Twitter Etiquette: How to Make a Huge Impact on Customer Satisfaction and Your Bottom Line in 140 Characters or Less

You know what makes me extremely happy? Brands that interact with their customers on Twitter. You may think, yeah yeah, we post things to our Twitter account all the time. I don’t mean “posting things to your Twitter account.” I’m talking legitimately interacting with your customers. I’ve made the following observations over the past few years, and thought I’d share them with companies who may not have yet grasped how powerful Twitter can be from not only a customer satisfaction standpoint, but from a financial standpoint.

How to Make a Huge Impact on Customer Satisfaction and Your Bottom Line in 140 Characters or Less

1. ALWAYS follow back.

There are about 90 bazillion companies on Twitter, all with their own branding and tweeting styles. If one of your customers elects to follow your company out of the bazillion companies available, you should feel honored. In fact, you should feel so honored that you should FOLLOW THEM BACK! There are tons of tools out there that allow people to see who they have followed that didn’t follow back, and you know what? It’s a little hurtful when that happens. If they are taking the time and energy to seek you out and follow you, the least you can do is follow back. And if you’re a ginormous company with a gazillion followers, there are services that will do the following back for you. Save yourself from hurting your customers feelings, follow back!

2. Interact with your customers!

If a customer takes the time to mention you in a nice tweet, reply with a thank you! Or at the very least favorite the tweet! It sounds silly, but a small action like favoriting a tweet your company has been mentioned in can have a HUGE impact on customer satisfaction and the way customers view your company! The inspiration for this post came from a company I had mentioned in a tweet, RTing my blog post to their 38k followers, and then another company I love replying to my tweet about the awesome research they are conducting! It seriously made my entire day! Every single time companies respond to me when I mention them in articles or tweets, I have the same reaction! Happiness! Satisfaction with the company and a transferred higher level of satisfaction with their product. Getting a response makes me feel like the companies really care about me as a customer. In 140 characters or less their response, RT, or favorite makes me even more invested in their product.  Twitter interaction is a really simple way to reach out and say thanks to customers who support you! And let’s face it, without happy supportive customers, you’re out of business. So keeping customers happy is a win. And having the opportunity to do it for FREE on Twitter? It’s a no brainer. Embrace the opportunity to make your brand shine!

3. If someone mentions you in a raging tweet, reply to them and either try to make amends, or at least apologize!

So I mentioned thanking folks for nice tweets, now let’s talk about the power behind responding to upset folks. I recently decided to make a major appliance purchase and got a little heated when the store site didn’t work as I expected it to. I hopped on Twitter, and made a comment about my experience, and you know what? A team member from the gigantic appliance chain was a friend of a follower, and I would up having the opportunity to speak directly to that person about my experience. I went from deciding that I would never ever shop at this particular store again, to spending a fairly large sum of money there because I was so pleased by the positive customer experience I had with the team member! Responding to tweets not only does wonders for customer satisfaction, it can also help your company make bank through what would have otherwise been missed opportunities! And the money adds up fast, even for larger corporations!

Twitter can be an exceptionally powerful tool for businesses to use to reach out and interact with customers! Don’t miss the opportunity to improve your customer satisfaction levels and make more money!!!

A Complete Mobile Usability Testing Solution

The Problem

Recently I wrote a blog post about how there are currently a couple of really great mobile usability testing tools out there, but I couldn’t find any that did everything I needed.

I tweeted my article, and one of the partners at Zurb shot me a message. We got chatting about SolidifyApp and UXRecorder and how I really wished there was a single tool that did what those two tools do best.

SolidifyApp lets you create clickable prototypes for usability testing, then does gesture tracking, allows you to create tasks that need to be completed by testers, gives them the opportunity to give feedback and then gives you some killer stats.

UXRecorder does screen & gesture capture, as well as audio & front facing camera video capture of tester faces.

The Solution

UXRecorder lets you enter URL’s for web apps and prototypes. I tested it this afternoon and you can also enter your SolidifyApp Usability Test URL in UXRecorder, and combine the best of both worlds into one killer Mobile Usability Testing solution!

