Update your software. Fix your dog.
July 25th, 2008 by andrewI ran into an old friend not long ago, and as she palmed her 1G iPhone I asked her how she liked it. “I love it! she replied, “It’s like I’m in a relationship and it just gets better because Apple is always giving me updates!” It got me thinking. Too many companies (Apple included, with Leopard and MobileMe) are patching/fixing software instead of updating it to be more valuable to consumers.
The above Microsoft Update is an example of something most of us have grown so accustomed to that we hardly take the time read them anymore–I can’t remember the last time I read through one. One could also read this update as, “Everything you hold dear may be in jeopardy.” The point is Microsoft is a leviathan, they can get away with this stuff. The little guys, the start-ups out there, cannot. Imagine you’re a financial monitoring site such as Mint.com and you issue a similar sounding alert asking users to update their passwords because of a flaw that (gulp) allows anyone to access their banking information. Users would flee faster than audiences did from Gigli.
Think of it like this: you take your car into the dealership for a routine tune-up and find out there’s been a recall. There are two ways for the manufacturer to position this recall; one makes you think your car is more road-ready than when you brought it in. The other implies a flaw in your car making you question its road-worthiness. Both are forms of maintenance, but the impression left with the customer is much different.
What impression are you giving your customers when you communicate product enhancements, patches, and updates? Believe it or not, something as simple as a product update or a bug fix is something that should be thought about from the marketing side, not just the technical side of the organization. At Stage Two we believe that everything you do to your product has impact on your customers’ perception, and you never want to let that slip.
