Recently, the FL guys had a scheduled downtime that went far longer than they’d expected; as you might expect, not everyone was happy about it. I was among that group, but … I dealt with it. I knew that me being pissed off about it wasn’t going to help matters at all.

Things got fixed, and Alex and Scott addressed everyone’s concerns fairly well. If you read through the replies, you see that most everyone was pretty level-headed about it. Why? I think it’s because Alex and Scott have learned—probably the hard way—that they have to be personable, real, and open with their customers. Now, Alex might be looking at this and blinking a little, but I’d encourage him to read the gamut of responses that he’s made to folks as time’s gone by … and he’d see that his earlier sharp edge has definitely been broken.

Seth Godin’s entry about the culture of dissatisfaction hit home as I considered all this in retrospect:

The problem with this emerging culture, aside from the fact that we’re unhappy all the time, is that it doesn’t give marketers a chance to build products for the long haul, to invest in the processes and products and even operating systems that pay off over time. The problem is that when brands fizz out so fast, it’s hard to invest in anything except building the next hot brand.

Is there an answer?

Talk to people who live in Vegas and you’ll discover that most of the hard-working folks who have been here more than a decade (the cab drivers and the doctors and the rest) aren’t so swayed by the billboards and the promises. Instead, they embrace the qualities that come from relationships. A relationship with a front-line worker (ask for “Bob”) or a relationship with a provider or an organization that has come through for them.

It seems to me that insulation from discontent comes from building a relationship. From real people. Relationships that make us feel counted upon, respected, trusted and valued cut through the ennui of dissatisfaction. We got ourselves into this mess by acting like smart marketers, and as marketers we can get out of it by acting like people.

Consider also the case of Six Apart: back when it was just Ben and Mena, flubs and false starts were greeted with mild dissension and understanding. Then, when the MT3.0 licensing scheme was announced, the growing corporate vail around 6A ended up making the backlash easier to spew.

I think the lesson to be drawn here is damn simple: it pays to stay personal, because it’s a hell of a lot easier to be mad at “the man” than it is any individual. Note that, in every entry I write about FeedLounge, I always write it as “Alex and Scott”. If they keep on being successful, it’ll be because they continue to develop a good product and continue to be personable with their customers.

It’s a hard balance to strike, to be sure—time spent building relationships with customers is not spent quashing bugs or coding features. Users have to accept that the relationship time is fleeting, but they have to work to cultivate as they can, because any relationship is a two-way street. However, I’m fairly convinced that personality trumps commoditization. Hasn’t Apple been teaching us that all these years?