To recap, by running your SolidifyApp test in UXRecorder you can obtain:

1. Gesture tracking data
2. Screen capture video
3. Gesture capture video
4. Front facing camera tester facial video
5. Tester audio
6. Task completion statistics
7. Written user feedback
8. Etc!

It does all the things! It’s Mobile Usability Testing magic, I’m telling you! And, it only takes minutes to set up! Goodbye Mobile Usability Testing market gap! I am majorly pumped about this solution!

Free Stuff

The best part? SolidifyApp has a 30 day free trial, and UXRecorder gives you a 30 second free session to test their app out before you commit to purchase to ensure that it’s the right solution for you! (I can tell you from experience that once you’ve tried SolidifyApp, you’ll want to subscribe. It’s currently one of my favorite usability testing tools!)

SolidifyApp http://www.solidifyapp.com

UX Recorder http://www.uxrecorder.com

I’ve been searching for weeks trying to find this Mobile Usability Testing combination! I hope it serves you all well!

Replacing Photoshop on Mac: Meet Pixelmator

So Adobe just announced it’s official move to subscription based service. As a person who has loved and used Photoshop for about 13 years, I’m now being told that if I want to get the latest version I am going to have to pay $19.99 a month for the rest of my life. That may be ok for corporations who are funding their designer tool sets, and for professional photographers who buy every single update, but as a regular old person who enjoys photo editing as a hobby, I’m officially ticked off.

A coworker just introduced me to a photo editing program with an absolutely gorgeous UI, and I thought I’d share it with any of you who are equally irritated by Adobe’s move to subscription only plans.

For a grand total of $15.00 (that’s $15.00 EVER not $15.00 per month) you can land yourself a copy of Pixelmator. The best part? It edits .PSD files like a champ. I highly recommend checking it out!

http://www.pixelmator.com 

Mobile Usability Testing Tools

So I recently started searching like a maniac trying to find some Mobile Usability Testing tools, and I had a heck of a time finding any resource lists! So I decided to put one together for anyone else who is searching in vain.

1. SolidifyApp

So it’s no secret that I am a giant fan of Zurb, specifically their SolidifyApp. It’s an absolutely awesome quick and dirty prototyping tool, that also lets you launch really simple remote usability tests with ease! It even has a template for launching MOBILE remote usability tests! Which, at the present moment is something kind of lacking in the industry! You create the test, add your pics, throw it in mobile chrome, pick your audience, and voila! You’ve got a remote mobile usability test ready to rock. You just copy the link and email it to folks. They can open it on their mobile devices and go to town. The nice thing is, it works on any device. You can even give them tasks to complete and ask for feedback. It records their screen gestures along the way, and automatically tracks stats. This is a great tool for testing prototype versions of mobile concepts remotely, to ensure that you’re on track without spending a zillion dollars developing a tool that is totally wrong for your client base/audience.

2. UXRecorder

UXRecorder is REALLY close to bordering the perfect Mobile Usability testing tool. You install the app, pull up your web property or prototype URL, and hand it to your tester. The app does screen capture, records user audio and video, and records gestures. So you can see the persons face while they do their thing and hear whether or not they are cursing out your web app, along with having a visual of where they are swiping. This is a moderated testing tool since you have to build your prototype in your account, and pass it around on your device, but it’s the closest I’ve seen to my ideal mobile usability testing tool. (I’ll outline my dream tool at the end of this article.)

3. POP (Prototyping on Paper)

This app is pretty sweet. You can create prototypes right on your mobile device. The premise is nice, you just pick up your phone, snap some pictures of sketches on post-its or napkins, or fancy high-res mockups, string them together into a prototype, and then share your concept with your usability testing community or whomever else you choose. They’re working on an android version as we speak, but the iPhone version is pretty solid. And it’s fun. And, it’s another way to create simple prototypes in seconds to make sure that your concepts on are point with what your clients need.

4. Delight.io

Delight.io is pretty awesome. You integrate it right into your iOS app. It records screen capture, gestures, user video and audio on command. Also, they have a “free plan” that gives you an hour of recording per month.

