Don’t Forget Your Audience

DreamHost, my webhost provider, has a very candid approach to their corporate blogging. Many of their customers seem to love the down to earth style of communications. Other customers, however, don’t appreciate the humor when it comes to big mistakes the company has made.

Last month, there was a huge billing error to the tune of millions of dollars. DreamHost’s automatic billing system accidentally overcharged many customers. DreamHost CEO Josh Jones wrote an apologetic blog post, infused with the silliness that is DreamHost’s signature. After reader comments like, “For such a vast problem, I don’t think the jokey tone really serves you well. I usually don’t mind it, but in this case, it is a bad idea,” DreamHost issued another apology via their blog.

Comments on the blog seem split nearly 50/50 with customers who either are offended by DreamHost’s humorous style, or those who stay with DreamHost for exactly that reason. There were similar reactions about a year ago when there was another big problem. (See: Anatomy of a(n ongoing) Disaster and Anatomy of a Disaster, Part 2)

The lesson here is to use appropriate tone on your blog. Sometimes you might forget that people are reading. Although you may not have many readers when you first start, remember that nearly everything you put on the Internet can exist forever, even once it’s deleted. The archiving power of the Internet has only grown. Geez, I can still find discussion group postings I made nearly 10 years ago when I was selling on eBay to help pay for college.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been a DreamHost customer for over 5 years now. Thankfully, I was not affected by the billing error since I seldom enroll in any automatic billing plans. But I can remember the days, not too long ago, when a billing error to my debit card — even if only a couple hundred dollars — would have made rent checks bounce or left me without money to buy groceries, as other DreamHost customers have complained.

I will stay a DreamHost customer. My tech support requests have always been met quickly and efficiently. And I will never forget how DreamHost gave a full year of free hosting to customers in the New Orleans area right after Hurricane Katrina. It was certainly nice to know that I didn’t have to worry about paying for webhost service while trying to replace everything I owned. To be honest, I don’t think they ever blogged about that.