Is your Mom, your friend, your sister, or your co-worker absolutely remarkable? Then, you will love using the new Absolutely Remarkable mini-tribute. This new application allows you to create a custom, animated mini-tribute honoring someone and view it, send it yourself, or let us send it for you. If you know someone who is absolutely remarkable, you must check out this fun, free site.
Sort of like a movie studio will issue a trailer to build excitement for their new film, we are doing the same, building excitement for Remarkable. If you like Absolutely Remarkable mini-tributes, you will love the full-blown application and should sign up for the beta for
Remarkable by Creative Outlet Labs.
Have fun using this and sharing it!
Want to test your touch typing speed for fun and bragging rights. Check out
10-fast-fingers and see your words per minute. Thanks
Kristi for pointing this out.
Before you go out to check it out, however, ask yourself this: Are you more of a phone person or an email person? You know who you are and I have rarely met someone who didn't have a preference (sure there are some things you'd only do in person or over the phone, but most communications are not like that and you can choose without seeming insensitive).
I bet there is a correlation between the likelihood of being an "email person" and typing speed. I'd be interested in your thoughts. I type fast and am an
email person.
I wonder if there is a similar test for reading speed. I even like my voice mails converted to text (using
SpinVox) because they are so much faster to get through in this format. Then I can respond via email or call them back...inevitably getting their voice mail and repeating the cycle. I hear about services like
Jott which let you call their number to leave yourself messages they will transcribe and e-mail to you, I can't help but think that someone really gets me.
So, along with the dream I have of one day having a
publicist, my own patent attorney, and my own image stylist (ha!), I sometimes long for a capable assistant who can handle the details and allow me to focus on the important (I really mean fun) stuff.
Zirga is an interesting entrance into the virtual assistant marketplace, popularized by Tim Ferris in his provocative book the 4 Hour Work Week. For $95, they will complete 35 tasks a month. They work all year, all day, and are US-based. They track the tasks on the website and as long as they are not waiting for a response, they will complete the task in an hour. The examples they give are things like travel arrangements, gift buying/sending, waiting on hold, etc. The kinds of things you would probably ask an assistant if they were handy and capable.
I think that these types of services have an untapped market in Moms. Rather than targeting jet-setting executives who need to arrange travel arrangements on the spur of the moment, why not market the services to busy moms (working or full-time moms) under the tag line "because they haven't invented cloning yet." The tasks would be making dentist appointments, finding a private French tutor, finding a spot for your parent's 50th anniversary party, or sending out birthday cards. Now, that is an untapped market!
Earlier I posted on the value of
stretch goals that are unbelievable. Seeing no way to reach a target price point on an evolutionary or incremental path, people must thing revolutionary and be relentless.
So, how does this apply to service businesses?
Seth Godin has blogged about the discipline of answering the phone in one ring. What other metrics like that could challenge your teams to think in new ways about the old problem of how to provide great service?
If a call center could always pick up after the first ring, here are some challenges for other service businesses:
- Could a retailer guarantee that you'd never wait in line? I mean never. Not even for a second.
- Could a beauty salon guarantee that your manicure will last until your next appointment or it is free?
- Could a town car service provide flight delay insurance or traffic jam insurance to ensure that any costs and travel rearrangements associated with either would be handled? See previous post about bundling products and services.
There is nothing uglier than a compost bin (okay, other than the smell). A company in Bangalore, India called
Daily Dump (a horrific name to be sure) has created some products that look tons better than the green plastic bins available at Home Depot.
Cool Hunting suggested that if someone can do it "Banglore, there's no reason why people can't do it in Baltimore."
It somehow seems poetic that in a container garden of the future, some of the pots have things that are growing and others contain things that are decomposing.
This brings to mind however how so many utiliarian things could be made beautiful and marketed as a desirable, upscale product when today they are industrial products. Better yet, combine an element of green lifestyle and you have a winner. Why not rain collection systems that look like water features in the backyard? Why not solar panels built into pavement tiles? Why not a solar oven that looks more like a stylish backyard BBQ (and less like a space communication device)? And I am sure you can come up with a better company name!
Unbelievable price point targets have inspired innovation over time. Today I read about two such targets that may inspire you to think differently about your own product or service.
Tata Motors, India's largest automaker, unveiled today the $2,550 car. Some are applauding this as India's crowning achievement. Others are bemoaning that the bicycle and public transportation may have been dealt a death sentence. In any case, that is an unbelievable price that was before believed unattainable. Ok, it isn't right for American drivers and tastes, but at what point in the future will a $2,550 car include some of the necessary performance and creature comforts to make it an acceptable commuter car?
Pixel Qi has announced plans to develop a $75 laptop (granted they have never been able to get below $188, but even that is something remarkable.
So, what if you had to deliver a version of your core product for 25% less than you charge today? You probably could get there by lopping off some performance or making packaging changes. What if you had to had to have a product that sold for 5% of what the average in the market sold for? What would you have to do differently?
In that mode, every feature, every component, every whiz-bang or essential thing would have to fight for its place on the bill of material. Why don't we do this more often? I think that in many cases, a "zero-based budget" approach to product design would result in simpler products that more closely addressed the real market needs.
What would it look like in your industry?
But this is a new twist...original art subscriptions. For $150,
The Present Group will send you an original art piece (could be a painting, could be a sculpture). If you are still in the gift-giving spirit, they do have gift subscriptions.
They are quite upfront that the art might not suit your taste, but they remind you that it is "cheaper than what one might pay in a gallery." I think this might be another way to say that if you like one piece a year, you are probably getting your money's worth.
Makes me wonder why more things are not sold in subscriptions, if something as personal as art can be distributed in this way. I'd subscribe to a shoes-of-the-month club if the price were right and I had a little control over the style. I bet I am not the only one.
Why doesn't a jewelry company charge a single young woman for the year and then send them gift on the dates they specify (their birthday, etc)? Technically it would be a gift to herself, but the element of surprise might just add enough delight to make the idea work!
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