One of the most fantastic things is the feedback you get from the BdJ netizens. Ordinarily, when a person with a particular problem appears at your site from Google, they are probably looking for an application to help them, with the deliberate emphasis on “an” – it doesn’t matter if it’s your application or someone elses, so if yours doesn’t fit the bill, they hit the back button and move on.

On BdJ, it’s subtly different – because it’s your application on offer, they are looking for your application to solve their problem, and they are not shy about letting you know if there’s an issue or something they don’t like. Listen to the feedback – it’s invaluable.

Bits du Jour is also a great way to stress test your operation, everything from your installation to your store front – if there’s a problem, there’s nothing like a massive increase in traffic to show it up. It’s worth emphasising that using BdJ is not about the money – it’s about getting a bit of money – but mainly it’s about getting a lot of traffic and customers compressed into a 24 hour period.

Some of my observations:

Installation

I use ClickOnce for all my deployment. I like it primarily because it means I can push out updates and have the clients update themselves with no action required on the part of the user. A few users experienced problems with the installation. After digging through some of the issues, I had one persons installation time out. I had one person whose installation was hanging and one who was inexplicably seeing a 404.

• The installation time out was caused by an ultra slow connection from someone in Tanzania. Whilst I have nothing against people in less well connected countries, my focus is inevitably going to be on countries like the UK, US, Canada, Australia etc. I make the tacit assumption that if you’re on my site you’re using broadband.
• The hanging installation was caused by a machine that refused to install the .Net framework. This persisted even when the framework was downloaded straight from Microsoft, so there’s not much I could do about that. I’m not about to start offering support for the .Net framework.
• Didn’t manage to get to the bottom of the 404, noone else was seeing it.

Runtime Errors

• One user was having a problem because the software couldn’t get write permission to a part of his user profile that he absolutely should have access to. The fact he couldn’t did make me wonder how any other software was working, but I sent him a registry patch to move Home Document Manager’s data folder which got him moving.
• Another user installed the app but it wouldn’t start. I’ve not figured this one out yet, but I suspect there will be a wider problem that I can do nothing about.

Activation

When customers make a purchase, they are emailed a serial number which they enter into the app – the app then calls my licensing server and they are sent a license file. This is one of the parts that I was very pleased with. There were no issues with the activation at all.

One person said they weren’t going to buy because I used online activation, but that’s one person in 14 months so I’m not too worried.

Summary

All in all, a very worthwhile experience and very positive feedback from the vast majority of customers. PDF Scan Pro comes on BdJ in around a week, it’s less mature than Home Document Manager, but seems to have had better traction, so we’ll see how that goes.

Potential customers arrive at your page with a mug full of suspicion. It’s your job as a copy writer to remove that fear. I’m trying something a little different with PDF Scan Pro.

I thought about what might prevent someone from making that initial purchase and becoming a customer. I think some of it is going to be because they’re not sure if your app is the one for them. Is it right? Is there another app out there that is better/faster/cheaper. A traditional approach might operate a little like this:

“Don’t bother checking out the opposition, we’re the best.”

I think people are so used to this approach that they’re immune from it. I’m not going to spend my time developing an application I didn’t believe in – so I know my applications’ USPs, I know there strengths and their weaknesses, I know where they sit in the market. So why not spend a little time telling your customer about your competition, so they can see where your product fits in?

I’ve not tried this before, but I’ve added a section to PDF Scan Pro’s Trial/Moneyback page listing the competition. I’m hoping that this approach might show a little confidence, and might alleviate fears that ‘the perfect product’ might just be a Google search away.

Anyone else tried this or anything similar?

In
case you missed its arrival, GetSatisfaction is a really nice web app
focused on facilitating open conversations between businesses and
customers on a level playing field. The essence of Jason’s complaint on
the 37Signals blog is this:

I’m going to use (everyone’s friend) Bob Walsh as an example. Bob’s awesome task management application, MasterList Professional is sold by his company, Safari Software
Inc. Now, let’s say that Dave, a customer of Bob’s pops across to the
GetSatisfaction website. He searches for Bob’s company but can’t find
it. Now here’s the interesting part; Dave can, without Bob’s knowledge,
set up a support site for Safari Software and MasterList, and ask a
question on it.

So what does Bob do? Nothing. Why? Because he has
no idea that this unofficial support site exists, let alone that one of
his customers is asking for help there. Now that doesn’t seem like a
nice state of affairs does it?

That wasn’t the only (or even the
main) problem. On Bob’s unofficial support site, GetSatisfaction might
use Bob’s company name, even his logo, making it seem quite official.
What really rubbed Jason up the wrong way, was the badge that
GetSatisfaction placed on the GetSatisfaction website.


