If customer service isn’t number one on your list of priorities, you are gonna lose big. I don’t care what industry you are in—if you put anything else over the experience your customer has while engaging with you, quit now and go find something you really enjoy doing so you can stop making customers miserable. If you don’t love what you are doing, it gets pretty difficult to give great customer service—pull up any recent bad experience with a retail clerk, motor vehicles attendant, cable TV guy—I know you can conjure something up! Now, think about the last really excellent experience you had, especially when someone was helping you deal with a not-so-pleasant situation—perhaps you lost something, needed to change a reservation, needed help.

Good customer service isn’t about being nice only when things are going along swimmingly. It’s more about how you conduct yourself during difficult or stressful situations.

Interesting Fact: If you look around, you can find some recent studies showing that experiences which produce lots of adrenaline also cement those experiences into your memory more firmly than experiences that might have produced less of a chemical reaction.

When I get mad, my adrenaline gets going and, thus, I remember it—for a long, long time. Whereas when I feel happy, I don’t necessarily feel my adrenaline pumping, although my endorphins are definitely assisting my state of happiness. Though it feels good in the moment, its impact isn’t enough to have the same effect on my physical memory. I suspect I would have to be 500% happy to produce the same lasting memory that 80% mad generates.

Why does this matter? Well, you have to work harder at keeping people happy; making people mad is easy. And, for every person you make mad, you create a negative and long lasting memory. Although you’re making people happy, they may forget about it or they may not realize just how great it was to feel happy—or they may be distracted by an angry memory. So, you have to remind them more and more often about how great feeling happy is and you must make sure you don’t ruin all your hard work by making them angry along the way.

This is my motto when it comes to customer service. The only time I stray from it is when I am faced with a customer who is “toxic”, or impossible to make happy. Then it’s clear that we should part ways—hopefully, in the most pleasant manner possible!

This post was inspired by pictures our client shared with us showing their celebration of the launch of their new Website. I would say these pictures helped me create a lasting positive memory of working hard for this client—definitely something worth caring about. And a client who is celebrating this joyously over what we all know can be a long and painful journey is definitely a happy customer.

Fastspot recently formalized a collaborative partnership with Neustadt Creative Marketing with the creation of a second company, Door No. 2. Over the past 18 months, Fastspot and Neustadt Creative Marketing have been working together on a series of exciting projects with higher education clients. Door No. 2 will deliver these integrated marketing solutions to a targeted client base of colleges, universities and schools who are seeking an agency to address strategy and research, print and Web, social media and mobile marketing solutions. Door No. 2 will provide the best of both worlds, previously divided between differing approaches and methodologies. Combining our efforts ensures continued focus and expertise in these unique areas of importance, with all the pieces becoming critical parts of an integrated strategy and execution.

Fastspot will continue doing what we have been doing over the past decade, creating and producing outstanding interactive work and delivering unparalleled client service, which is the foundation of our success. However, as the world of higher education marketing undergoes major shifts which require an integrated and progressive approach, we are fortunate to have formed a fruitful relationship with one of the leaders in the industry, Neustadt Creative Marketing. This partnership is generating exciting work for our current clients, and we look forward to Door No. 2 making it even easier for our friends out there in higher education to make the right choice, which as we all know, is always behind Door No. 2.

Just some fun facts from Fastspot on a Friday - wow - lots of “F”s.

Curt Kotula’s Current Favorites:
Album: Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
iPhone App - Keymote
Blog - http://kottke.org/
Website - http://www.creasedcomics.com/

April Osmanof’s Current Favorites:
Album: Hercules and Love Affair - self titled album.
Web app: Tone Matrix at http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix. Its really fun to play with.

