[jbail]

We had a discussion at a previous software company I worked at regarding credits for outages.

We were debating whether to give out credits automatically or to send an email with a link to get your credits (like Netflix did). We went with giving credits automatically.

I'd be curious to hear opinions on both approaches and why other businesses went one way or the other regarding credits.

[patio11]

The best implementation of this I've ever seen was an email with a heartfelt apology and a link to a pick-your-credit system. Assume $20 is the cost of the service for one month.

- I was really inconvenienced. (We're sorry, and will give you a $20 credit.)

- I was somewhat inconvenienced. (We're sorry, and will give you a $10 credit.)

- I was a little inconvenienced. (We're sorry, and will give you a $5 credit.)

- I wasn't really inconvenienced but I appreciate that you sent me the email. I don't want a credit. (Thanks. We appreciate your business, and will try to always do our best by you.)

The last time I had a substantial outage, I figured out which sixty individuals were affected by it, and put an apology on their dashboards. The two who were paying customers got handwritten emails, and I did the work they had been trying to do and attached the result to the email. I offered them a full refund, too (I'll give one to anybody for any reason, so I might as well remind them of that, right?). (Neither took me up on the offer.)

[phamilton]

I think there's a psychological element to "claiming" your discount.

I don't see many people coming to a conclusion of "They are going to make me click a link in order to get my deserved discount? Give me a break."

Also, if only %80 percent claim it, then you saved yourself around half a percent of lost revenue (20% of 3% discount)

[rodericksilva]

Why not do both? Give the credit and send the email.

[jmreid]

I wonder how many people don't redeem the credit. Those who didn't have an issue might feel guilty doing it but happy to know that Netflix cares enough to inform it's entire base.

[rodericksilva]

I never noticed so I didn't claim. I figured they should get "paid" for their honesty.

[mike463]

I never redeemed the credits, and I got a few of these. I suspected it was because I reported issues with a couple videos. (Most disney sitcoms my kid watches seem to have audio and video COMPLETELY out of sync)

What would make their customer service just a little bit better? Being able to report a problem that's NOT on their list.

I've had a few movies I watched that were at the wrong aspect ratio for the TV, and I couldn't fix it with my tv "zoom" menu. The frustrating thing is there's no way to report it (though I guess you could drop it in the "picture was unwatchable or blurry" bucket)

[jbail]

That's what we did. All customers got an email saying they automatically received credit...as opposed to an email where they needed to click a link to claim their credit.

[rodericksilva]

What you guys did deserves recognition because it was a gift to those who did not even notice the outage.

We should also give credit to Netflix and those who at least choose to notify their members. It is almost like the "honor system."

[derefr]

How about "click here to claim your credit now -- but don't worry; if you don't, or if you miss this message, you'll still get your credit automatically applied in 30 days." It combines both approaches, and adds an element of "act now to get it even sooner!"