As our regular readers know, we are in the process of rewriting Batchbook. We are finishing up the first set of features to be released in the new BB2 product, so I want to give you all an update on where we stand.
First, I want to share with you a little of the philosophy behind the new Batchbook. As I have mentioned many times here on the blog, Batchbook is designed to help small businesses (like us! and you!) better keep up with the relationships that are most important to us: the ones we have with our existing customers. Seems like an obvious concept, but is actually counter to the traditional CRM model. Rather than focus our own sales efforts around the “funnel” management process of finding and converting unknowns, we focus our efforts around the relationships we have with those folks already familiar with our product and benefit from their efforts to help us spread the word on Batchbook. This has been extremely successful (and a lot of fun) for us, so the rewrite of Batchbook will reflect this customer friendly approach. With this release, we are introducing tools for Batchbook customers to more easily find and stay better connected with those folks already in your network who are eager to help you spread the word on your product or service.
But before we get too detailed on what is coming, a few important things to point out about the transition from the existing Batchbook to the new version:
- We will begin introducing the new Batchbook at the end next month. We will start migrating accounts shortly thereafter, and it may take up to several months for all existing accounts to be migrated.
- The initial release will contain those features used by the greatest number of account holders. We will continue developing the additional features and releasing them in the new Batchbook as they are available.
- We will prioritize the order in which existing accounts are migrated to the new design based on the feature set currently being utilized by that account.
- You will be notified directly and will be able to preview the new Batchbook before you are migrated, though you will not be able to switch back and forth between the old and new systems.
- We will be maintaining and supporting the old Batchbook accounts until all have been migrated.
- If you are using the Batchbook API, you will be given early access to the new API. We will be contacting those accounts in the next few weeks. If you do not hear from us, please write in to support@batchblue.com to let us know you need the access.
Please let me know if you have any questions on the migration process and schedule. We will keep you updated on the rollout of the new Batchbook and the release of features on the new system.
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For this customer story, I caught up with Chris Johnson and Jason Moore, the team behind Simplifilm. They take a unique approach to making product videos, and their results speak for themselves.
What does Simplifilm do?
We create narrative, motion graphic videos that artfully tell product stories.
How did you get started?
Jason: When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much… (kidding). I’ve been doing motion graphics video for about 13 years, and graphic design for even longer than that. Chris and I began doing odd jobs here and there in 2008, and one particular job called for an animated video. Simple by our present standards, it opened the door to a couple of other video opportunities. Our partnership went to the next level when Chris saw a bad demo for a product he loved, and when he called them on it, they hired us to make something great. We’ve been booked solid from that time on.
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Rather than sermonize to you all on the many ways that your CRM product, mobile device, social media networks, cloud applications, productivity tools and automation services can help you build better relationships with your customers, I spent my “work time” yesterday touching base with a very small group of people who have had a profound impact on me and my success this past year. I wanted to make sure they know how much I appreciate all they have done for me and for BatchBlue and how excited I am for what we have coming in 2012.
Because that is my resolution. To stay better connected with the people who matter most and make sure they know how important they are. I have many more people to reach, and many more thank yous to give. One at a time so that they each know I am talking to them and I mean what I say.
So sorry, no checklist to plug-and-play better customer relationships. But if you are of the “great relationships are built one conversation at a time” ilk like me, I have a good Book to recommend.
Just the other day I posted about creating a customer loyalty plan. Today, I stumbled across a thoughtful blog post by Maz Iqbal on the Business 2 Community blog about this same topic. The post, somewhat ominously, starts out with this take-a-way:
CRM has failed to deliver customer loyalty; is Social CRM headed the same way?
The article, titled Customer Loyalty: Disgust, Elevation and the Categorical Imperative, is worth a full read. The premise is that people are either disgusted by bad interactions with companies, or elevated by good interactions.
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You’ve won another customer! That’s awesome, and you have every reason to be excited. You’ll go to great lengths to make sure they are happy. After all, you care about each and every one of your customers.
But what’s next? After this sale, how do you plan to keep them coming back again and again as a loyal customer? You need a customer loyalty plan.
Having a great product and giving wonderful service at the time of purchase is a great start. But if you are going to build long term loyalty in a large number of your customers, there are a few things you can do to spur that along. (more…)
