I hope everyone is having a great start to 2009. I spent much of the past two weeks finishing the first draft of our Marketing with Meaning book. It took a ton of time and we still have some work to do in editing, of course, but it’s a huge step and I’m extremely excited about how it reads so far!

Aside from working on the book over the holidays, I got a chance to play around with a few grown-up toys.  I spent a little time with the new Xbox 360 interface and specifically with the new Netflix viewing service that it added. I have been interested in testing the Netflix service since I heard it was coming several months ago. I have been an active Netflix user, and it seemed smart to allow members to download movies direct rather than waiting a few days for a DVD to arrive in the mail.

I tried out the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, At World’s End, which I have been waiting to see for some time. Unfortunately, the experience was way below par. The movie started easily enough, and it was nice to play it immediately like a pay-per-view movie. But as the movie began to play, the quality was horrible. On my 50″ HDTV it looked like a low-quality YouTube video. I turned it off after a few minutes, highly disappointed.

The next day, however, I got an email from Netflix that specifically asked my opinion of the quality of the picture (see screen grab above). I was very pleasantly surprised to see the company notice that I had tried the service for the first time, and that it followed up proactively on an issue that obviously was experienced by other customers. As a Netflix member, I’m disappointed with the service and likely won’t try it again for some time, but I actually feel more positive about the brand itself.

On another level, it is remarkable to me that this kind of service quality is so remarkable. It is routine for restaurant servers to come back and ask how your meal tastes, so why doesn’t every other service brand do the same? It is even easier in digital businesses, where a quick email like this can be programmed to go to millions automatically.

It reminds me of my friend Pete Blackshaw’s quote that “customer service is the new marketing department.”  If that is the case, proactively asking for feedback is another great example of Marketing with Meaning.

(P.S. Check out this investor presentation by Netflix a few months ago. It is one of the best company strategy decks I have seen in years-and also adds to my confidence in the company.)