Tim Buckingham’s Current Favorites:
Album: Acceptance - Phantoms
iPhone App: Civilization Revolution
Blog: Engadget

Amy Goldberg’s Current Favorites:
Album: Uh Huh Her - Common Reaction
iPhone / Web App: Facebook
Blog: Remodelista

Tracey Halvorsen’s Current Favorites:
Album: Gregory Alan Isakov - This Empty Northern Hemisphere
iPhone App - Pandora
Blog: Tim Ferris

We are happy to present our newly updated reel, including a nice new soundtrack compliments of the Ting Tings. For any of you who remember our last reel, you will undoubtedly notice the change in tone. We wanted our new reel to really convey not only our passion for creating beautiful and engaging interactive experiences, but also our sense of “fun”. We worked with Sawmill PR in ‘09 to learn more about what our clients thought of us, and we were all pleasantly surprised to hear that the word “fun” was used by almost every client they interviewed when they described what it was like to work with Fastspot. What a compliment! Any of you who have gone through a web redesign project know how grueling it can get, and how tempers can wear thin. Well, we are happy to report that here at Fastspot, we keep the love alive - no matter how long the project or relationship stretches on! So, enjoy the new reel and the new work showcased within it, and remember, just because its business doesn’t mean we can’t have fun doing it.

Fastspot Reel - 2009 from TraceyHalvorsen on Vimeo.

Last week I was interviewed by Greg Cangialosi, President and CEO of Blue Sky Factory on their weekly show. Happy to chat with Greg about websites, marketing, social media and answer questions from the chat room.

Our friends at Happy Cog Studios asked if I would participate in a proposed panel discussion for the upcoming SXSW festival, and I happily agreed. While its nice to talk about all the great projects, its more valuable to look at the failures. I believe it is counter productive to hide your head in the sand when things go wrong, and personally I can say the most valuable things I have learned, in life and in business, are from when things get f*cked up.

Please take a moment to sign up and vote for our panel idea. If we get the green light, I promise to post a full account of the panel and our discussion after the event, for anyone who can’t make it. Thanks in advance for your support! Vote for us here!

- Posted by Tracey Halvorsen

Russell & Mackenna has reason to be happy. Several months ago they decided to re-route the money they had been planning to use to open another physical store to showcase and sell their cottage style furniture into an e-commerce Website. And not just your run of the mill e-commerce site. This Website needed to let potential buyers customize their furniture to their exact preferences, to match the options experience the company has been offering via catalog and in-store for the past several years.

Fastspot worked diligently to make sure the user interface was easy yet engaging, and we were all banking on the idea that if you let users create exactly what they want, even entire collections of pieces they want, that they will make the big decision and actually purchase. There are big ticket items, when you buy from Russell & Mackenna - you are purchasing hand crafted, made in America, beautifully designed and conceived furniture, ideally suited for your house in the Hamptons or your imaginary house in the Hamptons wherever you happen to live.

While usability and customization were our top priorities, we also wanted the design of the site to tell the story of this brand. We looked at Emeco as a great example of how a brand’s story and marketing can help support a high price for a high quality piece of furniture, especially when cheaper, lesser quality knock offs are easy to come by. We certainly stand behind the importance of well conceived and produced interactive design, but this was the first time we would be putting that to the test with online purchases in a retail environment. And it didn’t help that as we neared the launch date, the economy continued to nose dive.

So, the site quietly launched in late February 2009, and on March 3 an email went out to about 2000 names (gathered from past customers, people who had requested catalogs, or who had simply provided the info so they could get emails) announcing the new site and offering a 2 week discount offer for online purchases. We waited, and as the weekend approached (when we expected these shoppers to actually sit down, discuss with the significant other and make the purchase) the sales started coming in.

I am very happy to share with you what Russell & Mackenna shared with us recently. When they compared their sales from March 2008 to March 2009, they were up 425%. Yes, you read that correctly, 425%. And yes, most of that was from the Website. They were making money while they slept, while they ate breakfast on Sunday mornings and while they juggled more orders than their builders had ever seen. Needless to say - we have a very happy client.

