Vikas Sabnani writes:

Since launching [our website] in private beta 8 days back, we have seen more than 100 [accounts] created but less than 5 have actually done anything after creating an account.

Since you offer a free basic version as well, I suspect you see the “Blank Page” problem as well. My question is – what is the best way to encourage / prod your customers to try the product out?

This reminds me of the old “hosting a party” metaphor for web apps. Just because you’ve invited someone over to your house/app, doesn’t mean your hosting duties are over. You still need to welcome your guests, show them around, offer some introductions, and make sure they get into the flow.

That’s why the blank slate, the first screen people see, is so key. If it’s unwelcoming, people may not stick around.

It’s easy to overlook the blank slate too. When you’re building an app, it’s natural to get hung up developing the best experience for power users. But for most people, getting started is the biggest obstacle. So step back every once in a while. Put yourself in the shoes of newbies and figure out the best way to welcome them into the fold.

37signals blank slates
We’ve begun using welcome tabs as a variation on the blank slate. These let people keep intro information nearby for quick reference or get rid of it when they’re ready. This tab also serves as a crude site map of admin features, help links, preferences, and more.

Backpack

Our newest product, Highrise, has a bunch of different blank slate states, one for almost ever major feature and some special “almost-blank slates” for screen with just a little bit of data. Some blank slates go away instantly while others go away after you’ve done something three times.

Highrise

Some good Thomas Edison quotes:

I didn’t fail ten thousand times. I successfully eliminated, ten thousand times, materials and combinations which wouldn’t work.

I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others.

I am more of a sponge than an inventor. I absorb ideas from every source. My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others.

Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the one thing that he can’t afford to lose.

I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it.

I have more respect for the fellow with a single idea who gets there than for the fellow with a thousand ideas who does nothing.

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Change can be a painful thing.

Remember the hubbub when Apple introduced iMacs without a disk drive?

The critics were not silent. It has no floppy drive, they howled! How could anyone be so stupid as to forget something like that? How will people move their files? What will they do? How will we ever live without that drive? THE WORLD WILL END!

Well, the world didn’t end. Apple was ahead of the curve and decided to push forward with the change, even if it upset some customers.

Companies that lead need to be willing to say that occasional growing pains are ok. If a company only listens to what customers think they need, it won’t be able to innovate. As Henry Ford said, “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean you can just be a dick about it. You’ve got to explain to people what’s happening. This is where trust and communication are key. If you have a conversation with your customers, they know where you’re coming from. They know what you stand for and why you make the decisions you make.

For example, you may not always agree with our UI choices but the design decision posts here at SvN hopefully give you the context to understand why we make the choices we make. We’ve found this sort of conversation along with the interaction at our forums goes a long way in building rapport and confidence. Once customers know and understand you, they’re a lot more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt — even if what you’re doing seems counterintuitive at first.

You’ve also got to be willing to lose people occasionally. Some people need what they need. If you simply had to have a floppy drive, then that new iMac was no good for you. You can’t be all things to all people.

Related: Why Is It So Hard For Innovators to Keep It Simple? discusses Jason’s recent talk at BIF-3 — “If you try to make everyone happy with your products, you end up with mediocrity.” — and offers up more examples of opinionated companies.

The worst thing a CEO or the head of engineering can do is to overreact whenever a customer, even an important customer, demands a new feature or insists on a new service—especially if that new feature or service risks cluttering the simplicity of the offering. In other words, one of the most important jobs of a leader or an entrepreneur is knowing when to say no—even to important constituencies.

Our snazzy Basecamp customer videos, originally posted as Quicktime movies, are now up as Flash movies instead. If you were unable to view them previously, check ‘em out. Hearing real customers talk about why they love Basecamp really hammers home the product’s benefits.

The companies profiled:

• R.BIRD, a Brand Consulting Firm with 25 years of experience in Packaging Design & Branding.
• Atelier Weddings, planners of top-notch weddings in NYC.
• Elsewares, an online catalog of unique products from independent designers, artists, and entrepreneurs.
• Threadless, an ongoing tee shirt design competition and retail site that sells 90,000 funky shirts every month..
• Coudal Partners, a design, advertising and interactive studio in Chicago.
• OrganizedWisdom, a health-focused, social-networking site that enables consumers, physicians, healthcare professionals, and health organizations to collaborate on thousands of health topics.
• Bullet Group provides technology consulting, software solutions and custom developed applications for small to midsize businesses.
• See all the videos.

Thanks again to all who participated.

Crain’s: Apple eyes roost on State Street.

Apple Inc. aims to put down roots on State Street as part of the Block 37 project.

Joseph Freed & Associates LLC, the Palatine-based developer of the retail and residential portion of the project, is in talks with Apple, as well as a host of other higher-end retailers…

Conspiracy theorists, start your engines! Surely “Block 37” is a coverup for 37signals…and the developer is one Joseph Freed which must be an alias for Jason Fried, right!?

J/K, everyone knows the only alias Jason uses is Max Power.

Any early adopter has experienced the pain of a purchase followed by a price drop. It’s no fun. But enough with the hysteria that seems to be de rigeur these days whenever there’s a price drop (e.g. N.Y. woman sues Apple, Jobs over iPhone price cut).

The latest case: In response to Amazon’s MP3 efforts, Apple dropped the price of music downloads that are not protected by copy restrictions from $1.29 to 99 cents.

Cue the haters...

I’m an Apple fan, but it’s extremely annoying that every single Apple item I own (and I have several) significantly drops in price as soon as someone else comes along and shows us that prices don’t really have to be that high.

