Elias Interactive

We Grow Beautiful Websites

Blog

Get live. Get customers. Get smart.

· · 1 Comment

How do you predict what will be needed to make someone feel comfortable purchasing your product or service? You could make a huge list of every question that comes to mind and then answer them ahead of time via copy, video, a demo, etc… But this tends to delay going live because you end up constantly feeling like you haven’t covered every angle. “What if this situation happens?” becomes the magic phrase that stifles moving forward.

The alternative is to just put your product or service out there and see what happens. Questions will come up, so you address them as they arise. If you notice the same questions over and over then it’s time to design a better way to answer the question and help your customer. We decided to take this second path when we quietly launched a new module store about 2 weeks ago.

Here are a few recurring questions that I am noticing

  • Can I get a free trial?
  • How many stores can I use this on? (i.e.: what are the license terms?)
  • Where can I get a demo?
  • How can I contact you more efficiently?

What did I learn from these questions? Answer: People want to feel certain that they are making the right decision when they purchase something. It helps to “touch” the merchandise before you buy it. And knowing that you aren’t stuck with an item if you get home and it doesn’t work for you will make it much more comfortable to buy.

The questions are perfect for building a FAQ page (in progress) and save me a ton of time trying to predict what questions might arise. Also, questions can lead to more elegant solutions. For example, a few people asked me if they could view the admin demo. The module product view linked to the frontend demo and had a link at the very top to switch to admin. But users were missing the link.

Demo store toggle switch

To avoid this question, we designed a pretty cool header for the demo store. It incorporates a toggle switch so that users can easily click between both frontend and admin views. It’s a relatively simple change that improves the user experience, reduces questions, and makes it easier to decide to buy. We would not have thought of this had we not launched first and then received customer questions so that we could get smarter.

Quote: If the dumb layman can…

· · Leave a Comment

If the dumb layman can understand the copy, then the technical person will understand it too. Write for us dummies that aren’t overly technical, and everyone else will understand.

Note that Copy that sells the product/software is very different than the technical writing needed to explain how to install or structure the module.

Screenshots do a good job speaking to both users. Good reviews can help put the technical users at ease that the module is relatively straightforward installing and won’t cause problems or conflicts.

– advice from one of our customer advisors regarding our new module store

Rework Book Critique

· · 2 Comments

Rework front-cover

Rework is exactly what you would expect from 37signals – simple, easy to read, and “at home good”. About 80% of the book’s ideas are already accessible in keynotes and interviews. But a succinct, well-organized written format was worth the cost of my Amazon pre-ordered copy at $11.88.

Fried and Hansson continue to use common sense to zig where conventional tech startup theory zags. A few examples include:

  • Avoid outside money
  • Throw less at the problem
  • Say no to feature requests
  • Underdo your competition
  • Embrace obscurity

Like their product Basecamp, the book does not contain everything that I wanted as a customer. For instance, I wish they would have included more stories about how the Rework philosophy plays out at 37signals. However, I acknowledge that they are simply espousing the very principles laid out in text. Cutting fluff makes the book’s pace whiz by with 1-3 page sections that are each somewhere between a proverb and an essay. It took me a couple of hours to get through it (including time to underline and jot down notes).

Personally I would recommend Rework to the people with whom I work. It’s the recipe for a smarter way to do business.

Pandora persevered: NY Times quote

· · Leave a Comment

From March 7, 2010 New York Times article about Pandora radio:

It is all a long way from January 2000, when Mr. Westergren founded [pandora]. Trained as a jazz pianist, he spent a decade playing in rock bands before taking a job as a film composer. While analyzing the construction of music to figure out what film directors would like, he came up with an idea to create a music genome.

This being 1999, he turned the idea into a Web start-up and raised $1.5 million from angel investors. It was originally called Savage Beast Technologies and sold music recommendation services to businesses like Best Buy.

By the end of 2001, he had 50 employees and no money. Every two weeks, he held all-hands meetings to beg people to work, unpaid, for another two weeks. That went on for two years.

The article goes on to mention that Pandora reported its first profitable quarter and $50 million annual revenue in 2009. It pays to persevere.