Foodzie.com receives $1M in seed financing
Congratulations go out to Foodzie.com for receiving $1M in seed financing to support the startup's business in building an online marketplace for artisan food producers. This is very good news for the startup, particularly in this economy.
Back in April, I posted an entry about Foodzie before Rob and Emily (founders of Foodzie & friends of mine) headed off to Colorado to start the venture as part of the TechStars program.
Foodzie recently launched with 25 artisan producers and is offering 20% off all food products on orders placed by 12/31/2008. For the latest on Foodzie's adventure, visit their blog at http://blog.foodzie.com.
Your wait time may be excessive. If consumer sites operated like government sites.
When calling the DMV today for questions about transferring the title of a vehicle, I was greeted with the following message once I navigated through the automated phone tree:
"May I have your attention. We are experiencing a higher than normal volume of calls. Your wait time may be excessive."
Excessive? Did they really say that? On the heels of a similar post by Yabia, I couldn't help but post my own reminder that viewing your business through the eyes of your customer or a consumer is critical to providing satisfying service.
"Excessive" implies an amount or degree too great to be reasonable or acceptable
My beef with the above recorded message is the use of the word "excessive." Excessive is so often used in conjunction with something overly negative (excessive speeding, excessive drinking, etc.), why on earth would you use this language with your customers?
Now, granted, this is local government -- generally an area where I rarely find customer service going above and beyond the call of duty. This automated message is either a complete stroke of genius by realistically acknowledging that the wait time is totally unacceptable...or a sobering realization of the lack of awareness. My vote is for the latter.
Soften the blow
If your phone system doesn't support the ability to tell a caller how long they will wait, then don't mention anything about the wait time being excessive. At the very least, choose different wording if transparency is your objective.
It makes me wonder: what would life be like if we lived in a world where there was only one supplier for each product we used in our day-to-day lives? Would you also have "excessive" wait times?
When will TV have its version of the RSS feed?
My media consumption is transitioning more and more to RSS feeds. From the latest online & web marketing industry news, to sports updates, to friends & family blog postings, RSS is an everyday part of my life where I pick and choose what I want to read/consume and when.
TV needs its own version of the RSS feed
It then dawned on me: TV needs to be like this. Essentially, it's what all of our DVRs are striving to be. In our house, we have DIRECTV HD which means we are locked in to the underwhelming DIRECTV HD DVR. DIRECTV is taking a step in the right direction with the ability to schedule your DVR online. The problem is that it differs from Tivo's implementation of online scheduling (we have Tivo in another room in the house).
Proprietary DVR scheduling "protocol" limits potential
If I visit ABC.com (or any television station's website), there's no standard way for me to subscribe to a show. I have to separately go to my provider's website to use their proprietary method of scheduling the DVR to record a show. This is the beauty of RSS feeds -- they are the same no matter which client you read the feeds from.
I really hope the future of DVR scheduling moves towards a standard which allows all networks to use a common syndication interface which can communicate with a network-connected DVR or computer. At the end of the day, there'd be a standard way to subscribe to an episode, series, and set it to record new episodes and/or repeats.
Advertising opportunities
If there were a standard DVR scheduling protocol, just think of how this could be leveraged through online advertising. A few ideas:
- A call-to-action could be included within a link or a banner ad to "schedule this show to record" by simply clicking on it and adding the "feed" to your TV scheduler. You could then directly measure campaign effectiveness to new "subscribers."
- Similar to FeedBurner, a measurement service could be provided so networks could understand total subscribers.
- Standardizing on a protocol would also allow online video sharing sites (Hulu, YouTube, etc.) to provide feeds to a DVR when a new episode/show/clip is available from your favorite show/contributor. I'd love to see YouTube feeds in my DVR list -- when I'm sitting at the couch is when I have free time to check out online videos in longer sessions.
- Viral marketing would be much easier -- forward an email to a friend: "Hey, record this one episode, it's hilarious." Recipient clicks and they're done.
