You’ll probably notice Propel has a new website, pretty exciting stuff! Admittedly the previous site was a quickie to get ready for an event (2 years ago!) so getting a new one up was always on the list of to-dos.  Undoubtedly there will be a few minor bugs or ways things could work better, let me know if you have any comments or ideas.

The blog will be fed a few times a month, if you follow Propel on Facebook or Twitter you’ll see when there’s something new.  Hope to see some of your comments.

I passed a real estate sign the other day and noticed there was a YouTube logo on it as well.  I thought to myself, how are real estate agents using YouTube to sell properties?  Are they video shorts of the agent and company, a slide show of images of the property, or an actual video walkthrough?  When I got back to the office and checked out the property in question what I was presented with was best described as the Blair Witch Project – low budget, jiggle-cam, walk-through of the property that gave me a first person perspective of breaking into a home.

The real estate industry is no doubt a very competitive marketplace, lots of agents targeting essentially one market.  In my opinion this creates marketing blindness, the feeling of having to go one step further than the competition without identifying the actual goal and executing an effective strategy.

Design in general is a weak point in real estate.  A lack of understanding in layout, color, fonts, etc, leads to a mishmash of marketing.  Two presentations at this years AIM conference uncovered the fundamentals of design, what works, doesn’t work, and why – Molly Holzshlag of Molly.com - Persuasive Web Design and Design Principles for Non-Designers by Brightwhite Design.  In watching these 2 presentations it’s quick to see some of the failures of design in Real Estate.

Other reasons why design and marketing fail in real estate may be;

• too much DIY marketing and design.
• services like Point2Agent that focus more on functionality rather than design and usabilty
• offline overspend and spreading budgets thin across media that has low ROI
• multiple design/marketing vendors which creates a lack of brand consistency across media

Of course poor design isn’t limited to real estate but it is a competitive industry where information for the end user should be presented as quickly and clearly as possible.  Here are a few examples of local companies that are doing (a few things) right;

• Healthy Homes Realty
• Red Door Realty
• Armour Group

Listen, learn, and adjust

Sometimes it’s hard to take criticism, even if it’s constructive. In your mind what you’ve done is near perfect because you’ve spent countless hours supposedly perfecting it. Of course this thinking is flawed, you’re only one user with one train of thought.

It’s easy to finish a project, move on and forget but it’s important to review and revise once the end product has been released. An age old practice many designers/developers partake is to brand their name to the work and hang it on the wall as if it’s a painting. While I’m on the fence about signing my name to a project, one practice I do believe in is receiving feedback and improving the end product.

Feedback tool on Ford.com

While visiting the Ford.com site I noticed a link, “site feedback”, at the bottom of the screen. It caught me off guard as I’m more familiar with seeing “site designed by…”. Either I have been living in the dark ages or I just haven’t paid attention to this feature before.

Ford.com is obviously interested not only what users think of their product but also of the effectiveness of their marketing. This isn’t surprising with the state of the auto industry these days, companies are interested in where their advertising dollars are spent and the ROI.

This strategy of collecting user feedback and improving ROI isn’t limited to larger companies with marketing departments and CFOs. Small/medium business can also use these strategies to improve their online presense and compete intelligently and effectively within their markets.

Trust human feedback

Google Analytics and other stats packages can provide a plethora of information on user activity but plain English human feedback is just as effective. Remember, take feedback as a positive thing, it is personal but only to the point of the users experience.

I don’t see why as an existing paying customer I have to pay extra to access a wifi network.  It’s a complete money grab by the service provider and the businesses that offer them.  Starbucks is a prime example.  Once again I assumed that there would be a free wifi network so I could work while I drink my $5 latte.  I boot up my computer and find that I can’t access the network because it’s a Bell Hotspot.  So there I sit with my over priced beverage unable to do anything productive except slam Starbucks and Bell on Twitter via iPhone.  What Bell and Starbucks expected me to do was either enter my credit card information so they could bill me directly or buy a Starbucks card for X amount of dollars and enter a number to access the network.

The same situation occurred at Second Cup in Dartmouth Crossing with a Roger/Fido Hotspot.  This time I expected to be able to access the network because I’m a Rogers customer.  Not the case. Again I was asked to enter my Rogers account or credit card information so I could be billed.  Luckily my latte wasn’t as expensive as Starbucks.

I firmly believe that wifi access should be available at no cost if you purchase something from that business.  In my previous post, “What’s Your Pickle” I talk about the extra service a business provides to keep customers happy and promote repeat business.  Providing free wifi access should be a free convenience (aka the Pickle), if I know I can get work done on my laptop while I enjoy a caffenated beverage you can guarantee I’ll be back again.

The San Diego Giants offer free wireless access at their AT&T Park so fans can get up close views and replays, up to date scoring and stats, and live streaming commentary on their mobile devices.  On top of that they have developed a number of mobile applications for the iPhone and Blackberry to enhance fan interaction.  This is a great example of how a business is improving the client experience by providing something as simple as wifi access.  Bringing the game closer to fans through wireless access and mobile applications probably helps with repeat ticket sales, even in the nose bleeds.

Thankfully Rogers now has support for tethering on the iPhone which should put at least one nail in the coffin for Hotspots.  It won’t bury Hotspots but at least there’s an option.

37signals, creator of Basecamp and Highrise, eliminated their support of IE6 in October of 2008 suggesting that continued support wouldn’t allow them to optimize their interface for enhance customer experience.

