Share Your Ideas with Verizon

[#1]

I know a very large number of FiOS subscribers in my area who have no clue about the Verizon Idea Exchange and the few who do find it too cumbersome to see if an idea they have has been submitted to add their votes to it.  So I propose a few things:

#1 - Add an announcement either in messages, widget spotlight, etc. letting more subscribers know that the Verizon Idea Exchange exists. The more subscribers using it, the more you can truly listen to your customers.

#2 - Create a Verizon Idea Exchange widget. 

         a) First part of the widget includes a programming vote board suggested by prisaz here: http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Share-Your-Ideas-with-Verizon/HD-Programming-or-Channel-Vote-Board/idi-... that would show a bar graph of the most wanted channels with each subscriber being able to place a priority vote.  So for example I may place one vote each for FSC HD, FSC+ HD, BBC-AM HD, CTN HD, TCM HD, and G4 HD, but that doesn't necessarily tell you which one I want the most and therefore would like to see added first.  That's where the priority vote comes into play, I can assign upto 5 stars to my single vote for the channel I most want, 4 stars for 2nd most wanted, 3 stars for 3rd, 2 stars for 4th, and then 1 star means I want the channel but I'm willing to wait until my other choices are added first.  Of course the priority vote would be able to be changed in case my preferences change and the channel has not been added yet.  By making this available on the TV screen in such a simple intuitive manner I think you'll hear the opinion of a much larger subscriber base, because out of everyone on my street, I'm the only one who uses the Verizon Idea Exchange since some people won't make use of something unless you pretty much spoon feed it to them.

         b) Second part of the widget lists other ideas that have been posted here on the web, and simply lets subscribers add their votes to them.  Again no comments allowed since I agree that text entry with the remote is cumbersome.  But this way there is greater potential for the more than 3 million subscribers to view some of the ideas, versus the few hundred or maybe thousand that actually view this board.

I see the benefits of this being two-fold. The customer benefits because they get a simple interface that let's them be heard and let's them know where to go to add their own ideas, and Verizon benefits because a customer that believes they can truly influence what content they can access or will be able to access in the future is bound to stick with Verizon versus jumping ship to another provider because they aren't aware of what's coming down the road. Also, Verizon can really see what their own subscribers want and how much they want it.

[#2]

MAYBE VERIZON CAN POST A MESSAGE IN THE MESSAGE AREA IN THE ON  SCREEN GIUDE.VERIZON SHOULD POST THIS ABOUT ONCE A MONTH REMINDING PEOPLE THAT THE VERIZON IDEA EXCHANGE EXISTS.

[#3]

Just don't make it a pop up. Most people are blocking those.

[#4]

This is a compound idea... so always difficult to put a status on multiple suggestions.

So letting more people know about Idea Exchange through the TV... absolutely.

For 2a (this one is not likely)... truthfully just not ready to make that investment... on the TV or web... between existing research VZ / content providers do, tools like VZ forums and twitter, customer requests through old school things like snail mail / calling and even emails to Ivan... we have no shortage of data on exactly what content our customers want...

but this... "Verizon benefits because a customer that believes they can truly influence what content they can access or will be able to access in the future is bound to stick with Verizon" definitely gives me something to chew on.

For 2b (status "maybe later")... I could totally see a best of Idea Exchange type of Widget... take the ideas with the most comments and / or votes... collects votes from the TV screen... pretty cool. Some bigger dragons to slay ahead of this one... (assume you have read other posts here)