I was delighted to get an email from John Wolf, senior director of media relations for Marriott International, in response to my complaint about getting poker ads served up on web pages (including my own blog) while using the Superclick service that hotels like Marriott use to provide guests with Internet access. This occurred while I was staying at the Renaissance in downtown Toronto, both in my room and in the meeting room where I was presenting a workshop. These ads showed up despite the fact that I was paying for the service, and Ragan Communications was paying for access during the two-day session I was teaching.

John’s email first of all noted that Marriott follows my blog, which by itself puts them head and shoulders above most companies. They recognize that customers will talk about their experiences—good and bad—on their blogs. He then explained the circumstances that led to my getting those annoying ads:

Marriott’s relationship with the Internet service provider Superclick includes an agreement to exclude all popups on our high-speed service.  However,  Superclick explained to us that whenever upgrades are made to the system, pop ups are automatically activated and need to be manually turned off.  Apparently, we got upgraded and were unaware of it until you notified our front desk.  At that time, we notified Superclick and the pop ups were immediately turned off.  We are talking with Superclick to ensure that they alert us about all future upgrades.

John apologized, expressing regret for the inconvenience, and assured me Marriott is taking steps to ensure there is no repeat of the experience.

If I thought companies would pay attention to blogs, I would simply articulate my complaint and wait for a reply. But you can’t make that assumption (although now I can about Marriott). I like the idea, originally broached by Christopher Carfi in response to one of my earlier posts, that companies assign every product and service a tag that customers could use when posting items about their experiences, making it easy for companies to track what customers are saying about them—and to respond.

In the meantime, Marriott is back on my “good guys” list.