Scouta CEO Reaches Out, Provides Support and Implements User Feedback

Published 2 years, 5 months ago by Rob Abbott

For several months I have had the urge to do another major post on user experience. Fortunately, my time is spent heavily on Ribbit and the rest on eating, sleeping and repeating. Sadly for my blog and for the small group of readers, which follow my posts, there hasn’t been time to really push out 1 post per month on average for the past 4 months. Last year I published 3 posts on average per month, what a decline.

With a few recent events I have managed to squeeze 3 posts (including this one) in a single week. The first two posts were about the initial Ribbit announcements and the this third one is about a recent exchange I had with the Scouta CEO.

Duncan Riley over at TechCrunch recently did a story on Scouta. Being the music and iTunes fanatic that I am I hopped at the opportunity to try out their service.

I headed over to Scouta.com and registered for an account. Then afterwards I downloaded and installed their iTunes Scouta Agent. Next I proceeded to set Scouta Agent in action by filling out my Scouta account credentials in their application.

At that moment is when I realized I became somewhat of a helpless new user. I couldn’t find where to authenticate the application to map my data stream back to the Scouta service.

This is what I saw…

Against what I thought was right, I filled in the credentials here, but only because I didn’t see any other place for them. The reason I didn’t think this was the appropriate place for them was because the section header said “Registration”, so I assumed it to be for users who could download Scouta Agent without registering on the Scouta.com web site.

Inline account registration within applications works very well for low barrier registration, so I was pleased to see it here.

Once I closed the window my Growl service reported that Scouta had begun to contact the Scouta service to send an analysis of my iTunes history to the Scouta service.

The growl queue was as follows…

1. Resolving podcasts - Resolving podcasts for iTunes.
2. Sync Started - Starting update to Scouta.
3. Sync Failed - Internal server error encountered from Scouta server

I quit the application and restarted it and did the same with iTunes. Once the applications were open again I saw the same Growl messages, so I made my way back over to the interface to make sure I hadn’t missed something. I came to two conclusions, one the Scouta service was down or I as the user was doing something wrong and in turn causing me to feel helpless.

Well, I wondered back over to the TechCrunch post and made a comment about my trouble. Several hours later I noticed an email in my inbox from the Scouta CEO, Richard Giles. He had written me to inquire about my trouble with their application, he also included another member of his team on the email for additional support.

I was extremely happy to see an email from Richard, and him and his team reaching out to support my issue. He had also posted a comment on the TechCrunch post notifying me that he would be in touch to help with my issue.

The next day I replied and described my issue. In the process I gave him feedback (see quoted text below) on the application UI and I how I think it would alleviate some of the confusion I had been experiencing.

I did register on the site and I put in the credentials.

The mistake I made is that I did not click “Register” in the preferences “Registration” section.

That language is confusing to me because I already registered on the site, so the first few times I didn’t bother clicking registration in the application.

The preferences panel should say…

“Account” or “My Scouta” as preferences section header

Section content…

username [ FIELD ]
password [ FIELD ]

{ Sign In } { Register as New User }

Registration totally through me off because I had already registered and it seemed like it was the section was meant for people who could register from within the application.

About a week later, my Scouta application notified me that there was a new update for the Scouta Agent. I ran the update and to my amazement this is what I saw…

It seemed my line of feedback had been interpreted correctly and immediately implemented. Wow, what a fantastic update to my experience; Scouta really came through for its user! It was extremely pleasing to see this and most importantly, I valued the application and service a lot differently.

User experience (UX) and user feedback are so crucial. Unfortunately large companies today have trouble making such a positive impact as Richard Giles did on me, the user. This is where new and small companies alike can take advantage, especially in a time where brand exposure and retaining users are so important. Representing a brand in this manner can go a long way with new users.

Scouta not only goes above and beyond to support their users, but most importantly they listen to what their users have to say. They have also shown that they can fix an issue quickly and improve their user experience and usability in the process.

Wow, again.

If you are a member of a new company (startup) or even any company for that matter. Realize that to differentiate your product(s), service(s) or platform you need to think beyond what you’re implementing and really impress your users by showing them they are just as much a part of the evolution of the application as your team is.

Features and technology aren’t going to necessarily attract and sustain users. You must have a philosophy, especially one that represents how your product and/or service reflects your users needs.

rob.

p.s. - If you have sometime, take a look below at the email exchange I had with Scouta’s CEO, Richard Giles in resolving my user experience/usability issue. Thanks again Richard and Team!

Subject: Scouta Problems
————————

From: Richard Giles To: Rob Abbott

Cc: Clinton Shaw

Date: Wed, Aug 1, 2007 at 5:59 PM

Hi Rob,I noticed on TechCrunch that you mentioned you had issues with the Scouta iTunes Agent.Can we clarify the issue? I think you said that you installed it, it runs, but it sends a Growl message saying that there is a server error? Have you restarted the application and tried again?Please let us know, as we’d love to work with you and fix the issues you’re having.Cheers Richard – Richard Giles CEO Scouta http://scouta.com/ http://blog.scouta.com/ http://scouta.com/members/richard/

——–
From: Richard Giles To: Rob Abbott

Cc: Clinton Shaw

Date: Thu, Aug 2, 2007 at 8:16 PM

Hi RobJust wondering if you’re keen to help trouble shoot. We’d love to help try and sort the issue with you.Let us know if you’re keen.Kind regards Richard

——–
From: Rob Abbott To: Richard Giles

Cc: Clinton Shaw

Date: Thu, Aug 2, 2007 at 10:49 PM

Hi Richard,Thanks for reaching out. I have restarted my MB Pro twice today, once was actually after I installed the in version of iTunes via OS X system updates.The Scouta agent is in the menu bar and still sends a growl message with the same error.The growl queue is as follows… Resolving podcasts - Resolving podcasts for iTunes. Sync Started - Starting update to Scouta. Sync Failed - Internal server error encountered from Scouta server I did register on the site and I put in the credentials. The mistake I made is that I did not click “Register” in the preferences “Registration” section. That language is confusing to me because I already registered on the site, so the first few times I didn’t bother clicking registration in the application. The preferences panel should say… “Account” or “My Scouta” as preferences section header Section content… username [ FIELD ] password [ FIELD ] { Sign In } { Register as New User } Registration totally through me off because I had already registered and it seemed like it was the section was meant for people who could register from within the application. Everything seems to be working now. Best of luck to your team! Thanks again, Rob

——–
From: Richard Giles To: Rob Abbott

Cc: Clinton Shaw

Date: Thu, Aug 2, 2007 at 10:58 PM

Awesome feedback Rob.Great that it is working now, and we agree with your suggestions. We’ll get to work making the changes to make it a lot more clear.Thanks again. Richard

——–
From: Rob Abbott To: Richard Giles

Cc: Clinton Shaw

Date: Mon, Aug 13, 2007 at 10:15 PM

Nice update!– Change the world one loan at a time - visit Kiva.org to find out how http://www.kiva.org/lender/abbott

——–
From: Richard Giles To: Rob Abbott

Cc: Clinton Shaw

Date: Mon, Aug 13, 2007 at 10:21 PM

Thanks Rob We obviously took your advice…and great advice it was!Rich

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