Category: Life

Will ‘Big’ Software be ready for App Stores and Inexpensive Solutions?

In my previous post, I mentioned the many ways our information may be kept off our our local computers. Saving on space and making it accessible through a variety of tools. Also, I ran through the thought of lite version of software on your notebook/mobile devices with more robust software being online.

There was a surprise result of the iPhone in the hands of the ‘end users’. The need for inexpensive mobile solutions to do research and create/edit files. There has long been mobile software for the Newton and Palm devices but the software options where and still are, through a variety of sources and not very well quality controlled.

In our Newton days, we used to show our solutions to a couple key Apple programmers to see if they felt we had done anything hacky. It wasn’t required, but we were concerned about our software being around a long time and not broken in a future OS update. Oh, and our clients feeling it all ‘just worked’ was important to.

With Apple’s iTunes App Store for the iPhone, Touch and iPad, we live in a world of lite and affordable software. People spend a lot of money, a few dollars at a time, to get a solution to their problems or needs. Google and Mozilla are on their heels with their own ‘app stores’.

Recently, it was announced that the App Store will be able to distribute desktop software as well. A lot of teams are scrambling to makes sure their software will be on the early list of options when the service goes live. It will mean a single spot to go for all of your software needs. While there is already many sites that list out software for your particular device, they do not control anything more than how the software is listed. They do nothing about checking to make sure that app follows any rules, passing the risk of crashes and conflicts onto the purchaser.

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Our electronic futures are forming

There are many global issues, be them hunger or terrorism or privacy. I wont attempt to explain why how we work will effect thing apparently unrelated, but they do. The old butterfly flapping it’s wings is true today. A seemingly simple change in the way we work might free up cash to be spent on a charity or a purchase to bolster the economy. Most changes are offerings from those we trust and we hope they have really thought everything through when it comes to exposing our personal information. Some large corporations release things they hope you will buy so they make their numbers this year… others release items as a stepping stones to an end game many years in the future.

Today is the 9th anniversary of the introduction of the iPod where it was promised we would have over 1000 songs in our pocket. It started as a little device that felt right in your hand and was easy to use. There was many other options on the market but they stopped being supported or went other directions. The iPod grew in features to be a storage device, then a movie player and now a connected game machine. It could stand on it’s own but wasn’t expected to as a accessory industry grew around it and the manufacture updated other hardware and software solutions around it. Those being desktop software that managed your music, photo and movie libraries as well as expanding on the hardware to be a smartphone and another to be a larger tablet like device.

Looking back at the mid 80’s, we had keyboards and monitors that were basically just an external monitor to one 286 computer that many people shared. It was fine with everyone running the same program. When we got our own desktops we were running many different programs amongst us without the need of each other. Online services have grown, but we are not truly going back to a dumb keyboard/monitor world.

The services being offered online are getting close if not passing the desktop ‘office’ software solutions. But, does anyone want to do all of their work online? If you at the office and always connected, would you notice a difference between if the software was on your machine or not? Looking at what is being used in the current Word and Photoshop by the masses most often, it is a very small set of features. Would it be acceptable to have very lite versions of software locally installed for general day-to-day work and then use a more robust tool online? The online software would become a service that could be charged monthly or per use.

Continue reading Our electronic futures are forming

“Can you endorse me?” Sorry, do I know you?

Do I know you? I mean, the real you? The one I know is the one that has represented to me the image they wish me to know. That may not be the face you show to others. Thus, the danger of endorsing anyone.

For many years, I owned and opperated a large group of Auto Quick Lubes. I was successful in execution, getting large quantities of cars through and maintaining a very healthy happy customer relationship. Due to this, my  reputation grew in the industry where others lube owners would follow when I took on a new product or process.

One day I was invited to a meeting with the franchisor and a oil company. I had been very happy with my current one (“P”) but would never turn down a chance to meet and listen to what is being offered from another (“V”). The V oil provider presented a nice range of products and services. Not enough for me to switch my chain of stores but could be a nice option for new entrants to the industry.

As the meeting was wrapping up, we gathered at one end of the conference room table to look over a layout of ads being proposed. A month later, the company newsletter came out with a snap shot of the end-of-table gathering with text representing a new deal being signed. Many lube owners must have gotten the newsletter at the same time because all lines in the office lit up and kept going for hours. The callers wanted to know what motivated me to switch, which was not the case.

This is just one example from the many I have over the years. There was pictures of me wearing a tshirt showing through my race uniform and the company representing I was joining forces with them. The list goes on, the short lesson being that a picture or text can be represented as anything when it is out of your hands.

