Craig Newmark offered his thoughts on many things – journalism, politics, his view of customer service. He’s a guy who thinks a lot & boils a lot of what he does down to one thing — get the hell out of the customer’s way.
He says that’s been the key to the success of CraigsList. That customers have the ability to do what they need to do without his company getting in the way. It’s that simple to him.
Where newspapers might see competition, he claims that’s way overblown. He claims that research he’s seen tell him that Sunday Shopper’s & Auto Traders have done more damage to classified advertising than he has.
He also reminds us to keep our focus on the customer. He considers himself CEO and customer service rep. He’s still involved in the day-to-day of his customers & doesn’t want to remove himself from that.
When you think your customers will come to blow over controversial subjects like the war or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the very time that they’ll have a huge war over dog breeding techniques.
You’ll never be able to guess that war is coming — but you need to respond and listen.