Sure, they gave a rebate to all those iPhone buyers who got the rug pulled out from under them, but what about my computer, my iPod and the songs I’ve been paying $1.29 for?

Apple could learn a thing or two about customer loyalty. Everything they make works great. But customers will eventually become wary of a company that pulls the financial wool over everyone eyes, price-gouging until someone points out that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes. By that point, the money’s already in their pocket. Then they’re left scrambling in an effort to justify why they’ve been charging so much more. I hope the monopoly ends soon. Apple is most dishonest to their own customers.

Annoying? Sure. But this is the way technology and capitalism work. If you paid $1.29 for a song or $599 for an iPhone, you felt you were getting your money’s worth (otherwise you shouldn’t have bought it). The song or the phone didn’t change, so suck it up.

A new car loses a significant amount of its value when you drive it off the lot. If you don’t like that, buy a used car. Similarly, if getting the best technology value is crucial to you, buy used gear (or just hang on to what you’ve already got).

But if you want the latest and/or greatest, accept the fact that what you’re buying will cost less in the future. It’s the way the game works.

Your best bet: Step 1) Only buy things that are worth the cost to you at that time. Step 2) Get on with your life.

Snooth
Snooth is a wine site that lets you filter results with sliders.

British Airways
British Airways registration offers a heck of a lot of options for a person’s title.

See the menu in action: Mr Mrs Ms Miss Dr Herr Monsieur Hr Frau - A V M Admiraal Admiral Air Cdre Air Commodore Air Marshal Air Vice Marshal Alderman Alhaji Ambassador Baron Barones Bishop Brig Brig Gen Brig General Brigadier Brigadier General Brother Canon Capt Captain Cardinal Cdr Chief Cik Cmdr Col Col Dr Colonel Commandant Commander Commissioner Commodore Comte Comtessa Congressman Conseiller Consul Conte Contessa Corporal Councillor Count Countess Crown Prince Crown Princess Dame Datin Dato Datuk Datuk Seri Deacon Deaconess Dean Dhr Dipl Ing Doctor Dott Dott sa Dr Dr Ing Dra Drs Earl Embajador Embajadora En Encik Eng Eur Ing Exma Sra Exmo Sr F O Father First Lieutient First Officer Flt Lieut Flying Officer Fr Frau Fraulein Fru Gen Generaal General Governor Graaf Gravin Group Captain Grp Capt H E Dr H H H M H R H Hajah Haji Hajim Her Highness Her Majesty Herr High Chief His Highness His Holiness His Majesty Hon Hr Hra Ing Ir Jonkheer Judge Justice Khun Ying Kolonel Lady Lcda Lic Lieut Lieut Cdr Lieut Col Lieut Gen Lord M M L M R Madame Mademoiselle Maj Gen Major Master Mevrouw Miss Mlle Mme Monsieur Monsignor Mr Mrs Ms Mstr Nti Pastor President Prince Princess Princesse Prinses Prof Prof Dr Prof Sir Professor Puan Puan Sri Rabbi Rear Admiral Rev Rev Canon Rev Dr Rev Mother Reverend Rva Senator Sergeant Sheikh Sheikha Sig Sig na Sig ra Sir Sister Sqn Ldr Sr Sr D Sra Srta Sultan Tan Sri Tan Sri Dato Tengku Teuku Than Puying The Hon Dr The Hon Justice The Hon Miss The Hon Mr The Hon Mrs The Hon Ms The Hon Sir The Very Rev Toh Puan Tun Vice Admiral Viscount Viscountess Wg Cdr

“So, how does this help the user kick ass?” According to Kathy Sierra, it’s the key question to ask when you’re trying to create passionate users.

Along those lines, check out SmileOnMyMac’s brief but informative email newsletters. They reek of someone at the company asking, “How can we help our customers kick more ass?” Here’s one that was recently sent out to TextExpander customers (text is copied below)...

What makes a good abbreviation to trigger expansion of your snippets? Here are some basic guidelines:

1. Make it short. 2. Make it easy to remember. 3. Make sure it’s not likely to be typed by accident. 4. Make it unique.

One easy strategy is to repeat the first letter of the abbreviation. “sig” would be a bad abbreviation for your customized email signature: everytime you tried to type words like “sign” or “signal”, you would not get past the third letter before automatically triggering your email signature. But “ssig” would work perfectly, because no word starts with those letters.

By default, you’ll find the snippets with the abbreviations “ddate” and “ttime” already set up by TextExpander. You might want to create your own snippets like: - ttel - llogo - llink

With the right abbreviations, you’ll be on your way to saving hours of unnecessary typing with TextExpander!

Just a brief tip and that’s it. Here’s another:

One great way to use Highrise: Track all those little customer service interactions you have with different companies.

For example, Ryan’s been dealing with a broken camera case and is keeping track of the problem as a case in Highrise…

Click for full-size version.

Here’s another example, this time using Highrise to keep track of the convoluted process of obtaining a refund from an airline…

Click for full-size version.

Instead of a bunch of post-it notes and scattered emails, Highrise gives you a paper trail you can come back to whenever you need it. And tasks help you keep track of dates that might otherwise be forgotten (e.g. “Was I supposed to receive that rebate within 4 weeks or 4 months?”).

Whether it’s a business or personal affair, Highrise makes it easy to keep track of whom you’ve talked to, what you talked about, and what you need to do next.

Related:
Why Highrise? [HighriseHQ.com]
Highrise has your back in customer service interactions [Product Blog]

Brandon Kelly writes in:

Saw this ad in the latest issue of Information Week. Only Microsoft could possibly see a big panel of buttons and think “this must be what our customers want”. I just had to send it in to you guys.