All in the timing
Here’s a little story, with a moral lesson. A famous, high end, audio company sent out a firmware update for their noise-cancelling headphones. Specifically, the integrated Bluetooth feature. Within days, the complaint pile started to rise. On the online user forum, hundreds of entries. The company was perplexed, and sent out technicians to test some of the headsets… in the homes, where the complaints began, rather than in some cold, sterile laboratory. The technicians were unable to duplicate the alleged behavior.
Now, I don’t own the product, but I’d like to. I find the timing of the article about this to be rather unfortunate, as it has come out just days before the Black Friday sales. I may never know if there was any substance to the complaints, but I know that the reputation of the firm has been affected. Hence, sales will drop off.
And, as a penny-pinching consumer, those new headphones will have to wait until I find out more details on the veracity. Too late for the sales.
Is the story based on fact, or is this one of those moments where the competition will gain an unfair edge? I did say “amoral lesson”, didn’t I?
In a world where we get our information almost immediately, in a stream of conscious manner that undercuts the usual edit process, what do we do? Back when there were consumer magazines with fact-checking staff and a lead time of several months, a manufacturer could react. Sure, sometimes the complaints were valid, but there was a level playing field. Not any more.
