Adding Value

I went to get new business cards from VistaPrint today. There are lots of choices and it took longer than I expected. I almost bailed out from the choices, but I had an issue recently with mine.
I needed to get some books sent back to my house, so I wrote out my address, printed labels, and then I handed out a business card at a trade show to a shipper. I got a call later asking if I was sending things to the Florida address. That threw me until I remembered the company used to be in Florida. I corrected them, but it made me realize my business cards were woefully out of date.
And I just realized that despite my quick design, they're still out of date. I got the main brand on there, but forgot one of the others. Oh well, after the holidays I'll get my artist working on a new one.
In any case, I started as I always do with a quick Google search and picked Vistaprint, who was the first result, I've used them before, and they had a special on the front page, $3.99 for 250 cards. That's more than I need, and so I opted to go over there.
After working through the designs, I ended up clicking "checkout" and they showed me what I saved with their special, however the total was $22, which surprised me. I'd opted for some labels, but those were around $5. I didn't think a lot of it, moved on, and on the next page I saw shipping at $14, which all of a sudden made me rethink things.
A couple interesting observations on the process.

Things I like:

From a business standpoint, I thought VistaPrint did a good job upselling me. They presented a number of options at each point of the selling process. An example below:

A few times I missed the red upsells, but that was my rush, and it could result in more sales for them.

They added additional, related products, with my customized logo. Here’s a couple they had:

There were many more, probably 3 or 4 pages worth of goods and services, including Google Adwords and a website, which made sense. This is a good time to add value for a customer, and since people probably don’t get business cards too often, the extra annoyance probably doesn’t hurt too much.

Things I Didn’t Like

There were a few things that I think bordered on sneaky or unethical. This might seem like a great deal:

but when I go to checkout on the next step, I see this:

Nowhere in the process was I ever informed of shipping costs (I went back and looked) and to offer me a deal of $4 for cards, but check $10 for shipping, something I might overlook, seems a little sneaky and disingenuous. I feel a bit like this is a markup on a service that makes no sense. A package like this should cost about $2-3 to ship, and even doubling that for handling doesn’t get me to $10.

It’s about managing their Q and I’m sure you’re paying for priority on the presses, but they present this as a shipping item, which seems a bit unethical. In the order for color cards, which I did the first time, the cost for Standard was over $13.

I checked a few other places and their prices aren’t too far off from what you might pay elsewhere, but the presentation is different. They make me think like I’m getting a deal, I’m not, and then I feel a bit deceived. If I plan to pay $20 for cards from somewhere else, I’m happy. Here I planned to pay $10 and feel ripped off when I end up with $20 of charges.

Lessons for Business

More and more people are becoming more informed shoppers. The average person that might hit your site has likely ordered something from Amazon or another online retailer and so they know what to expect with shipping.

While I like up-selling and convenience, deceiving people likely won’t pay off in the long run. People will move on to other businesses.

The exception might be if you have a niche like Vistaprint and you don’t look for a ton of repeat business. I likely wont’ go there again and will look for other companies to service my needs.

Do No Evil

One of Google's tenets is to "do no evil" as they run their corporation. This article questions their motives as they've changed the agreement for Chrome, their browser.

I don't necessarily think that Google is evil, and in many ways I think they've learned from Microsoft in how to not appear so. They're a corporation, striving for profit and trying to do a better job, but they're going to stumble. Naturally they want to promote their own products, which makes sense, and tie them tightly together.

That's what Microsoft wants as well, though they sometimes go too far in preventing alternatives from being adopted.

It's a fine line that you walk as a corporation, trying to grow, trying to make a profit, and it's hard sometimes to know if you're skirting the line and perhaps doing something unethical. In my ventures we've tried to be fair, but there are plenty of people that have disagreed with our decisions.

Personally I think this is where capitalism fails. As entities grow larger, become more popular, they gain power, and it's hard to not take advantage of that power to grow more. I think many times the most successful companies sometimes appear evil because they continue to do what has worked for them. And those practices often shut out or prevent smaller companies from competing, making them appear evil.