Clearly the suggestion is that if you’re not signed up for GetSatisfaction, you’re not doing open the open conversation thing.

This
has been something on my mind since I started using the service. I do
use GetSatisfaction for Home Document Manager, and I like it. It’s a
good app, and integrates well with product websites. But there has
always been a subtle undertone of ‘participate here or be excluded’.

To
participate fully on GetSatisfaction, you also need to get a premium
account, and they’re not cheap. In fact, they’re pretty pricey,
especially for a micro ISV.
Their basic plan starts at $99/month. They used to offer a $49/month
starter subscription, but I couldn’t find it just now, there has been a
bit of a redesign, so it may have vanished altogether.

But
whether the price was $49 or $99 per month, it would still be the
single biggest outlay after my office. And that just doesn’t
seem….right. $49/year and I would sign up in a heartbeat, but $49 is
insanely pricey, for what it is. And $99/month is just….silly.

If
GetSatisfaction are truly comitted to facilitating open conversations,
they should offer all companies a free, single user pro account, so
that small companies can compete on the ‘level playing field’ that
GetSatisfcation seems so keen on. If they got the buy in from startups,
they would no doubt make the income as the startups grew.

They
offer a good service, but I think that a single free pro account to
each company would go a long way to losing the “mafioso protection”
image that Jason was writing of.

Image by jgrantmac via Flickr

Just been catching up on my Business Of Software reading. It seems that Yahoo
has spat the dummy, thrown its toys out of the pram
and flicked the self destruct switch. Now that’s a lot of metaphors!
Their domain customers are receiving emails with the following text:

Important note: Beginning on July 1, 2008, Yahoo!’s annual domain renewal price increases to $34.95 per year.

Now, as if the price wasn’t ridiculous enough, they’ve put this into the public domain by emailing their customers, but their website
makes no mention of the increase. That means someone buying a domain
today is told a renewal will cost $9.95, when in reality, Yahoo has no
intention of offering such a price.

A little dishonest? I think so.

Image via Wikipedia

I have to relay this story. It’s a good illustration of just how poor customer service can get.

I love my car. It’s like a comfy pair of slippers, it’s just so
familiar to me. I’ve done 90000 miles in it, and it still feels good.
It’s nothing too flash. A Volvo S60 T5, an executive sports saloon, leather interior, and all the candy you’d expect from an exec model.

Imagine my dismay when  a lane weaving eejit in a UPS
van smashed into the side of me, seriously damaging the drivers side
body work, and damaging the wheels and suspension when he pushed me
into the curb.

Now leaving aside the other stuff, my insurers, Direct Line, sent
the car into the Pentagon Vauxhall garage in Burton on Trent. Now, the
repairs took them about 8 weeks. Seem excessive? Yea I thought so too.
A complaint to Direct Line resulted in an apology and a cheque through
the post. No big deal.

The car was delivered back to me by truck. I had a good look at the
wheels and bodywork, all looked fine. When I got in the car, it was a
different story. A cup holder had been snapped. No big deal I thought,
accidents happen, I’ll call the garage. The nice lady at the garage
said she was very sorry, and they’d have it fixed.

Then came the second problem. When I turned on the car and pulled
off the drive, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree, saying 
that there was a fault on the traction control systems (ABS and DSTC).
OK, I was a little more concerned now. I called the garage up again and
relayed the issue, they requested that I bring the car straight back,
which I duly did.

After looking at it for a day, they (head eejit, Ken) contacted me
and told me that the damage wasn’t accident related and they wouldn’t
fix it. I pointed out that I knew the damage wasn’t accident related,
as it was fine when it went in the garage. I was told that they
couldn’t possibly have caused any damage, so weren’t going to fix it.

I spoke to Direct Line again, who advised me that I’d have to send
it to be assessed at a Volvo specialist, at my own cost. AT MY OWN
COST! Well, I did. They did a little investigative work, and told me it
would cost towards £1000 to find the problem. I told them to stop work,
and called Direct Line again.

I am still without a car, 10 weeks later. Direct Line’s engineers are looking into it. I’ll keep you posted.

Software houses that use Agile Software Development techniques have
to negotiate contracts like all other companies. Wherever possible,
agile teams will try to steer clear of fixed cost, fixed scope, fixed
time contracts, preferring instead to opt for an optional scope, or
time and materials contract. There are a number of reasons for this,
but the one that sticks out in my mind is this: Fixed scope/cost/time
contracts are gladiatorial. They pit the interests of the customer
against the interests of the vendor. Optional scope contracts, on the
other hand, align the interests of the two, specifically because
optional scope contracts are typically short, 90 days or something, so
it is in the interests of the vendor to continually impress, rather
than to take the quickest dirtiest route to satisfy the contract.

