To mark the latest Field Notes release they had a competition on Twitter; first to reply with their first name would win a Field Notes notebook personalised with that first name.

For once I was in the right place at the right time, and won by just a few seconds. I was expecting just the personalised notebook so to receive the whole pack plus a pack of Field Note pencils, a personal favourite, was a lovely surprise.

I’ve been buying my stationery from The Paperie for a while now, and I highly recommend them.

Whereas Zappos‘ social media policy is “be real and use your judgement”.

Guess which company is renown for great customer care, and which one isn’t.

Amazing, even for NatWest.

How they choose to respond to this will be very telling. If they have a social media strategy does it include damage limitation plans? Only time will tell.

The only reason to answer the phone when a customer calls is to make the customer happy.

He goes on to say

If you’re not doing this or you are unable to do this, do not answer the phone. There is no middle ground on this discussion. There are no half measures. Saving 50 cents a call with a complicated phone tree is a false savings. Think of all the money you’ll save if you just stop answering altogether. Think of all the money you’ll make if you just make people happy.

I couldn’t agree more.

My heart sinks whenever I call a company and find myself in an off-shore call centre. If a company has “off-shored” their call centres it means two things: that they don’t care about you the customer and the service they deliver to you, and that they care more about their profits.

When a company sees it’s customers as a cost rather than a benefit they have a BIG problem.

I was lucky enough to receive my iPhone 3G on the July 11 launch day; I say lucky because the launch and the run up to the launch here in the UK was a shambles, and that is being polite.

O2, the UK network that has the exclusive deal for the iPhone, made a a big deal about pre-registering interest in the iPhone 3G and in offering upgrade deals and launch day delivery by courier to us, their existing customers. They must have sent me half a dozen SMS messages telling me “it was almost here” etc. and then on Monday July 7 they sent me and my fellow pre-registrants an SMS telling us we could order our iPhone now.

Reeeeady…. GO

So we all head to the O2 site which promptly crashed, and crashed and crashed…

O2 designed a ridiculously over-complicated process involving SMS messages linked to AJAX forms and then hosted it on a ZX81. Pathetic. Paul Boag has an interesting post on the O2 “debacle” and the mistakes they made.

However, at lunchtime, after many, many attempts I was just about to give up when I finally appeared to place an order; I say appeared because I received no confirmation at all. Hearing many similar stories and also stories of confirmatory emails I accepted that I had not been successful and resigned myself to queueing up outside my local O2 store on Friday.

Then, 48 hours later and out of the blue I received an email confirming my upgrade and informing me my iPhone 3G would be delivered on Friday. Did I mention it was a shambles?

Friday 11th came and to my surprise my iPhone 3G was indeed delivered.

So here we are a week later and I’m sure you are all wondering what I think of my shiny new iPhone 3G? And was it worth the hassle?

First let’s address the items on my wishlist:

Speed : 3G and we’re told HSDPA so good here. Sadly I’ve been off work ill since I received my iPhone, and I’m lucky if I can make a mobile phone call where I live so it’s difficult to test data speeds.

Form Factor : The “photos” in my wishlist post are surprisingly accurate/legitimate. The iPhone 3G does come in black and white backed versions; I have the black version which looks great until you touch it – it’s a fingerprint magnet. I’ve seen a white version and thought I’d like it more but the white just doesn’t sit well with the black front for me. I have a Gelaskin on order to prevent both fingerprints and scratches – the plastic back will be nowhere near as robust and hard-wearing as the original aluminium.

The new iPhone 3G is marginally thicker than the original but due to the tapered edges it actually feels slimmer and better in the hand.

MMS : Still no MMS and I’m still surprised. I can’t see any technical reason for it not being included so it must be a policy or maybe Apple thinks they can drive iPhone takeup by forcing us all to email photos…

Storage : The iPhone still comes in two memory sizes: 8 and 16Gb. I chose the 16Gb I expect a 32Gb in time for Christmas.

Movies : Still no movie recording ability. This seems to be a big deal for some people but thinking back I’ve never really used this function on any of my phones so don’t feel any particular loss at it not being there.

Task and Notes Sync : Despite all the MobileMe “push” stuff Tasks and Notes still has no syncing between desktop and iPhone. Another peculiar omission.

iPod Sort : A constant annoyance for me – iTunes, iPod and Front Row all sort tracks in different ways and still not “fixed”. All devices should sort like iTunes.

Email “home” Button : Sadly still MIA. You gotta tap, tap, tap to move between accounts.

So I got my speed and storage but that’s all from my wishlist, but what else does the iPhone 3G bring?

I guess the two main additions are GPS and Applications:

GPS : The original iPhone had pseudo location abilities via triangulation from cell towers and wifi hotspots which was only effective in very built up areas. The iPhone 3G now has true GPS; I’ve only had a quick play in the back garden but it seems pretty accurate and tracked me as I walked around the side of the house. I really like being able to see my location on Google maps; this should come in handy in parts of London I don’t know for example.

The GPS function is also used to geo-tag photos and can be used by applications to provide location information. The tin hat brigade can switch off the location facilities if they don’t want the black helicopters to track them.

The App Store : Looks likes it could be another money-spinner for the Steve Jobs retirement fund. Integrated beautifully into iTunes the App Store allows download and installation of applications to your iPhone; there is also an application on the iPhone itself that allows download over wifi or 3G.

We were told in advance of the App Store launch how many applications Apple had had from developers and how few had been let through to the store as a quality control but having had a look around there still seems to be some dross creeping in – a “Torch” application that simply turns your screen white?

