Silencing the bell doesn’t put out the fire

Many big organizations have full-time employees who scan the social media, looking for people with a complaint. They swoop in and grease the squeaky wheel, solving the problem of the person who spoke up.

The theory is that these loud complainers are a problem, and the easiest solution is to give them something to make them happy.

Of course, that doesn't do anything for the 95% of the population that has the very same problem but isn't speaking up, right?

When Jeff Jarvis blogged about Dell Hell, he hurt the company very badly. Mollifying Jeff (and those like him) did the company no good in the long run, though, because they didn't deal with the underlying cause, they merely gave the loud ones an excuse to be quiet.

The purpose of the bell is to point to a fire somewhere else. Worry about that instead.