Ideas Archives
By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Feb 8, 2010
Unless you have the luxury of having no competitors, then you probably have at least some interest in keeping tabs on your competition. For example, perhaps you're a banker and want to stay abreast of your competitor's mortgage interest rates. But what's the easiest way to do that? If your competitor offers a rate notification service, you could sign up for that and just wait for the emails to arrive. If they don't offer that service, then you could periodically remember to visit their website to veiw rates. But there's a faster, easier way you can keep tabs on not only their rates, but any other changes they make to their website. I'll explain in this screen cast how to use Google Reader to monitor your competitor's website in a way that will automatically notify you anytime content changes.
Continue reading "Using Google Reader to Monitor Competitor Websites for Changes" »
By Jason Sherrill
Posted on May 18, 2009
If you've ever called your utility company, credit card company or any large corporation, you've likely experienced the frustration of sitting on hold for painfully long periods of time. Some companies have helpful phone systems that will tell you that you're caller number X in the queue, or that your expected wait time is Xteen minutes. That's cool, and helpful, but today I saw something on one of my banking websites that I think raises the bar for companies providing telephone customer service.
Continue reading "Might this visibility increase the attention this bank gives to reducing wait times?" »
By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Mar 6, 2009
Have you ever sent a hasty response to an email and wish you'd worded it a bit more gently? Or sent something with an incorrect attachment? Or even forgot the attachment? I suspect I'm not alone in answering "Yes!" to each of these. It doesn't happen nearly as often though since I employed the "Wait 5 Minutes" rule. It's saved at least a few eggs from covering my face and could do the same for you. Let me tell you how.
Continue reading "Ever Send an Email You Wish You Hadn't?" »
By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Feb 19, 2008
One of the easiest methods to quickly collect customer feedback is via online surveys, posted either on your website or distributed via email. Since few website content management systems (CMSs) offer survey tools and third-party products can be expensive and cumbersome to install, not many small and mid-size banks and credit unions use online surveys.
Using a new feature in Google spreadsheets, anyone can easily create, distribute and analyze online surveys. Best of all, it's free! Let me show you how to get started.
Continue reading "Post Online Surveys to Your Bank Website for Free" »
By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Oct 24, 2007
Two gas stations I frequent are so close to being able to take more of my money, more often, if they'd just take their on-pump video advertising one step further. Here's my idea.
Continue reading "Idea: Take Gas Pump Advertising One Step Further" »
By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Aug 7, 2007
Last week, I told you how to setup a Subversion server on Windows to help manage your software source code. Subversion makes it easy to go back in time to see what has changed in your code between versions; you can even roll back to a previous version with a few simple clicks. But software source code isn't the only data that Subversion can help you manage; here are a few ways that everyday people (i.e., non-programmer types) can Subversion to make computing safer and easier.
Continue reading "A Few Unconventional Uses for Subversion" »
By Donovan Myers
Posted on Aug 5, 2007
Comments (2)
From time to time, I manage to impress our clients, as well as Jason, by using a simple technique in Adobe Photoshop to add rounded corners to a photo. I came up with my own method of rounding corners when I was first learning Photoshop over 8 years ago. Over the years I have simplified and improved my method.
Continue reading "Adding rounded corners to photos and other visual elements with Photoshop" »
By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Jun 17, 2007
My friend Sharon is a realtor in Michigan, and Michigan's housing market is about the worst in the U.S. this year. Sharon has actually been selling more homes than most of her peers, but she said her marketing costs have increased since homes are sitting on the market from six to 18 months or longer, thus requiring longer ad runs. We talked about using her website to advertise her listings, which she uses extensively. She said that online virtual tours are hugely popular with internet savvy buyers, but they hire an outside firm to produce them and they're expensive. While iPix and similar systems produce great results, any realtor can create her own virtual tour with 30 minutes, a $150 Canon digital camera and the free PhotoStitch software that comes with it.
Continue reading "why every realtor should own a Canon digital camera" »
By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Jun 11, 2007
Today I stopped at Meijer on my way home from work. As usual, there were only 10 or 12 checkout lines open, each with three or more people waiting in line. My strategy for choosing which line to wait in is pretty basic. I look for the line that has the fewest total items, not people, in front of me. Three carts with 20 products in each equals 60 items. I also try to guess whether the cashier is a rookie or seasoned professional. That's all the criteria I can think of to use.
Tonight, I chose a line with 60 to 80 items, and what I thought was a seasoned professional. I waited in line for 16 minutes. I chose the wrong line. But in that 16 minutes, I realized that it would be incredibly simple for Meijer to provide shoppers with a reliable method to guess which line will move fastest.
Continue reading "a simple idea to make choosing the fastest checkout line easy" »
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