Kudos to Yahoo! for launching the Digg style Yahoo! Suggestion Board. I think it is a terrific tool for collecting user experience issues directly from the customers. Users can add a suggestion for any Yahoo! property to the board and fellow users can vote for the suggestion if they agree with it. Suggestions with the most votes are listed at the top.

I think this is an excellent and innovative way to find out where customers are having problems and the types of solutions they would like to see implemented. What better way to flush out bugs and new features than to have the customer let you know what they want changed.

This is a type of interaction with the customer that I have discussed with many companies. The benefits of this type of feedback are obvious, but the risks are quite substantial. For instance, now that Yahoo! has built this tool and it is being populated by their loyal customers, the customers have a right to expect that Yahoo! will act on the highest rated requests. However, the customers' primary goal is usefulness where the product managers' goals are often revenue. At many high tech companies, these goals, and subsequent feature requests, sadly are not in alignment.

Next, this type of service requires moderation. Disgruntled customers who have no customer service outlet (especially for the free services Yahoo! provides) can poison a public feedback forum with their anger. I see in the Help section that Yahoo! reserves the right to remove posts if they are not "respectful." Moderating this type of service requires substantial customer service resources which most companies are not willing to spend. Dell comes to mind as an amazing exception with their Dell Community forums where customers answer each others' support questions.

Lastly, from a strategic standpoint, a service like Yahoo! Suggestion Board exposes user experience issues and feature requests to the internal development team and also to any competitors. For large companies like Yahoo! this may not be a concern. For smaller and medium sized companies struggling for market share, allowing the world to see your dirty laundry is a scary proposition.

Because of the concerns listed above, I have not worked with a company who was willing to try a suggestion board. I give a lot of credit to Yahoo! for taking this approach. Now the rest of us will sit back and see if there are any results.

Labels: customer feedback, ue research