...I would like to congratulate blogger.com - who are now out of beta and yet buggy as hell. What is worse than a crappy beta product? A crappy 'wahey-we're-no-longer-beta' product.
Moreover, reporting a bug is like trying to break through a virtual fort knox. You would think they would want the feedback...
This is something I clearly just don't understand. Why don't companies want to hear from their customers anymore? It's like they're an inconvenience, one of those pains that must be endured. As opposed to their livelihood. And it isn't like customers don't have a voice anymore... Can someone enlighten me?
More particularly, why doesn't Google want to talk to its customers when it is utterly crap at community (I cite Orkut as irrefutable evidence)? They're not meant to be evil. That's why we liked them ('m narrowly resisting dark side jokes...)
All this said, I caveat by adding that sign-up was very friendly and until the very ugly bug I stumbled on about twenty minutes ago - it's taken twenty minutes to find where to report the bug only to be told I can't because I'm not a member of some perverse Google group which I really can't be bothered to join - and that I had been suitably impressed by the ease of use, navigation, etc.
Gripe over.
Tuesday, 27 February 2007
The customer is always bright (mostly...)
So now I'm going to say some politically incorrect things. If you are a whiny PC type, look away now.
Over the last couple of days I've been enduring the whining emails of a particular client. This client bought the product without RTFM and is now moaning. Her total spend with us was a tiny amount by anyone's standards. The 'manual', so to speak, was plastered clearly in bright lights for all to see and thankfully, thousands of our customers have understood this with no problems. Normally I would take the following approach:
1 View the customer's problem as our problem. Because if the customer doesn't get it that means we need to do better to explain it.
2 Acknowledge and appreciate the feedback and give the client a refund/freebie so they leave your care with a good impression of your company.
3 Make changes so the same problem doesn't happen again.
This is what I mean by 'the customer is always bright' - because they find the problems you may not see, especially where the web is concerned.
However, in the case of this one individual customer, who has been stunningly rude despite our courtesy and is frankly, stunningly stupid, I am not going to give a refund. Nor am I going to change our website. Because if thousands can and one person can't, you have to recognise that sometimes the customer is just a rude moron.
Over the last couple of days I've been enduring the whining emails of a particular client. This client bought the product without RTFM and is now moaning. Her total spend with us was a tiny amount by anyone's standards. The 'manual', so to speak, was plastered clearly in bright lights for all to see and thankfully, thousands of our customers have understood this with no problems. Normally I would take the following approach:
1 View the customer's problem as our problem. Because if the customer doesn't get it that means we need to do better to explain it.
2 Acknowledge and appreciate the feedback and give the client a refund/freebie so they leave your care with a good impression of your company.
3 Make changes so the same problem doesn't happen again.
This is what I mean by 'the customer is always bright' - because they find the problems you may not see, especially where the web is concerned.
However, in the case of this one individual customer, who has been stunningly rude despite our courtesy and is frankly, stunningly stupid, I am not going to give a refund. Nor am I going to change our website. Because if thousands can and one person can't, you have to recognise that sometimes the customer is just a rude moron.
Sunday, 25 February 2007
Can't get the staff
This is the major concern on my mind this evening. We hired a new developer (or thought we did) to help us out with the cool project we've landed. Except now he's gone awol. No replies to emails, no answering the phone. So either he's taken a holiday or he's decided it is not for him. I would like to think the former or he'd at least have let us know.
Recruiting is a horrendously time-consuming business and there's nothing more frustrating than finding the perfect person and then being let down. My other service, Bright Tutors, absolutely relies on professional people who will answer the phone, turn up to teach every week and let you know if they are no longer available. That's before we even get to whether or not their teaching is good. When you find people who have both the talent to do the job and the willingness: pay them well and tell them you value them. One of them is worth ten of the others.
Recruiting is a horrendously time-consuming business and there's nothing more frustrating than finding the perfect person and then being let down. My other service, Bright Tutors, absolutely relies on professional people who will answer the phone, turn up to teach every week and let you know if they are no longer available. That's before we even get to whether or not their teaching is good. When you find people who have both the talent to do the job and the willingness: pay them well and tell them you value them. One of them is worth ten of the others.
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
You snooze, you lose
So, on Tuesday I was indeed a highly effective human being (we'll say nothing about yesterday). I spent the morning with a client kicking off a very cool web development project (I'll link to the end result when the project is complete) and I think they liked our ideas on what we could do for them.