There's no shortage of evil companies, however, with plenty of people willing to make decisions and engage in practices they know are illegal or immoral, all to make a few more shekels.

Adding Value

I went to get new business cards from VistaPrint today. There are lots of choices and it took longer than I expected. I almost bailed out from the choices, but I had an issue recently with mine.

I needed to get some books sent back to my house, so I wrote out my address, printed labels, and then I handed out a business card at a trade show to a shipper. I got a call later asking if I was sending things to the Florida address. That threw me until I remembered the company used to be in Florida. I corrected them, but it made me realize my business cards were woefully out of date.

And I just realized that despite my quick design, they're still out of date. I got the main brand on there, but forgot one of the others. Oh well, after the holidays I'll get my artist working on a new one.

In any case, I started as I always do with a quick Google search and picked Vistaprint, who was the first result, I've used them before, and they had a special on the front page, $3.99 for 250 cards. That's more than I need, and so I opted to go over there.

After working through the designs, I ended up clicking "checkout" and they showed me what I saved with their special, however the total was $22, which surprised me. I'd opted for some labels, but those were around $5. I didn't think a lot of it, moved on, and on the next page I saw shipping at $14, which all of a sudden made me rethink things.

A couple interesting observations.

Hiring Your First Employee

It’s my boss, or rather the owner of the company I work for (yes I work for someone in addition to owning a company), but it’s still an interesting post.

Hiring Your First Employee

I don’t know when Neil hired the first person to work for Red Gate Software, but I think he’s got a great memory and he really gives you some good things to think about in this post at 47 Hats.

Some of the items are in making the decision to hire someone, but there are some good ones about picking the person as well. I especially agree with the part of getting a domain expert to help you (use your network to find someone) and also test the person on the task they’re being hired for, don’t ask them to talk about it, make them do it.

Worth the read.

Bonuses

The salary bonus thing is interesting. However I’m not sure that a rolling bonus in lieu of bonuses and salary increases makes sense. You pay salaries no matter what. A bonus typically is paid when things are good, not when bad. So I tend to agree that limiting pay raises makes some sense. But I’m not sure rolling bonuses make a lot of sense. If we have a bad quarter, then if we know next Q won’t end up with a bonus, you’ll get people that game it.

Actually people will game anything. He’s what I suggest. I’d set a minimum number you need to hit to pay a bonus, something lower than you have and a lower bonus. Maybe $250k profit, and then 300pounds bonus. So if we hit this, no looking back at previous quarters. Then set a discretionary bonus based on numbers above that does look back. I think you have to define profit and define how you look back, or at least explain it every quarter. It doesn’t have to be a set formula, but the explanation has to make sense. It doesn’t have to be the same every quarter, you can modify this each quarter, just in a way that makes sense.

You have a certain amount of goodwill, so the discretionary part might work. If you maintain the trust with employees and this type of open dialog. While I would like to know the exact structure, it’s so I can keep track. Others would game it, and I don’t like that, nor do I like management gaming it either. Both sides tend to slide revenue to make/miss bonuses, at least in the US. A minimum ensures there is always something to shoot for, but a discretion, especially one that is explained, keeps people from gaming.

I've been reading Big Brown, about UPS, and they have some interesting thoughts in there on sharing with employees on a regular basis the profits of the company. I think that might actually be a better solution than bonuses over time. That's if you want to build a long term business and not just have employees there for a short period of time.

No matter what you do, the effectiveness of the plan really comes down to how your employees feel they are being treated, and the quality of your employees. You won't please everyone, especially those that are not high performers, but you can definitely motivate those that are.

And perhaps use people's reactions to your plan as a way to weed out those that don't fit with your company's culture.

Being Flexible

The other day I went into Best Buy to return something. I'd purchased some giveaways for a corporate event and somehow they didn't get given away. That was disappointing, but I decided I'd return them and use the money for more prizes next time.

In any case, I knew I was going out for other errands and tossed them in the car. As I was out, I passed a Best Buy, not the one I normally go to, but since it was there, I decided to go in. I walked in, there were 2 people at Customer Service, and a relatively quiet store at 2:00 on a Wednesday afternoon, and so I stood next in line, waiting for either of the CS people to finish with a customer so I could be helped.

