Socially|Mundane

The software industry gets away with murder. No, really. They do.

I only need point to Microsoft. For those of you who were 'here' when they released Windows Millennium Edition (a.k.a. Windows Me) - you know damned well what I'm speaking of.

A famous pair of quotes come from Microsoft founder and then CEO Bill Gates who said 'Cars should work like Windows...,' meaning they should be flexible, upgradable and so on.

To which the CEO of general Motors at the time replied with a quip to the effect of '...if cars worked like Microsoft Windows, you you'd have to upgrade your engine every six months, we'd have to send out updates and repairs every week, you can only drive on approved road and you'd crash every hour...'.

The point being that the buying consumerist public has long since become complacent. We buy software, it always is riddled with bugs. even though we bitch and whine about the bugs, lack of features and constant headaches, we become comfortable with these and lazy.

There are reports that many viable and even better alternatives to Microsoft Office exist today, but so many corporations are complacent in using MS Office, specifically MS Word that they don;t even bother shopping for a better, less expensive, higher return-on-investment alternative. They just deal with the headache.

The same is true with Linden Lab and Second Life. There are many alternatives and i don;t mean "OpenGrid". There obviously os World of Warcraft - yes, specifically designed and intended as a game, but other virtual social environment exist such as There, Twinity and many new worlds are in beta testing right now.

But we have become addicted to Second Life because Linden Lab has found that magic recipe that fits in the sweet-spot for all SL residents.

If you peruse the archives of this blog, you'll know I always have stood behind Linden Lab employees, a.k.a. "Lindens". My gripes have been with Linden Lab itself, as a whole... as a company with regard to many of their policies such as actually trying to register the letters S and L as a trademark, without any artistic representation. I disagree and will all the way to jail if it needs to go that far. The other trademarks I'm fine with.

Often, when linden lab comes out with a new or changes an existing policy, I step back, look at the positives and negatives and often come down on the side of Linden Lab, placing the views on the blog at odds with the majority of blogs that follow the Linden Lab virtual environment.

And today, I am using this space to proudly and openly thank Mark Kingdon for bringing order and meaning to Linden Lab where customer service is concerned.

I sincerely believe the attempt at good customer service always was there. The problem is too many of the wrong people (software engineers for example) were allowed to face the public. They are code-geeks for crying out loud and their personalities and candor is almost as bad as my own.

Would Linden Lab be where it is if not for Mark Kingdon? Yes. Well, no, not without someone in Mark Kingdon's position as a professional CEO. So yes, you could say Linden Lab would be where it is now no matter who it was that Philip Rosedale chose to bring in. Some things would be different, sure, but under the hood at Linden Research - the way things are run and the priorities placed on recognizing paying customers for what they really are: customers, would likely have improved exponentially they way they have any way.

I always have tooted my horn for the concierge teams. It's hard work. Not only are you dealing with technical things that are strictly logic-based, but also customer-facing things that are emotional-based. Wow.

The concierge people work long and hard. Every single time I have ever put in a ticket or chatted with them in the support portal or even in world, I am sure to go out of my way to thank them and tell them how much I appreciate them and the work they do. I always have.

I sold a region to someone. Put-in the ticket. Expected the usualy 5 to 10 business-day wait (up to 14 days) for the transfer to happen. I took my time returning prims and cleaning-up.

I was stunned when the transfer occurred within 5-hours. Okay, a pleasant fluke. It happens sometimes and it's always nice when it does. Just a case of the right accidental timing.

Just this weekend I allowed another region to attach to mine. I simply went into the land portal, authorized that resident to "neighbor" me. They put in the ticket and we both were stunned... within hours the attachment was made and ticket closed.

I am convinced that the logistical paradigms in-place at Linden Lab are definitely allowing and even creating a well-oiled, smooth and efficient workflow, unlike the chaotic 'who knows what's going to happen when" routine those of us in-world for at least a year are so familiar with.

So I state, as I always have and now very publicly: Concierge Lindens, thank you for all your hard work. I know it's not easy dealing with so many people, all of whom are usually emotionally-charged, whose issue or problem is the most important thing in the world.

I thank you for handling all those boring, mundane, repetitive 'menial' tasks like changing sim names and locations on the grid, performing hard restarts and rollbacks, and dealing with complaints about poor performance and lost or phantom prims.

I thank you for being so cordial and happy-sounding ever single time we have communicated, even though you are no-doubt seriously overwhelmed, your you always give me the strongest impression that your face is bright and smiling and I often feel like i am the sole reason and purpose of your undivided attention.

You work hard and I know it.

And to mark and the management team at Linden Lab and yes, you, too Robin - thank you for getting whatever chaos was happening there all cleaned-up and working smoothly.

And Microsoft: take lessons from Linden Lab because they simply blow your pants-off in comparison with regard to customer support - based on my own personal experience and perspective with you. And also the Second Life viewer has gone from a rocky, buggy, unstable, frustrating piece of software to a solid platform. Something you could really learn about and focus on instead of selling HP laptops by comparing them to Apple in your laughable television commercials.

It's not about the hardware. It's not always about the software.

It's about the user experience.