Contact Points

Before I get on with my rant, I’d like to be clear that I am looking for an opinion regarding the level of contact or response the CEO of an organization can give it’s clients. At this point I’m basically a one-liner forwarding machine.

Now, the rant.

Today, I spent nearly the entire day looking for new office space. Yes, the Shockey Monkey office has been open for a little over a month. Yes, it’s already packed with people working in closets, reception and then some. My entire day consisted of looking at office spaces that are cheap but far, cheap but scary, nice but weird layout, nice but no parking, or nice with questionable ownership. I somehow managed to squeeze in a few emails and a few calls but for the most part my job at the moment consists of just making sure we’re on the right direction as we roll out our 2011 agenda.

I have always been open to partners and partners employees to the level that I don’t know any other CEO available on – even in smaller companies. It has left my mailbox as a virtual catch-all for all blown expectations and escalation requests, complaints, job requests and random inquiries.

Meanwhile, I’m only responsible for the organization and our product development.

The last time I logged into our service portal was for training.

I don’t know the names of more than half the folks that work in our support team.

So when I get an email with a support information in it, I use the following algorithm:

1. Do I know this person? No – Skip to 5.

2. Does this seem legitimate? No – Skip to 5.

3. Did they get the answer? No – Skip to 5.

4. “@#%! Someone dropped the ball on someone that knows me. How do I fix this?’”

5. Forward. “Guys, handle this.”

The Problem

I don’t want to become unavailable for my partners but resolving support request disputes, not liking the way the service is designed or implemented, frustration with any given feature – is just not my job.

Saying that out loud seems incredibly rude.

Personally, I feel that bringing that stuff to me in the first place is rude given how many contact points there are at OWN.

Also, I don’t want to become a Microsoft executive:

“That is very interesting, I was not aware of it. Thank you for your feedback. I can assure you that we will have series of meetings when I get back to Redmond and we will get to the bottom of this.”

Fast forward a few months and they’ve managed to move to a new job and you’re explaining the same issue to another Microsoftie. (with the very few exceptions of people whose careers we’ve managed to cripple in the SBSC group)

I don’t want to get to the point where I’m completely oblivious to the problems that we’re facing. Hiring an admin to deal with the BS insincerely and forward around is something I can do a poor job myself and people will catch on in a heartbeat.

I also don’t intend to respond to technical issues anymore.

Where is the middle?

Here are some options:

1. Delete the vlad@ownwebnow.com alias. Use something new for CEO level stuff, redirect vlad@ to a team.

2. Create a canned response (let me know if this seems rude):

“Thank you for contacting me regarding a technical issue you’ve experienced with our product. I want you to know that I expect our products and services to work flawlessly and that you can count on them.

Due to my busy schedule as the CEO, I don’t have immediate access to the systems to help address this directly via email. I have forwarded your email to the engineering managers and they will get back to you directly regarding this issue.”

3. Ignore email, forward to X with no response at all. Bonus, I can delegate this.

4. Setup a 900 number (for non-Americans, that’s a phone sex line where you pay a charge per minute)

5. Continue to do what I do now. Read everything and handle stuff on case by case basis.

Thoughts? Post a comment or email vlad@vladville.com