BatchBook Blog
Archive for the “Community” Category
The CRM industry is built upon the premise that businesses have ongoing relationships with their customers. But do the people on the other end really want to have a relationship with that business? Does a website visit, contest entry or even purchase mean the customer wants a long-term relationship? Do they want a lifetime of newsletters, e-mails, calls and text messages from that business just because they had a first date?
Yes. But only a few of those people. And only some of the time.
Most People are Consumers
The majority of people who have bought a product from your business do not consider themselves in a relationship with you. Many people just want a pleasant transaction, and then to go anonymously on their way. Think about all of the different products you use during the day. Just writing this blog post I am “consuming” a Macbook Air, HP monitor, WordPress software, Safari browser, Pandora audio, Sony headphones, an Ikea desk & chair, Gap shirt, Banana Republic sweater, Lee jeans, Sanita clogs, Dove deodorant, Davines shampoo, Paul Newman coffee in a Weirdgirl creations cup. Of these many brands, the only one I consider myself to have a personal connection with is Weirdgirl, not because they send me the most coupons or use my first name in their newsletter, but because it is the local pottery store where my kids and I spend some crafty afternoons. I’ve come to know the owner and her daughter and have a cupboard full of memories her business has provided.
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We’ve got some new schwag around the Batchhaus, these nifty little notebooks:
While we love printing our logo on stuff and giving it away, these notebooks are special, in a couple of ways. First, they are kind of symbolic for us. We are launching a new version of Batchbook pretty soon, and with it are looking forward to turning a new page in our company history. Our books are already being filled with the future plans of our company, and we hope that they will help you ring in the new year with your most exciting plans too!
These notebooks are also special for us because we were able to have them printed by a pretty great group of people at the Riverzedge Art Project.
Riverzedge is a design firm that does screen printing, graphic design, art, photography, and more. In that, they are pretty normal, but their story gets more interesting. Riverzedge is also a social enterprise staffed by students.
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We’re just getting back from our second stop on the BarCamp Tour: the 6th annual MinneBar held at the Best Buy headquarters in Minneapolis. MinneBar is the largest BarCamp in the country, with about 1,000 people attending this year’s event.
The conference itself was great; lots of interesting sessions, fantastically smart and engaged attendees, and the Best Buy headquarters blew me away with how eco-friendly and employee-focused it was by design. Fellow BarCamp Tour busser and Shopify‘s Tech Ambassador Joey DeVilla wrote up a great post about the day’s event over on his blog Global Nerdy, and Stephanie Bullis from Grasshopper posted on 5 Ways to Make Your BarCamp the Next Minnebar.
The thing that impressed me the most from a sponsor’s perspective, though, was how the event organizers Ben Edwards, Luke Francl and Adrienne Pierce really took the time to make us feel welcomed, included and appreciated.
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Tags: batchblue, Community, marketing, sponsorship
BatchBlue made the front page of the Providence Journal recently, an event made even more exciting by the fact that we’re playing cornhole in the accompanying picture (sadly, you can’t see it on the online edition. But look! Here are our custom cornhole bags currently touring the country as part of the BarCamp Tour). The story focuses on our humble beginnings as a few frustrated parents trying to balance work life with some brand new babies. If you’ve ever wondered just how many babies, you can read all about it here. Thanks to our friends at the Projo for the nice write-up.
In other local news, our president Pamela was awarded a Business Women’s Award for the Technical Services category award by the Providence Business News. Pamela and her fellow winners will be honored at a luncheon from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on May 5 at the Providence Marriott Downtown. Pamela also weighed in a recent eCRM article entitled Ten Common CRM Mistakes and How to Avoid Them – you should check it out if you’re looking for great tips on using a CRM. Congrads to Pam!
You can always check out our latest BatchBlue press over on our press page. And over on the Small Business Web page, you’ll find some articles about what’s happening in Small Business Web news.
But enough about us. It’s time to get back to helping customers, planning our upcoming events and finding cool new stuff to do. Have a great week, everyone!
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Some of us spent last weekend overlooking the Charles River from the beautiful offices of the Microsoft NERD center in Cambridge, MA.
The occasion? BarCamp Boston. We’re big fans of Camps in general. WordCamp, NewbCamp, PodCamp, Summer Camp.
What’s BarCamp? “… an international network of user-generated conferences (or unconferences). They are open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants.” According to Wikipedia. To us, they’re a great opportunity to spend a day or two with some of the smartest and most creative people we’ve ever met.
Like most unconferences, BarCamps start with a bunch folks putting up post-it notes on topics they’d like to present or discuss. The crowd votes with some checkmarks on the post-its and the topics with the most votes get moved the schedule. Easy peasy. The topics this past weekend included nuclear fission, BBQ, the US Educational System and how to run your business like Genghis Khan ran his empire. You never know what you’re going to get, but you can rest assured that it will be awesome. (more…)
Tags: barcamp, boston, grasshopper, mailchimp, shopify, wufoo
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