John Lyle's new brand thinking

Earlier today, I was helping a friend get a blog site set up, and as I have done before with my colleagues Mich and Abi, recommended that she do it using WordPress. I was telling her about how easy and foolproof it was to use and in the very best spirit of pride coming before a fall, I fell over. Big style.

I registered her blog, in her name, on my account.

That should be simple to move, surely all you need to do is delete it and then set it up in her name from scratch?

But you can’t. You have to contact customer services and I was dreading this. They were bound to be some faceless corporate who ignored my pleas for logic and common sense, who undid all my faith in their brand.

But no, just like all of their other brand behaviours, they were incredibly simple to use.

At 10.49 am I filled in the form, making it clear I as a bit embarrassed that you can see here. Even this is more nicely worded than almost any customer service contact form you have ever seen.

Wordpress customer contact form - showing my grovelling plea for help

13 minutes later, the very clever Hanni, replied back, having already sorted it, using the exact language you will find almost anywhere else throughout the WordPress site.

The helpful reply from the very clever Hanni at WordPress

Any brand that can be this consistent in delivering its brand values, deserves huge success. I’m not just a fan any more, I’m a raving fan.

Thanks Hanni.

UPDATED

Many online brands are absolutely awful when it comes to working offline, but just to continue this story one stage further, WordPress have again proved they are the most human of online businesses. As is my usual trick, I let Hanni know that I had blogged about her and I even got a lovely reply. I am now a raving fan with bells and whistles on.

I've made Hanni's from WordPress's day

Filed under: brand values, branding Tagged: | brand values, branding, Wordpress