I feel like I have some interesting insight into the world of franchise marketing, not only because of my role here at Balihoo, but also because my Dad owns a Radio Shack store in my small hometown of Chelan, Washington.  I spent some time with my dad this weekend and chatted about business and the economy, and had some interesting insights that will benefit franchisees.

Relationships are important to any business, and are especially so to a business owner in a small town with regular access to your customers and potential customers, where you can hear—more clearly sometimes—the perceptions people have of you and your business.  Luckily for my dad and for his customers, he is a perceptive guy. What he realized by listening is that people see the Radio Shack sign and think "big corporation," not small business. That "big corporation" perception carries a stigma of poor customer service that my dad did not feel was relevant to his business where he cared so much about relationships, employing locals, contributing to the community, and caring for people. 

So, he adjusted his on-air radio ads to remind his customers that his Radio Shack is a locally owned business. Similar to his situation, I expect that many franchisees feel the same frustration about the "big corporation" stigma associated with their stores. Behind the neon lights of the corporate logo, in many cases there is still one person or one family who is keeping an eye on the bottom line, hiring and managing local employees, making decisions about their local advertising, and their relationship with the community, and running a business with all the same passion and drive of any small business owner.

Here at Balihoo, we view each one of our customers as an individual small business owner.  We know that they each have to make decisions based on their own market and their knowledge of their customers, which is why our ad builder software provides so many customizable options.  We can lend our expertise and provide a helping hand to the franchisees, who know their customers like the small business owners that they are.

I used to stress about how to gather feedback the 'right' way from customers.  Before talking to customers about Balihoo's ad builder software, I would have all my W's (and one H - catchy right?) in a line:  Who, What, When, Where, Why, How.  I would search to find just the right customers, plan all the content out via a well defined script, decide a time that would work perfectly for all involved time zones, and then I would worry about whether or not I had the perfect format by which to relay and receive information - Would they get it? Would they get hung up on something? Would they be able to provide valuable feedback? 

Now that I'm a veteran product manager and totally comfortable with all aspects of my job (note the sarcasm), I have more confidence.  Maybe it's in me, but I think it's in the customers.  When I have questions, or when I find myself looking at a few different options, wondering which one is the right one, I go to the customers.  Representative customers can be found everywhere: the people placing the orders (of course), coworkers, third party feedback sites, family (thanks Mom).  Though, taking representative customer feedback as directional and inconclusive is my job. It's still my job to take that information and make a decision based on what will help the affiliate be successful in their local advertising.  All along the process of development, information is power, and that directional input gets us one step closer to perfecting Balihoo's ad builder software. 

I find the recent actions of Steven Slater, the ex-JetBlue flight attendant interesting, but what has me captivated is the huge response from media and the general public. The situation reminds me of good and bad lessons of customer service discussed at a conference I recently attended, based on Bill Price's book Best Service is No Service.

Price evangelizes customer service as one of the most important business tools to create customer loyalty. Further, he suggests that a company can stand out by doing simple things such as eliminating unnecessary customer contacts, listening to and reacting to feedback, and that by doing this a company can begin to stand out from the crowd.

This is exactly what JetBlue seemed to do to its industry which had been plagued with failings in customer service. Those who know JetBlue will recall that they were a new entrant into an industry dominated by Goliath-sized airlines like American Airlines and Delta. Though, along with great prices, and flights that served niche travel needs, their real secret weapon, seemed to be their customer service agents, most who worked from-home and provided incredible value to JetBlue clients, as detailed by Fast Company in 2004. In a matter of years, JetBlue appeared to be the David with a model ready to slay the Goliaths.  

Ironically, overnight, Steven Slater became the symbol of the company and brought issues of customer service into the limelight again.
So, did the outburst hurt the company’s reputation for superior customer service? While the jury may still be deliberating on the details, the media is having a hay-day with this event as evidenced by Jimmy Fallen’s "Took Two Beers and Jumped” jingle. The events may soon turn Steven Slater into the next reality TV star.

