Image via CrunchBase
It’s happened to me, and I’m sure it’s happened to you. You’re sitting at your PC and you think “I wish Windows did (or didn’t) do…”.
When you had that thought, I’m curious about what you did next? Did you tweet your feedback? Or did you blog about it? Or perhaps you were using the Windows 7 beta and you clicked the Send Feedback link?
If you did any of these things (or something else to share your feedback), please let me know by leaving a comment below. One of the things I plan to work on in the months ahead is to make sure we’re doing a better job of listening to what customers are saying and making sure more people at Microsoft know what you’re all saying.
Thanks for your help and the feedback you have provided and hopefully will continue to provide!
- Marcus, Windows Community Manager
July 8, 2009 at 12:32 pm |
Sorry to be cheesy but, here goes. Windows is like good Soul music – in other words, beautiful to use, as opposed to listen to. If Microsoft could handle everything I wanted to use, I\’d be well happy. I have a Windows computer, If Microsoft ran the lot of it, there\’d be no conflicts! F\’r instance, do you guys have any of your own recording software? Your Feedback would be greatly welcomed:-)
July 8, 2009 at 1:07 pm |
The great thing about social media nowadays is how it is redefining how we do customer service. Blogs are great, but they are not interactive and they can have comments and ideas "lost" in the noise. Personally, I\’ve used Twitter a lot to communicate with a few folks I know from Microsoft and that has worked out extremely well. Microsoft Connect is another great way to submit feedback and ideas, though its not readily available for products that aren\’t in a testing cycle.Even a simple "Thanks" message to acknowledge the receipt of a Tweet, e-mail or comment goes a long way to let people know that the message got read. A lot of people to this day aren\’t very good at using two-way communications — they ideas go in, but you never hear anything out.I think Microsoft is ahead of the game in many ways on their use of social media and other methods to collect customer input and feedback. If you want to see who I consider the "leader" in this arena check out Sears and Kmart. They have an extensive feedback community (mysears.com and mykmart.com) as well as a highly active and responsive Twitter and Facebook presence. They have really embraced technology well to listen to their customers and reach back out to them.
July 8, 2009 at 11:11 pm |
As you are well aware Marcus, I am all for Microsoft and the new attitude to listening. I give feedback in the Clubhouse with my posts (as often you really need to put it down in a post, a tweet is too short to get your feedback across) and also in my LiveSoapBox group where as you know we try to debate all things Microsoft AND give feedback at the same time. I agree with Robert though, that Feedback is a two way thing. Its no good giving feedback, if that feedback is never acknowledged by the recipient. Many users on here love to give feedback to the teams via Comments for example, but that has all been spoiled by the spammers causing the teams either to blog elsewhere or switch comments off altogether. I think that most users LOVE to feel that they can somehow play a part in helping to point Microsoft in the right direction, I know I do.
July 8, 2009 at 11:12 pm |
In fact I\’ll start on here! I wish Microsoft had its own program for capturing screens etc as good as SnagIt!
July 8, 2009 at 11:55 pm |
Regarding Windows 7, I used the feedback link. I also blogged about some of my experiences and things I thought might be issues or things I would like. I have no idea if anyone from MSFT read them, but they also appeared at the Clubhouse. One of the things I blogged about was how to restore the feedback tool even though it was disabled in the Windows 7 RC1. And I used it. I\’m not sure if anything happened with it as it might have not been monitored any longer. I also set up a profile at https://input.microsoft.com/scenarios/home.aspx for Windows 7 and gave a lot of feedback there regarding everything from MCE to wishing the single pane on the left hand side of Windows Explorer was two panes as it was in Vista plus much more. I use the feedback link at the bottom of web pages on Windows Live, and I use the groups there as well as creating blog wish lists for Windows Live which have ended up in the Clubhouse. And I also have used other social networking (FaceBook) to express concerns about Windows marketing practices – most recently that the Vista Ultimate users were not offered an inexpensive upgrade path (yet). I share links on Windows Live for Microsoft issues such as things Google is up to that affect MS and concern me. I recently put just a note in my profile indicating I was dismayed that Microsoft Office Outlook is dropping SMS as I really think this is the wrong way for MS to go, but I\’m sure there are good reasons. And, I tweet about everything good, bad and in between. When Bing came out I tweeted for it as well as promoted it on both Facebook and Windows Live. Unlike TG, I don\’t think I have ever been directly connected to developers at MS to ask questions or provide feedback, but I would not have an issue doing that. – Wait, I did ask **** about some Media Center stuff, but never heard anything. So basically, I try everything and hope someone hears. Oh, and I\’ve taken a few surveys too, as well as used the Help and support tool in Windows.
July 10, 2009 at 8:26 am |
Thanks for all the comments, folks. Very enlightening. Jeff, I didn\’t even know about input.microsoft.com, so that was really good to find out.
July 13, 2009 at 1:32 pm |
Probably blog about it. A faster, more stable Windows is the only thing I\’m interested in. It hangs and lags way too often even with proper maintenance, and no amount of epic ad spending is going to solve this problem.
July 13, 2009 at 1:52 pm |
Hiya Marcus,JusJane at Twitter. A comment regarding Live.Mail which I may be misunderstanding in the TOS. How You May Not Use the Service.In using the service, you may not: use any automated process or service to access and/or use the service I use a 3rd party checker to access all accounts and toss any junk/undesirables I don\’t want to respond to; read. The TOSreads to me as if this is a problem and since I won\’t give up my checker, it seems to preclude using windows Live.mail.Am I correct or not reading it right? It wouldn\’t be a surprise.Thanks,JusJane
July 13, 2009 at 3:24 pm |
I\’ve used the Send Feedback link in Windows 7 on a few hardware drivers for a couple of wireless cards and a couple of network cards. I\’ve also used the Feedback link on the Windows Live portal page which is pretty much on every page.
July 14, 2009 at 1:59 pm |
Thanks for all your comments, everyone! I might follow up with some of you individually via private message to get more info.
July 19, 2009 at 3:57 pm |
I either twitter or blog about it on my Live Space. But when I ran Windows 7 beta I used the feedback icon.
July 20, 2009 at 5:34 am |
I must admit I\’m a bit scared of that feedback button Marcus. I sure the thing won\’t bite me, but I\’ve never used it before, I need more information on things first.*.. * + * JUST * + .+ . . * + . + * . * +* . + *SPRINKLIN.* + .+ . . * + . + * . * + .+ , *YOUR. + * PAGE+ *+ . . * + . + * . * + .*. * * + . * WITH.* .+ . SOME. * + * * . + * .. * + * * + . *+ *+ ..LOVE.. * + . +____,;\’*___\’_.*,,,,.;**.°º…°….O…….°o O ° O……………..°………….. °…………. O………….o….o°o……………..O….°…………o°°O…..o………..O……….O…………° o o o O………………….★……………….★……………★………..★……..★….★.★*♥´¨)¸.-´¸.-♥´¨) ¸.-♥¨)(¸.-´ (¸.-` ♥♥´¨) ♥.-´¯`-.-Have a lovely dayJewelie