…but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need
Get Satisfaction is a free, interactive website that encourages and archives interaction between companies, their representatives and customers. The interface is simple yet modern; the what-you-see-is-what-you-get design appears to be pop-up free, which pleasantly surprised this reviewer, who otherwise expected his first experience with the site to be a series of product pitches.
Instead, Get Satisfaction is refreshingly straight-forward: after registration, the user may seek out his company of choice and post questions, comments or complaints in an open forum that (ideally) is monitored by company representatives. So yes, Get Satisfaction is a virtual help desk without borders.
Of course, just because it exists doesn’t mean that every high-volume producer or distributor uses it. One of the most active companies listed on the site is one I hadn’t heard of: Timbuk2, a manufacturer of messenger bags and backpacks that just happens to share the same San Francisco area code as Get Satisfaction. Timbuk2’s cachet is made-to-order bags, and it caters to a seemingly savvy and demanding customer base: students, young professionals and weekend adventurers. Timbuk2’s Get Satisfaction profile is extremely active: five “official reps” are listed alongside 32 employees. All have active profiles and a traceable record of replies to customer queries, and appear to have invested some thought into their responses. A good proportion of the customers seem to be product shopping, which suggests another element to the Get Satisfaction experience: it’s a little like approaching an in-store salesperson to ask whether the dress goes with the shoes. This is a great use of the site’s strengths.
With that in mind, I searched fruitlessly for other apparel or tote bag distributors before finally settling on Sears. The iconic “broadline retailer” has a Get Satisfaction profile replete with logo and official company link, but its entire profile can be summed up thus: one six-month old “welcome” message, one product-recall news release and one irate, 430-word-long customer complaint. There has been no response to the latter entry. Where Timbuk2’s company profile sports 37 employee profiles, Sears’ profile reads “No Sears employees are here yet.”
Whether Sears can weather its lack of a Get Satisfaction presence may be immaterial in 2008; Sears is an institution whose customer base is probably not stocked with early adapters. It’s a middle-of-the-road distributor, whereas Timbuk2 is hipper and edgier. I imagine that as certain social media gain mainstream acceptance more companies will clamber aboard.