Bonus

5. My Dream Mobile Usability Testing Tool

So what I really want in a tool, is the ability to send a link to a user that will launch a testing tool on the mobile device or tablet of their choice. I want it to record audio, video, screen capture and gestures, and I want to be able to set tasks for users to complete and have it automatically track stats. I want it to work with web apps, responsive sites and native apps. Basically what I’m looking for is a mashup of SolidifyApp and UXRecorder. This is my mobile usability testing tool holy grail. Oh, and since it’s already a thing on mobile now, we could toss in eye tracking as an added bonus.

I hope you find these mobile usability testing and prototyping tool descriptions helpful, and that this list will save you a few hours of Googling!

UX and Design Tools That Will Improve Your Productivity

This is a list of some of my favorite UX & design tools at the moment! I hope you find them as useful as I have!

Tools for Collaboration

• Balsamiq http://www.balsamiq.com/
• GotoMeeting http://www.gotomeeting.com/
• HipChat http://www.hipchat.com
• Target Process http://www.targetprocess.com/

Tools for Usability Testing

• Card Sort Analysis Spreadsheet  http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/cardsorting/blog/card_sort_analysis_spreadsheet/
• Ethnio http://ethn.io/
• MailChimp http://mailchimp.com/
• Open Hallway http://www.openhallway.com/
• Responsinator http://responsinator.com
• Silverback http://silverbackapp.com/
• SolidifyApp http://www.solidifyapp.com/
• Survey Monkey http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Tools for Mobile Usability Testing & Prototyping

• Delight.io http://www.delight.io/
• Plunk http://www.plunkapp.com/
• Prototyping On Paper (POP) http://popapp.in/
• SolidifyApp http://www.solidifyapp.com 
• UX Recorder http://www.uxrecorder.com
  

Mac Tools for Demoing Apps

• Invisionapp http://www.invisionapp.com/
• Keynote http://www.apple.com/iwork/keynote/
• Reflector App http://www.reflectorapp.com/

Tools for Stat Tracking

• App Annie https://www.appannie.com
• Flurry http://www.flurry.com/flurry-analytics.html
• Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/
• Mix Panel: https://mixpanel.com

Miscellaneous Tools I Love

• Concur http://www.concur.com/
• Harvest http://www.getharvest.com/
• Iceber.gs http://iceber.gs
• Morguefile Stock Photos http://www.morguefile.com/
• Prezi http://prezi.com/
• Tweeter Karma http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/

Due to the popularity of this list of tools, I’ve also added a dedicated Favorite Tools page.

Is Working for Startups Right for You?

Today we’re going to address the age old question: Is working for startups right for you?

The short answer to this question is: There is no way answer to that question.

“Then why am I reading this right now you jerk?” you may ask.

Because before you can answer the question of whether a particular startup is right for you (I’ll explain why that’s in italics in a second, I promise.) you need to define exactly what it is that you value in a workplace.

I had a really fascinating Twitter discussion today with another UX pro (Micah Herstand @micahherstand) about why we love startups. And you know what? The longer we chatted the more I realized that we had completely different views of startups, and often times polar opposite reasons for loving them.

Then it dawned on me… that’s because our experiences were working for completely different startups, with vastly different cultures and values.

Then an even bigger realization struck. I don’t love working for startups, I love working for startups that fit my personality, and my lifestyle.

On to the good stuff. How do you know if a particular startup is right for you?

1. What are their views on work life balance?

I’m a mom, and being able to go watch my daughter in a school play, or go to a doctor’s appointment (the one at the most obnoxiously inconvenient time, but the only one available) is very important to me. It’s also important for me to be able to telecommute on days when my child is running a fever and can’t go to school, but can lay on the couch next to my desk sleeping while I work. I don’t lose any productivity by having to take a sick day, and my team still meets our deadlines. And we utilize a set of absolutely fabulous remote collaboration tools that make it feel like I’m in the office anyway.

As an introvert, I also value being able to invest extra time in major projects from my living room couch with my small furry puppy son curled up next to me, in front of our faux fireplace. I’ve been known to get so caught up in a project that I start at 8pm after my daughter is in bed, thinking I’ll put in an hour or so, but am so in the zone that I look up and it’s 2am. 100% focus.

