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What's the difference between Company and Organization?
when entering info about a company, what distinction is Satisfaction trying to make with the choices between Company and Organization?
(might be good to have that distinction obvious on that screen)
(might be good to have that distinction obvious on that screen)
I’m curious
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The best answer from the company
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The label :-)
Seriously. The only thing is that some text changes around the site to make it appropriate when it's a company or when it's an organization.
The company says
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?The label :-)
Seriously. The only thing is that some text changes around the site to make it appropriate when it's a company or when it's an organization.
The company says
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?hmmmm.. ok...
if there is no real value in making this distinction, would be nice not to have to think about that when adding a company :)
I’m confused
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Inappropriate?There is real value to this, especially in the future. People perceive and interact with each entity in different ways.
For example, OAuth isn't a company, its a free-form group of people working on a spec. They don't have employees. Organization fits much more closely to what they are.
1 person says
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?right. and non-profits *hate* it when you call them companies.
2 people say
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?There you go, that's what I asked: what is the difference.
My second point is, not a lot of people may know the distinction you are trying to make WHEN they are entering that info. While it be evident to someone who works on a non-profit it can leave some folks wondering.
So it's really dependent on how relevant is that info to the relevance of system.
I’m confident
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Inappropriate?Additionally, not many consumers know the distinction between a brand, product or service, and a company/organization. If someone wants to discuss Oreo products (cookies, cakes), they may know that Oreo (brand) are made by Nabisco (brand umbrella), but not that Nabisco is owned by Kraft, the company. I would bet nine times out of ten, they are going to start an Oreo profile and not a "company" profile.
Likewise, a brand manager is going to feel more comfortable participating in conversations about his/her particular brand, and the products under that brand, (such as a toothpaste), rather than feeling like they are representing a behemoth such as Procter & Gamble or Unilever as a whole.
The higher up in a brand within a company you can get, the more meaningful the conversations become for both the consumer and the brand. Most customer service agents aren't empowered to go "off script" anyway.
I would give the option of adding a product or service in addition to a company or organization. It would provide a better experience for both consumers and the brands.
I’m excited about Satisfaction!
2 people say
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?You can do that, it's just attached to a company/organization now.
But you bring up a good point about the taxonomy of relationships of massive companies with subdivisions and subsidiaries.
In our case, I create our umbrella company and added the three services (the three core business lines), then created another company (my division) and added the products we are responsible for working on (which are much more granular and specific and relate to some of the 3 core business lines). That relationship can be made (though I don't know how), as seen on this page on the right "Get Satisfaction related:" where it shows other companies/products of relevance.
I'm loving the structure flexibility because even though the relationship between product and company may not be self evident "from the consumer perspective" at first, people don't HAVE to go through a company to find a product. Conversely, the information is not presented in a way that reflects a company's internal structure (which is irrelevant to the consumer but often translated into company websites).
Get Satisfaction rocks my socks.
I’m very very enthusiastic
2 people say
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?I saw that. I guess I'm thinking from a admin and user experience standpoint for Satisfaction itself - in these beginning stages, you're going to get consumers that will come in and start an Oreo "company" page while you may have someone from Nabisco come in and add a Nabisco page with Oreo, Chips Ahoy and Teddy Grahams as products, and then Kraft comes in - is there a way to eventually merge what could be duplicate threads and entries?
I know if I try to create an Oreo company, and it already exists, that this site will alert me, but if I create Oreo as a company, and then someone else puts it as a product under another company, things can start getting confusing and messy. Add to that that Oreo has several products and then it gets crazy.
(Are the product and services labels aware of the company labels? "Oops - that already exists as a product." or, "The product you are trying to add already exists under the company XYZ".)
A brand manager is going to "get" participating and monitoring conversations on his brand/product profile page, but when he has to sort and select and follow threads related to his brand/product from a slew of conversations about hundreds of other products under his company's main profile page, it becomes a bit trickier.
One last thought - at times, the brands are going to want laser precision when it comes to topics. Using Oreo again as an example, they may only want to hear or participate in conversations about their new snack cake for a period of time.
A lot of fun things to ponder. I am looking forward to seeing how all of this works itself out!
I’m enjoying the discussion.
1 person says
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?Great ideas and feedback, all. Even though the site emphasizes the company over products at this point, we're planning on evolving this to where the products are equally prevalent. Also, we'll make it a lot easier to follow specific products (and even tags).
All this input is going straight into the brains of our product team. Keep it up!
I’m pleased as punch
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Inappropriate?Hi livlab. Thanks for all your probing questions and insight. I think it is important to set that distinction at the get-go, but you're absolutely right that the language about the distinction should be clear right there so that making a choice is a no-brainer. We're definitely at the point now of wanting to see where we can add further instruction, clarification, direction etc. at the right moments so any other thoughts in this direction are most appreciated!
I’m hoping to make things very clear.
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Inappropriate?livlab & centrs -- Thanks so much for all the insightful discussion. A lot of good food for thought. I know we've definitely been thinking about a lot of this but it always helps to hear fresh perspectives on structure, hierarchy, etc.
I’m looking forward to seeing how all of this works itself out too.
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Inappropriate?livlab - i guess it sounds that way! haha. i've worked with kraft and some other consumer product corporations in the past.
I’m eating oreos!
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Inappropriate?Wow, lots of great thinking here! With a system this size we realized that trying to create a top down structure was really going to limit flexibility (and growth, since we don't know exactly what Satisfaction is going to become, or to whom, though we've got ideas). So we've been thinking of other ways to make sure that people hear about conversations they want to be involved in. Explicit and implicit following of people, companies, and in particular products & services will help employees and reps stay in the right loops. As Thor mentions a more product-centric system is in the works. We're also keeping a close eye on tagging patterns because that may provide another way to stay in the center of relevant topics. Turns out this will be pretty important for employees AND the super engaged customers we want to cater to. And wow, thanks for the lessons on brand structures!
I’m amazed.
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This answers the question
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There is no big difference. We have companies on Get Satisfaction, although we may -- in conversations like this -- refer to organizations that are nonprofits or not traditional customer-service-oriented groups.
EMPLOYEE
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