I have felt bad not endorsing the many people that have requested my doing so. My arguement is that I can only represent how you have acted around me. And, in our time together, I had a part in shaping the relationship. Your time working with someone else or in a different environment will cause you to deliver at a different rate or represent yourself differently. I can only explain how we worked or didn’t work together. If the endorsement is placed in front of someone else, they may expect the two of you to enjoy a similar relationship. Since I know each relationship is unique to two parties working together, the person basing a decision on how we worked together would be setting themselves up for a disappointment. Not that anyone delivers less when working with folks other than me, they may actually deliver much better. In every case though, it will be different.

In the end I have to turn down the endorsing requests. Please understand, I’m not turning you down, it’s the other you I don’t know.

Does anyone hear past all the talking?

In my racing days, I partnered with a very smart sales person to open a high performance auto shop. The very first day we were opened he said, “He who speaks first, looses”. Prior to our time together, he was one of the few folks in the NW who actually made money selling copiers. He said his success was because he qualified the customer by asking questions about what was important to them, handled any objections, made an offer and then shut up.

McDonalds has long been known as the most successful up selling companies. They got that reputation because every employee on every order asked for the sale of another item beyond what was ordered. You ordered a burger, they asked if you wanted fries with that. You order a burger and fry, they asked if you want a cold softdrink with that. You order all three and they ask if you want a apple turnover. They always have one more thing they can sell you so why not ask. The employee really doesn’t want to be troubled with the additional sale so if you buy, they are done… if you pass, they are done. Either way, they make a single offer and move one.

Today, we seem to have lost both of those successful techniques. Sales folks almost never qualify, they just assume (there is a process called ‘assumptive closing’, but you have to be pretty good to pull that off) and head down their script. They feel that if you say no to something they should offer the next item in their list. And, they don’t read the environment around the sale to know when to not be the last person talking.

The A/C repair gent returns… it was Monday since they don’t work on the weekend unless the hot house is an emergency. He against suggested replacing the A/C unit with the much larger one since we could get half of the difference back as a refund next year. I asked if there is any chance that a 10 year old system can just loose a tiny bit of coolant and we should add a bit. His answer to me was to cover the different financing they offer. I asked if it was possible to see where a leak might be. He replied with an explanation that replacing one part would be money thrown away when we replaced the whole system.

He finally went upstairs, returning with a mention of a leak in the one part that is very expensive and thus we really need to replace the whole system… “interest free for a year”. Never did he look around and notice a whole family at home in the middle of a week day. Could it be he was dealing with a family that had been hit with downsizing? They would be more concerned about keeping the house than going into debt for 10 grand. He did end up adding a bit of coolant and said he felt bad for us throwing that money away since we really need to just replace everything.

During a recent visit to Starbucks, I grabbed my bag of beans and headed to the register. As I approached the checkout area, a employee put down his broom and came across the store, stopping between me and the register. He asked what beans I had chosen and what I had planned for them. He then explained the flavor of six other bean offerings and why he liked each one. No matter the response I gave, he continued. I had to make a very agressive move to get around him, only to find the person at the register had moved on. The gentleman that had stopped me before went around to take my money. Not before he explained how I should buy a gift card so I could earn points. I explained we had a bad experience with the Starbucks Gold Card… he offered that I should read the pamphlet available on the stand about the new offerings and started to head over to get it for me. What drives an individual to that level of non stop effort to get a customer into something additional?

Did both of these individuals act on their own? Do they believe that I ‘need’ their services and must drive me to them? Or, should we direct the attention to poor training? Did they only get half the message about how selling works so they don’t understand that the best path forward is to work towards a win-win ending?

More effective marketing through quality service – fail

I mentioned in a previous post a way of doing Business for a local plumber (The most effective marketing is the quality of your service), on that same day I had the same company come out to see what was wrong with my A/C.

Wednesday night, our A/C downstairs started to not stay ahead of the heat so my wife scheduled to have a A/C specialist come out (provided by the same company that sent the plumber the same day) to see what could be done. A year ago, this company replaced our upstairs A/C and did a fan/capacitor in the downstairs unit so the visit was a no-charge inspection.

The technician checked the basics quickly and found ice on the outside unit’s pipes. Coming inside, he said the air filters were plugged up and needed replacing. I questioned it a bit as they were just replaced three months prior. He pulled the two for downstairs out and showed how they were gray. He offered to show next to new, I pulled out a couple I had in the closet (bought a bunch a year ago so they would never be blocked and the air would be clean). He held the two up so the light from the window could come through to show how the one, even though there was no dust bunnies on the surface it was blocked. I found this interesting since I know in the automotive world, it is not legal in most states to show old vs new for auto air filters – they go off white a mile down the road if they are working.

