In our last poll, I asked if our customers wanted the "Alerts" stopped. To my >surprise, a 100% of the users that replied stated, "No, keep up the good work." So, I >don't believe you can go wrong, if you keep your customers informed. It doesn't >matter if you are an ISP or a Software Company. The more information you can supply >to the customer,
the happier the customer. Even if they don't understand everything >in the e-mail... I agree that 'real' customers are happy knowing about problems and their state. The unfortunate thing that I have observed over the years is that there is a downward spiral that can occur to many service providers (not just Internet) when they 'mature'. Your marketing-droid decides to appeal to it's peer group in so-called blue-chip companies, so that they can start charging more for the same service, since the other marketing-droid (customer) doesn't care about prices, but about being seen to buy 'the right thing' (whatever the fashion might be in that industry). You grow selling this high value service. Of course, after some time you, the service provider, thinks that this is now your core market - without realising you are mearly a fashion victim - and then style-over-substance sets in. Meanwhile, the original high value customer base is moving on to the next big thing, but you cannot go back to the old ways, that would be 'unprofessional'. 'It has to look right' is the cry, and 'shareholders must not see fault reports' is another. 'Making our faults public will affect the stock price.' La di da... Peter