Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Josh Bernoff wants us all to stop talking about "users", and instead refer to the people who use the products we all create in this industry as people, customers and friends.  Amen. The other term which I have spent years trying to erase from my vocabulary is "consumers".  The people who use our products aren't "consumers", they're customers… people… and friends.

Last week I chatted with Plaxo architect Joseph Smarr about their new OpenID initiative.  Basically, what they've done is implement support for the use of an OpenID as your Plaxo credentials rather than a Plaxo specific account.  Future plans call for them to also become an issuer of OpenID credentials too.  What they're trying to become is a profile provider for OpenID users. 

In addition, they've done work to support micro-formats in Plaxo.  Again, the idea is that you should be able to visit sites and scrape up details like business cards and calendar items into your calendar and into Plaxo.  So, for example, you can now visit my Plaxo profile, for instance, and scrape up my contact information from there.  Similarly, Plaxo subscribers can publish a public calendar in this way. 

This is the transformation of Plaxo from an address-book synchronization tool into an open standards identity supplier for the web.  It's also a tremendous illustration of how to build and monetize a platform business.  Plaxo's evolutionary path looks like this:

• release a useful free tool to synchronize address books, which millions of people come to know and use.
• release a set of useful suscription services that leverage that free customer base, and monetize that customer base. 
• release a platform (in this case, built on open standards) to radically grow that customer base by interoperating with applications providers big and small. 

Plaxo is small compared to some of the web behemoths out there, but they seem to be executing well. They have a great opportunity to become one of the most useful utilities on the programmable web. 

Yesterday I went shopping for a high definition PVR.  I've been an ExpressVu customer since 2001, which means that I've probably spent $8,500 with them over that period of time.  At the time I bought my ExpressVu system, the only option for high definition was ExpressVu. Today, however, I've got the option of going with Rogers as well.  I called Rogers and asked them what incentive they could offer to switch.  They offered $1200 in rental credits — basically two years of free rental for two of their top of the line high definition PVR's. 

Now, we have an aversion to cable in our family.  It stems back to a string of quality issues we experience with TCI in the 1990's while living in Seattle.  As a result, we haven't been cable subscribers for a decade now.  With Rogers offer in hand I chatted with my wife who said "I really don't want to go with cable.  Can you find out what Bell will offer?".

So I called Bell.  I ended up with a new high definition PVR, and about $600 worth of credits, rather than Rogers' $1200, but Mrs. Saunders was happy.  Good enough.

This story really isn't about Bell ExpressVu, however.  It's about our Bell phoneline.  The first Bell customer service rep I spoke with in my quest to find a PVR immediately brought up our home phone service account and then proceeded to inform me that I was paying them too much.  I ended up getting a couple of extra features for a couple of dollars less, she switched us to an unlimited long distance plan for $25/month that should save us $35/month, and then "bundled" our ExpressVu with the phoneline for another $5/month saving.  This random encounter probably chopped close to $45 per month out of our bill. 

Don't get me wrong.  I am grateful for the savings that this efficient and kind lady brought to my attention.  But why were they only offered when I called in?  Today customer loyalty is such a fleeting thing that you would think that Bell would go out of their way to offer me savings.  Not so.  Lest you think otherwise, Rogers isn't any better.  Getting the best value from your cellular phone means making regular calls to Rogers to find out what promotions are running, and what new packages are being offered.

It's a burden on the consumer that both companies capitalize on to maximize their profits.  Their model is to offer steep "win-back" incentives to bring lost customers back into the fold, rather than trying to build customer loyalty through great service.

In Canada's cozy telecom oligopoly, it's the way we do business.  In a more competitive environment, they would both be working harder to keep existing customers satisfied.