Inside Quixtar

Beth, While you're waiting for some other comments to come in, here is something you might want to check on: I was looking up some phone numbers this morning on 411.com and on a whim, I put in 616-787-6000, thinking that "Alticor" would come up. Not quite. Three listings: Amway Home Products, which is a little outdated, and two others: Rich De Vos and Randall Preston, and both of those said in the sub-headline "Amway Distillers Benefits Association." I don't know who you'd call to get that fixed, but you might want to look into it.

I started contributing to the Opportunity Zone (O.Z.) and Alticor/Amway blogs last August because I was looking for information regarding "The Transformation" and the high-profile legal battles that ensued after the terminations and resignations of several well-known IBO leaders.  Much of this information wasn't readily available from my up-line.  It wasn't long before I found IBOFightBack's blog, and I've narrowed my blogging activities to his site.  As you pointed out, Beth, contributing to blogs is time consuming, so it's difficult to be everywhere.  I've found that contributing to blog forums is fun.  A lot of the contributors have a sense of humor, as well as offering great information.

That's my background, now here's my suggestion.  I think that some of these blogs should only be accessible to IBOs who have logged on to the Quixtar web site.  I've read some discussions at O.Z. in the past that disclose too much information.  When we're talking about sales and marketing issues, debating aspects of "The Transformation", or discussing pricing, I think that only IBOs need to be involved.  However, many are great for the general public, like the "Rocktucky Chef", "True IBO Stories", and "One by One."

I believe a great place to start would be for you, Robin, and other Quixtar bloggers (and also non-blogging company executives) to comment from time to time on some of the IBO sponsored blogs.  If you become aware of a blog thread or issue that you believe you have something worthwhile to contribute to, by all means comment.  People, rightly or wrongly, tend to discount company sponsored blogs as being "hired hands" with an agenda.  But in public forums you would have far more credibility.  Robin "Kia" Luymes, host of Quixtar's "The Real Quixtar Blog" has commented twice on my blog, "Speaking of Amway" (http://www.speakingofamway.com/blog/), this week.

A few years ago, when Dell had some real credibility issues as a result of customer service problems, it hired Lionel Menchaca as its "Digital Media Manager" and spent months scouring blog entries and reading forum posts so it could engage meaningfully in a radically transparent mode of conversation.  I truly believe Quixtar/Amway Global would be well-served to do something similar, not necessarily by hiring someone for that specific position, but perhaps by each of you (as your full schedules allow) joining the conversation on non-company sponsored blogs.  The conversations there often touch on topics the company has often appeared less-than-willing to open itself up to, but should open itself up to, if it really wants to be taken seriously in the online discussion.  

Will you elaborate on what specific issues were discussed and what the panel members were able to contribute to the discussion?

Second, why was the conference in Prague and not in Ada?

Editor's Note:  I wasn't in Prague, but Robin can provide more  detail  about the conversation.  It's my understanding that all participated in the discussion.

The session was held in Prague because most participants are from other Amway affiliates and while many company meetings are held in Ada, the company tries to vary location so no particular affiliate has difficult travel on a consistent basis. 

I agree with ajgannon's suggestion to segregate certain blogs on the O.Z. for IBOs only, while others are fine for the general public.

I disagree. If you want a blog for JUST IBOs, then place it behind Quixtar.com and replace the "What's New" section, with a blog format and then add additional content when there's nothing "New" to talk about.

I disagree with requiring log-in IBO access to a blog. You want to get comments from people trying to help, whether they are from IBOs, employees, Customers, prospects and even former IBOs. If you don't know why they are leaving, you can't fix anything. Some would not go if things were fixed.

The Op Zone blogs are typically good, and usually on topic, if not specifically, generally. Comments are typically suggestions, or if critical, for the purpose of helping or explaining vs ruining.

That hasn't been the case at the Alticor blog site, however it brings much of it on its own, with some of the posts from Corporate Communications being pretty distorted, unfair, or just plain low. The Alticor blog site can take a week or two to approve a post, but I don't remember any of mine being turned down. It is nice to visually see a post that is pending, "waiting for moderation".

It is common for the IBOAI site to print 1/3 to 2/3 of my posts. Op Zone will print about 3/4 of the posts or better. The last post that wasn't printed was the current rules blog on Perfect water. I still don't know why that post wasn't printed. The IBOAI blog has sometimes told me why they didn't want to print a post. That helps.

When a time delay happens, I tend to re-post somewhere else. For some reason my last sucralose critical post ended up on 3 O.Z. blogs. That is not typical.

One other thing. Op Zone blog has helped generally with a better image of the company. You don't see people leaving Q/A because of this blog.

The Alticor blog, in my opinion, has caused more harm than good. Yes, critical posts are sometimes confined to their blog, providing they are approved quickly. But, in my opinion, the feeling from the Alticor blog has more than doubled or tripled the number of IBOs that left the business in the last 8 months. If one of the purposes of a blog is to gain insight, it feels that you are generally talking to a wall. If one of the purposes is to have a better image, it has made it worse.

The purpose of this comment is for Q/A to learn from Alticor's mistakes. I don't feel posting this over there would help.

Utah,

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