So in short, things that I value are: the ability to have a flexible schedule, and the ability to telecommute.

The UX pro I was talking to said that he values being able to work in an office surrounded by his peers, and being able to put in extra work time in the office as opposed to at home.

We had polar opposite views, which is because we likely have completely different personalities and lifestyles. And you know what? Neither of us is “right” or “wrong,” it comes down to us placing value on entirely different perks.

2. Do they have a benefits package that suits your needs?

Some startups invest tons of money in benefits packages to attract talent, others advertise hefty starting salaries with little to no benefits, and still others have no benefits and low salaries, but they offer stock options. The list of scenarios goes on, but what it really comes down to is do they, or do they not have what you need. Some people are young and healthy and single, or are married to a person with awesome benefits and they can go without benefits packages entirely. Others just need solid benefits end of story. They aren’t optional.

3. Is the company working on something that you are passionate about?

This is kind of extremely important. When you jump into a startup environment, you are kind of jumping into a casino situation. You are betting your salary that the company is going to take off and soar, and if it does it can payoff huge for you: great job, great benefits, and even mega success or a potential buyout and a big payday at the end of the yellow brick road. Just as it goes with gambling though, there is also a chance that the company is going to flop, and more often than not, this is the case. You need to take a hard look at the company, their values, their long term plans and how passionate their senior leadership and employees are about making magic happen; and then decide if those things align with you and your needs.

4. Does the company have room for career advancement?

One of the coolest things for me about working for my current company was the opportunity for cross departmental career advancement. We have folks who have come in to the company entry level in a department where they fit, only to discover they have serious passion for another area of the company. And you know what? They don’t need to quit to have the opportunity to advance their careers in that totally different direction, we do a ton of hiring from within. There are other startups that have a once you’re in a position you’re stuck there approach and they hire externally for the most part. Think about your career goals, and ability to move within the organization, and make sure you’re aligned in those areas.

5. Do these people seem like folks I’d enjoy spending time with, feel inspired by, trust with my career and could turn into a work family?

Some people are going to read that work family line and go, give me a break, lame. But in all seriousness, when you’re working at a startup you spend a huge amount of time with a small group of people, and while differing opinions are great, because they often lead to killer innovation, the ability to get along as a group is HUGE. We have a new hire ranking sheet; our whole team sits in on interviews. A huge chunk of the interview score comes down to “fit.” Will this person fit with our team and lead to increased productivity and innovation. Because as a startup, you can’t afford to have a negative minded snake in the grass who is going to make your workplace miserable. You need folks who are all on the same page and are borderline obsessed with making your company succeed, and who are willing to do whatever needs to be done in order to make that dream happen.

So in closing, if you’re considering applying at a startup, answer these questions. If you’re aligned, get ready to have an incredibly exciting roller coaster ride that may lead to you witnessing dreams becoming reality! Or, the ride may lead to flying off the track and crashing and burning. But that’s the fun in working for a startup that fits your lifestyle and personality, right? The excitement is in the gamble.

Then Responsive Web Design said to Mobile Native Apps: “Let’s be friends.”

So recently I’ve seen some posts by some very upset people, going back and forth about why responsive design is or is not the future of the web. I’ve also seen folks slamming RWD saying that mobile native apps are the future, and that anyone who thinks RWD is the future is insane. Here’s what I have to say to both sides of the argument: take a step back and embrace both. Here’s why.

Responsive Web Design

If done correctly responsive web design can be incredibly powerful for your clients. They can have one place to add content, that displays cleanly across devices.  And, if you optimize their responsive site correctly, it’ll load beautifully and quickly regardless of the device being used to view it.

Native Apps

Now lets talk about native apps. In certain situations, native apps just make sense. They give you a sense of security. For example, I do almost all of my banking through mobile native apps. My banks also have responsive sites, but even though they aren’t necessarily more secure, the native apps FEEL more secure, so I have a fabulous user experience.