When I think about issues of trust, specifically investing in trust,
I wonder whether traditional micro ISV website designs are the right
idea. After all, by their nature, they exist to sell ‘the product’. I
wonder if this too might be gladiatorial. I wonder if potential buyers
browse sales oriented sites with their guard up, as if they’re wary,
looking to see if they can trust you.

If I ask the question “what might a non-gladiatorial micro ISV web
site look like?” I find that the answer is “a blog”; a blog that sells
stuff, but a blog nonetheless.

So say if you write task management software, what would happen if
your site was a GTD blog, a GTD blog that sold task management
software. If you write <cough> some document management software
for home users, your site is a blog about decluttering and organising
your home documents. If you’re passionate about your domain, and write
passionately about it, I wonder what effect it would have on your
customer’s perception of your trustworthiness. Your interests are now
aligned with your customer’s interests, so would this breed trust? I’m
not sure. But it has to be worth a shot. I’m prepared to be wrong.

It opens up other interesting possibilities: Guest bloggers. If
you’re lucky enough to get prominent voices in your field, having them
guest blog on your site will further increase your credibility, and
make you even more aligned with your customer’s interests. I’ve seen an
increasing number of sites use a ‘magazine’ layout for their blogs, and
it’s one I think would be particularly suited to the task. It is
content rich, and it helps foster the notion that you sell a product
because you are passionate about solving a particular problem, not
because you think you can make a quick buck out of it.

I might be way off base. But like I said, I’m prepared to be wrong.

—–
EXTENDED

Every company on Earth screws up from time to time, what’s important
is that we’re honest about it, and above all, we say the S-word.

I recently re-read Hugh MacLeod’s account of a US lock
manufacturer missing the whole point of the conversational aspect of
Web based customer relations. It goes a little something like this:

DAY ONE:

KRYPTONITE:  Our bike locks are the best.
THE MARKET: Yes, your bike locks are the best.

DAY TWO:

KRYPTONITE:  Our bike locks are the best.
THE MARKET: Yes, your bike locks are still the best.

DAY THREE:

KRYPTONITE:  Our bike locks are the best.
THE MARKET: Ummm… yeah I’m sure they are, but what’s all this about some recent video on the net that’s supposed to show how you can crack your locks in 10 seconds using a simple Bic ballpoint pen?

DAY FOUR:

KRYPTONITE:  Our bike locks are the best.
THE MARKET: Hey, I just saw that video on a friend’s website. And I’m
kinda ticked off because I just paid $60 for one of your new locks 3
weeks ago, and I’m wondering if a Bic pen can crack my lock or not…
does the pen crack all Kryptonite locks or just one or two models?

DAY FIVE:

KRYPTONITE:  Our bike locks are the best.
THE MARKET: Hey, I just visited your website and saw no mention of the
Bic pens. What the hell are you doing about it? Are you going to fix
the locks? Are you going to give me a refund?

DAY SIX:

KRYPTONITE:  Our bike locks are the best.
THE MARKET: No, they’re not. You guys are assholes.

It’s stories like this one that make me feel really heartened to read true apologies, like this one from Typepad:

We’re sorry. We messed up, the anti spam system got way too aggressive,
and we were trying to dial it back in small increments instead of what
we eventually did, which was flipping all the way back to a setting
that we know works for most people.

The
post continues, but there’s the crux of it. I’m sorry. We messed up.
It’s quiet tricky and we got it wrong. Full marks to Typepad.

Turns out they had released just a little too early. They ship a
sample application, along with a few sample images to show off the
component’s OCR capabilities (left). Here’s how their sample
application read this image:

l. INTRoDucTIoN

About OCR
OCR (Op cal Charater Recogni on) is  e techndo thd all   u to transfonn im es (e,g,.
inwg  scanned from paper documents) into editable ten based co uter files,

About bprl$e OCR SDK
Embedded a high perfor ce OCR en ne. Asprise OCR SDI{ is OCR sofhNare  opment kit
d can be used    J   , Nd. Ddphi. Visual Basic  9. Borland C. etc,

Fe ure$ of bpri$e OCR
An inco lete list of fearures offered byAsprise OCR ,
l, H hest Level or  c ray
Asprise OCR can e ilyrecognize difficult docu nb of poor i e qu i ,
2, EKcenent Fonnat Reten ‘on
T   l ub on the input documents are persewecl
3, H h Spee
Asprise OCR us  op rrnzed OCR engine to perform excellent reco i on in v short   ;
4, Ease or Use
We s ive to make  e dNel er’s life easier, Co lex par er confi rahons are r  d
from Asprise OCR SDI{, You onlyh  to supply e inwge dRu t, Asprise OCR can
intdligently dderrrnnes the b t sd ng intern ly
5, Ba o  Recogni ‘on
B ide characten (lmers and numbers). Asprise OCR can recognize  nNst  kind of bar
code, You can choose to reco ize barcode or characters or bdh,

; ‘ , ‘ ,d  ;,; ::,:  3;

I particularly like

“Asprise OCR can e ilyrecognize difficult docu nb of poor i
e qu i “

Which should have read “Asprise OCR can easily recognise
difficult documents of poor quality”.