At one register there was a gentleman that obviously had some warranty issue with a laptop. From what I could gather his had died and they couldn't replace or fix it, so the senior CS girl was planning on giving him a slightly more expensive one since that was the best match they had in stock. On one hand that's a great customer service move. Help the person out then, even if it's not the most price conscious or efficient thing to do for that purchase. Earn some goodwill.

On the other hand, I stood there for 15 minutes while the girl tried to get the computer guy and then the manager to approve the transaction. Apparently that required a call to corporate, so the manager came over, talked to the guy, then went in the back, then came back, then walked around waiting for a return call. I'm not sure what happened since I was out of there by then, but the guy was a little torqued. He had a cane and had to keep leaning on the counter and shifting position. I felt bad for him.

In the meantime, before I got helped after15 minutes, the line had grown from 1 (me), to 6 people behind me, all of them a little annoyed. I have to admit that I was tempted to leave, and then to complain, but instead decided to see how bad it could be. I thought about this blog while waiting.

The other CS person was sitting on the phone, on hold because she wasn't pressing buttons or saying anything. Perhaps she was listening to a lecture, but after 10 minutes I doubted it. Eventually while the manager was walking around, the senior girl with the computer guy decided to get things moving, she told the second girl to just do something and hang up the phone. Then she must have approved something on that register because the CS girl started processing the lady there.

While that was happening, the senior CS person walked to the Pick Up register and called me over. She smiled, apologized, and quickly processed my return and then apologized again. About 45sec to get that done and I appreciated her effort, though it took awhile.

What could be done better?

When I typically go into Best Buy I browse around through a few departments, looking to see what's there. I often have something in mind, but I like to see what's new. In walking through MP3, Cameras, Computers, TVs, in 15 minutes, I'll usually have no less than 5 people ask if they can help me. It gets annoying and I need to write Best Buy.

However in standing in line, watching the return line grow from zero when I arrived to 6 in 15 minutes and nothing move, is pretty bad.

Immediately the first girl could have either

• Handed the phone to the customer and asked her to listen for someone while she helped others
• Put the phone on speaker and listened for it
• Asked the manager after 2 or 3 minutes what to do.

Any of those should have resulted in lady 1 being processed quicker.

The senior CS girl, who was more on the ball, could have started processing other things while waiting for someone to square away the computer guy. It wouldn't have helped him, but it would have gotten things moving. I should mention that she did process an in-store pickup while waiting, which was good to see. I didn't watch to see how quickly she got others through the line, and I wish I would have.

The manager is most at fault. It would be bad if she wasn't aware of the growing line, but it's worse that she walked over there twice, with at least 5 people in line both times, and didn't call someone up there.

Best Buy possibly should just give a little more power to their CS people. You'll lose money on a few transactions, but that's nothing compared to the goodwill you earn. I can get really, sh**ty service like that at Wal-Mart and pay the same or less.

If Best Buy can pay a few dozen people to walk around and constantly check on people that are browsing, can't they move a few of them up to help process people in lines? I can see letting the line grow slightly at check out to see if people will buy more batteries, DVDs, candy, etc. that are on display, but it's the 21st century.

If you run a retail or service type business, ensure that your people are cross trained and can help customers out. You want to help them process through as quickly as they want to be processed. Or as slowly. If they want to talk, you want CS people to talk with them. If they want to return something, don't make it a hassle. It makes it that much more likely they won't come back. Or they'll start trying out their competitors.

My next trip will be to Ultimate Electronics. Just to see if they're better.

Just Do It

I was recently reading Joel Spolsky’s column in Inc. on management and I thought it was an interesting story. In general you want to be efficient with your time. You don’t want to waste it doing things that someone else could do better and possibly cheaper. Time management is a skill that you need to do well to succeed.

If you don’t want to succeed and just work for someone, that’s fine too, but time management can still help you.