But, back to the point. Customer service isn’t about canned responses or never messing up. Those things happen—and did to JetBlue back in 2007 when passengers waited on the tarmac for more than six hours—but when a company has a history of making good decisions based on the needs of their customers and fixes mistakes, people are willing to forgive the occasional missed flight, a lost bag here and there, and yes, even a public outburst that ends in a couple of beers and a ride down the emergency slide can turn into a media opportunity for JetBlue.

And now, just for fun, a reenactment of a recent encounter with a major airline (not JetBlue), because airline humor never gets old.
Scene:  Husband and Wife trying to change seats in order to sit together on a flight that is not full.

Attempt 1
Husband:  Can you help me change seats on this flight?
Person who looks like a gate agent:  I’m sorry, sir.   You’ll have to wait for the gate agent to do that.
Husband:  You’re not the gate agent?
Person who looks like a gate agent:  No.
Husband:  Okay… Thanks.

Attempt 2
Husband:  Are you the gate agent?
Different person who still looks like a gate agent:  Yes.
Husband:  Can you help me change seats on this flight?
Different person who still looks like a gate agent:  I’m sorry, sir.  You’ll have to wait 25 minutes to do that.
Husband:  Aren’t we boarding in 25 minutes?
Different person who still looks like a gate agent:  Yes
Husband:  Okay…  Thanks.

Attempt 3
Husband:  Can you help me change seats so that these are together?
Same gate agent as Attempt 2:  Yes, I have two seats together in an exit aisle.
Husband:  Great.
Same agent as Attempt 2:  It is in economy plus so it will just cost $29 per person
Husband:  No, thanks.  Is there anything in economy non plus?
Same agent as Attempt 2:  I don’t know.  I’ll check and I’ll call you.
Husband:  You’ll call me?
Same agent as Attempt 2:  Yes
Husband:  So I should just sit down?
Same agent as Attempt 2:  Yes
Husband:  Okay…  Thanks.

Conclusion: Gate agent never called.  Thank goodness for in-flight movies.

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”

This sentiment by Longfellow has outlived its time.  Longfellow was writing in the mid-1800's.    If you were magically shot back to this era, think how quiet, how simple things would seem compared to today's world of iPod's and twitter and Jumbo Trons.  

In building marketing software tools for local advertisers, this idea takes on a whole new level of importance.  The more complicated the process, the harder it is to simplify, AND the more important it is to simplify. 

You can have the coolest features ever, but if they're not usable, your users will call you out on it, as they should.  When it comes to a new feature, take what you think should be there, and then strip it down to what absolutely needs to be there, and then make sure that is simple.  When it comes to building local marketing software, which is complicated in its nature, it doesn't always work out that way, but I will continue to use this idea to check myself.

You know the best thing about the new social media phenomenon?  Anyone can do it.  In the days of old, advertising was only for those with seemingly endless pockets.  The small local business owner could advertise, but he or she could hardly expect to make a dent, even in the local market, before the local advertising budget ran out.

These days, all you need is a little good old fashioned creativity and an internet connection - or just use the connection down at your local Starbucks.  Okay, so creativity is easier said than done, but every day you can find new examples of companies putting these cheap and effective local marketing ideas to good use.  And I'm sure every time you, as the small business owner thinks, I wish I had thought of that.

The small business publication, Entrepreneur, writes about yet another example of one of those I-Wish-I-Woulda-Done-That-enducing campaigns:  the Old Spice videos.  Who knew Old Spice, your dad's cologne, would come back with such a cool, hip, not-your-dad's-cologne online marketing campaign? 

I will caveat, as the publication does, that Old Spice works with one of those companies with the seemingly endless pockets, but the article redeems itself with a very detailed and achievable step-by-step list of how to follow Old Spice's social media lead in your own local internet marketing.  

So roll up your sleeves, watch the Old Spice videos for inspiration (or, if you're already inspired, the attractive man doesn't hurt) and advertise like the endless-pocket'ers through social media and local internet marketing.