We put in my new filters.

Since the pipes outside where frozen, he wasn’t able to check anything else. He turned everything off, requesting we turn it back on in four hours after it defrosts. If there is no cold air, we should call his cell and he would come out and check the freon. He went out to his truck, returning with a sheet of quotes to replace the whole downstairs A/C system. His feeling was that if my system was low on freon, it must have a leak, and if there is a leak the rest of the system must be wearing out too.

His quotes where on several 13 ton options in the $6k range and 16 ton options in the $8k range. A selling feature of the 16 ton was a end-of-year $1500 tax credit. I asked if the 16 ton would make that much difference over the 13 ton I have now for cooling vs monthly power bill. He let me know I actually have a 10 ton and that a 16 ton for $8,000 to $9,ooo would save me a lot every month.

As I mentioned, this was Friday. When the four hours was up, we turned on the A/C. Cool air started coming out and since it was so hot outside I thought it would take a while to come up to maximum coolness throughout the downstairs so we didn’t ask for the service gentleman to return. Saturday morning, we found the A/C frozen again… as luck would have it, to have the system checked on Saturday would be an emergency call and there would be a charge.

Unlike their plumber with a couple hundred dollar up-sell, I can see how the profit from selling everyone who calls a whole new A/C unit does pencil out to pay for marketing. I might just mention them by name to my local social group…

The most effective marketing is the quality of your service

Where word of mouth yesterday was over a water cooler at the office or over the back fence, today it happens more often on Facebook and Twitter. A friend will ask if anyone can tell them of a good plumber and folks dive in with names to help.

This works good for things like a plumber or electrical work, not so much for who to build a Web site or Point of Sale system. There is a pretty clear cut off on what a person will recommend out in the open and what they will avoid.

For companies that provide house repair or ‘handyman’ services, they can really get ahead with a few good mentions. I’m not talking about paying Opera, I’m talking about the casual friend to friend recommendation that is read by many more people than those two friends.

Recently I was reminded of this when I was faced with for-pay services and was asked online if I would recommend someone in that exact space.

Friday, I worked from home as all of my meetings had dial in phone numbers and a project just wrapped so the team needed a break from the tension. It was a great time to catch up on a couple items that required a service come into the house to handle.

First up was the plumber. He had been out 6 months ago on a regular maintenance systems check and quoted a few items he could help us with. One item, a sticking toilet that is in a very thin room making it an environment I had no desire to squeeze into. The quote said $150 which I would rather not spend but seemed worth it since I wouldn’t be squeezing in that area and could continue with my day job as the repair was being done.

When the gentleman arrived, he mentioned that he had quoted on several of the bathrooms. I said I only needed the one since the other two were in bigger areas and I handled myself. He went in to each one to inspect my work. He commented that I only replaced the Fill Valve and Float Assembly, to do the job right I should have done the Tank Bolts and Flush Valve too. I let him know I had actually replaced everything in that area as it came in a kit.

He left for his truck to get parts and a price agreement. When he returned, he showed me a price of $127, a pleasant surprise as it was lower than the earlier quote. He asked if I wanted just the $127 Fill Valve and Float Assembly or if I wanted to pay an additional $100 for the Tank Bolts and Flush Valve. I had to ask him a couple times to repeat what he was asking since he had just said you should always do the whole job and now he was saying he had only quoted us for half the work. I tensed up a bit but signed for the work…

Upon completion he brought me the bill and suggested we take a look at the repairs and see if we needed him to make any adjustments. Just as we were wrapping up looking over the $200+ worth of plastic bits, he asked if we had any other issues with the toilet. I wasn’t sure what that could be so I said we were OK. He then proceeded to let me know that they have full toilet assemblies available and he could put one in, he would just credit the repairs he just did against the new unit, leaving a $300 balance due (on top of the $200).

I wont mention them by name here or on Facebook to answer my friends request for a good plumber… I may need him as a friend later. I do wonder how the math works out for up-sells vs having to spend extra on marketing. If they quoted like what they said must be done for a proper job and then had not tried to tag on an addition $300 service, they would have gotten their name out to 200+ of my local friends. It’s all just a numbers game. They feel they will get enough people to bite on the extra services/profit and spend the additional on advertising to make more money than pay nothing on advertising and lower their average visit bill.

We know the truth though, they haven’t thought this through at all… they feel that marketing is a cost of doing business and everyone needs a high average ticket. True yesterday, doesn’t work for long term successes in the modern ‘social’ world.