1.000.000 miles & counting…

Hi everyone.

I’ve just made a few cosmetic changes, and I thought I’d explain them because they’re quite important.

Look to the right and you’ll see two new logos I’ve linked in. They represent two important relationships in my life.

Grassroots.org. is an organization whose mission is to serve as a catalyst for positive social change by leveraging modern technologies and best business practices. In other words, they provide volunteer services to non-profit’s like Where’s Your Heart? for free. They’re goal is to adopt 10,000 nonprofit members and provide them each with an average of $10,000 of services per year at no charge (for a total savings of $100 million per year!). In exchange for this service, they just ask that members promote them on our sites. Here you go and TIA.

Mad Mimi is an email marketing service that I’ve liked from the moment I laid eyes on Mimi. Their competitors are the likes of Constant Contact. What I liked about them so much was their focus on the customer experience, and brilliant support. I’ve yet to produce a newsletter, but I’ve gotten a support email back at 2AM on a Saturday night, and their email support might as well be an IM chat it’s so responsive. I’m getting closer to being a more active marketer for Where’s Your Heart? and I’m hoping some of my friends that might need this service could use them as well, so we can figure out some best practices together. Any takers?

I hope these links aren’t too intrusive.

It's missing the question mark!

Every physical manifestation of even a baby-step forward is fun. When I saw the package from Chase with my charitable foundation’s checks, I couldn’t help but tear it open.

You’d think it was pretty easy to get a bank account setup. It wasn’t. Laugh with me when as you read the following bit of conversation I had with Citibank on the phone before I went to Chase. Read more…

You know that feeling you get when something’s just not right? I get that feeling every time I get an impersonal Linked In invite to connect. I regularly get invites from people I haven’t spoken to in quite some time. I’m amazed at how often those invites are the default “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” without any further personality.

Let me get this straight? You’ve not spoken to me in years and the best you can come up with is that?!? Well, then I’ll definitely accept your invitation. Read more…

Did it even slow them down?

I would like to acknowledge how easy it was to communicate a product testimonial to the Master Lock company. I think it was two clicks to the form. But, I wonder how they’ll deal with the following testimonial I posted (they didn’t have a place to upload the photo!):

I had my bicycle locked up tight with a MasterLock D-lock.

Theives cut right through it, seemingly without a problem. My bike is gone and I’m out a bunch of cash, but I still have most of my D-lock left to remind me how I’ll never buy another MasterLock product.

Thanks for making my next lock purchase decision easier.

David

[Update: October 14th. I received an email from the product manager offering to replace my lock. An offer I think is quite fair. I've put the full text of the letter I received in the comments to this post, but have decided to keep this post because it's in-line with my observations about products/product-management. I also am glad to see Master Lock is listening online, not only for the good stuff. That's a good characteristic.]

One buys a lock to protect their bike, this lock didn’t meet that basic product requirement. I’ve read some stories online about people trying to break through some of this class of lock using liquid nitrogen, power saws, etc. I can’t tell for sure, but I find it hard to believe power tools were involved on a residential street in the middle of the night. Simply put, I had my bike locked with this lock, and it was still stolen. Major product fail.

I got lucky on craig’s list and have already replaced my bike (less than 6 hours from when I realized it was stolen), and I’ve updated my insurance coverage to cover off-site “stuff” (that’s a good lesson, turns out my renter’s insurance will cover my sword if it goes missing on an airplane too). So, a relatively minor inconvenience and a bunch of cash down the tube. The new bike is a nicer bike, and I got a better deal than the original one I had. Though, of course, it would have been nice if I could have come directly here, instead of through the longer, more expensive road buying the other bike first!

It’s that the story of all our lives?