Tuesday, January 15, 2008

How to ....

... make the community like us? Let's face it. We are a company. We have solid financial interests. If we abandoned this point of view, we would be dead within 2 weeks and subsequently not be able to provide our service called Tibia. It doesn't matter, that we are the developer of a game that brings joy and fun to hundreds of thousands of people. Tibia is cool, but the company sux. I guess, that's the fate of all big companies. In the eyes of our customers, we are just greedy and incompetent. I could live with that, if it was true. I mean if it was true, why should we try to pretend something else. The problem is, it is not true. Unfortunately, our customers don't believe us. And even more unfortunate is the fact, that it doesn't matter if they are correct or not. Customers don't see things wrong, they just see.
And to be quite honest, I can understand them. As soon as you get the impression that a corporation tends to become too big, you begin to doubt their capability to understand the needs of their customers.
So, what can we do? Show them the faces behind the company! Or to cite a famous president: "Tear this wall down". Pinch holes into the barrier that separates the yourself from the customer. Let them peek through and get a glance of the people behind the companies name. We are not CipSoft, we are Andy, Stefan, Florian, Nicole, etc. Get personal. A person is something, people can grab and understand and most important: Believe. So, go out in public and show your faces, post in customer forums, blogs etc. And don't be afraid to tell the truth. Customers are very quick in realizing that you are bullshitting them.
Drop your pants!

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