I’ve tried a few applications and the install process works smoothly enough; although I have found that if I delete and app on the iPhone iTunes likes to reinstall it for me. I’ll write some mini-reviews of the apps I’ve tried as time allows.

So there we have a quick introduction to iPhone 3G – what’s new, what’s not and what’s still missing.

Was it worth the hassle of O2′s pathetic ordering process? Well yes, but O2 have destroyed any credibility they got from the iPhone and I suspect that Apple will be talking to them about the bad PR they generated.

Is the iPhone 3G better than the original? Again yes, but it’s an evolution not the revolution the first one was. I think it needs a software iteration or two to iron out a few wrinkles but that’s almost an Apple tradition now.

The best thing? My original iPhone sold within hours on eBay; so it’s not  like the iPhone 3G cost me anything. Honest.

It strikes me that company culture is a key factor in a successful social and community strategy.

The companies that are doing well and really engaging with their customers through communities, social networks and other web 2.0 tools are those that are doing so as an extension of their company culture and their business model if you will.

They are companies that truly value their customers, that really want to engage with them in honest and open dialogue, that want to have fun and that want to create remarkable products and experiences.

They have, to paraphrase Tara Hunt, “made happiness their business model”.

These are not companies that have outsourced their call centres to India, in fact these are companies that have banana phones rather than call centres.

These are not companies that are solely motivated by profit but if you treat your customers with respect and give them great experiences and products the bottom line will naturally follow.

Not only has the writer repeatedly had trouble getting through to Apple but when he got through this is the quality service he received:

“I see from your serial number you have a Macbook Pro.

“Yes, I replied.”Is this a portable computer?”

When I replied—incredulous—that it was, the man said there was a special “portables” department and shuffled me back directly into the same queue I had been in before.

Total wait time: 45 minutes.

Total problems solved: 0.

How very disappointing.

I hope Apple aren’t arrogant enough to think that their products don’t need support and if they do it can be poor support… that’s not the kind of “reality distortion field” that got them where they are.

I am sick and tired of bad service. Not of bad products and goods but of the service that supports those products or is the product itself.

I am fed up with you seeing me as an annoyance, as something that costs you money to provide a service to and of your belief that I will accept the poorest possible service and not take my business to your competitors.

Here’s the thing; I will, and at the drop of a hat.

Here, out of the goodness of my heart, are a couple of clues for the clueless companies out there:

Clue 1
I am fed up with receiving terrible service because it “boosts your bottom line”. Here’s the thing, “off-shoring” your call centres to India is a terrible and short sighted idea. Yes, it boosts your bottom line but for how long? What happens as your customers wise up to the appalling service and start to move to your competitors with call centres in the UK? What happens to your bottom line then?

I have never had a positive experience with an Indian call centre. The moment I get through to one I know that you the service provider and the person I am giving money does not value me as a customer; you see me only as a cost. The service I receive represents your company – don’t you see that?

I get through on a crackling line to somebody that calls me Mr David or even worse Mr Hugh-geeze. Who then says things like “may I have your address?” Yes you may… oh wait you want my address? Well why didn’t you say… Then once we are past the name calling invariably my question or issue cannot be dealt with and I am transferred back to the UK. I was once dealt with by one of BT’s India call centres and found that they couldn’t even talk to the UK; they had to email the issue to the UK.

You are handing your competitors a real a true advantage. Think how many adverts you see on TV where a UK call centre is used as a positive selling point.

Clue 2
I am fed up with dialling your customer “service” number to hear the message “All our representatives are busy now; please hold and we will deal with your call as soon as possible.”

Arrrggh…

If you are going to provide a telephone line for customers make sure there is somebody there to answer the phone.

Then when you make me hold for an eon or two don’t have a message that says “your call is important to us” – no it’s not. If it was, you’d be speaking to me.

Dear customer
You are as much to blame. You continue to accept service this bad; you continue to give these companies your money. You do not complain and you do not move your custom and money to a competitor.

Stop accepting it.

Complain.

Above all stop giving people who treat you this badly your money.

That’s the other problem; stop thinking only about the cost and start thinking about the experience of dealing with this company. What’s the point in saving a few quid if it means an hour on the phone every time your bill/statement arrives?

My dream
I have a dream that one day people will stop accepting poor and insulting service, stop accepting being treated as an annoyance and will vote with their feet and take their business elsewhere.

Already some companies have seen the light, Adverts are on television promoting UK call centres, Apple and Dell have already brought some their service back from India – only some in Dell’s case I believe but would be happy to be proved wrong.

The future
To make my own small contribution to this cause I will be writing about every piece of bad service I receive or see and the companies that deliver that service.

But I will also be celebrating the great service I receive or see and celebrating the companies that delight and deliver.

If you receive good or bad service then please share it here. Let’s name and shame those companies that don’t care and let’s celebrate and congratulate those that do. That’s what it boils down to you see – caring. Too many companies simply do not care about their customers.

Note: This entire post was written whilst waiting for BT (British Telecom) to fix the lates in a string of mistakes they have made on my account. Mistakes happen I get that but I really shouldn’t have to spend an hour or more on the phone to make you fix them.

I recently ordered the new Thomas Dolby CD and DVD from CDbaby.com and just received this fantastic email to let me know they had shipped.

Subject : CD Baby loves David
Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved ‘Bon Voyage!’ to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Sunday, November 26th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year”.  We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

I’d never heard of or used CDbaby.com before this but just a simple email like this will make me return again.

I’m reading The Cluetrain Manifesto at the moment and CDbaby.com clearly get that markets are conversations.