Bulletin Board

A collection of short articles about technology. Topics include dealing with a disgruntled customer's disparaging Web site; automating product inspection; and finding good technical help.

Barbed Wires

When Ed Kieler heard about a Web site trashing his company, he figured he could just ignore it, and it would go away. The site, created by a disgruntled customer, warned visitors to avoid EPS Technologies, an $80-million computer manufacturer in Omaha. Adding injury to insult, the site mentioned EPS Technologies so often that it appeared above the company's own home page on many search engines when people looked for EPS on the Web.

But after two months, Kieler realized that even if he wasn't paying attention to the site, potential customers were. "The site owner cost the company money. He lost us more than one customer, and there's no way to tell how many," he says. When two additional, though less vitriolic, sites sprang up (incited by the first guy, Kieler speculates), the CEO and president decided to act.

So in November 1996, Kieler laid his troubles in the lap of Don Middleberg, CEO of the public-relations firm Middleberg + Associates, based in New York City. Middleberg, who had recently launched an Internet-communications division, immediately contacted all three of EPS's on-line critics. Working with the company, he was able to quickly resolve the concerns of two, who dismantled their sites. The creator of the original site, however, proved far less tractable.

Middleberg's next step was to create a page on www.eps.com, acknowledging the complaints and saying they were being addressed. That strategy raises questions--why draw attention to a detractor?--but Middleberg insists that Internet users reward honesty. That point is academic, however, since the page received very little traffic.

In the end the unhappy customer razed his site only after Kieler sicced a lawyer on him. Why didn't the company seek legal recourse sooner? "We saw this as a communications issue rather than a legal one," says Amy Jackson, head of Middleberg Interactive. "We didn't want to inflame the situation."

Kieler hopes to forestall future attacks by removing potential ammunition. Consequently, he's spiffed up customer service, both on the Web and over the phone, and is concentrating on reducing late deliveries (the cause of the original complaint). "Don't underestimate one human being is the moral of the story," says Kieler. "One pissed-off customer is all it takes." --Shane McLaughlin

---

Turn That Frown Upside Down

You don't have to be Microsoft to attract criticism on the Web. The following tips, from Don Middleberg, CEO of Middleberg + Associates, can help your company defang on-line detractors.

Provide a place on your own Web site where customers can contact sales reps if they have complaints. Be sure that you address all concerns promptly and publicly.

Contact the owners of critical sites immediately and try to resolve their concerns. Communicate by phone rather than E-mail: it's more personal, and E-mail can be posted--out of context--on the offending site.

Compensate for the customer's inconvenience with extra products or discounts, but don't offer preferential treatment. (On-line critics who think they've got you over a barrel may try to exploit the situation.)

Document everything you do to satisfy the customer in case of a lawsuit.

Make legal action your last resort. Some on-line critics enjoy posting "cease and desist" letters, and you don't want to create a David-and-Goliath scenario.

---

New Year's Evil

In February 1997 about 20 executives from small manufacturers in Illinois gathered to discuss a sick friend. The friend, Magellan, was a financially troubled software maker, and the executives were concerned that the vendor's ill health would hurt support for its product, called EOS.

Then Rod Miller, information-technology director of $20-million Morton Welding Co., dropped a bombshell: Did other members of the group realize that EOS wasn't Year 2000 compliant?

Since EOS supplied the operational nervous systems of every company represented, the prospect of its millennial implosion pushed everything else to the periphery. Over the course of several meetings held under the auspices of the Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center (IMEC), the group debated its options. Buying new systems would be costly--as much as $200,000 for the biggest users and $50,000 for the smallest. Hiring consultants to fix the code would be much cheaper, but whom could they get? The small-business market for Y2K consultants was deplorably underserved.

How about me? Miller asked. He had experience with EOS, both as a user and as a onetime employee of Magellan. He also had a good understanding of the supply chain of Caterpillar, a major customer of most group members. The one thing he didn't have was a company. So when IMEC asked him to bid on the project, he quit Morton and started Cornerstone Data Systems.

In August 1997, Cornerstone won business from a dozen members of the IMEC group. By this past September the EOS systems of 11 of the 12 companies were Y2K compliant, and Miller had begun work on less-critical software. He had also hired two programmers and two hardware technicians in anticipation of a surge of clients in 1999. "Next year my business will be stretched to its limit," he says.

Meanwhile, IMEC technical specialist Jerry Kilpatrick is out on the stump, educating small manufacturers about Y2K. The longer they wait to find help, he says, the less likely it is that they'll find it. "It's like waiting until you have cancer to stop smoking," he says. --S.M.

---

All Work and Some Play

The good news: employees spend 76% of their Internet time on business-related tasks. The bad news: that other 24%.