Withstanding aDDoS attack can be quite the experience. On one hand you're dealing withservers that are being flooded by malicious code; on the other you havecustomers who are flooding you with angry calls.
You're caught right in themiddle. The health of your business relies on your ability to survive both.
You do that by hiring and retaining exceptional staff who will be able to come through on both sides - repairing the firewalls and infrastructure so you can be back up andrunning, and repairing your reputation with customers so they can be back inbusiness.
Register.com is my domain registration company. Last week I was trying to connect with them to get clarification on a charge. I tried them several times with no success.
ThenI thought of posting the question on Twitter to see if anyone knew anything.Think about that, in the past I would have probably run a Google search. Todaymy first search filter is that of the community on Twitter - no wonder therumors about Google buying Twitter abound.
That's when I learned of the DDoS attack. I waited another day. I tried again and struck gold - a live customer service rep. I'm writing about the experience because whatimpressed me most about the conversation was that there was a lot of listeninggoing on - I wasn't doing all the talking, and he wasn't throwing the book ofrules at me.
In this day and age, I'd consider that win/win, especially sincewe came to a mutual understanding about what I needed to be happy and what hecould do on his side.
Companies can get lazy and prefer to listen online, where often that's all they're doing - monitoring the conversation. Or perhaps they're taking action in some specificinstances where the issue escalates thanks to influentials and sneezers.
Is there any doubt in your mind that when Peter Shankman (this was an example Peter gave at the SxSWi panel) or Gary Vaynerchuk (this was a video Gary recorded) talk about a company, the company pays attention?
Then there is the rest of us - the "just a customer"s. What we experience is the regulartreatment. Kudos go to those companies that can make it pleasant and productive. The company's culture and training go a long way at educating staff on the importance of those conversations.
But I think at the end of the day it comes down to the single interaction with individuals. Do they take initiative?Are they listening? Do they hide behind rules? Are they helpful? Today at Fast Company expert blog we talk about how to show your customers you're listening, even when they might not be.