Meralco’s customers are in the midst of a catastrophe. So I go to Meralco’s home page and … wala! There’s nothing there related to what’s happening all around us. No weblog updating customers on what’s happening, no way to communicate, no way to share experiences, no way to let customers in or information out.
Ok, so I click on the News & Updates button. The first item is “Meralco explains lower bills for its customers.” Are you f****ing kidding me?
Granted, what goes on in the field is hugely important – and this is where Meralco performs heroically. But it’s 2006. Your customers want more – they will demand to be something more than a revenuue stream. And the first option they get from someone (a new retail supplier) that provides that will eat your lunch, I predict.
Compare this blathering with the human voice of a weblog placed temporatily on the homepage during an emergency impacting people’s lives.
During the New Orleans emergency, entities ranging from newspapers to universities immediately changed their homepages to weblogs in order to connect to the people, get information out, and get information in. Great lessons to be learned there.