This week I had the opportunity to be a part of a couple of sales calls.   The purpose of having me on the call was to be able to answer the potential client's questions about our local marketing software from a technical and detailed perspective.  It's valuable from the sales team's perspective, because it helps the client get their answers quickly, and it's also valuable to ensure that we don't under or over promise during the sales process.  However, I'm now convinced that this process is a valuable one from a product team perspective as well, in more ways than one.  We, of course, want the feedback directly from our customers.  The obvious value is that it allows me the opportunity to gather that feedback and even expound on it real time, to dig a little deeper into the need.  The other surprising advantage for me, though, was being able to talk about the product from this perspective, which I rarely get to do.  I know the product inside and out, and know all the cool and sometimes surprising features it holds.  Often times my conversations with internal and external customers means listening to their needs when it comes to local advertising to think through where the product needs to go next.  Talking with a potential client in a sales arena allows me to listen, but also affords me the opportunity to speak openly and passionately about the product as it is right now.  The client may  have a different way of doing things but I can talk about why our local marketing software, while different, is the right way to go for their franchisees.  It's important to step back and gain that valuable perspective. 

Here at Balihoo we have an intense focus on our customers.  If you are a follower of Kelly Mason blogs (thanks, mom) then you've seen numerous blogs about our ongoing effort to find new and effective ways to take in all the feedback we can directly from our customers.  We've got some good processes in place, and we continue to improve on them every day.  So the next logical question is, how do we ensure that our product is the best it can be even before it gets to our customers?

We realized that that we have a reliable group of 'customers' right here at Balihoo.  That group being our entire smart, passionate, and customer-centric team.  So a few weeks ago we started a User Representative team.  The team is made of people from all different teams within the company, from the sales team to the creative team to the development team. 

Before a new feature goes live, it goes in front of this team and they will be advocates for our customers.   We're not discussing how something should work or the benefit it provides - that has already been hashed out.  What we're discussing are the details - the small things that can make or break a user's experience with our local marketing software.  And because we have a passionate team, this meeting might turn into a heated debate about whether an option on the page should be a link or a button, whether it should be at the top of the page or the bottom. 

Our CEO sent out a blog to the company this week that highlights the fact that putting in the last 10% of effort is harder than the first 90%, but it's also what separates you from the other guy.  I thought first about this group, and its purpose.   It's easy, after building a massive new piece of functionality within our ad builder software, to say who cares if it's a button or a link?  But it's the details in the last 10% of the work that's going to take the product from being liked by your customers to being essential to your customers.

This last week I attended my first Girls in Tech Boise meeting.  With a group of like-minded and like-careered women I listened to one of those inspiring speakers that makes you feel relieved to know there are people like that in your community.  The mind behind the Think Boise First program discussed sustainable, local living and how the tech community combined with local marketing ideas can contribute to the goals.

After attending the meeting, I came back and did a little research on Girls in Tech.  Girls in Tech provides a network for women in the tech community to collaborate and grow in their profession.  Very cool.  What's even cooler is the fact that it's available here in Boise, Idaho.  When you look at the list of cities:  Boston, LA, Seattle, and among other large and tech-focused cities, Boise.

When I first started, I thought Balihoo uniquely represented a start up business in little Boise, Idaho, but it's become quite clear that Boise's got the people, the drive, and now I come to find out, even the resources to become a community that leads the technology and start up industry in the coming years.  So whether you're revolutionizing local store marketing through software, or building the next Facebook, Boise's got the technology goods.

I love coming across examples, outside of software product development, that relate to our local marketing software program.  There are two reasons that this is fun for me:  I learn something new to apply to my job from an unexpected source and usually gain a new perspective in the process, and second, because I'm reminded that others deal with the same challenges we do.

This morning over breakfast and the Idaho Statesman Sunday paper, I was hit over the head with an example of one of these real-world lessons.  The article was the section where readers can write in with questions and had to do with Idaho Highway 21.  Highway 21 is a popular road, leading to boating, camping and hunting - 3 things Idahoans love.  Along this highway there is a very official-looking state sign, which has a question mark and an arrow on it.  The question-asker wanted to know what in the world that sign was trying to communicate. 

