Netflix vs. Bloggers: Listen Up
I like movies. Actually, I love movies. So it should come as no surprise that I am one of Netflix’s eight and a quarter million subscribers. Two weeks ago, Netflix sent me (and every other subscriber) a hastily written e-mail that announced they were eliminating a feature called "Profiles", which allows multiple members of a household to maintain a separate queue of movies, separate ratings and a separate community of friends - all under a single subscription. For my wife and I, this feature solved the constant struggle between Dirty Harry and When Harry Met Sally - allowing each of us to pick our own movies according to our own tastes. For parents, it also helped keep Dirty Harry away from Harry Potter, I’m sure.
So when Netflix pulled the plug on Profiles, the backlash began, and the blogosphere started spinning fast. Hundreds of bloggers began writing in protest, thousands of readers left comments expressing their dissatisfaction, and soon Netflix’s own blog was barraged by notes from unhappy customers. Oh, and then there’s the Internet petition. The morning after Netflix’s announcement, I added my name at position #482. That night, there were about 1,500. And in a few days, that number doubled.
The happy ending: earlier this week I was pleased to receive another hastily written e-mail from Netflix that began "You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles." This is an example of how social media is working, not only as a platform that can elevate the voice of the common man, but as a strategic business tool. In this case, blogging helped movie lovers unite and fight back against a corporate giant. But it also helped Netflix by providing invaluable market research about one of their features.
I hope Netflix and other companies take note. Blogs are more than forums for over-caffeinated counter-culture geeks to express their feelings. They are a new way to listen to customers and gain insights into what they want (and what they will buy). For Netflix, the listening should have started before they axed the Profiles feature, but in the end, they did the right thing.
My question is: can blogging be as effective in the business to business world as it is in the consumer market? We think so…what do you think? We’re listening.
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July 3rd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
To the Over-Caffeinated,
This was a great example of how the volume of consumers helped direct new functionality and business direction. In the consumer market volume often speaks larger than words.
I suspect the challenge comes in the B2B space when the social media opnion of a Fortune 500 CIO must be considered differently than the IT Manager of a smaller business. Thoughts?
July 4th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Good stuff Smithers. I think you’re right, there’s a hierarchy in the B2B world, and the top of the pecking order carries a lot of weight. But what if 50 IT Managers are raving about the same storage virtualization software? I’d imagine volume has a different meaning in the B2B space, but the scale is smaller. Or maybe that’s just the coffee talking.
Thanks for reading!