I got an e-mail today (along with millions of other Netflix customers) from the founder of Netflix about the recent changes.
I've been a subscriber for more than seven years, and don't plan on vacating anytime soon. This letter is just another example of how Netflix treats its customers well.
Customer focused companies are the future of corporate America, in my opinion. Thanks, Netflix, for setting the bar high.
Here's the e-mail in its entirety:
-- --
Dear Jason,
I messed up.
I owe you an explanation.
It is clear from the feedback over the past two
months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we
announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was
certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology. Let me explain what we
are doing.
For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been
that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming.
Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders
bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us).
So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a
full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing
prices. It wouldn’t have changed the price increase, but it would have been the
right thing to do.
So here is what we are doing and why.
Many
members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is
published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and
comprehensive selection of movies.
I also love our streaming service
because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The
benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits
of DVD by mail. We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology
and the market evolves, without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail
service.
So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really
becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that
need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate
independently.
It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing
DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary: In a few weeks, we will rename
our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it
refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for
streaming.
Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that
everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to
qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies. One improvement we
will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our
upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360
games. Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD
by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done. Other improvements
will follow. A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com
and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.
There are no pricing
changes (we’re done with that!). If you subscribe to both services you will have
two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix.
The total will be the same as your current charges. We will let you know in a
few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready.
For me the
Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy. The new envelope is still
that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo. I know that logo will
grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for
many of you.
I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us,
and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we
treated them thoughtlessly.
Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work
hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak
louder than words. But words help people to understand
actions.
Respectfully yours,
-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO,
Netflix
0 comments:
Post a Comment