As avid boaters, my husband and I have had a conversation about this exact same sign on one of our many trips up to the lake.  It went something like this:  "What the heck is that supposed to mean?  It's like the state of Idaho is trying to tell us that they have no idea what can be found left of this road."  We then proceeded to joke about it - maybe we should turn left and then report back to them what's there so that they can fix the sign. 

In the answer, the author confirms that Idaho Fish and Game gets A LOT of these questions.  

As a local marketing software product specialist, I'm constantly struggling with the fact that I know the ad builder software in and out, and yet when planning out new enhancements, I need to look through the eyes of someone who has never used the system before and knows nothing about it.  The quote from the article, stated so matter-of-factly, provides a great gut check for me:  "What [the sign] means makes perfect sense when you know what it means." 
Umm, okay...

The sign is meant to convey that if you have questions for Boise River WMA, turn left.



As soon as people hear the intent behind a feature, or how it is supposed to be used, it usually makes perfect sense, and it's hard to go back to that time before you knew what it meant.  Once someone knows what it means, they can usually come up with a pretty good reason why everyone else should know what it means too.  In the article, they quoted a representative from the Idaho Transportation Department.  "The way I read it is that it's a more succinct way of saying 'questions.'  It's bigger, so you can catch a little more attention with it."  This person is right about one thing - the more confusing something is, the more attention it will get.  If the sign had said, Speed Limit 55 or Deer Crossing, I guarantee it would not have spurred a confused conversation in my car, and in the cars of many other folks just heading to enjoy the outdoor fun that Idaho has to offer.

Even after all the confusion, it sounds like the Idaho Transportation Department does not plan to replace the sign, which at one point used to say the same exact thing, but with actual words. 

When it comes to creating ad builder software that people know how to use, it doesn't mean we should pretend that all users are dumb.  They're not.  The fact that people didn't know what the street sign meant doesn't mean they're dumb (and I'm not just saying that because I was one of those people).  It means that it will make perfect sense - once they understand it.  So make sure you're explaining it.

While the quest to enhance usability seems so simple, it's probably the most intimidating undertaking for a product.  It's not concrete - there really isn't a right answer.  You tweak and tweak and hope that each one gets you a little closer to a user-friendly, easy to understand local marketing software tool.

So when I saw the article that Facebook announced the changing of one single word, I became even more intimidated - and slightly comforted that all sites deal with the same issues.  Instead of Facebook user's becoming a 'Fan' of a brand's page, they will - wait for it... - 'Like' a brand's page!  On this seemingly minor change, Facebook did a PR push, this article was written, and dozens of people commented.  

When Facebook is agonizing and getting both good and bad feedback over a word change, it just kind of puts things in perspective with our ad builder software.  When it comes to usability, there is no scientific answer, and EVERY change counts.  Thanks for the reminder Facebook.

It's amazing when a lesson heard becomes a lesson learned.  It's like when you go speeding past the speed limit sign only to find yourself pulled over a few miles down the road, practically crying to the terminator-like highway patrolman who obviously doesn't seem deterred by your pity-gathering efforts.  You know then that you're going to get a ticket.  You know that the sign was there to remind you that this is, in fact, a law that you're breaking by speeding and you know that you just learned your lesson - at least for another 6 months.

Well, our development and product teams just heard and then learned a similar lesson last week in regards the our most recent sprint.  We have had the privilege recently of working closely with Jeff Sutherland, one of the inventors of the Scrum process. 

We first met with Jeff back in September.  He came onsite and dissected our current process.  He saw our scrum board, which was embarrassingly off the mark.  That feeling can only be equated to having a guest show up to your house and realizing, after they have already used the bathroom that your toilet is filthy.  (Not that this has ever happened to me, of course.)

Jeff helped us get back on track.  The team was excited about the things we learned and we implemented changes the very next day.  The process for developing our local marketing software improved with each sprint.   

