Props To Apple’s MobileMe Team

Yeah, I know, you can’t believe I just said that, what with the issues that caused even Walt Mossberg to denounce the service as not ready. That’s not why I’m offering props (similar to kudos, or good job, for those wondering) to Apple’s MobileMe team. This post on the Apple MobileMe pages is why.

The post opens with this: “Steve Jobs has asked me to write a posting every other day or so to let everyone know what’s happening with MobileMe, and I’m working directly with the MobileMe group to ensure that we keep you really up to date.” Completely brilliant. Here’s the important things to pull from just that one statement:

1. Steve Jobs is aware of, and concerned about the MobileMe issues
2. Steve Jobs realizes that customers need to be informed, especially paying ones
3. Steve Jobs has tasked someone specific with keeping close tabs on the team

Wow, what if every company did this? My first thought is how different this approach is from Jaiku, my personal favorite microblogging/lifestream aggregating service. Since being purchased by Google, the service has experienced several announced and unannounced downtimes, API issues, and other stability issues. They’ve also posted on their blog 3 times, with one of those only serving to counter the numerous blogs pronouncing the death of the service.

Even the latest Jaiku downtime was announced via…a Jaiku, in a specific ‘channel’. Nothing on the official service blog, and nothing much in terms of conversation beyond the one post.

I wish more companies would take their customers into account, specifically where services are concerned, and at the very least, just keep us informed. A weekly post saying ‘Hey, we’re working on this, and getting closer’ or ‘We had some unforeseen issues arise, but we’re stomping them out one-by-one’ would make a WORLD of difference, I think.

How are you communicating with your customers?