Then I cleared all my customer enquiries for my main service, First Tutors. First Tutors is the UK's largest site linking parents to tutors and vice-versa. If any of my customers happen to be reading - tell me what you think, always looking to improve...
In the evening, I attended the Enterprise Tuesday networking event and lecture. Phil O'Donovan (aka co-founder of CSR) lectured about fundamentals in starting up and reminded me of some things you know but can lose sight of. Eg, get the product out the door before some other bugger beats you to it (he put it more delicately) so that you get market share.
Personally, I think this is a judgement call. There is such a thing as shipping the product too early - look at the backlash against 'beta' web products at the moment, which aren't actually beta. They're just broken or offer a crappy user experience.
But on the other hand, no point building the perfect product if someone else's solves the problem adequately before you and everyone goes there - and let's remember, the web is a critical mass game. So O'Donovan's was a point well made. It will help me in creating my plan (which ahem, I haven't started yet...)
Then I cleared all my customer enquiries for my main service, First Tutors. First Tutors is the UK's largest site linking parents to tutors and vice-versa. If any of my customers happen to be reading - tell me what you think, always looking to improve...
In the evening, I attended the Enterprise Tuesday networking event and lecture. Phil O'Donovan (aka co-founder of CSR) lectured about fundamentals in starting up and reminded me of some things you know but can lose sight of. Eg, get the product out the door before some other bugger beats you to it (he put it more delicately) so that you get market share.
Personally, I think this is a judgement call. There is such a thing as shipping the product too early - look at the backlash against 'beta' web products at the moment, which aren't actually beta. They're just broken or offer a crappy user experience.
But on the other hand, no point building the perfect product if someone else's solves the problem adequately before you and everyone goes there - and let's remember, the web is a critical mass game. So O'Donovan's was a point well made. It will help me in creating my plan (which ahem, I haven't started yet...)
Monday, 19 February 2007
Dominate The Fear or it will dominate you
My aim by this time next year is to have a business which is known for being the leader in its field, which offers genuine value to its customers and which is innovative and pioneering in its approach. A business I can be proud of.
I firmly believe there is nothing more difficult than sticking your livelihood, reputation and employability on the line and starting your own business. Which is why it appeals. I have an appetite for risk and I like things to be really hard - if you're not challenged, you're not alive. I fully recognise that this makes me either a) an incredibly naive idiot or b) a sadist of some sort.
Today was Day 1 in this challenge (I left my day job on Friday). Today I learnt:
Don't panic. Remember the incredibly nauseous feeling you had during revision for your finals where it became apparant that it wasn't going to be possible to read Marx really quickly after all and that, you'd be having to blag it?.. We called it The Fear at Cambridge. The realisation that the task was insurmountable and that everything you had worked for at school was about to be decided by 1 exam which you hadn't read properly for. And that you may not get a job if the exam went badly enough. And that then you would be a disgrace to your family, yourself and the subject of sneering pity from the nastier elements at your college (you get the idea...).
The key was not to let The Fear dominate you. Do that and all is lost. You had to break it down into little pieces to make it manageable. That's what I need to do with my business so that my time is managed properly instead of jumping from one thing to another. Damn the internet for all its distractions.
By the end of this week I will have a plan. A proper one with deadlines.
I firmly believe there is nothing more difficult than sticking your livelihood, reputation and employability on the line and starting your own business. Which is why it appeals. I have an appetite for risk and I like things to be really hard - if you're not challenged, you're not alive. I fully recognise that this makes me either a) an incredibly naive idiot or b) a sadist of some sort.
Today was Day 1 in this challenge (I left my day job on Friday). Today I learnt:
Don't panic. Remember the incredibly nauseous feeling you had during revision for your finals where it became apparant that it wasn't going to be possible to read Marx really quickly after all and that, you'd be having to blag it?.. We called it The Fear at Cambridge. The realisation that the task was insurmountable and that everything you had worked for at school was about to be decided by 1 exam which you hadn't read properly for. And that you may not get a job if the exam went badly enough. And that then you would be a disgrace to your family, yourself and the subject of sneering pity from the nastier elements at your college (you get the idea...).
The key was not to let The Fear dominate you. Do that and all is lost. You had to break it down into little pieces to make it manageable. That's what I need to do with my business so that my time is managed properly instead of jumping from one thing to another. Damn the internet for all its distractions.
By the end of this week I will have a plan. A proper one with deadlines.
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