This week we were able to learn from Jeff again, this time via video conference.  Jeff focused on the importance of making sure a story is Ready.  If a story is not entirely ready, it causes mid-sprint confusion.  Teams are debating, clarifying and essentially scrambling after a story has already started.  Now, we heard this lesson very clearly.  We felt pretty confident in our current sprint, so we began identifying times when this had happened and ways we could alleviate that and talking theoretically about how to avoid this - in the future.  Later on in the week, we learned that lesson the hard way.

The hardest stories to get Ready are the ones that are for a particular client.  We have to rely on a third party to be thorough in providing us with the information, and we have to hold hard deadlines, which is also hard to do when working with our valued franchise marketing clients.  

The team thought that this story was ready, but upon starting the work, we realized it was NOT.  The story requirements did not match the local store marketing sample data.  The sample data suggested that the scope of work was entirely different.  And we were two days away from the end of the sprint.  Rather than ignore the miss, we took drastic measures to adjust the sprint, and manage expectations with the client. 

The bottom line is, on Monday, we heard the message from Jeff about the importance of making sure that a story is Ready.  On Thursday, we learned what having a story Ready means and what it means to our success as a team.  Valuable lessons learned.  Doubled velocity, here we come.

This last week, while in a meeting about how we can design our homepage so that it is more usable, our CEO Pete Gombert said something totally blew my mind:  "Do we really need a homepage?"

Let me take you back a few weeks.  I've been gathering feedback from various different sources, and then reviewing and compiling that feedback with one goal:  To come up with a more usable, relevant homepage for our users.  So to hear that statement as I was wrapping up my quest made me feel...dizzy.  You know the feeling when you think you've thought of everything and then you're hit upside the head with something - simple.  

But it got me thinking - what is the function of the homepage?  I set out to look at some other homepages for inspiration.

Is it a place to promote yourself and others?  All I can say is, I hope not.  Although for some sites, that seems to be the case.  I think of www.evite.com.  'Evite' became a common noun overnight, like, "Did you get my evite?" and I just received an evite for a moving party, like bring your trucks and your tie-downs, which isn't a party at all, so the uses for this site are broadening. 
The first time I came to the site I was expecting a site that your grandmother could use, based on some of the not-so-technically-savvy people who had sent me evites.  But unfortunately, it was hard to tell the difference between the basic evite function, and the many ads on their site.  It was hard to tell what would walk me through the process, and what would open a new tab and shoot me off to some other site I didn't want in the first place. 
Even on our own ad builder software homepage, it seems that we took up a lot of space promoting the client - but why? One user told me in their feedback that they didn't understand why the brand was trying to advertise to their own franchisees.   They were already sold on the brand - now they just need local marketing ideas in order to promote it to the consumer!

Well maybe, then, the homepage is a way to direct and guide users in the path they should take.  This is the premise I have been going on.  As the experts in local media buying, and the creators of this ad builder software, it is our job to guide and direct users in their local advertising.  But the question is, if we already know where they should go, why not just take them there? 
Take a look at the music site Grooveshark.  The homepage is one big search box.  You can see there are other functions along the left-hand side, but rather than selecting an option that says Search for Songs, or Start my Playlist, it just gives me a search box.  I know what to do with that.
It goes without saying that building a campaign using ad builder software is quite a bit more complicated than building a playlist of songs, however, there is something to be said for that kind of simplicity, and for removing unnecessary steps for our users so that they can reach their goal more quickly.  

The answer to my previous question may be in the name itself - homepage.  Whether you go with a traditional homepage or the un-homepage homepage, users like the idea of getting back where they started.  Whether they get there via a Go Home link or the repetitive back button - it's a comfort zone and users don't have to commit to any decision, because they can always go back.

My lesson was this:  we have been thinking too traditionally when it comes to a homepage.  We thought of the homepage as the place where all 'important' functions should live.  So anytime we built something new and it was deemed important, we wanted to shove it onto the homepage, thinking that that's they way we would ensure users wouldn't miss it.  Well, they do. 
What we should really be thinking about is how can we guide our users so that they have the best chance of meeting their local store marketing goals.  No two sites are exactly alike, and no one knows how to get the most out of our ad builder software like we do, so why not pass a little of that along to our users?

Stay tuned to see a new and improved homepage!

