Lurker prowls Web to clarify issues, answer questions [FORMAT CHANGE]

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The Link to the story here Lurker prowls Web to clarify issues, answer questions
By Chris Woodyard USA TODAY His name evokes a menacing image. The Lurker. The Starwood Lurker. Every workday, the Lurker trolls the Internet. He dips into frequent-traveler electronic bulletin boards to check the postings about his employer, Starwood Hotels & Resorts. He ferrets out comments on any of the big hotel chains that operate under Starwood's corporate umbrella -- Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis or W. And when he finds them: Zap -- he strikes. He dispatches an e-mail to the sender or posts his own message on the electronic bulletin board. Chat room prowlers such as the Starwood Lurker have become common on the Internet. Hotel and airline representatives are increasingly showing up on travel bulletin boards to answer questions or clear up misunderstandings. They have to. It's one thing when a customer writes or phones in a complaint to a company. It's quite another when the same customer posts a critical e-mail for all the world to see. What makes Starwood's Lurker special is that his work is now a full-time job. Offline, his name is William Sanders. He isn't some college-age technogeek. Sanders describes himself, at 47, as the ''old guy on the team'' and so uncomfortable with technology that ''I can't even complete a conference call.'' Sanders himself lurks in Austin, Texas, where his official title is specialist in the e-communications department. He's a relative newcomer to electronic bulletin boards, as is Starwood. The hotel company, like so many others, has quietly watched for months as frequent travelers write missives about their favorite or least favorite hotels, tips about accumulating frequent-traveler points and the like. The most closely monitored of these boards is FlyerTalk, a feature on InsideFlyer.com, which is visited by many frequent travelers. It's considered a powerhouse in the travel industry, with 300,000 visitors a month who generally stay 15 to 30 minutes. Within the FlyerTalk area are individual bulletin boards for each major airline and hotel chain. Starwood officials say they saw plenty of opportunities to jump into the online conversation, but were reluctant. They say they didn't want to look like they were muscling in on free speech. But once the company made its first posting in the Starwood area of FlyerTalk's bulletin board Dec. 1, the reaction was surprisingly positive. ''Starwood rocks!'' wrote a contributor in a post to the site 27 minutes after Starwood announced that it would participate there. ''It's nice to have a travel company that actually cares about its customers,'' chimed in another. ''Within minutes of posting the first message under Starwood Preferred Guest, other people on the board started saying, 'It's pretty good you're helping him out,' '' says Klaus Buellesbach, global director of customer service. Since then, Starwood has joined in conversation ''sparingly,'' preferring instead to try to reach anyone who posts a problem through private e-mail. Monitoring the site became such a top priority that it was deemed essential to find someone who could handle it full time. In came Sanders, plucked from the relatively obscure ranks of customer complaint responders. Sanders loves lurking. Instead of getting chewed out over the phone all day as he did in his former job, Sanders says he now remedies travel headaches of hotel guests in the anonymity of cyberspace. ''The people here are more savvy,'' he says. Sanders spends most of his workday perusing the messages posted on the Starwood site. He also checks the bulletin boards of about a dozen other hotel chains to check for references to Starwood. He has gotten to know his counterparts at competing hotel chains such as Hilton, which have their own lurkers performing the same task. Sanders is even making a few online friends among the travelers. One Germany-based traveler messages him about every three weeks to mope about how a particular Sheraton never opened in Malaysia. David Goldsmith says he didn't stay at Starwood hotels two years ago. But after having had good experiences there, room upgrades and other perks that go with elite frequent-stay status, he says Starwood -- and the lurker -- have made him a believer. And Randy Petersen, the frequent-flier mile expert who runs InsideFlyer, says he thinks the lurkers serve a purpose. ''Customer service is, in theory, about listening and resolving issues with your customers,'' he says. ''In this case, FlyerTalk has become a bit of a surrogate center for that to take place.'' Sanders is gratified to hear things like that. He sees himself as a fixer. ''It's another way to exceed the expectations of the people who are staying with us,'' the Lurker says. ''That's what it's all about.''

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 06, 2001

Answers

screw it...UNK, what's up with the HTML on this board lately?

