DISQUS

Skepsis: Poaching Customers on Twitter )) Skepsis

  • Rich · 7 months ago
    Hey Lar,

    This is Rich here from SeamlessWeb. Thanks for the update. As to your initial tweet, if you look at most similar login-based websites (e.g. GrubHub, Delivery.com, FreshDirect), the log in link/button for returning users is very small at all of them also. I think that this is part of a bigger question about the nature of how sites should best interact with new vs. returning customers (especially interesting in light of how many people save login info in their browsers) and I don't purport to know the answer, but it's definitely something we've considered and are still considering how to deal with. Obviously you think the link should be bigger ;)

    As far as the email issue, which step of the process did you have that issue on?

    Thanks for the comments. You can email me at rberger@seamlessweb.com

    Best,

    Rich
  • supaspoida · 7 months ago
    Thanks for the comment Rich

    This is really my first exposure to the online delivery thing, and I'm pretty interested in how twitter is being used to by businesses. When my initial tweet sparked that reaction I thought it was a very effective way to do highly targeted marketing. And I'm someone who is generally annoyed with most types of marketing.

    This post is more about twitter than either Seamless Web or Grub Hub, but I would be happy to discuss the UI issues I encountered via email. For the record, I've been happy with my experience at Seamless Web thus far. Grub Hub does have some options you guys don't, so I'm going to give them a try as well. There is room for more than one delivery service in my life!
  • Rich · 7 months ago
    Totally understand. We're glad that you've been happy with SeamlessWeb so far, and we just wanted to make sure that you knew that we're here to respond to any comments or questions you have also.

    Best,

    Rich
  • Giles Bowkett · 7 months ago
    I personally don't believe that kind of poaching is a good idea because you can get into endless bickerfests about the definition of your features. I mean they could spend twenty tweets arguing over that only to find out you're only ever interested in this one Thai place which is equally accessible from both (for example).
  • supaspoida · 7 months ago
    Giles,

    It's a thin line to be sure. But at the same time, I think that the response to poaching (offense?) is more telling. If these two were to start a 20 tweet (or blog?) bicker fest I probably wouldn't be inclined to do business with either of them.

    This is a business model that I think has a legs, I've considered starting pretty much this same site. Which means I could see myself working with either of these companies at some point. Seeing how they conduct themselves in public can be a light-weight way to qualify prospective clients. Of course my sort of calling them out in public might have already disqualified me, but that's sort of the point.

    We've heard of people getting fired or turned down for jobs because of things posted to social networks. But the same sort of thing also applies to businesses as they focus more attention on "social media marketing." Whatever the pros & cons, at the very least I find this sort of marketing preferable to email spam.
  • Mike Wilson · 4 months ago
    Well yes, they 'could'. But they can also highlight substantive and meaningful differences and actually compete for business, which is a good thing. If it starts getting catty well... that's a public relations failure of a different sort.
  • Mike Wilson · 4 months ago
    Clever stuff. I'm really enjoying the level of connection to customer service that twitter hath wrought