Has this ever happened to you?
You get a call from somebody who says call me back on my cell. You get the message and call them back. They answer and then get huffy, snippy or downright rude because you interrupted them. They have caller id and I don't block my number, soooo, they know it is me. Telling me, jezz I'm in a meeting and can't be disturbed makes no sense at all. It happened 3 times yesterday with different people in various stages of a snit.
Don't answer the phone if you don't want to be bugged would seem to make sense.
But this revelation caused me to have one of those Seth Godin, Purple Dip, Free Cow Inside kinda moments that should be very helpful to you as you roll out your start up.
People are creatures of habit and this is very powerful thing to overcome. Take our investment in Tungle, for example. Over the last two weeks, I've been scheduling meetings with parties all over the globe. The endless rounds of email with is this day good for you, but not him, only at 2p, etc, etc, is driving me nuts. Tungle will solve it from a technology perspective but as Marc and I have discussed, the scary unknown is breaking people's email time wasting habits. Painful problem and still the creature of habit problem lingers.
For you and your start up? What habits do people have as they relate to your product or service? Are you making people change? A little? A lot? And the reward for this change? Is it life changing?
Habits -both good and bad- are very very hard to change and this needs to be factored into your plans.
I'm probably the worst person when it comes to answering my phone. I don't like phones in general, but I get the opposite all the time.
If it isn't convenient for me to answer my phone, I simply don't. If someone doesn't leave a voicemail, I don't call them back. I'm easily reachable by email (mobile or otherwise), IM and my voicemail is always on and I always listen.
So then why do people get irritated when I don't answer my phone? I swear you can't win on this :)
Posted by: J. Shirley | May 31, 2007 at 11:41
Interesting and absolutely true. We are creatures of habit, and sometimes we get inefficient habits that make us waste 10 seconds each time, but we do this 50 times a day, so it adds up...
My pet peeve is people who send me emails (using Outlook) with times and dates for meetings/calls. HELLO! This is what the meeting request feature is for!
Posted by: Rani | May 31, 2007 at 17:43
My product is a cheap "digital sign" -- essentially, it lets you put content from your computer into the physical locations you want it. But up till now, people are used to living in 2 worlds, the computer/internets/online world and the "offline" world, otherwise known as RL (Real Life).
I'm bridging that gap...I believe many people want this kind of solution...but they're used to living separately in the 2 worlds (online/offline). Your point definitely applies -- breaking habits is the same as breaking expectations of what is possible and what isn't.
Posted by: Eric | June 01, 2007 at 06:17
I'm glad Tungle received investment. I was really surprised that the Under the Radar judges simply did not get it. They critized the interface and all sorts of insignificant details, completely ignoring the magnitude of the problem it solves.
Go Tungle! :-)
Posted by: Zoli Erdos | June 04, 2007 at 09:34
My background: By Day-Senior Project Manager By Night-Founder of a kick booty Web 2.0 app that is going to rock it!....sorry got sidetracked, back to my point.
So (by day) I manage the entire SDLC of all our products all whilst mentoring the functional and technical project managers. That being said I send out a crapload of meeting invites and finding a time that works for 25 Director, VP and execs sucks, and we are all on the same server/app .
I'm going somewhere with this I promise!
So I checked out Tungle and it looks pretty sweet but to make it so sweet it'll rot your teeth out I suggest having the ability to push a button and have the application tell me the next time slot available for the entire list of people I need to get in a room. It's amazing someone hasn't created this 'button'!?!? If Tungle added this option I'd get a PO written the day it was implemented. I mean wading through 25 peoples calendars trying to find an hour open is an extreme time waster. WOOH...I'm glad I got that out and yep...I'm done venting.
Posted by: Apartment211.com | June 04, 2007 at 19:42
Thanks for the support guys. Indeed we are addressing a real pain.
I believe that good technology becomes transparent in people’s lives. There is a transition period, but with time, it becomes so natural that it is second nature. That's what we want to do with Tungle.
P.S. If it takes a button to solve your problem - consider it done ;)
Posted by: Marc Gingras | June 05, 2007 at 04:03