So, next time you think about ROI and how much the Internet can impact a business and a brand, think about this post. When you compare the impact to that of a traditional print ad, billboard, commercial or even a physical store, there is simply no comparison. Not only is the Web accessible to millions, 24/7, it is accessible to the exact people who are looking for “you”. How many people flip past an ad because its not compelling to them, or drive past a billboard and never think of it again? Online, these same buyers are actively searching for the brand, the company, the product. And with the Internet, you can tell who they are, when they come, what they do, what they look at, where they leave from, how long they stay, the list goes on. In fact, the next post will be a long long list of all the reasons why every company out there should be devoting their budgets to Interactive, I have too many for this story.

Feel free to join the discussion, and if you are a retail brand that isn’t doing what Russell & Mackenna is, I suspect you are already dialing our number. In fact, I will probably be expecting to hear from you since I will have seen you in our analytics.

1. We contributed a chapter to Flash 5 Studio (published by Friends of Ed) on how to make your own music mixer using Flash.

2. Our first big client / job was for McCormick (the spice company) to create a motion graphics Flash piece hyping their new spice labels.

3. Our Art & Technology Director, Curt Kotula, once spent the night in a tent on the office floor, after an evening of one too many networking events.

4. After presenting a session at Flash Forward in NYC, 2001 - we were courted by Wieden and Kennedy to come out and collaborate with their Nike team.

5. The first award we won was a Flash Film Festival award for our online experience, Memoire, at the Amsterdam Flash Film Festival.

6. The name “Fastspot“, originated in 1998 from an idea that eventually television and the internet would be interchangeable, and motion graphics advertising online would be pushed as heavily as television commercials (spots), once the bandwidth caught up.

7. Our Senior Programmer, Tim Buckingham, eats Burger King almost every day for lunch. It was a pre-requisite for him taking the job that there was a Burger King near by the office.

8. After something triggered a false alarm at the office, police nearly blew the head off Elvis, thinking he was an intruder in the dark hallway.

9. We were once asked to design T-Shirts for Maverick Records and Madonna’s upcoming tour. For inspiration we had one full work day where Madonna music was piped throughout the office.

10. There are usually 3 dogs in the office, sometimes as many as 5 at one time. Office regulars are Truck, a Lab Shepard mix, Rufus, a Lab Pitbull mix, Leyla, a Boxer, and Stella, an English Bulldog.

11. There is a paintball gun and a target in the basement. The practice helped ensure our victory over Orange Element.

12. We like to take time out to kill each other in network Quake games, and Curt always wins - with the Rail Gun.

13. On a visit out to Tacoma to meet with our client, University of Puget Sound, we stayed at the wonderful Hotel Murano. Each floor features a glass artist and a collection of themed works, we ended up on the boob floor.

14. Our office was built in 1889 and you can see Baltimore’s Inner Harbor from the 3rd floor - confirming that Butcher’s Hill is really on a hill.

15. We talk allot about the beauty of restrictions - Being a painter, I like the limited palette metaphor.

16. There are several tattoos in the mix.

17. We are all borderline mysophobics.

18. Our “spot” for World Aids Day won first place in a competition run by MTVuk, and was aired all over Europe on TV and the Internet.

19. Fastspot “Fun Events” have included a Paintball battle with Orange Element, a trip to Dave and Busters, a rematch with Orange Element at Patterson Park’s Duckpin Bowling (we won), a trip to an Orioles game at Camden Yards, a ski / snowboard trip to Liberty, a poker tournament (Zach and his wife took 1st and 2nd place and all the money) and a BBQ / flower planting / happy hour. Of course, the happy hours are reoccurring fun events.

Do you know an interesting tidbit about Fastspot that you want to share? Just remember, some of our moms read this blog, so use caution!

The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, a Baltimore foundation with an arts focused philanthropy, contacted the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance about helping the Fund develop an annual awards program for individual artists of the region. GBCA suggested thinking about approaching Fastspot about how they might build on the concept of the People’s Design Award Website, created by Fastspot for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and National Design Week. A collaboration quickly commenced on how this concept might translate for the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund. We knew we wanted to make the nominating process for this particular foundation program much more transparent and community focused, but we had no idea how the artists and community would react. Obviously, we had little reason for concern. It is clear from the numbers, this type of awards program and online nomination process was something the arts community had long been hoping for, not to mention the success we saw from integrating a “People’s Choice” into the mix. We hope to see other cities and artists’ communities throughout the world adopt and build upon what the Baker Artist Awards Website has established for the Baltimore arts community. Here’s what we ended up with.

