How service sells in the Trust Tree

Posted November 13, 2009

redwood trunk How service sells in the Trust TreeI read an interesting post on Danny Brown’s site about his experience with a WordPress plug-in called Wapple.

The short version is that Danny installed the plug-in and it pooped on his blog so he removed it. Shortly after, he received an email from Rich Guppy of Wapple who asked why it was removed. Rich took the time to open the hood on Danny’s blog and fix the problem – an errant comment – and made sure Danny had the latest version of Wapple so that his blog would look great on mobile phones.

Product reviews vs. service reviews

If I want to read a review of a product, I’ll go to amazon.com or an industry blog. But where can I find reviews of service – from people I trust? Not in forums, unless that’s been my home for a while.

The trust tree

OldSchool50.jpeg How service sells in the Trust Tree

I think of the web as a tree where the trunk is a community’s set of common goals and interests. The branches and leaves are blogs,  Twitter and Facebook. The sun, water and nutrients are what we share with each other.

The folks in my tree share great products. But I’m noticing that, more and more, my friends are sharing good experiences with the servicing of those products. Maybe that’s because my tree is passionate about service. We understand how powerful it can be.

The spinning commodity cycle

salt shakerProducts will continue to spin faster and faster within a commodity cycle:

  • Phase One – Totally unique when first released
  • Phase Two – One big competitor comes along and stirs things up. Droid vs. iPhone
  • Phase Three – The salt phase. Morton vs. North American Salt. BFD.

How are companies seeking to differential themselves today? Service.

And who is talking about great service experiences? Everyone.

And how many friends do they tell? Millions.

How do you sell with service?

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  • Hi Rich,
    I certainly appreciate your work on Wapple. Of course yours is a wonderful plugin. This is my first ever coding project so I'm just starting. The main reason I created this plugin is to have fun and to get some response for you bloggers and developers about my work. So far I've received some good feedbacks. I'm happy that some are using my plugin. I'm very happy to also receive feedback from you!
    Take care
    Haress :)
  • Haress - not a bad looking plugin and it'll certainly be a contender to the likes of mobilepress and Wptouch.

    What I would say though, is that if you want the best consistent user experience for your users, you can't look any further than Wapple. Sure it uses an API, but so do the google maps plugin and tweetmeme - plus a whole load of others.

    The fact is that there are web services available now for a whole range of tasks that can do a better job than you can do manually - a case in point here - the Wapple mobile plugin WILL do better device detection than any others. I know for sure that I have phones in my office and user agents that will fail your device detection.

    I'm glad to see more development in this area - more exposure and more devs writing code for mobile can only be a good thing. I'm pretty confident in how my plugin stacks up against it though.

    I've just released new versions of both Wapple Architect and WordPress Mobile Admin - check them out here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-arch... and http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-m... respectively.

    Cheers.
    Rich
  • Hi,
    I do respect Rich Gubby’s work on Wapple Plugin which is certainly not easy. But Wapple plugin communicates to external server to do various tasks which I personally don’t prefer.
    I taught in a simple way.
    Why not create a mobile specific theme and have a plugin which will make sure to display this mobile theme to your mobile phone users!
    So I created IamMobiled Mobile Plugin and Blue Heart Mobile Theme
    Here are some key features:
    1) Comes with a mobile theme “Blue Heart”
    2) Automatic mobile detection
    3) Images are optimized for mobile view
    4) Make money through integrated ad system.
    5) Optimized for touch screen phones
    6) Mobile users can even leave comments
    7) Mobile users can search for contents.
    Please check it out and let me know your feedback and suggestions at http://iammobiled.com
    Plugin can be found at:
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/iammobiled-...

    Thanks,
    Haress
  • Haress,

    With all due respect, you've visited a few blogs and have make the exact same comment: (http://tbtministries.witnesstoday.org/?p=173&cp...
    and http://dannybrown.me/2009/11/10/learning-from-r...). I take this as a form of manual spam rather than an attempt at sincere discussion.

    John
  • Hi John,
    I was simply trying to promote my plugin. But since its had offended you please accept my apologies.

    Thanks,
    Haress
  • Haress - It takes a lot to offend me. I just thought was uncool to just copy and paste the same comment wherever Wapple was mentioned.
  • prosperitygal
    Interesting post. I agree, stellar service makes huge waves. Whether it is Apple putting big smile on my face or Comcast struggling to make things right, I look for who shows they CARE about ME. Not just what they HAVE to do.
  • Amen!
  • I seem to recall you saying my blog got pooped on by Disqus once as well, mate - I need to take better care of the bugger! ;-)

    Service is fast becoming the difference between companies. That, and business ethics. I don't care if Product A is cheaper than Product B. I'll happily pay the odds to know I'll be looked after once the sale is done.

    The fact that Rich Gubby took the time to do all he did (even though it's a free plug-in) speaks volumes and ensures Wapple are my first port of call when I need premium services as well.
  • They also have a plug-in that allows you to post via email.
  • gelwell
    Hey John - Thanks for the post on service. Remarkable that Rich Guppy took the initiative to reach out and ask the question in the first place. A good reminder for all of us to stay connected and get feedback on how our service/product is working for folks.
  • Thanks Greg. I knew this would resonate with you, given the work you're involved with.
  • Hi John- great analogy with the Tree! Selling with Services requires companies to think about a framework for implementing a "Voice of the Customer" model. Aligning departmental strategies and processes which make customer service a integral, seamless experience which makes customers feel part of the team.

    Altimeter did a webinar last week on this topic and there are now some great tools and best practices that companies can get into quite easliy. As we know, a strategy is key to making this a reality and not an obvious "add on" or afterthought to buffer services levels- it can be deemed deceptive, or contrived.

    SME's can also participate- it's not all about the large companies, although we have taken best practices from them and anyone can develop a great "selling with Service" model. Exciting times!

    regards

    Craig
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