<history of wordperfect
More than 25 years ago I worked for a burgeoning computer software company, WordPerfect. We did something rather unique for its time: Toll-free support lines for all its customers. Now with cell phones today that doesn’t sound so great, but back in those days, it was revolutionary. We were the only ones doing it at the time. We helped business owners, network administrators, and system engineers. We guided students and receptionists, and especially lawyers on the ins and outs of using WordPerfect. Yet we supported all calls—even those from our competitors—whether they were using WordPerfect or not. People would call up, people with questions about our competitor WordStar. And Alan Ashton—the company’s brainchild and founder—insisted we support them, so we did our best.
No one else at the time was offering toll-free support lines, so it was a big deal. They also put us through customer service training. That was a long time ago, but I still remember the primary story. It resonated with me. It was about a pizza joint in NYC. They claimed to have the best pizza in the world. And if after trying their pizza, if you didn’t agree, then you didn’t have to pay for that pizza. Most people quickly agreed. It was really great, but there were some that returned frequently for their free pizza and always responded that it wasn’t the best they ever had. Employees came to know these folks and would resist when they saw them coming for the ‘free’ pizza, but the owner persisted “If they don’t agree this is the best pizza they ever had, then they get it for free.” Well Good Morning America heard about this determined pizza place owner and his courage to stand by his promise, and the morning show highlighted him on the Good Morning America show in front of millions of viewers. All because this company stood behind its promise “best pizza you ever had or it is free.”
People loved Wordperfect. The upshot was that customers in the aggregate called frequently, resulting in increased wait times. So we implemented hold jockeys. We even had hold jockeys and installed a radio booth with a bank of monitors. The monitors showed how many callers are waiting for assistance, the amount of time they've been holding and approximately how long it will be until an operator is available. It was legendary!
Every two minutes, a hold jockey came on live over the phone lines to give callers a traffic report about the status of their call and hold time. The concept went viral as they say. Technical magazines, newspapers, and websites covered the innovative approach to hold music as breaking news. Even decades later, the articles are still numerous and easily available.
Just like our customer service training, we stood behind our policy. There were those that said our strategy was flawed. We actually brought on more than 1,000 technical support engineers while I was working for the company. But the truly remarkable thing we did that detractors totally overlooked back then was that we talked to our customers everyday... and they helped us determine what was important features that the next release should include. They identified problems, provide ideas, and confirmed assumptions, so when we released the next version, it was exactly what they wanted. But it didn't stop there. When folks would see their ideas implemented in the new release, they were bought in to the company and the software because they had helped make it better with their ideas and contributions.
It was brilliant! And the numbers crunched at that time supported this strategy to the point that in 1990-1991. Wordperfect market share exceeded all other word-processing software competitors combined. Exceeding the Microsoft juggernaut in anything was unheard of until Apple tried again early 2000s.
No one else at the time was offering toll-free support lines, so it was a big deal. They also put us through customer service training. That was a long time ago, but I still remember the primary story. It resonated with me. It was about a pizza joint in NYC. They claimed to have the best pizza in the world. And if after trying their pizza, if you didn’t agree, then you didn’t have to pay for that pizza. Most people quickly agreed. It was really great, but there were some that returned frequently for their free pizza and always responded that it wasn’t the best they ever had. Employees came to know these folks and would resist when they saw them coming for the ‘free’ pizza, but the owner persisted “If they don’t agree this is the best pizza they ever had, then they get it for free.” Well Good Morning America heard about this determined pizza place owner and his courage to stand by his promise, and the morning show highlighted him on the Good Morning America show in front of millions of viewers. All because this company stood behind its promise “best pizza you ever had or it is free.”
People loved Wordperfect. The upshot was that customers in the aggregate called frequently, resulting in increased wait times. So we implemented hold jockeys. We even had hold jockeys and installed a radio booth with a bank of monitors. The monitors showed how many callers are waiting for assistance, the amount of time they've been holding and approximately how long it will be until an operator is available. It was legendary!
Every two minutes, a hold jockey came on live over the phone lines to give callers a traffic report about the status of their call and hold time. The concept went viral as they say. Technical magazines, newspapers, and websites covered the innovative approach to hold music as breaking news. Even decades later, the articles are still numerous and easily available.
Just like our customer service training, we stood behind our policy. There were those that said our strategy was flawed. We actually brought on more than 1,000 technical support engineers while I was working for the company. But the truly remarkable thing we did that detractors totally overlooked back then was that we talked to our customers everyday... and they helped us determine what was important features that the next release should include. They identified problems, provide ideas, and confirmed assumptions, so when we released the next version, it was exactly what they wanted. But it didn't stop there. When folks would see their ideas implemented in the new release, they were bought in to the company and the software because they had helped make it better with their ideas and contributions.
It was brilliant! And the numbers crunched at that time supported this strategy to the point that in 1990-1991. Wordperfect market share exceeded all other word-processing software competitors combined. Exceeding the Microsoft juggernaut in anything was unheard of until Apple tried again early 2000s.
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Alan Ashton - Quotes
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