Here is a very creative way to set up a sign-up form. Far to often we think we have to set up the form in the traditional one-field-on-top-of-the-other fashion, but that is not the case. I love seeing examples of designers pushing the envelope. Even though this form set up works with this website, it doesn’t mean every site should have this style. You want to keep you customers in mind and think of the people who will be coming go your site. This set up could throw a lot of people off because it is not “normal”

There has been some recent discussion in my office about branding and good customer experience and thought I would touch upon it and link to some great content to learn more.

We have the opportunity each month to read an article or book and then have a discussion on it as a company. This months article was “The Microeconomics of Customer Relationships” by Fred Reichheld. It brings up some interesting points on assessing where you are at as a company in regards to your customers. It talks about a “net-promoter score” which comes about by asking one simple question, “How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?”. Through that you can find out who your “promoters” are, those that would recommend your services and also find out who your “detractors” are, those that don’t like you and would deter others from your services. It goes into how each group needs to be addressed and how doing so can help you improve. The article mentions that most companies forget about there promoters, or the core group, because they are an easy sale.

I recently had an experience on both ends where I’m a promoter for one company and a detractor for another. About a year ago I bought a monitor from Dell but the monitor had some issues with it. I contacted them about the problem and they were very helpful and replaced the monitor. I currently am still having issues but the customer service has been helpful and I feel like they really want to help. They are fast and informative with their responses. Even though the monitor has caused some problems for me I would most likely purchase other products from them because I feel like they are on my side.

On the other end of the spectrum, I purchase a book from CK Media – Creating Keepsakes, and there is no way I’d ever purchase from them again and I would recommend to everyone else not to purchase from them. It has now been over 6 weeks since we purchased the book and we still haven’t received it or a refund. This is after trying to cancel it but told we couldn’t because it had shipped already and now that we have convinced them it hasn’t we can’t get a refund. We’ve talked to a dozen people there that don’t have any idea what’s going. The customer experience has been horrible and has wasted a lot of our time.

Now that I done playing the detractor role, there is one statistic that is worth noting in the article, that each negative comment is neutralized by three to 10 positive. Basically, the detractors are going to loss you a lot more business than the promoters will bring.

Along the lines of this article there is a good talk by Seth Godin on the TED website, “Sliced bread and other marketing delights”. (Also posted below)

One thing he mentions in marketing is to be remarkable, adding that what ever it is should be worth making a remark about. The customer experience with Dell is worth making a remark about, it’s remarkable.

While doing some research online I came across an interesting article about branding and what the means. This article is from Good Experience by Mark Hurst and it is titled “Underestimating the Brand”. Here he brings up an interesting change that JetBlue is going through and one that is forgetting their core costumers.

“If one is to measure the brand by the traditional approach (“let’s spend thirty million dollars shoving a logo and a tag line down their throats”), then the new JetBlue is, I suppose, consistent and well-known. Lots of money buys lots of ad impressions. Congratulations.

“However, if one is to measure the brand through the lens of “good experience,” which I believe is the most accurate way of evaluating companies today, then JetBlue is doing poorly.”

If anyone has some other articles related to this please post them, I would be interested in reading them.

This is a website to check out. It has a great marketing idea behind it but it is also well constructed and original. Take a look

“WallSwaps is generally a really easy way to get our nice little birdie logo in as many places as possible, and gives you the chance to get one. Just send us some stuff – any stuff – and we’ll send you a badge and put your stuff on our wall. It’s an internet swap-shop!”

This post comes a little late but I still wanted to mention it. On September 23rd, Ben Webster of The Mandate Press spoke at the SLC AIGA Shift.Option.Talk discussion series. It was a really good turn out for something like this. I was really impressed. This was the first one that I have gone to so I didn’t know what to expect. These events are really good for networking and getting to know other creative professionals. I had some good conversations and learned some things about letterpress.

Ben Webster owns a custom letterpress shop in Salt Lake City, the Mandate Press. He did a great job discussing the letterpress process, the pros and cons of using letterpress, and its strengths and weaknesses. He also touched upon some of the misconceptions of letterpress and what you can and can’t do. He has done some great work, one of my favorite is the Utah Train poster, since I am a huge fan of trains. Although, as most letterpress projects are out of my price range, so is this poster. One great thing that he mentioned is there 250 business cards/calling cards special that you can get for under $100. See there home page for more info.

Well done AIGA, this was a great experience and I’d like to keep coming to these discussion and will defiently spread the word. Plus, they are free.

Here is a little more info on the Shift.Option.Talk series.

Shift.Option.Talk is a series of informal, roundtable conversations with local designers in our community. Featuring a different location and host-designer every event, its the best way to relax, meet other creative-minded designers and just shoot the breeze.

Visit slc.aiga.org for more info.