In researching techniques for gathering user feedback on marketing software tools, people seem to agree on many things.  They agree on the importance of gathering the feedback.  They agree on the importance of implementing changes based on the feedback that is received, and they agree that the feedback should be widely distributed throughout the company. 

One thing that people don't agree on is how to go about gathering that user feedback.   Companies have different goals, and different customers with different needs.  Therefore their methods for gathering that feedback can vary widely.

Our initiative right now is to figure out which methods of gathering user feedback on our ad builder software work best for us and I'm going to use a blog series to track our efforts.  In my first blog on the subject, I showed you UserTesting.com. 

While there is something to be said for hitting the pavement and seeking out the feedback, it may not be necessary in every case.  People want to provide feedback, and if you make it easy for them, you may be surprised and how much feedback comes right to you.  Insert Kampyle.

This program provides us with a ready-made, customizable feedback tool which we were able to put right on our ad builder software.  With one click, users have the ability to provide us any level of feedback, from clicking on a smiley face or scowl face to represent their general mood while on our site, to typing up detailed questions/frustrations/compliments.

Another big question that follows this effort is what to do with that feedback once we have it...but that is a whole separate blog.  However, Kampyle helps us move towards that by not only providing the specific feedback, but by bucketing and summarizing that feedback for us in a meaningful way.  We can track our 'grade' as a site and then move towards improving that grade. 

We're realistic, and we know that not everyone will provide feedback.  The down side is that this is likely still a fairly small subset of the entire user base. And from what we've found so far, similar to the user base who call the support line, that small subset is typically the most frustrated with our ad builder software.  But you know what?  That's a good thing!  This tool is for those people that may have something to offer and feel invested in their local marketing software tool, but aren't inclined to pick up the phone - this is the easy to use, non-committal way to provide valuable feedback.  So while it's still a limited customer base, it just got a little wider and we'll take it.  In fact, from February 4, when we launched the new tool, to today, we have 25 pieces of feedback.  It doesn't seem like much until you think about the 25 phone calls that we didn't have to make.    

 



 

Don't judge a book by its cover.  I get the meaning behind it - don't make judgments based on appearance.  But this seems like the wrong way to express this sentiment. 

A book is a product, and typically gets produced when a publishing company makes the decision to do so.  Their plan is to make enough money in sales so that the costs are worthwhile.  In order to achieve this, it is their job to know the book enough that they can condense it into just a few important points.  These points are then analyzed and condensed even more to come up with a marketing spin that will lure the target audience.  That marketing spin is used to come up with just the right title, a perfectly constructed summary, and of course, an appropriate cover.  Sometimes that cover may be plain, but it can be assumed that the plainness is a strategic decision used to create more sales. 

Don't get me wrong, it is what is on the inside, the meat of the product, that truly matters.  That is the way that retain loyal customers, and their word-of-mouth helps create new customers.  But think about this: the average American adult reads around 250 words per minute.  An average novel has around 80,000 words.  That means a person will spend about 5 hours and 20 minutes reading a novel, and today that is considered a fairly large investment of ones time.  Imagine if you didn't judge a book by its cover and you read them all?  You would read dozens of books that don't align with your interests before finding one that does.

So how does this relate to the Balihoo product?  In the online world, the home page is the equivalent of our book cover.  Imagine if we told our customers not to judge a book by its cover?  I guarantee they would not give us a 5 hour grace period to find out if our local marketing software meets their needs. In fact, the grace period of a website home page can probably be measured in seconds.  And if they don't know how to start the process of using our local marketing software, then there's no point in analyzing usability in other parts of the ad builder software. The usability focus was clear:  the home page - our book cover.

In talking with users, both customers and non-customers, it really is the meat of the product that matters most to them, and to us.  They were much more concerned about discussing their local store marketing needs.  All feedback is good feedback, and I gladly captured it all, but I had to prompt them back to the home page to finish my planned questions.  Often they had a hard time remembering first impressions, or how they started an order, since they have moved on past the home page and on to the local marketing automation. 

