Sphere: Awesome Service… Awesome People
January 31, 2007
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the quality of service that we receive from most businesses. To be more specific, the post was about the lack of service that we’re growing accustomed to. In “It’s OK… We’re Accustomed to Lousy Service” I talk about the low standards that are set for businesses when it comes to the service of their customers.
Far be it from me to focus only on the downside of a topic. Today I want to mention a company that I’ve recently received excellent service from: Sphere.
A couple of weeks ago I submitted a request to receive more information about a plugin the folks at Sphere were developing for WordPress. In case you’re not familiar with the service, Sphere is a blog search and discovery service that helps people find content based on the context of other sites. For example, if you were reading a post here about depression, and you wanted more information, Sphere could point you to other posts on other blogs that deal with depression.
I’d actually forgotten that I’d even submitted the request. And then on Monday I received an email from one of the founders of the company. Yeah… not a customer service person. But from one of the people who actually created the service. It contained a link to download the plugin, instructions for installing it, and a request for a notification when/if I installed the plugin. Which I did. I’d seen the “Sphere It” links on other blogs and really wanted to offer Reader Meet Author visitors the same service.
But when I installed the plugin, it didn’t do anything. The Sphere window popped up, but it was empty. I responded to the original message and said that I’d installed the plugin but that it wasn’t finding anything. Because I wasn’t really expecting a response, I just said that I’d keep writing and see if anything happened.
A few hours later the co-founder of the company responded back and said that he would pass along the issue to his partners and see if anything could be done. And if the issue was related to my content not really being indexable, he’d understand if I wanted to take the Sphere plugin off. Needless to say, I was surprised. Not only did someone who obviously has a lot on his plate respond, but he seemed genuinely interested in helping me.
About an hour and a half later I got another email. This one from another of the founding members of the company. He’d actually taken the time to visit my site, examine the service from their end, and discovered that my server was blocking access to the Sphere server. He changed the user agent string for the service to make my server less suspicious of Sphere’s.
Now I know it wasn’t just for my blog. I assumed that the Bad Behavior plugin I have installed was the culprit and he agreed. The change he made would allow other blogs running Bad Behavior to also use the service so the change was made for a lot more blogs than mine. But regardless, I was amazed at not only the speed at which all of this was taking place, but also at the extent to which the folks at this company were involved and interested.
As it turns out, they got the plugin working. You’ve probably noticed it already. At the bottom of every post you’ll see a “Sphere It” link. Clicking that link will open a nifty little window and direct you to other content on the web related to what you’re reading here. It’s a great service and I’m extremely glad that Sphere was able to get it working on my blog.
Despite the service we receive from most businesses, some still care. Some still offer great customer service. And, in case you couldn’t tell, I really respond to that. I think other people do, too. So if you’re interested in an example of a company that’s going above and beyond the call of duty, look no further than Sphere. And make sure you give the service a try. They have a nifty bookmarklet that you can add to your browser to “Sphere” any site you’re on, regardless of whether or not they have the plugin installed.
It’s an awesome service with awesome people behind it. Thanks again, guys. You’ve got one extremely satisfied customer here.
Posted in Blog Related, Personal, Technology
February 1st, 2007 at 7:27 pm
WOW! So there are actually decent people out there still! yay!!
February 1st, 2007 at 8:12 pm
It’s true. Shocking, I know. But true.
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:51 am
Derrick - that was very kind of you to share. Thanks, very much appreciated.