Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90% • Hacker News Board

Re: Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90%

#11

Post by waxman » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 10:37 PM UTC

ajju wrote: post #5

Very cool! What happens if a group just does not show up?

It's extremely rare (see above), but when it does happen we do everything we can to make it up to the other group (free drinks, free Groupers, profuse apologies, etc.) and lay down the law on the other group (including removing them from the community).

Re: Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90%

#12

Post by sixQuarks » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 10:38 PM UTC

Hahaha! I love the "don't click the hook" image on your web site. Brilliant! Did you guys create that yourselves or is that some sort of plugin?

Re: Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90%

#13

Post by waxman » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 10:41 PM UTC

sixQuarks wrote: post #12

Hahaha! I love the "don't click the hook" image on your web site. Brilliant! Did you guys create that yourselves or is that some sort of plugin?

Ha thanks!

We hand-rolled it with jQuery and a hook image from iStockPhoto (what can we say, we couldn't avoid the the easy fish pun), but if people are interested we could release it as a jQuery plug-in.

Re: Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90%

#14

Post by digitallimit » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 10:47 PM UTC

waxman wrote: post #13

sixQuarks wrote: post #12

Hahaha! I love the "don't click the hook" image on your web site. Brilliant! Did you guys create that yourselves or is that some sort of plugin?

Ha thanks! We hand-rolled it with jQuery and a hook image from iStockPhoto (what can we say, we couldn't avoid the the easy fish pun), but if people are interested we could release it as a jQuery plug-in.

Are you guys hiring? :P

Re: Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90%

#15

Post by abbasmehdi » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 10:50 PM UTC

This is so smart! A lot of tech is awesome but lets never forget that its humans with actual psychologies using the technology. These users face social pressures to be upstanding and responsible like we all do in real life - being online is not an excuse for bad behavior - this is a great example of the merger b/w virtual and real lives.

Seems like LinkedIn pioneered this, HN also does this to a great degree, but now Grouper is taking it to the next level as it holds you responsible for your online actions offline.

The wheels are turning in my head about ways to leverage people's desire to manage their personal brand into a mutually beneficial situation for all parties involved. Good job Waxman! You might have stumbled upon something profound here.

Re: Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90%

#16

Post by craze3 » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 10:56 PM UTC

Let this be a lesson: not all your problems can be solved by code. Sometimes you need to take a step back and think about the root cause of the problem. Often times (as well as in Grouper's example), the solution is to reconstruct your model so that your incentives and/or consequences are clearer to your users.

Re: Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90%

#17

Post by waxman » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 11:04 PM UTC

abbasmehdi wrote: post #15

This is so smart! A lot of tech is awesome but lets never forget that its humans with actual psychologies using the technology. These users face social pressures to be upstanding and responsible like we all do in real life - being online is not an excuse for bad behavior - this is a great example of the merger b/w virtual and real lives. Seems like LinkedIn pioneered this, HN also does this to a great degree, but now…

Thanks, Abbas!

We're actually soon going to roll out a big, new feature that will take this notion to the next level. We're really excited about it. Stay tuned...

Re: Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90%

#18

Post by waxman » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 11:17 PM UTC

sgtsugarfingers wrote: post #8

This reminds me of a really funny image I saw recently. It depicted the perceived consequences of a status update against the "reality". At the top, Obama was presenting to a cheering crowd and just below, Tom Hanks sat marooned on an island screaming desperately at his inanimate volleyball. It's easy to feel like the master of the universe when the whole world is there to cheer for you through digitally mediated app…

Thanks! Really well put.

Re: Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90%

#19

Post by weff » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 11:22 PM UTC

I've visited the website and I'm confused: are Facebook-less creatures unable to partake in the service? Wouldn't that be kind of weird?

Re: Intro to Social Hacking: How we lowered our cancellation rate by 90%

#20

Post by itsprofitbaron » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 11:26 PM UTC

waxman wrote: post #9

ipince wrote: post #7

So you give the canceller the 3 phone numbers of the other 3 people? I'm not sure if I'd want my number to be given away... Or do you use another number that temporarily redirects/connects them to the other people anonymously? If so, I'm curious to know how you do that.

Yep, it's definitely not their real a number. We built a simple Twilio app.

IMO, I'd highlight that its actually not their phone number rather its a Twilio number etc which is used to call them up.

So I would change:

  we would give you a number for the other group, and YOU WOULD CALL THEM (not us) TO APOLOGIZE.

To something like:

  we would give you a number for the other group which does not reveal their actual phone number, and YOU WOULD CALL THEM (not us) TO APOLOGIZE.

The reason for this, is if users read your company blog it may put them off when/if they read it as, I immediately assumed that their number is be given out which could lead to confusion.