With a significant shift of how connected consumers are and the explosion of social media, it’s amazing how many companies still neglect customer service, but also amazing how others strive to give instant, public, and real-time support for their product or service.

We live in a world where everything is “now.” Consumers want instant gratification. They’ve invested their time and money, and expect the same level of investment back when it comes to concerns or issues. Customer service these days should go beyond just the back-of-the-office, where’s my stapler, mentality. It should be strapping the seat belt on and going for a ride in the front seat.

I understand…a company has to invest into a structure built around customer support; but it’s almost no longer a choice. Horrible, or a lack of, support can now seep into your brand perception like a bad stomach virus. Neglected a few customers? No big deal, right? Cover up a mistake by deleting Facebook comments or provide a run-around in an e-mail response? No one will ever know! How many of these consumer experiences get shared on blogs, make their rounds in social media, word-of-mouth, or get thrown onto online communities only to swing around and come back to hit you in the face? It might not hit you as hard in a fiscal sense, but possibly in an ethical sense. Above all, companies should care about their consumers and most importantly, their reputation.

Working for a start-up (with limited resources), I like that we take pride in our community of players. We try to quickly respond to not only concerns in our forums, but also directly respond to individual concerns on Facebook. We try our hardest to respond to e-mails in a 24-hour window, and instead of trying to cover up a hiccup and potentially leaving players in the dark, we try to be as transparent as possible. I think consumers understand mistakes happen (we’re all humans), but it’s how you respond to those challenges that make a difference. Can we improve our community outreach? Of course, we can.  While we might not respond on the dot like some best in class customer service companies, we’re aware of the importance of it (“and knowing is half the battle” – G.I. Joe) and we strive to work towards being best in class some day.

But this goes for other companies that take pride in their customers and value their brand. I can directly complain on twitter, and within minutes get a representative asking to connect with them. I can visit a website and after 2-3 minutes of browsing, a chat window will pop up asking if I need any assistance. Visit a forum or Facebook fan page, and get a response within minutes. How freaking cool is that? It makes me place that much more confidence in the brand and company because they make me feel like they have my back…and of course, how often do we share those experiences as well?

You see, many people I know accept every single LinkedIn invite and/or Facebook invite they receive. To each, their own. I, on the other hand, choose to only accept and send invites if I have met the person face-to-face, or have talked to them extensively over the phone. So I don’t have 1,000+ people I’m LinkedIn to like many of my marketing/sales peers. But guess what? If you ask me about any single person I’m linked to, I could tell you at least a few stories about them and whether I would recommend them as an employee, vendor/partner, or just as a good person.

Why am I writing about this? Because if you’re one of those people who have sent me a message in the LinkedIn invite (or are thinking about it) and I haven’t responded, it’s because I literally can’t respond. You didn’t note your email in the invite, and your email is not publicly listed on your LinkedIn page.

For those sales people who have good results doing this because it forces people to accept the invite, then kudos to you. Keep at it. But if you think I’m being rude by not responding, just know that I can’t respond to your message because you haven’t given me a way to contact you. And believe it or not, I personally respond to EVERY single serious business inquiry that is sent to us via our “contact” link, so you can always try that. (Sometimes it takes me a few days to respond, so now you know why. And customer inquiries are forwarded to our awesome customer service team.)

Ok, I’m getting down from my soapbox now. Keep on keeping on!

We are continuing work with the same awesome developer, Red Point Labs, on the new collectible card game: BloodRealm. We have a lot more work to do in the game, and you’ll start seeing some really awesome features over the next few months. It’s currently available on Facebook (http://apps.facebook.com/BloodRealm) and we hope to launch it on other platforms as well.

We hope you will try BloodRealm, and we look forward to your continued feedback of our games.

Please be sure to “like” the Hidden Express Facebook fan page for the latest information and free in-game stuff we give away!

We are working like crazy to release mobile versions of Hidden Express and BloodRealm and to release a brand new game on mobile devices.

Thank you all for your continued support!