Once a customer becomes a customer, the cover matters less and less, and that's what we want to get to.  But the idea that a book should not be judged by it cover is misleading, because they can't be a loyal customer until they're a customer. 

In light of this realization, I'm working on a new saying:  Never judge a playing card by the backside of the card.  I admit, it's a work in progress, but the backside of a playing card is intended to look like all the rest in the deck.  And even if the backside has red squiggly lines or cartoon characters or beer cans, you can't tell anything about it until you turn it over.




 

I don't know about you all, but if I find something I want that's a great price, but then upon a closer look I see that the great price requires the dreaded "mail-in rebate", I will set it right back down.  Think about that.  I've already evaluated the product enough to know that A) I want it and B) I'm willing to pay the price, and after a couple seconds of evaluation, I can put it right back down, walk away and never look back.  (Well, maybe look back, but only once).

One word:  Experience.  I know, from experience, that I will pay what I deem to be too much for that product, and then I'll go home with big plans to get the cash that is rightfully mine back into my pocket where it will burn a hole until the next can't-beat-it deal comes along.  But what will actually happen is that I'll get home and start playing with my new purchase.  I'll remember my rebate a while later, and attempt to cut out the UPC code, and then I'll soon realize that my kitchen scissors won't be able to handle the job.  So I'll put the box in a 'safe' place and continue playing, with a plan to dig the box cutter out of the garage in the very near future.  What happens next is always a little fuzzy.  I clean out my purse and ditch what appears to be a worthless receipt.  My 'safe' place to store the box will turn out to be a 'hiding' place - from myself.  And as a fairly frugal consumer, I'll remember 6 months later and get a pain in my stomach when I realize my money is burning a hole in someone else's pocket and there's nothing I can do about it.

Now, imagine you're a small business owner and the purchase is a year's worth of local advertising.  You have a shoebox full of receipts, and instead of one UPC codes, you're cutting ads out of newspapers, magazines, and radio tapes as your proof of performance.  Balihoo has designed a co-op advertising solution that redesigns the rebate experience. 

Through Balihoo's co-op marketing software program, franchise owners can do it all in one place - select and customize the creative, place their ad in various publications, pay the total costs and yes, receive their rebate RIGHT AWAY.  No box cutters necessary.  No need to clip ads.  Because all the required information needed to get that refund is housed right inside the ad builder software.  The system calculates the total, reduces it by the subsidized amount, and then only charges the affiliate - get this - what they OWE!  But you know what else happens?  People make the purchase!  It's what they call a win-win.

As a product specialist, I feel proud to see a co-op advertising solution that works the right way for our users.  And as a rebate-repelled consumer, I feel hopeful that the current way isn't the only way.

   

While many companies sit back and wait for the new year to make major strides forward, the last week of 2009 was a big week for Balihoo.  After listening to customer feedback, we recently released an exciting new view of the creative library.  This new view allows our customers to easily filter for what they need, quickly gather high level details about the creative piece available without leaving the page, and then, when they're ready, click on the piece to gather more in-depth details and place an order. 
We endearingly refer to this new look as the Netflix view. 

As a product specialist for a local marketing software company that has living, breathing customers, I would love to be able to talk to each and every one of those customers to find out how we can make the process of placing local advertising orders more user friendly for them before we make any usability changes.  However, as a start-up company with limited resources and a limited customer type, we often must find other ways to quickly gather this information in order to continue moving forward toward a more usable product.

Through various sources of feedback, it became clear that our customers needed a more user friendly way to find their advertising materials, and to order those materials.  Rather than try to reinvent the wheel, we often look to other software programs where the customer has a similar need, and then try to apply that to our ad builder software.  By looking to other companies, we can essentially learn from their user testing and different iterations they have already attempted, and our customers can benefit from it.  While the industries are quite different, as is the needed functionality, we were able to start with a simple program which will be familiar to our users as inspiration, and build from there.   

Netflix has proven that selecting movies, which not so long ago required a trip to a video store, is easy for anyone to do online.  We believe using ad builder software to place your local advertising should be simple as well and we are setting out to prove that in 2010.

Check out the new look!