Hi guys – just a quick update to say thanks to all who came to the Big Party for Small Business! We had a lot of fun and hope the folks who came did, too. A special thanks to Guy Kawasaki and Gary Vaynerchuk who took time out of their insanely busy schedules to come by, do a little bowling, and be good sports about getting their pictures taken a million times. Thanks, too, to our Small Business Web sponsors American Express OPEN and to Laura Thomas from Dell for providing some great last minute additions to our giveaway bags in the form of their hot new ruby red laptops, the Vostro V130. It’s great to see how much support there is out there for small business owners!
Here are a few pictures from the party, as well as some other Texas highlights. We’re really looking forward to doing our panel tomorrow with our pals from Google, FreshBooks, Formstack and MailChimp presenting on being Friends with Business Benefits, How Integrations Sell Apps in Salon D at the Hilton. If you are in Austin, swing on by to say hello!
This blog post is coming to you live from Austin, where my need for coffee is seriously battling my good intentions of hitting the hotel gym before we start our busy day. Who shall emerge the victor?!
Christelle, TJ and I are arrived in Austin last night and are looking forward to our first day of events and activities. First, we’re pleased to be a part of AppSumo’s Lean Start-Up bundle for SXSW, which includes a huge array of useful software for folks looking to build a business on a shoestring. We’re all about keeping costs low for small business owners, so we think this deal is an amazing one and gives you access to some really cool apps. The bundle is launching today here at SXSW so be sure to check it out.
Any start-up who purhcases the SXSW bundle can enter their “Lean Start-Up Challenge“. The grand prize is a ton of cool software, mentoring and $100,000 cash – wow that will buy you a lot of Red Bulls and Diet Cokes!
This afternoon, we’re heading over to the Co-Working Unconference where we’ll be meeting with co-workers from all over the world, giving out BatchBlue t-shirts and stickers, spreading the word about our own Providence co-working space BatchHaüs and just hanging out with the cool folks who run their businesses from shared spaces, coffee shops, etc. These are our kind of people!
And for the second year, we’re once again throwing a “Big Party for Small Business”. This year, American Express OPEN has come on as an official sponsor of the Small Business Web. They’re promising some great special guests appearances in addition to the great food, drinks, bowling and karaoke. If you are at SXSW and would like an invitation, please let us know!
When is the last time you were truly delighted as a customer? We asked ourselves this question during a recent customer experience brainstorming session. One BatchBluer had been given a free cookie after she bought her daily lunch from our L’Artisan, our favorite local deli. Another had received a card from a store on his birthday. And the experience that stuck out for me was when I mentioned to the manager of clothing boutique Clad In that I had lost a necklace I recently purchased and she immediately gave me another one, free of charge.
In each of these examples, they were all little things, but they were all unexpected. The merchants at these various small businesses did something extra that resulted in a positive experience for their respective customers. So we started thinking – what are some other ways we could really wow our customers and show them how much they mean to us? We came up with a pretty good list, so as we would with a box of chocolate or other delicious snack, we thought we’d share.
1. Provide an experience, not just service. We call the folks who help our customers the Customer Experience team, not customer support or customer service. That’s because our team does more than answer questions: they play an active part in educating and empowering our customers on how to best use our product via webinars, providing 1-on-1 onboarding sesssions, writing blog posts and much more. You want your customers to have a good experience with your company so you should actively work to give them one.
2. Shout your customer love from the rooftops. We know our customers are awesome and we want others to know as well. When we see someone doing something exceptionally cool, we’ll reach out to them and ask if they’d like to be featured in a case study or a blog post. We have a whole website section called BatchMakers that’s devoted to people who are using our API. Think of ways you can shine the spotlight on your customers. Whether it’s on your website or a picture on a bulletin board in your shop, people love to be recognized for what they do.
Last night Sean Ransom, our Chief of Tech, was given a “Top Technologist” award along with nine other Rhode Islanders who all are doing great things with technology. The inaugral awards were jointly given by the Tech Collective and GoLocalProv.com to recognize exceptional IT practitioners, who are often over-worked and under-recognized (sounds like a certain someone we know!)
In addition to picking up a massive trophy, Sean received an additional nod for “Overall Achievement”, receiving the most votes from the judges for his work at BatchBlue and in the tech community.
While we certainly agree that Sean is a brilliant technologist, we know what he most values is his BatchBlue colleagues and the customers he works so tirelessly to serve. As he said when he received the award, ”The technology aspect of my job is secondary to the being able to work with great people and support our great customers.”
It’s February and once again our spring dance card is filling up with various events. The biggie for us is of course SXSW Interactive, and we’ve been busy planning parties, coming up with content for our panel on integrations, and of course, designing fun Texas-shaped stickers. We find SXSW to be one of the very best events for networking with other like-minded geeky/techie/nerdy yet still very attractive folks, so if these are your people, I’d recommend making the trip. Just make sure you bring a pair of comfortable shoes: you’ll be go go going for five days straight. For those of you going for the first time, there’s a lot of great additional advice on what to expect while you’re there here, here and below from our friend Dave Delany:
