Transparency

Secrets are a dangerous things.   They are often worse than the truth in the minds of those who can imagine the worst -- and many can. 

Quiet is corrosive.

A friend and I were chatting last week. She is on the other side of the globe and couldn't understand why companies don't respond to allegations. She said (a close quote) "what we need is transparency".  I had to smile at that and replied (again as I remember it) "well maybe in YOUR country but certainly not in mine".  And that's the gist of things really. It truly is worse when companies keep quiet.

You probably remember when this site was dark for five days or so due to a fiber outage.  We never got the answer to why that happened -- and boy did I try to find out.  That left a bad taste with folks and I am guessing that some left the long time popular ISP.  The company sent out a survey not too long after the fiasco and asked a lot of questions. I answered them all but didn't pull any punches.  While I didn't leave the company, one that I had been with for decades -- a happy camper was not my designation.  

Yesterday the internet went out again -- just for a day this time and "for me" the phone stayed on (not for others).  After that previous long trek into darkness it wasn't a big deal really. I worked in Blender and played a session of a complex strategy game (and won - whew) and that was my day.  

This late afternoon everyone (the WHOLE ISP was down and this was many counties) received an email EXPLAING exactly what happened and HOW THEY PLANNED to fix it. They also gave everyone with an internet connection (phone is the only service from them for some folks) a 5 dollar credit on their bill. 

Now I don't care all that much about the credit but I WAS very impressed with the CEO's email taking responsibility and promising to fix the issue and get customer trust back.

That is a example of good PR. Something that other companies might want to take note of.