You’re reading Signal v. Noise, a publication about the web by Basecamp since 1999. Happy !
A few months ago I posted about Patterns. Patterns is a great example of smart self promotion by R.BIRD, a package design agency out of New York.
They recently stepped it up a notch by turning their free Patterns reports into a book. You can now buy a 220-page full-color paperback or a PDF on their site. You can also purchase individual reports too.
I just got my copy and the book is really beautiful. Well done, R.BIRD.
“Entrepreneurs who slave to craft a perfectly-articulated business plan expect the effort will pay off with better odds of getting funded. But they’re probably fooling themselves…A study found quality [of business plan] had zero impact on the amount of VC funding raised.” Another reason to forego writing a biz plan, a useless document that quickly becomes an artifact.
Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:
Basecamp
New in Basecamp: See related milestones on to-do lists and post messages with no category
Now you can see related milestones on your to-do lists and post messages without specifying a category.
How Basecamp helps KK Bloom make her luxury custom couture invitations
“This is universally the best new tool I have been able to implement into my business. I have recommended it endlessly!...I did my research into other sites, that vaguely do what ya’ll do, but for the rates that you have, and seriously the level of what I can get accomplished with my clients, there is no one else.”
Today is my 35th birthday. I’m not one for personal ceremony or predicting turning points. But I do believe in trying to be a better person every year. And I’ve found that making public promises helps me keep them.
So I’d like to promise myself three things this year.
So if you see me around, keep me honest and remind me. Thanks!
Follow along with Ryan’s presentation from this morning at Scribblelive (which offers a neat mix of Twitter functionality with in-app commentary).
Later this year we’re planning on launching 37signals University – a series of regularly scheduled one-day workshops on topics ranging from UI design to copywriting to Rails to product management to infrastructure to entrepreneurship to Getting Real, among others. We want to teach the things that really matter. Insights that make the difference. No theory, just practice.
We’re still working on the details, schedules, materials, costs, etc, but we want to start measuring interest. What sort of topics would you be interested in? What topics do you find under-represented when you attend industry conferences?
We’ll be posting updates here on SvN, but we’ll also be making official announcements on our mailing list. Join our mailing list and stay up to date on the 37signals University announcements as well as product updates, tips & tricks, case studies, and other 37signals-related news.
We hope to see you soon.
Sarah pointed out this book and said, “Amazing to me what awful covers business books have.”
They really do tend to be damn ugly…
Blech. A good first step toward business success: Realize design matters.
“A recession-induced need for cash, and an ever-growing infrastructure enabling individuals to act as (part-time) entrepreneurs, are fueling concepts that help ordinary consumers make money instead of just spending it.” They try to brand this idea as “sellsumers” which is silly, but it’s great to see this general concept breaking through. Link includes lots of examples of people and companies that are finding creative ways to make money on the side.
On Tuesday I posted Get Satisfaction, Or Else. The post detailed how we felt Get Satisfaction misled our customers into thinking the Get Satisfaction site was an official place to get 37signals customer service and support. The post brought out passionate responses on both sides of the issue.
First, credit is due to Get Satisfaction (“GS” from now on) for taking this situation seriously. They’ve quickly acknowledged some of the issues that we brought up, and they’ve begun to make some changes.
Some of the changes they’ve made are detailed in their two subsequent blog posts (“kissing and making up” and “an open letter to Jason Fried”). We appreciate those efforts. Just a reminder though… This isn’t about me or 37signals – it’s about our customers and every company’s customers that are confused by an unofficial Get Satisfaction page.
We hope more changes are on the way. Deeper, comprehensive changes that go beyond a few adjustments on the surface. We understand deeper changes take time. Their early response give us hope that they’ll continue to make the changes necessary to remove all potential customer confusion.
I thought I would use this opportunity to talk about what customer experience means to us and why we’re upset about this GS situation.
A customer experience is the sum total of a bunch of small experiences. Logos, words, brand names, copywriting, interface design, functionality, trust, expectations, suggestions, follow-throughs. All of these things point somewhere. In the case of the GS pages, they point to an official place to get answers, report problems, share ideas, and get “Customer Service & Support” from the company in question.
The problem is that GS pages look, act, read, and feel official. And for some companies they are. GS is a useful tool for companies that choose to use it. But check out the difference between a page for a company that chooses to use GS and a page for a company that has no idea what GS is. Tiny tiny differences I bet 9 out of 10 of people hitting that page would never notice.
A small disclaimer in 9px text in the top right, and a single mention of “Unofficial” near the top of the page don’t go nearly far enough to make this absolutely, without-a-doubt-clear that this is not a company-supported or official place to get help. You should be smacked in the head with either “This is official!” or “This is not official. The real official place is over here…” Big, bold, colorful, impossible to miss. It should be the clearest thing on the page, and people should be reminded of it often (like right after they post a question).
Remember that most people who hit a GS page don’t know who GS is. They didn’t search for Get Satisfaction, they searched for a company or product name to get customer service or support. A customer recognizes our company name on the page, but they don’t know who GS is. Is GS even a company? Or is it a tag line? “37signals: Get Satisfaction” on a support page seems like a reasonable interpretation. If GS is going to host pages for 14,000+ companies, the burden of absolute clarity is on them.
So when GS puts up a page unknown to us that uses our logos, our brand, and our product names, and then combines it with phrases such as “Customer Service” and “Customer Support”, I get upset. And when I see customers who’ve been misled to think this is an official place to get support (because of the names and logos and wording), I get upset. And when I see our customers that have asked questions with the clear expectation of getting an official answer, I get really upset. None of our customers should be confused by a third-party using our names, brands, etc. Period.
Let’s look at this from a customer’s perspective. Let’s assume they hit the 37signals Get Satisfaction page from a Google search. Different combinations of searches for “37signals” and “customer service” or “support” bring Get Satisfaction’s page as high as #3.
Continued…