Turns out there is such a thing as releasing too early. This is what we get from the OCR component that comes with Office:

1. INTRODUCTION

About OCR

OCR (Optical Charater Recognition) is the
technologythat allows you to transform images (e.g. images scanned from
paper documents) into editable text-based computer files.

About Asprise OCR SDK

Embedded a high performance OCR engine. .Asprise
OCR SDKis OCR software development kit that can be used Wth Java. Net.
Delphi. Visual basic @78). borland C. etc.

Features of Asprise OCR An incomplete list of features offered by.Asprise OCR:

1. Highest Level of Accuracy

Asprise OCR can easily recogni difficult documents of poor image quality;

2. Excellent Fonnat Retention

Text layouts on the input documents are perservect

3. High Speed

Asprise OCR uses optimized OCR engine to perform en2ellent recognition in veryshort time;

4. Ease of Use

We strive to make the developer’s life easier.
Complex parameter configurations are removed fromAsprise OCR SDK You
onlyhavetosupplytheimage do3ument. Asprise OCR can intelligently
determines the best setting internally.

5. Barcode Recognition beside characters (letters and numbers).

Asprise OCR can recogni almost everykind of bar code. You can choose to recognize barcode or characters or both.

Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better. Of course, it requires Office to be installed.

Specifically, the bug is with the IThumbnailProviders that Office
registers with the system to generate the thumbnails for the Vista
Thumbnail Cache. I won’t bore you with the details since I seem to be
one of only a handful of people worldwide using them, so it probably
won’t affect you.

Being a good netizen, I put together steps to reproduce the bug and
a sample application. Could I find anywhere to send the bug report? Not
on your Nelly!

After Googling for it, I saw the top result was a blog entry on www.oreillynet.com
entitled “Mission: Impossible. Submitting a Bug Report to Microsoft”.
Even though the post is old, it didn’t inspire me with confidence. Sure
enough, after trawling around, I couldn’t find anywhere to send one.

It’s not a good feeling. And it’s something I intend to learn from.
Make it easy, no, not easy, mind numbingly trivial, for a user to
report a bug in your app.

This week I had one of these conversations. Actually several. The
whole debacle revolved around something quite simple – a holiday at a National Trust Cottage in Suffolk.

My wife and I booked the holiday back in January, before she was
pregnant, before we even thought about moving house. We’re both quite
forgetful. In the fuss, we forgot about it until a few days before. We
quickly realised we couldn’t go and were just going to forfeit the
holiday.

A couple of different friends suggested that we should put the holiday on eBay,
as there were quite a few last minute holidays on there. This seemed
like a good idea, so we stuck it on at £50, even though the holiday had
cost us around £600. Some kind eBayer contacted the National Trust
to ask if it was OK for us to sell the holiday on. Turns out it wasn’t.
The eBayer in question smugly got in touch  and informed us. We
checked the small print and found it to be true, so we withdrew the
listing.

After speaking with some vacuous bint at the bookings office, we
were told that it would be OK. So we re-listed it, and it was quickly
snapped up. It turns out that the bint in question was operating a
little outside of her pay grade. When the fishing enthusiast turned up
at the cottage, the key wasn’t where it was supposed to be. After
speaking with someone at the National Trust, it seems they had seen the
listing, removed the key were refusing to let this poor guy in. After
spending most of the evening trying to get some solution, I called the
chap and offered to pay for him to spend the night in a hotel so we
could sort it out the following day. He refused and said he would spend
the night in his car.

The following day didn’t bring anything but frustration. I couldn’t
use the cottage, he could, there was a seemingly obvious solution.

“I’m afraid we need to have a contract in writing with the guest before he can enter the property.”

“So can he just go to the office and sign it so he can get in?”

“No, we need to refund you the full amount then charge him.”

“Can we just get him to sign without the refund and recharge?”

“No, we need him to pay or there is no legal contract.”

I used some choice language here to tell the walking customer
relations disaster that I’d actually studied law and that she was
talking rubbish – no effect.

“So can you just refund me £1 then charge him £1″

“Oh no we can’t do that”

“Why not?”

“I’m afraid it’s company policy.” AS IF THAT WAS AN EXPLANATION!!!

Rant over :¬) But it did tell me something; that no matter what,
keeping the customer happy has to trump any so-called policy. Any time
anyone actually says the words “company policy” to a customer, they
should have to remove one of their fingers.