Business Bricks

William Lee says:
There has to be some sort of line drawn otherwise Yahoo would be wasting a huge amount of resources by maintaining inactive or non-A-list ‘customers’.

Anyone who has worked with a large business system holding potentially millions of distinct bits of information will appreciate the importance of good housekeeping. Each dormant account will use up a finite amount of resources. With a portfolio of services as popular and accessible as Yahoo’s, I’d expect there to be a significant number of accounts that cross the line into dormancy at a fairly regular frequency.

A non-consuming, non-paying ‘customer’ might have a neglible effect small businesses, but in Yahoo’s case, non-paying customers i.e. people and automated spamming/phishing robots will all be costing significant amounts of resources so it makes good business sense to close/archive their accounts. If there is no custom nor any dealings, how can they be customers?
by William Lee on 26 Oct

Chantal says:
Ah well I agree on the Yahoo point - non-payers aren’t technically customers, but here’s a question… what about Royal Mail? As a receiver of mail, do you feel like a customer? Do you feel justified in being aggrieved when you don’t receive your mail?

According to their man at the top, the customer is the person buying the stamp and therefore paying for the service. When I’m sending my VAT return in, I agree! But when I’m waiting for a cheque from a client, that’s a different matter. What does the rest of the world think? Are we receivers of mail not customers?
by Chantal on 31 Oct