In any case, I think it’s a balance that you have to find. Recently I asked to have someone else take over some of my duties on a part-time basis, mainly to give me more time for other things. I wasn’t sure how well this would go over with the boss since I’d been doing things fine and I was essentially asking for someone else to make my job easier. But I had a few arguments:

• Someone else needs to know how to do this, since the proverbial bus could strike me down at any time.
• I’m fairly expensive, and this isn’t really a good use of my time.
• I could take on other tasks.

I wasn’t exactly emphasizing the last item since I’m fairly busy, but I don’t mind taking on other tasks periodically. Mostly I was hoping to get more vacation in (I’ve never taken my allotment) and get ahead more on my writing.

In any case, I did get someone that helps out, but I still try to go and handle some of those duties, primarily processing email to the webmaster, on a regular basis. It helps me to keep in touch with my customers, but also to show that I’m not above performing duties.

I have a story similar to Joel’s, but with the opposite effect. I was working in an office early in my career, in a small company, and we had a break room. In it was the large printer that was shared by everyone in the office. One day I walked in right behind the President of the company and we were waiting for things to print. His job was ahead of mine, but stopped in the middle as the printer was out of paper, but I didn’t know that.

He asked if I would add more paper, I did, and the printer started back up, printed his job and then mine. Now I didn’t mind loading paper in there, and I might have felt differently if he had gone to get a cup of coffee or talk to someone while I took a couple minutes to locate paper and load the printer. Instead he stood there and watched me.

My impressions of him took a further turn for the worse when I witnessed him doing the same thing to someone else at the coffee pot, asking them to make him more coffee while he stood there. Needless to say I didn’t stay there very long.

I’ve always pitched in when needed. I’ve had CTOs help pull cable and make patch cables with me, and I’ve been happy to handle permissions issues as the senior DBA when I made probably twice what others in the office did.

It’s not always about efficiency. Sometimes it’s about showing that you’re a leader and willing to do whatever it takes to get things done. And you’re no better than the others in the company.

Garnering Market Share

It’s not often that any of us builds a business or product that has a chance to dominate a market, especially a market that already exists in a fairly large scale, but I think Apple has that chance here.

I agree with the idea here that Apple should sell a $99 iPhone and try to really set themselves up as the “generic” smartphone. Tylonal did that with aspirin, McDonalds with fast foot, Starbucks with luxury coffee, and Apple has done it with the iPod. The iPhone would allow them to do it again.

I don’t know what their profit margins are, but they are well capitalized, and they could easily try this for 6 months and see if their share of the market jumps dramatically, especially as none of the other vendors have done a decent job of getting a touch screen, easy to use smartphone.

I typically recommend building your business for the long term, making smart investments and not bets, but this isn’t a big bet. In fact, I’d think while they might risk some capital, they are making a fairly safe bet that their market will grow. Adding another network, say a T-Mobile to their list of carriers might make more sense, but if they want to stick with ATT, then this is a good idea.

If I had the chance to substantially grow market share, and have more exposure to my product, I’d be willing to take some risk, some amount of capital that I had and make the attempt. Market share is important and can really help you grow in the long term if you can deliver value to your customers.

Inbox Zero

An interesting idea in this video. I’d recommend you watch this if you have too much email.

If I were in a company, I might try this, and I am getting to the point where I will close email sometimes. However I tend to work in a customer service area at times and it’s good to be able to respond to people. Plus the task switching, and wandering around a bit actually helps me think about things that I need to write about.

When you’re running your own business, however, it’s important that you recognize that your time has value. You might have to do everything, including emptying the trash cans, but that doesn’t mean you do it every hour. Nor do you need to respond to every email immediately. Use rules and learn to trash things that don’t make sense.

Bad Design for Users

To me, this web page is a poor design for users: Digital Camera Reviews from C|Net:

 

If you look at this, you’ll notice that cameras 2-4 are all the same model, just different colors. In fact, of the 10 cameras on this page there are only 4 models. So as I’m trying to figure out which one I like or is reviewed well, I find that I have to go through a lot of pages to find 5-10 cameras to read reviews for.

This is a great case of C|Net not really thinking through the design and not helping users as well as they could.