Some companies have native apps that I will never ever download. For example, there are tons of stores that offer native apps, and if they aren’t stores I frequent often, I’m not emotionally invested enough in the company to download their native app. Their responsive website is where I’ll be shopping. If they don’t have a responsive website, they just lost my business.

The Big Picture

So let’s look at the big picture. What it really comes down to is that people maintaining websites want to enter their content once, and have it display across devices. The key to the future of mobile web design is creating content management systems that allow you to add content once and have it display in your responsive website, AND in your mobile native apps! And it just so happens that my completely awesome company Schoolwires has already created a CMS (Centricity 2) that does EXACTLY that. We worked with the San Diego Unified School District to develop a native app that pulls content from our existing CMS. So they literally enter once, and can display their content on desktop, tablet and mobile devices through a responsive site template, AND they can display it in their mobile native iOS & Android apps.

That in my humble opinion is the future of mobile and web design. Enter content once, display it everywhere.

3 Reasons Tech Startups Need to Allow Telecommuting

Recently there’s been a lot of buzz around telecommuting. These are the top 3 reasons your startup should not pull a Yahoo:

1. You can’t pay as much as giant corporations for highly skilled employees.

Let’s face it. You are a start up, therefore you aren’t exactly swimming in billions. Remote work and flexible schedules are often more powerful perks than flashing dollar signs for those who place high value on work/life balance.

2. You aren’t located in Silicon Valley, so people with the skill sets you require are not local.

Telecommuting means literally a world of potential employees to choose from, versus picking 1 of the 3 under qualified locals who apply.

3. You want to keep your talent.

It’s not for everyone, but for those who value it, the option to work remotely can mean the difference between keeping a brilliant employee, and losing him or her to a larger corp with a benefits package that could eat yours as an appetizer.

To sum things up, as a startup, swearing off remote work for your employees is kind of the equivalent of blasting huge holes in your already half capsized boat of employee benefits. Until you can afford awesome salaries and killer benefits packages, it’s best to keep telecommuting and flexible schedules on the table.

Who knows, you may even get to steal some crazy amazing talent from the companies who are “putting a foot down” and shattering their culture and positive employee experiences in the process.

Creating a Killer In-house Design & Innovation Team

While conversing with some of my UX pro peers, I’ve discovered that design teams at software companies are extremely varied in make up. Some places have great team dynamics and others really really don’t. At my company Schoolwires, we have a completely awesome Design & Innovation team with members that work incredibly well together, not only from a personality stance, but from a combined powerhouse of skills stance. So today, I’m going to focus on answering  the question:

What does it take to create a killer in-house Design and Innovation team?

1.      An Incredibly Innovative Vice President

At my company we have a VP of Product Design and Innovation who is one of the most contagiously creative, innovative people I have ever met. You go into what should be a mundane meeting with him, and come out feeling inspired every single time. He also has a vision of the future of technology that reaches out decades. He’s always thinking about the next next, with his finger on the pulse of the latest and greatest apps and software and technology trends. (Don’t even THINK about trying to headhunt Jay… He’s ours!!!)

2.      A UX Manager Who Thinks in Wireframes and Dreams Code

Our Manager of User Experience literally thinks in wireframes and dreams code. I’m not even kidding. We recently had a discussion about it. She hears a concept and pictures the wireframes in her mind. She is incredibly talented, and has a background in code, so she not only pictures design in her mind, she knows how to MAKE the things she envisions. Cap that off with being a phenomenal, supportive manager and you’ve got Sara!

3.     Two Creative UX Architects Who Love to Design

We have two awesome architects who really enjoy designing! Our architects do the data layer/api/business layer work for all of our projects, but they also lead designs and create wireframes at times! I’ve talked to folks who do not have architects on their design teams, and I can’t imagine designing without them! They are able to tell us at a glance if what we hope can happen is actually feasible. If we had to wait until our designs were passed off to development to find that stuff out, we’d end up with hours and hours of additional rework time. They are key to keeping us agile! Craig and Heather are incredibly talented!

