dmv wrote:

Restaurant owners understand the power of the press -- and go to extreme efforts to ensure that influential customers have a wonderful experience. This isn't rocket science -- it's good business!

Why is it that online businesses don't do the same? They should! One of the first things we did after we launched Half.com was create a VIP list, containing the email addresses of all influential reporters, competitors, potential acquirers, analysts, and investors. (Bloggers didn't exist back then - but they would qualify as well). We then had our system alert us whenever a VIP created an account, purchased an item or listed one for sale. When a VIP purchased a CD we'd have someone from our customer service group telephone the seller to confirm that it shipped promptly. When a VIP listed an item for sale, we'd monitor it to see if it sold. And if a (hypothetical) reporter listed a (hypothetical) book for sake, and it didn't sell quickly, a relative of a (hypothetical) Half.com employee in Oklahoma might (hypothetically) purchase the item...Resulting in a (hypothetical) story in the New York Times.

This actually sounds like a reasonable business: VIP lists. As an entrepreneur, I don't have the time to know who all the A-lists are, the reviewers, etc. I don't have the information network to know what Mossberg's email aliases are. Maybe I pass you my subscriber list, and you send back a report of all the known actors, $5 (automate it). If I want realtime, that's a different price; if I want daily, I pay daily. If I'm just curious periodically, I just submit periodically. Easy.

Also, on the subject of VIP treatment:

My uncle is a very prominent food critic in Boston. He writes under a pseudonym, and his appearances on TV are with disguises. He makes reservations under the names of the guests he's bringing with him to dinner. But, that said, he "outs" himself in all of his cookbooks. And it isn't a particularly well-guarded secret; he's not even all that subtle in-restaurant. He can tell who the good maitre'd are, because when he's at a public function they seek him out to ID him -- and he considers them good at what they do. It is surprising that more don't. I believe he's only been thrown out of a restaurant once, and that was when a chef recognized him (as someone who had panned his last...)

From this, I think that even if a VIP/reviewer detected that their quality of service was being ramped up, this would not be a bad thing. As an information technology company, any example of exploiting the information stream in a productive way seems like a win. It means you are more customer focused, and it reflects a higher service sophistication level.