Nominees, Registered Users and Votes

656 Artists nominated themselves and uploaded their work and info, including painters, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, crafts people, performance artists, experimental artists, designers, sculptors, photographers, you name it.
10,372 people not only came to the site, they created accounts and registered to vote for their favorite artists or artwork.
8,531 total votes were cast (this includes people who found ways to unlock extra votes by browsing and becoming more active in the site.)

Pageviews, Visitors, Time on Site and Geographical Info

688,520 Pageviews (spanning from early October 2008 to Feb. 1, 2009) The site will remain online for people to browse and enjoy the vast amount of art that was uploaded, so we expect to see this number continue to grow.
66,252 Visits
34,976 Absolute Unique Visitors
7:44 Avg. Time on Site - this is a very long time for the average time spent on any Website.
Most visitors were from the US, but we had 530 visitors from Canada, 447 from the United Kingdom, 232 from France, 182 from Germany, 133 from Australia, 132 from Italy, 127 from Spain and 88 from the Netherlands. They spent on average between 2:12 to 14:30 on the site.

Who Was Browsing?

If we dive deeper into the analytics, we can see to some degree who was browsing. As expected, there was lots of traffic from local universities and educational institutions, including Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Catonsville Community College, Loyola, Towson State University, Villa Julie, Goucher and Morgan State. However, more interestingly, and probably of great interest to the artists who have their bodies of work on the site, we saw heavy site viewing from these organizations and entities:

National Gallery of Art - 86 visits
Museum of Modern Art - The MOMA spent 42 minutes surfing the site
Smithsonian Institution - 56 visits
The Baltimore Museum of Art - 50 visits
Standford University - 31 visits
Rochester Institute of Technology - 25 visits
Cornell University - 24 visits
WYPR (National Public Radio) - 17 visits
Discovery Communications - 16 visits
CBS Corporation - 15 visits
Duke University - 13 visits
Black & Decker - 12 visits
Apple Computer - 10 visits
Bank of America - 10 visits
Diamond Comics - 10 visits
Pratt Institute - 10 visits
Yale University - 10 visits

Other Visitors of Importance

Eli Whitney Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Art
Museum of Fine Arts Houston
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The New York Times
Corcoran
Brooklyn Museum of Art
Walker Art Center
Fuller Craft Museum
Harvard University
National Geographic Society
Tulane University
University of Southern California
California Institute of the Arts
The Kennedy Center
Boston University
Carnegie Mellon University
Intercontinental Hotels Group
Princeton University
Under Armour
Cooper Union
Dartmouth College
School of Visual Arts
Hunter College
Nike, Inc.
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
The Washington Post
Electronic Arts Inc.
Herman Miller Inc.
Liz Claiborne Inc.
Art Gallery of Ontario
Lucas Film

There were over 4,500 network locations logged, and while we don’t know exactly “whom” was looking, we can assume this kind of visibility is extremely valuable to artists who may have limited opportunity for exposure. Additionally, we feel the quality and volume of work entered into the Baker Artist Awards will bring national awareness to Baltimore as a creative city that nurtures and cherishes its artistic community.