In June of 2008 Apple rebranded their .Mac service to MobileMe and sent an email to its subscribers instructing them to upgrade to other browser services such as IE7+, Safari, or Firefox.

I personally have run into issues where design layouts don’t render correctly or content management systems won’t function correctly, all due to IE6. Most clients understand when they’re educated on why the browser causes issues and they’re required to upgrade to a newer version or another product all together.  According to Sitepoint, 1 in 5 people are still using IE6 and their thoughts on why are;

1. IE7 and IE8 can only be installed on Windows XP SP2+ or Vista. Many people continue to use older versions of Windows or avoid automatic updates.
2. Many large corporations have legacy applications that only support IE6. Upgrading these systems incurs significant costs which may not be justifiable – especially in the current economic climate. As a result, their employees have been unable to switch to alternative browsers.
3. Many IT novices are ignorant of what a browser is, how to upgrade, or why they should.
4. Some users simply prefer IE6 to IE7 and the competing browsers.

I can see points 1 and 2 referring to government and educational institutions in Nova Scotia.  There’s been many times where I’ve tried to fill out an online application through a government site only to find that it’s not compatible with my current browser.  I recently had a NSBR representative tell me that I had to use IE to apply for their online tender notification system.  Well, I’m using a Mac and IE hasn’t been available for mac since 2003 so what do I do in that case?  It’s plain ignorance to suggest that everyone has to use one browser to use their service.

I found a great website - I dropped IE6 - where people have posted their site and explained why they no longer support IE6.  I will admit that some of the comments are pointless but most are valid and follow a common theme.

Jeff Zeldman has coined IE6 as the new Netscape 4.  He points out that designing with web standards should not exclude any device or browser but required CSS hacks are considered excess freight.  Like Netscape 4, IE6 is perceived to be holding back the web. With the growth of SAAS products and future versions of IE8+ we can only hope for the death of IE6.

I’ve always been amazed at how bad customer service is sometimes.  We all have our off days when we want to crawl into a hole and just get through the day but we can’t forget about the client (or customer).  New clients are great but repeat customers are better.  As time and projects go on you build trust and rapport with the client and they become advocates of your business.  We can all agree that referrals are the best type of business.

When I worked retail at Cyclesmith I watched a great video on customer service called “Give me the Pickle” by Bob Farrell.  I was hoping to find a clip on YouTube to post but you can check it out on his site.  The whole premise of his video is to identify your “pickle”, the extra step you take to keep a satisfied customer.  When the debit was down at my favorite café, the Smiling Goat, the owner allowed me to come in the following day to pay.  Needless to say I was pleased that I could get my daily caffeine and I’ve continually gone back for more.  It was easy for him to do and he established a repeat customer.  On top of that I’m referring his business in my blog.  Mission accomplished.

• offline media needs to be supplemented by an online presence,
• online media buy is surpassing offline, and
• the format and delivery in which traditional offline media has been presented to its readership has to change for convenience.

I recently watched the movie “The Soloist” where Robert Downy Jr. plays a journalist.  It was interesting to see how the movie made frequent references to the decline of the newsprint industry – lack of advertising, staff cut backs, etc.

Format and delivery play a role in convenience.  I personally find a broadsheet newspaper awkward, the sheer size of it limits where you can open it up and read it. Regardless of its size however, newsprint is easier to read in length compared to its online version. This is where online supplements offline.  Todays magazines and newsprint are following this strategy except for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer who decided to go strictly online in March of this year. It will be interesting to see the results of this move as media-industry analysts have suggested it will be challenging to maintain a web readership without its offline counterpart.

Magazine publications may be an area that is surviving the economic crunch. In her blog post, Carolyn Fung of Trampoline made an interesting point about magazines in contrast to their media counterparts.  She points out that magazines are direct reflection of their readers.  They deliver material that is highly relevant to the readers personal interest.  Like Carolyn I have dozens of magazines, some many years old, that I just can’t throw away because there’s an article that I find useful.  At my doctors office most of the magazines are 2 years old, one was from 2001 yet I still found something interesting in the issue.  Even ads within dated magazine seem to retain brand recognition and consumer awareness.

The “death” of print won’t come for a long time, if ever.  The tactile aspect is something that can’t be replace by online media. That alone however isn’t enough to retain the interest of its readership. Bridging the gap between online (new media) and offline content and finding a way to deliver that content in an efficient manner will be important for the survival of “old” media.

I thought this video was interesting.  How many of us designers/developers have run into the situation where the client expects more than originally spec’d. The dreaded “mission creep”.  With every project I complete I find myself adding more detail to the scope and to the terms and conditions of the next proposal. Like chess you have to think 10 steps ahead to make sure you avoid any pitfalls that may arise.  

I think there’s also a need for client education when it comes to submitting a proposal and starting a project.  The client has to be fully aware of how your design/development process works and what their role is in completing the project successfully. Cooperation between both parties and constant communication throughout the project will ensure (certainly not guaruntee) that the process will run smoothly.

There’s an article called Creating Added Value for the Customer is Bad Project Management which discusses why going outside the agreed upon project scope is bad for the overall deliverables.  Trying to exceed the expectation of the client by going outside the project scope can sacrifice resources, money, quality or even happiness of team members who get to do more work.  Exceeding the client’s expectations should always be doing through good customer service.

Being thorough with proposal detail and educating and involving the client on and throughout the process is key for the successful delivery and understanding of project value.