Do the Right Thing: A lesson by Netflix

Do the Right Thing: A lesson by Netflix(rodericksilva.com)

43 points by rodericksilva 15 years ago | 21 comments

jbail 15 years ago |

We had a discussion at a previous software company I worked at regarding credits for outages.

We were debating whether to give out credits automatically or to send an email with a link to get your credits (like Netflix did). We went with giving credits automatically.

I'd be curious to hear opinions on both approaches and why other businesses went one way or the other regarding credits.

patio11 15 years ago | |

The best implementation of this I've ever seen was an email with a heartfelt apology and a link to a pick-your-credit system. Assume $20 is the cost of the service for one month.

- I was really inconvenienced. (We're sorry, and will give you a $20 credit.)

- I was somewhat inconvenienced. (We're sorry, and will give you a $10 credit.)

- I was a little inconvenienced. (We're sorry, and will give you a $5 credit.)

- I wasn't really inconvenienced but I appreciate that you sent me the email. I don't want a credit. (Thanks. We appreciate your business, and will try to always do our best by you.)

The last time I had a substantial outage, I figured out which sixty individuals were affected by it, and put an apology on their dashboards. The two who were paying customers got handwritten emails, and I did the work they had been trying to do and attached the result to the email. I offered them a full refund, too (I'll give one to anybody for any reason, so I might as well remind them of that, right?). (Neither took me up on the offer.)

phamilton 15 years ago | |

I think there's a psychological element to "claiming" your discount.

I don't see many people coming to a conclusion of "They are going to make me click a link in order to get my deserved discount? Give me a break."

Also, if only %80 percent claim it, then you saved yourself around half a percent of lost revenue (20% of 3% discount)

rodericksilva 15 years ago | |

Why not do both? Give the credit and send the email.

jmreid 15 years ago | | |

I wonder how many people don't redeem the credit. Those who didn't have an issue might feel guilty doing it but happy to know that Netflix cares enough to inform it's entire base.

jbail 15 years ago | | |

That's what we did. All customers got an email saying they automatically received credit...as opposed to an email where they needed to click a link to claim their credit.

isleyaardvark 15 years ago |

More like "Do the Cheap Thing". The email says he has a 1-DVD plan, which is $10 a month. So he gets a whopping 30 cent credit. Imagine if you were a customer who actually had noticed the issue. Would you consider 30 cents to be reasonable credit? All this is, is cheap advertising. A marketing gimmick.

The way to judge a companies customer service is to look at how they handle a problem you have. One of the reasons I have a negative view of Netflix is because I had a problem with their service, and they handled it poorly. I'm still unhappy about it. So if you're thinking about how wonderful Netflix's customer service, ask yourself if you ever ran into a problem significant enough for you to contact Netflix, and how they dealt with it. I think a lot of the praise for Netflix's customer service is either based on cheap marketing like this, or (and I have to give them credit), the easy process/leeway they give to common problems (wrong/damaged DVD).

drags 15 years ago | |

3% is about one day's worth of service. Seems pretty fair to me to refund for the amount of time the service was unavailable.

MikeMacMan 15 years ago | |

Most companies wouldn't give you anything. I think 3% is a fair amount.

andyv 15 years ago |

Netflix goes farther than that.

People used to accuse them of sometimes shipping from a non-local center in order to let the mail delay slow down the rental cycle, cutting costs by throttling the service.

Now, if a movie is not available at the nearest center, they'll still ship from the remote center, but they'll temporarily give you an extra DVD, shipped from your local center. For a minimal cost, they've completely shut down this criticism...

All I can say is... Wow.

baddox 15 years ago |

I bet even deliberate false positives like this would make customers feel that a company cares about them.

rodericksilva 15 years ago | |

I know they don't love me but it's much better than what most do.

The_Igor 15 years ago |

I have always been pleased with Netflix as a customer. Adding instant watch at no additional charge was something I really admired as well when they first rolled it out.

staunch 15 years ago | |

On the other hand they're charging me $10/mo for a 1-DVD plan when all I use is Watch Instantly. It's still a good price, but I'd rather pay $7/mo for a no-DVD plan.

sebg 15 years ago |

I always appreciate when companies do this. They build social capital ahead of major outages. This is something I try to keep in mind when helping other people or working on my projects - How can I take care of people so they don't need to worry about whether I am taking care of them or not.

radioactive21 15 years ago |

All I ask from a company is replace or refund for a product that is bad. Make the process quick and easy.

I recently had my Kindle's USB cable start cracking and literally crumbling apart. The plastic casing for the cable was very cheap, you bend it and it just cracks.

Called up Amazon and they immediately had me log in, added replacement to my cart, with free 1 day shipping. It took about 5 minutes. Guy was very polite.

Stuff like that, is what gets customers talking positively about your company.

LiveTheDream 15 years ago |

I got this email a few days after experiencing trouble with Netflix (on Safari on a Mac Mini). The movie false-started a few times and didn't work, and I moved on to some other entertainment. That was the first time I'd ever had trouble with Netflix, and I was equally pleased by their customer service.