1. Relevant.
   Does anyone care enough to read the entire thing? Make sure you have an audience, but do not be picky. The content may not be relevant to 98% of your sites users, but hopefully the other 2% will be delighted.
2. Unique.
   Can your readers get the same information somewhere else? People normally go straight to the highest authority.
3. Updated.
   Old news is old. Make sure you allocate resources to review the content. If you don’t publish relevant updates – some other site eventually will – and then you are no longer the highest authority on the matter.

Photo by Steve Rhodes on Flickr

From time to time I would also argue that availability is also key. Choose a publishing format that suits the content format and audience. That means no Flash based sites for you iPhone audience. And put your upcoming concerts list in a RSS feed. Etc.

 When you have all this in place, THEN you are allowed to look at how it’s presented.

• If they begin with the front page – take my advice and do not proceed with that company.
• If, on the other hand, they begin with any other page, (preferably with generic elements) – chances of them being total dorks are much smaller.

That’s at least my claim. Your mileage may vary.

The bad part

October 27. Ordered Holiday Cards+Envelopes and a stickerbook
November 3. Stickerbook ships.
November 7. Stickerbook arrives.
November 30. Holiday cards still marked as “printing”. Wrote to customer service.
December 1. moo.com: “Sorry. Your order was corrupted due to poor cropping of images. Coupon?”
December 3. Me: “Thats okay. Can you re-print the order?” 
December 3. moo.com: “Free coupon! Please don’t put text near the border due to cropping. Retry plz.”
December  4. Me (in a hurry): “I have no text in the images anywhere. I’m okay with white borders. Just print it anyway.”
December 9. Me: “Did you get my mail? Are you printing my holiday cards?”
December 11. moo.com: “We totally trashed your order ok? There – we said it. Coupon/refund?” 
December 11. Me (annoyed): “Refund plz”

The good part

December 13. I order a second batch of Holiday Cards. Being stubborn and all.
December 16. Second order is shipped. Express.
December 17. Refund for the October 30. order shows up on my bank account.
December 19. Second order arrives. Cards are looking great!
December 22. The Christmas Cards show up in the mailboxes of friends and family. They like.

How moo.com could let my “corrupted” order sit for more than a month without contacting me, still baffles me. But I’ll still recommend them. Just remember to check your order status.

Photo by zαxεr on Flickr

Yesterday I dropped by the humac (the biggest independent Apple reseller in Denmark) flagship store hoping to leave with a Time Capsule unit. After all – the Time Capsule is the #1 selling item on the Apple Store (in DK anyway) – so I kind off assumed that humac would stock them.

The response from the sales clerk was dissapointing: “No units in stock – but I could write you up for one. And we’ll give you a call once we have one for you.” I quickly remembered that I did the same thing in April. I actually have a piece of paper from humac, confirming that I have reserved a Time Capsule and that they would contact me. I have heard nothing from humac. No calls. No e-mail. Nothing.

“No thanks – I really don’t have time for that” I quickly responded and left the store.

In the afternoon, I went onto apple.com and ordered a Time Capsule (and some other stuff). The delivery estimate was Dec. 1 – Dec. 5. Around evening I received a shipment confirmation. The delivery estimate was now Nov. 25 – Nov. 28.

Just before lunch today I received a SMS telling me that my 2 parcels from Apple in Netherlands had arrived.

My conclusions:

• Physical shops will only survive if they have the goods in stock (or can get it faster that others can provide it).
• It is probably not fun being an icelandic owned company at the moment.
• I hope that the norwegian newcomer to the danish market, Eplehuset, have already learned that lesson. Maybe I’ll drop by their new shop, when they open and see.
• Apple knows how to pick logistics partners.

Anyway – I have now learned not to bother with physical shops with regards to Apple kit.

• iPhone 2.1 to 2.2 (I need streetview in Copenhagen)
• AppleTV 2.2 to 2.3
• Xbox old to Xbox new experience (Netflix not in DK)

Oh – and finally – this was posted from a new MacBook. Yay.

I’ve tried MOO.com, (UK based) which I’ve heard great things about. Their ordering and design interface (great UX and lots of ajax) certainly leaves the impression, that these guys know what they are doing. Received my stickers within 9 days, and while they are not flawless (mostly my own fault), they are most certainly usable. My christmas cards were ordered on October 27, but they are still marked with status “printing” under order status. It seems that the business processes are not as smooth as the ordering interface. I’d better contact MOO.com customer service.

I’ve tried the book-print-on-demand Lulu.com, (US based) which so far has been a disappointment. Only one of my 2 orders have been delivered (now 40+ days under way). It seems that the priority shipping option is a must for international deliveries. I’d better contact Lulu customer service.

I really hope that my luck with these on-demand printers change soon.

Update 2008/12/13: How about a custom propaganda poster

Thai Inside with its friendly staff is located at Dircksenstrasse 37, not far from Alexanderplatz.

Well, the first thing is to prioritize handling of the situation. Deal with it now. Secondly admitting failure and being open about it is crucial.

Earlier I wrote about SAS having some problems with an online campaign, and I wanted to add the last bit of communication from SAS to the story. After my (and others) bad experience, I received an apologizing email. The mail stated that they had been examining the logfiles of the (slooow) server, and they could see that I had initiated the campaign survey, but had not finished (presumably because of the server problems). In an attempt to make things good again, they assured that the problems had been fixed (which it seemed) and they had also doubled my chances in the price-give-away.

In conclusion, I believe that SAS actually did make the best of a bad thing. The customers affected were (almost) promptly identified, and contacted with an excuse and with a “token of appreciation”. Well done. It seems that you care a bit more about your customers than other large corporations.

The fries had to be made first, so I had to wait. I stepped aside and the briefcase-carrying guy next in line came forward to the register and ordered a Whopper and a Coke. He spoke english – but it was no problem for the girl behind the counter. She knew her script. He asked if he could pay with AmEx (he couldn’t), then with a mix of swedish and danish kroner (he couldn’t either) and finally produced a Visa card.

After a very short wait he got his food and he then proceeded to ask for the “shift manager”. The shift manager came up to the counter and asked how he could help.

“Hi, I’m Mike from [..? department.]. I’m here to do your OR..” [I'm guessing it's Operational Review]… He flashed an official Burger King ID card. (I want one of those!). I realised that his attempts to pay with different (invalid) methods had just been a test. 

“I’ll check the food now – and afterworth we can have a look at the paper-work..”

So now I know what I want to be when I grow up. An Undercover Burger King QA Field Agent.