-=PCTechTalk=- Microsoft: The Customer Experience Improvement Program
- From: "Barry Toner" <barrys.groups@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Dj Paddy" <barrys.groups@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 14:44:25 +0100
Has anyone seen this?
I downloaded Windows Messanger v5 this morning and just one tab away from my
online status frame there was in the notifications frame, (where updates are
usually displayed), a message asking me would I care to join the above
program.
It's really nice I think that Microsoft in this instance havent' just went
ahead and turned the feature of collecting data on, (Real.com), without
asking the customer first.
Any comments?
I can see lots of people are going to be unhappy about this. But it's one
of those things, they are not forcing the program upon any customers.
Microsoft gets a bad rep alot of the time. Sometimes justified but
sometimes just for being a Corporate business and just because their bugs
are more publisised in the media and online that alot of those Linux and
other OS users run into. But that's just my take.
Here's the url and article.
http://www.microsoft.com/products/ceip/english/default.htm
Continuing Software Improvement
at Microsoft
Microsoft has always held delivering the right software at the right time
with quality as its first priority. To realize that priority, Microsoft has
gone
to great lengths to engage our customers with focus groups, surveys,
customer feedback and even visits to our customers' homes and workplaces.
This drive
for excellence has done great things for our software and helped our
customers by providing the right tools for their lives. Even with all the
improvement
we've enjoyed so far, we believe we have opportunities to improve.
For that reason, Microsoft has created the Customer Experience Improvement
Program. With this program, we are looking to get our customers even more
actively
involved in helping to create the world's best software. By participating in
the program, you can help us focus our work on the features that you use
most
often, tell us where to simplify our software when it is too difficult and
introduce new capabilities that increase your productivity. Basically said,
being a part of the Customer Experience Improvement Program helps us help
you.
That's great - I'm all for better software but it sounds like a lot of work
for me to do.
Actually, the best part about the program is that there is really no work
for you to do. Should you choose to participate, all the work can be done
behind
the scenes with no additional effort, time requirement or inconvenience to
you.
Ok, so then how does the program work?
If you agree to join the program, small pieces of anonymous information will
be sent to Microsoft about how your software is working while you are using
it. The people who create software at Microsoft can then use this data in an
aggregated form to help make future versions of that software better and
more
useful to you. Any information shared by you is completely anonymous and
absolutely zero information is personally identifiable as you.
Why does Microsoft need to know this information? Is this some part of a
large advertising campaign?
The Customer Experience Improvement Program is our newest tool to help us
produce software our customers need. With the program you are directly
influencing
how software is designed and products are made. As more people use
computers, we have noticed our traditional tools have not been able to keep
up pace
with our savvy and sophisticated customers. Simply put, we needed a better
way to keep in tune with our customer's needs. This program is not for
advertising
or sales in any way, the program is completely anonymous. You will never
have to complete a form, fill out a survey or answer a phone call.
What types of information will you collect? And why?
Microsoft always tries to understand exactly how and where our customers use
their software. To do this we invest millions in focus group testing and
surveys,
but at the end of the day, we still need to use assumptions and informed
guesses. A few of the things we want to understand better are:
List of 4 items
. The kind and number of errors you see - We try to ship error-free software
every version, but we simply cannot know how every different computer in the
world will perform with our software. When we know more about the errors our
customers experience, we can concentrate on eliminating those error-prone
areas.
. Software performance - Sometimes a feature of software can be difficult to
learn and use. If we know more about exactly where people are having
problems
and how often those problems occur, we can simplify the software and make it
easier to use.
. Hardware performance - There are hundreds of millions of computers in the
world, and each of them is slightly different. We can improve our software's
reliability when we know what kind of computer equipment is used most, and
whether certain computers are having difficulty with our software.
. Quality of service - Waiting for your software to respond is frustrating.
We can improve the performance (speed) of our software when we know where,
when
and how often the quality of our services is lacking. Helping us with
actual, real-world information can make your software work that much better
for you.
list end
Ok, but how do I join? Or if I decide to stop participating, how do I leave?
When you are installing software that is a part of the Customer Experience
Improvement Program, you will be asked to join during installation. When
prompted,
just click "Yes". If in the future you no longer want to help, you can turn
the program off (this is usually an option found on the Help menu, but it
can
vary by software). If you do choose to leave, we thank you for helping us
and really appreciate your assistance!
How often will I be sharing this anonymous information with you?
How often you will share information depends on the software title you are
using. In general the information is shared once per day.
This sounds good, but I'm still concerned. Is this anything like the
"spyware" I've heard about? Is this really anonymous?
No, this is not spyware; yes, the information collected is anonymous. You
participate in the program by choosing to do so, and you can easily leave
the
program at any time. Also, the program only works well with large numbers of
our customers participating tracking a single user's errors and shared
information
is not that useful. The information you share really only becomes helpful
when it is looked at in aggregate, and thought of as "big picture" issues.
Microsoft
is absolutely committed to protecting customer's privacy and any information
collected in the program would be completely anonymous.
Will I be able to see what information I'm sharing with you?
Unfortunately, no. We designed this program to not interfere how you work or
how your computer functions. To do that, the information you are sharing is
stored as a binary format file (zeros and ones) and not text. Holding the
information in binary makes it very small and easy to share with us,
unfortunately,
it also makes it impossible to translate and interpret locally without
having to create a complicated translator. Even if you could read the
information,
it would probably be meaningless to you while of great interest to a
software engineer making a programming decision (for example,
Size_of_Page_File =
128 MBs).
Is there any unique identifier that I share with my data, like a timestamp
or my Internet address?
When you join the program, a randomly generated number is created; that
number is used every time you share information with us. Since the number is
completely
random, we cannot associate the number with you. Instead, we use that number
to distinguish how widespread the feedback we receive is. For example, this
number allows us to tell between one customer having an error 100 times and
100 customers having the same error once. Being able to make that
distinction
is very valuable in prioritizing how we improve the software you use.
However, having that number cannot tell us who that customer is.
Will you be sharing this information with other companies?
No. This information will only be used by Microsoft in aggregate form for
the purpose of improving our software for our customers.
© 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use.
Last Updated: September 07, 2002
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