4.      An Extremely Talented UX Designer With a Graphic Design Background

Our UX designer is absolutely fantastic! She can make a CMS interface look like a work of art, and can kick out gorgeous high res mockups on a dime! She too is constantly looking for the latest and greatest design tricks and tips, and brings fresh ideas and concepts to our products! Danelle is fabulous!

5.      A UX Editor/Content Strategist With a Background in Psychology

Our UX Editor/Content Strategist is completely obsessed with writing, statistics and discovering how we can make our clients lives easier through design. She is also a tech-blog-aholic and has an insatiable thirst for all knowledge related to UX, Usability and Content Strategy. She loves design brainstorming and working in wireframes more than most things in life!

The 6 of us work together exceptionally well because we work in an environment that supports open sharing of ideas. We all have the utmost respect for one another, and our leadership team has made it clear that every member of the team is valued, as are their opinions. It’s also accepted team wide that no one is perfect, nor are they expected to be. Sometimes we’re right, and sometimes we’re wrong but the safe environment for sharing both the good ideas and the bad leads to incredible collaboration and ultimately stronger, more innovative, user friendly products.

To cap it off, there is a level of completely contagious excitement that spreads throughout the team while we work on new design concepts. You can almost feel the wave of excitement crashing around you while the team is brainstorming and tweaking and perfecting. It is the most amazing work environment I’ve ever experienced.

As proof, our current design project is incredible. I can’t wait for it to hit the market! I’m like a kid on Christmas morning, it’s so exciting!

In summary, I hope that this article helps you to envision your dream in-house design and innovation team. I’ve found mine, now it’s time for you to create yours! And remember, you don’t have to go freelance to love your job! Our team is living proof that in-house design team utopia does exist!

How To: Generate An Insane Amount Of Excitement Around Your New Product Launch

Have you ever signed up for an invite only product launch? You know, like Pinterest back in the day, or Google Voice. You go to a website, insert your email address, and then wait for an indeterminate period of time to get your official invitation to access the product or service.

Being one of the first people to experience a new product gives folks a sense of excitement and pride. The only problem with this model is that often times folks who aren’t at the very front of the invitation line totally lose interest in the product or service while they wait for their official access.

Well, let me introduce Orchestra Inc, a company that has successfully hacked the brains of hundreds of thousands of tech lovers with a stroke of UX and marketing brilliance.

Orchestra Inc is currently in the process of launching their new app Mailbox. Rather than making you enter your email address and then forget their product, they’ve set up a system in which you download a dummy app that serves as your “reservation.” You can then open the app and view a live updated number of “people in front of you” as well as the number of people who signed up after you, who are basically standing behind you in line.

This method has generated all the excitement of standing in line outside an Apple store the day of an iPhone launch, (without the horrible weather, weirdos and excessive boredom) because you can see the “line getting shorter” every time you look at the app. They actually rewind the number of people in front of you on the screen, rather than just showing an updated number.

If you think about it, they are rolling out the service like most cloud based services have in the past. They’re adding accounts a little at a time to make sure things are going to scale properly, with increasingly rapid implementations over time. But instead of people losing interest while they wait, folks are getting more and more excited as time goes on. I’m currently “in line” behind half a million people, but have checked my “status” at least 4 times in the past 8 hours. There is something immensely satisfying about watching the number of folks in line in front of me fly downward.

This entire concept is absolutely brilliant. From a marketing perspective, the popularity is blowing up. They allow you to tweet that you’ve made your reservation, which has led to a social media driven download frenzy. From a UX stance, the reservation system has led to a giant pile of unexpected delight in the app’s future users.

I have the feeling this is going to become a common practice for new product launches (especially apps) in months to come. I sincerely hope that the person or people who came up with this concept are given giant raises in the very near future.

In addition to a completely awesome product launch campaign, the app itself is fabulous. It has a beautifully designed, clean UI and I honestly can’t wait to get my hands on it.

All I have left to say is “Bravo!” to the whole team at @mailbox. And, if you haven’t yet, make your Mailbox app reservation in iTunes today. You’ll be WAY behind ME of course… but you know… we can’t all be first in line.

This blog post was inspired by a tweet from Ian Smile @endashes, thanks for the inspiration.