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This is probably the most useful comment of the bunch for me personally and my startup - I'm trying to learn from other people's lessons (it's the cheapest way

by rexreed 15y ago

This is probably the most useful comment of the bunch for me personally and my startup - I'm trying to learn from other people's lessons (it's the cheapest way to learn), and I think what you said above really helps. I made the comment elsewhere, but here's what I learned: * Respond quickly * Respond in the open so that there's no he-said / she-said * Be fair, and err on the side of the customer * Don't spin the company line - be thoughtful, especially if someone has lost money / time / confidence / data / faith in humanity * Think "This could be me / this could be someone I know & love" * If relevant, get the authorities involved quickly so that you can be sure it's not a shakedown. * Assume the customer is telling you the truth unless you have specific and verifiable reason to believe otherwise * Get insurance * Don't let others (especially those with interests) speak for you. * Try to establish a single point person for all contact with the customer, and make that person easily and quickly available to the customer at the customer's behest * Try not to respond to what's said in the press Did I miss any good lessons here?

jodrellblank 15y ago
Are they really things you learned here that you couldn't mostly have written down before by thinking on "how should a company interact"? They sound pretty ideal, but what when you can't "be fair" and also "err on the side of the customer"? What when you can't establish a single point of contact because you don't have the resources? What current state of your company will you deprioritize to make that a priority? What does "don't spin the company line - be thoughtful" mean? If your company line changes as soon as you put thought into it then (a) where did you get it in the first place? and (b) in what way does it represent your company, anyway? What if it turns out AirBnB believed they did respond quickly, fairly, thoughtfully, got the authorities involved, didn't officially let anyone else speak for them, etc. and this situation still developed because human communication is like that and other people didn't perceive the same intentions in their behaviour as they did? Did I miss any good lessons here? You can't please all the people all the time? You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs? No gain without pain? Whatever you plan for won't be the thing which trips you up? The best laid plans of mice and men? Shit happens? It's what you do with it that counts?
- rexreed 15y ago
  This was just posted today: http://blog.airbnb.com/our-commitment-to-trust-and-safety http://blog.airbnb.com/our-commitment-to-trust-and-safety In particular: "With regards to EJ, we let her down, and for that we are very sorry. We should have responded faster, communicated more sensitively, and taken more decisive action to make sure she felt safe and secure. But we weren’t prepared for the crisis and we dropped the ball. Now we’re dealing with the consequences. In working with the San Francisco Police Department, we are happy to say a suspect is now in custody. Even so, we realize that we have disappointed the community. To EJ, and all the other hosts who have had bad experiences, we know you deserve better from us." Looks like I wasn't so lame after all in taking some lessons learned. If AirBnB can learn some "obvious" lessons from this incident, so can I... and you.
  - jodrellblank 15y ago
    I didn't say you were lame or that they were bad points, I was more on the side that (a) you can't always win, (b) if you wait to start until you are sure you can win any situation, you'll be waiting forever. We're not really thinking that the AirBnB founders, if asked last year, would have said "don't communicate sensitively to a crime victim" or "good customer service means responding slowly" of "don't work with the police", and now they've been hit by this and learned these lessons they know better, are we? Planning to do everything right first time is a common failure mode and procrastination mode, that's all.

by rexreed 15y ago

jodrellblank 15y ago

Are they really things you learned here that you couldn't mostly have written down before by thinking on "how should a company interact"? They sound pretty ideal, but what when you can't "be fair" and also "err on the side of the customer"? What when you can't establish a single point of contact because you don't have the resources? What current state of your company will you deprioritize to make that a priority? What does "don't spin the company line - be thoughtful" mean? If your company line changes as soon as you put thought into it then (a) where did you get it in the first place? and (b) in what way does it represent your company, anyway? What if it turns out AirBnB believed they did respond quickly, fairly, thoughtfully, got the authorities involved, didn't officially let anyone else speak for them, etc. and this situation still developed because human communication is like that and other people didn't perceive the same intentions in their behaviour as they did? Did I miss any good lessons here? You can't please all the people all the time? You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs? No gain without pain? Whatever you plan for won't be the thing which trips you up? The best laid plans of mice and men? Shit happens? It's what you do with it that counts?

rexreed 15y ago
This was just posted today: http://blog.airbnb.com/our-commitment-to-trust-and-safety http://blog.airbnb.com/our-commitment-to-trust-and-safety In particular: "With regards to EJ, we let her down, and for that we are very sorry. We should have responded faster, communicated more sensitively, and taken more decisive action to make sure she felt safe and secure. But we weren’t prepared for the crisis and we dropped the ball. Now we’re dealing with the consequences. In working with the San Francisco Police Department, we are happy to say a suspect is now in custody. Even so, we realize that we have disappointed the community. To EJ, and all the other hosts who have had bad experiences, we know you deserve better from us." Looks like I wasn't so lame after all in taking some lessons learned. If AirBnB can learn some "obvious" lessons from this incident, so can I... and you.
- jodrellblank 15y ago
  I didn't say you were lame or that they were bad points, I was more on the side that (a) you can't always win, (b) if you wait to start until you are sure you can win any situation, you'll be waiting forever. We're not really thinking that the AirBnB founders, if asked last year, would have said "don't communicate sensitively to a crime victim" or "good customer service means responding slowly" of "don't work with the police", and now they've been hit by this and learned these lessons they know better, are we? Planning to do everything right first time is a common failure mode and procrastination mode, that's all.