Referring Traffic

Another important element contributing to the huge success of the site was the amount of traffic driven to it by artists’ self promoting in hopes of winning the People’s Choice award. While the primary grants will be decided upon by a select jury, the people’s favorites will also win smaller cash awards and recognition. This angle helped spread the word, by encouraging artists to get over their shyness and get busy marketing themselves. There were over 1,200 referring links logged, meaning that over 1,200 outside sources sent visitors clicking into Baker Artist Awards Website from a link on a blog, in an email, or somewhere else online. Here are a few referring links of note:

Facebook sent over 5,000 visits
Notcot.org sent over 1,500 visits
Commarts.com sent 1,366 visits when it featured the Website as its pick of the day
Bmoreart.blogspot.com sent 445 visits
Fastspot was happy to send 426 visits from our Website
Flickr.com sent 322 visits
Twitter sent 220 visits
Baltimoreclayworks.org sent 168 visits
Delicious sent 159
Baltimoreculture.org sent 142

Over 50 blogs linked up to Baker Artist Awards, sending a tremendous amount of virally generated traffic (traffic that wasn’t paid for or generated through direct PR efforts). That is the best kind of traffic you can get because it’s usually very targeted to the audiences most interested in the content.

What’s Next?

Well, the site will stay online as a virtual museum of sorts, and after the winners are announced, we will be working to make enhancements and improvements for next year’s competition and awards.

We would love to know if the site has helped your artistic career or helped you network with collectors, curators, etc.. We are also happy to hear any feedback regarding usability, functionality or features you would like to see incorporated into the site for next year. We can’t promise everything will make it, but our goal is to make the site even better every year, so your feedback is extremely valuable. So share your stories or feedback with us!

I’m always interested in seeing other people’s setups and workflows. I almost always learn about a new piece of software or different way of doing things. So, inspired by a recent series of posts on waferbaby.com called THE SETUP, I decided to present my own.

Hardware:

I use a 20″ 2GHz iMac (aluminum) with 3GB RAM running 10.5.6, an external 22″ monitor, a Logitech MX Revolution mouse and a Apple aluminum keyboard. Modest hardware, but plenty of power for web development.

Software:

I’ve never been a fan of virtual workspaces until Leopard came out with Spaces, and even then, the kinks didn’t really get worked out until about 10.5.3. But now they’re an integral part of my daily workflow. I rarely have to minimize windows to try to find what I’m looking for, I can just switch spaces. With 2 monitors and 4 spaces, I usually have enough room to keep everything open at the same time without overlapping. I highly recommend taking another look at Spaces if you’ve avoided virtual workspaces in the past. I use Spaces mainly to partition apps into different tasks, so I’ll breakdown software I use by task.

Space 1: Administrative

In this space, I keep iChat, Mail, Gmail (in a Fluid SSB) and Safari with Basecamp and Harvest open in tabs. These are basically all the apps I use for basic communication and administrative tasks.

Space 2: Development

I’m a developer, so this by far where I spend most of my time. The most important here is TextMate, which is where most of my day is spent. By far the best and most customizable text editor I ever found. I use TextMate with the Railscasts theme since I much prefer light text on dark background when coding all day. Next is Firefox with Firebug and the Web Developer Toolbar extensions. My workflow is a lot of switching between TextMate and Firefox, coding and debugging. Firebug alone is why I use Firefox over another browser since it makes debugging web apps so much easier. I’m constantly outputting things to the console, viewing ajax requests, and checking how css styles are being applied.

I usually always have Terminal with a few tabs open for ssh’ing into a server, using subversion, or tailing some rails logs, and I use Transmit when I need to work off a remote server. I also use Sequel Pro for connecting to MySQL when possible.

Space 3: Design/Virtual Machines

I don’t spend a lot of time in this space, except for getting images from a design. For that I use Fireworks CS3 which I’m not a big fan off, but I hear CS4 is much improved. Also, in this space, I use VirtualBox with a Windows XP virtual machine for testing in IE6 and other windows browsers. VirtualBox may not be as full featured as Parallels or VMWare Fusion, but it’s free, open source, and so far I haven’t had any issues. It’s been working like a champ.

Space 4: Misc

In this space I keep iTunes, NetNewsWire, and Twitterific open. These are mostly some random apps that don’t fit anywhere else, but seem to go together.

Other

There are also some utility apps that I don’t use in a particular space, but can’t live without like QuickSilver and Growl. I also use The Unarchiver which is a great utitlity for uncompressing just about any type of file.

I think that about covers it for me. What does your setup look like?