EightBlack.

We did some work for WebAlive a little while ago.

In fact, I’ve got a colleague who’s a shareholder. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I thought the company was doomed.

I don’t want to sound pessimistic but the senior team back then thought that world domination was far more important than taking care of the basics, like the customer experience online and the customer experience over the phone.

One look at the website will tell you that the good folks at Webalive didn’t pay much attention to our advice - which was all about usability and getting the prospects to engage, take an action, move a click closer to taking a trial, completing an opt-in email form. Being visible to search engines, investing in pay per click, doing affiliate deals with local affiliates rather than trying to do major distribution deals in Europe.

I dont want the above paragraph to sound arrogant. Our advice was the same as any online marketer would have given. It wasnt rocket science. Never is.

The shame of it all is that WebAlive burnt through some good talent. People like Shane Galligan.

I knew though that something had imploded when I received an email from their accounts people. I’m a customer of WebAlive’s since I purchased a domain name from them.

Some naive person in accounts or marketing (doesnt matter which) sent an email to somewhere between 600-800 people and all the email addresses were there, plain to see in the “to” field.

The email wasnt formatted properly, breached every privacy law known to man, ruined whatever “good” perception WebAlive had with their dwndling customer base, and caused the customer service phones to light up like Sydney Harbour on New Years Eve.

It’s no good feeling sorry for the people who make these mistakes.

WebAlive is a web business. An online portal. A company that should know better. Otherwise it has no business being in the space.

A basic, almost fundamentally stupid error like this can undo years of goodwill in milliseconds.

I will say this though - when I did manage to get through on the phone, I will give credit to the person who made the mistake. She actually admitted it (and didnt blame someone else) and profusely apologised.

Email is powerful. It still works like gangbusters. And it can still be the most effective, cost efficient means of marketing.

But get it wrong, don’t follow the basics and make a mistake like WebAlive, and watch what happens when you put 600-800 pissed off people all in a virtual room, with no escape.

I know they say “shit happens”. But this is one example when it hitting the fan was only the start of the trouble.

WebAlive’s days as an online business are numbered. And that’s a shame.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 9:19 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.