Hulu is a step in the right direction
I can subscribe to an RSS feed for new episodes posted for a show or channel on Hulu. The missing link is the ability to play this content through the television. It's still not quite convenient (or comfortable) to huddle around a MacBook Pro 15" or a 20" iMac -- but good enough for catching an episode you missed or while on the road.
Yes, this is vastly over-simplified
I realize there are technical considerations that need to be accounted for, however my ignorance to DVR and TV-scheduling technology allows me to demand features like this. 
Wireless Internet with BlackBerry 8830 or 9630 as Bluetooth Modem for Mac OS X
I recently had the opportunity to upgrade to a new BlackBerry 8830. It has several bells and whistles (improved keyboard, GPS, voice activated dialing, etc.) but perhaps most importantly, I now have the ability to use my BlackBerry 8830 as a wireless modem on the Sprint wireless network with my laptop.
12/6/09 Update - I recently upgraded to a Blackberry 9630. The 8800 modem script works for the 9630, too (I couldn't find a modem script explicitly for the 9630 so when I tried the script for the 8800, it connected just fine). It should also be noted that the link to the modem scripts below DOES work for Mac OS 10.6 as I'm also running that now, too.
Internet access anywhere there's a cell signal
No more having to pay $9.95 at each airport I sit in for Internet access. I'll basically have Internet access wherever I have a cell phone signal! 
Here's how:
- Install the BlackBerry 8800 modem scripts in Macintosh HD > Library > Modem Scripts
- Pair your BlackBerry with your Mac (I have a MacBook Pro which has built-in Bluetooth functionality). To do this: Apple Menu > System Preferences > Network > Bluetooth and click the "Set Up Bluetooth Device..." button. Follow the prompts to pair your device.
- For the Sprint wireless network, you need to enter the following configuration information in the Bluetooth settings for Modem connectivity:
- Telephone Number: wap.sprint.com
- Account Name & Password fields can both be left blank
Apple continues to release products others can’t
Apple just gets it. Today they announced the iPhone 3G, a thinner, faster, and more affordable iPhone. I continue to be fascinated by how they take difficult or time-consuming processes and make them easy. Take for example MobileMe.
How will Plaxo respond to MobileMe?
As a die-hard Plaxo user, MobileMe seems to be a fairly significant threat to Plaxo. In the wake of Comcast's recent purchase of Plaxo, I would imagine Plaxo will be find itself in a difficult position to continue innovating as it works through the transition to Comcast ownership and business processes.
Apple has quite simply leap-frogged Plaxo in features and functionality that I currently pay $60/year for with Plaxo: Address book and calendar syncing. Plaxo also has other bells and whistles such as contact "networking" features (a la LinkedIn) and Plaxo Pulse (a la Friendster -- essentially a "life stream" of your data)...neither of which I pay the yearly fee for. Calendar and contact syncing is where the value is for me.
MobileMe goes beyond address & calendar syncing
Most importantly, MobileMe will also sync email, photos, and files. As I hop between an enterprise BlackBerry, an iMac at home, and a MacBook Pro for work (running VMWare so I can play nicely in the Windows world), the MobileMe synchronization is really the best of everything. No matter which environment I'm in, I'll have access to my most frequently-used data.
MobileMe could be the ticket
While I'm not about to switch email addresses, the photo and file syncing are very nice add-ons for the $99/year fee with 20GB of storage. Google's Picasa photo hosting only provides 2GB of storage (it's free, though) and DropBox (for file sharing) is still in its infancy. Is this enough to convince me to buy an iPhone? Only if it'll work with Enterprise email. MobileMe however looks to be the ticket when it comes out (with or without an iPhone). I'll be testing the 60-day trial for sure.
Blog by Eric Long
I'm an experienced digital product & marketing strategist and am passionate about providing outstanding cross-channel, mass customization (product configurators), and considered-purchase experiences.
About Eric Long
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