talk every day, we often don't talk every week.  But I know he listens and cares, and he knows I'm happy.  The wireless industry has often said that it's cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one.  This is the same in any business.  Keep the people you have happy, and they'll do word of mouth advertising for you.  I'll gladly promote Shyftr, because they steadily improve the site, and they listen to me.  What more can I ask for?

You can follow me at Shyftr with my profile link.  Or you can just follow my favorite stuff that I find there.

Comments

[Matt]

We aim to please! :)

I was glad to able to help fix that annoyance for you, on that same token: thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to bring things like that to our attention and give us a chance to correct them. It's all about the users.