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 06, 2001.



The Link to the story here

Lurker prowls Web to clarify issues, answer questions


By Chris Woodyard USA TODAY

His name evokes a menacing image.

The Lurker. The Starwood Lurker.

Every workday, the Lurker trolls the Internet. He dips into frequent- traveler electronic bulletin boards to check the postings about his employer, Starwood Hotels & Resorts. He ferrets out comments on any of the big hotel chains that operate under Starwood's corporate umbrella -- Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis or W.

And when he finds them: Zap -- he strikes.

He dispatches an e-mail to the sender or posts his own message on the electronic bulletin board.

Chat room prowlers such as the Starwood Lurker have become common on the Internet. Hotel and airline representatives are increasingly showing up on travel bulletin boards to answer questions or clear up misunderstandings.

They have to. It's one thing when a customer writes or phones in a complaint to a company. It's quite another when the same customer posts a critical e-mail for all the world to see.

What makes Starwood's Lurker special is that his work is now a full- time job. Offline, his name is William Sanders.

He isn't some college-age technogeek. Sanders describes himself, at 47, as the ''old guy on the team'' and so uncomfortable with technology that ''I can't even complete a conference call.''

Sanders himself lurks in Austin, Texas, where his official title is specialist in the e-communications department.

He's a relative newcomer to electronic bulletin boards, as is Starwood.

The hotel company, like so many others, has quietly watched for months as frequent travelers write missives about their favorite or least favorite hotels, tips about accumulating frequent-traveler points and the like. The most closely monitored of these boards is FlyerTalk, a feature on InsideFlyer.com, which is visited by many frequent travelers. It's considered a powerhouse in the travel industry, with 300,000 visitors a month who generally stay 15 to 30 minutes. Within the FlyerTalk area are individual bulletin boards for each major airline and hotel chain.

Starwood officials say they saw plenty of opportunities to jump into the online conversation, but were reluctant. They say they didn't want to look like they were muscling in on free speech.

But once the company made its first posting in the Starwood area of FlyerTalk's bulletin board Dec. 1, the reaction was surprisingly positive.

''Starwood rocks!'' wrote a contributor in a post to the site 27 minutes after Starwood announced that it would participate there. ''It's nice to have a travel company that actually cares about its customers,'' chimed in another.

''Within minutes of posting the first message under Starwood Preferred Guest, other people on the board started saying, 'It's pretty good you're helping him out,' '' says Klaus Buellesbach, global director of customer service.

Since then, Starwood has joined in conversation ''sparingly,'' preferring instead to try to reach anyone who posts a problem through private e-mail.

Monitoring the site became such a top priority that it was deemed essential to find someone who could handle it full time. In came Sanders, plucked from the relatively obscure ranks of customer complaint responders.

Sanders loves lurking.

Instead of getting chewed out over the phone all day as he did in his former job, Sanders says he now remedies travel headaches of hotel guests in the anonymity of cyberspace.

''The people here are more savvy,'' he says.

Sanders spends most of his workday perusing the messages posted on the Starwood site. He also checks the bulletin boards of about a dozen other hotel chains to check for references to Starwood.

He has gotten to know his counterparts at competing hotel chains such as Hilton, which have their own lurkers performing the same task.

Sanders is even making a few online friends among the travelers. One Germany-based traveler messages him about every three weeks to mope about how a particular Sheraton never opened in Malaysia.

David Goldsmith says he didn't stay at Starwood hotels two years ago. But after having had good experiences there, room upgrades and other perks that go with elite frequent-stay status, he says Starwood -- and the lurker -- have made him a believer.

And Randy Petersen, the frequent-flier mile expert who runs InsideFlyer, says he thinks the lurkers serve a purpose.

''Customer service is, in theory, about listening and resolving issues with your customers,'' he says. ''In this case, FlyerTalk has become a bit of a surrogate center for that to take place.''

Sanders is gratified to hear things like that. He sees himself as a fixer.

''It's another way to exceed the expectations of the people who are staying with us,'' the Lurker says. ''That's what it's all about.''

-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), February 06, 2001.

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