Mar 17, 2010
SXSW 2010 #4 – Learning From The Best
The interactive side of SXSW is now drawing to a close and I have had some time this morning to reflect on some of the things I have learned from some of the companies, developers and designers that have been involved at the conference.
One of the most important things I have learned was from a group of freelance developers and also from Gary Vaynerchuk which is really about providing a world class level of customer service. Often when developing you are mainly focused on delivering the end product and the next extension of that product so customer service can often be made a secondary objective.
I have heard this a few times during the conference and actually saw some examples of great products which where not offering much in the way of customer service or support, mainly just a contact e-mail address. From my personal experience with other big companies such as PayPal and Ebay it can be nearly impossible to contact them and a considerable amount of time to get a reply.
If the big companies don’t fix this it does mean that the smaller developers can capitalise on this and set a high standard which hopefully will be replicated throughout the industry.
On another note the SXSWNI guys have all been working hard throughout the trip even if there are no desks or chairs.
David Rice hacking away during SXSW
Lee Munroe has also been giving a series of updates on are trade trip to SXSW which can be found on his blog and also on his Posterous.