Unpaid Contributors Provide Corporate Tech Support

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times writes about Justin McMurry of Keller, TX, who spends up to 20 unpaid hours per week helping Verizon customers with high-speed fiber optic Internet, television and telephone service. McMurry is part of an emerging corps of Web-savvy helpers that large corporations, start-up companies, and venture capitalists are betting will transform the field of customer service. Such enthusiasts are known as lead users, or super-users, and their role in contributing innovations to product development and improvement — often selflessly — has been closely researched in recent years. These unpaid contributors, it seems, are motivated mainly by a payoff in enjoyment and respect among their peers. 'You have to make an environment that attracts the Justin McMurrys of the world, because that's where the magic happens,' says Mark Studness, director of e-commerce at Verizon. The mentality of super-users in online customer-service communities is similar to that of devout gamers, according to Lyle Fong, co-founder of Lithium Technologies whose web site advertises that a vibrant community can easily save a company millions of dollars per year in deflected support calls' and whose current roster of 125 clients includes AT&T, BT, iRobot, Linksys, Best Buy, and Nintendo. Lithium's customer service sites for companies offer elaborate rating systems for contributors, with ranks, badges and kudos counts. 'That alone is addictive,' says Fong. 'They are revered by their peers.' Meanwhile McMurry, who is 68 and a retired software engineer, continues supplying answers by the bushel, all at no pay. 'People seem to like most of what I say online, and I like doing it.'"

Exploited by ego

[clang_jangle]

Sounds like these guys are just being exploited by their own egos. Though surely they fill a niche and are appreciated by other users, what with the sorry state of "tech support" Verizon and other big corps maintain. I never call tech support anymore except as a dead-last resort, because if I can't figure it out there's hardly any chance some minimum wage boob with a script is going to help me.

Re:just great

[beadfulthings]

There's one thing I think you could rely on:

If you (or more accurately the perception of you) shift from dedicated volunteer status to "dangerous hacker criminal" status, the company involved would cut you loose or turn you in with no compunctions at all--and find another volunteer. They don't have any "skin" in the game and therefore have nothing to lose.

Re:Exploited by ego

[averner]

Sometimes you need the "minimum wage boob with a script" to push a couple buttons on their side that you can't access unless you use illegal cracking methods.