Recently our company got a request from a prospect in the Netherlands. Everyone knows that when doing business globally references are one of the best ways to establish trust. So it was pretty usual for me when this potential customer asked to give him a couple of our references. Since most of our customers are in the USA our references are there as well. Hmm, did I forget to warn the prospect about something? Tada – time difference! Once again he was in Holland and reference in California, and that’s 10 hours of time lag. I only realized the damage this can make once the letter from a prospect came as quite a shock, albeit funny as hell:

“Lenny

I had a very unpleasant experience with your reference MYW Customer. I called him at 16:00 CET, but apparently it was 06:00 over there. Instead of kindly pointing out that it was very early, Mr. MYW Customer immediately starting calling me names and literally told me to ‘f**k off’.

I cannot understand that a president and CEO would behave this way. Therefore, we have decided to remove your organization from our short list.”

Regards,
Potential Customer

It was a stunning surprise for me since MYW Customer is a well-known internet entrepreneur in the area and is always willing to provide as many information to anyone as needed. And despite Americans are much less formal than Europeans I simply could not see our customer swearing at someone for just calling early. So I contacted him on Skype. You will pretty much figure it all out from the Skype chat:

[5:36:19 PM] MYW Customer says: here is the full story
[5:36:27 PM] MYW Customer says: I get a call at 6am
[5:36:31 PM] MYW Customer says: it woke me up
[5:36:37 PM] MYW Customer says: but I did not answer
[5:36:45 PM] MYW Customer says: so I look at the number on my caller id
[5:36:51 PM] MYW Customer says: 6502351014
[5:37:04 PM] MYW Customer says: I googled the number since i did not recognize it
[5:37:14 PM] MYW Customer says: http://phoneowner.info/Number.aspx/6502351014
[5:37:18 PM] MYW Customer says: that was the top result
[5:37:25 PM] MYW Customer says: then the guy calls back
[5:37:44 PM] MYW Customer says: I assume he is an identity theive, or atleast a telemarketer
[5:37:55 PM] MYW Customer says: I told him to suck a c**k and f**k off
[5:38:02 PM] MYW Customer says: he said thank you
[5:38:07 PM] MYW Customer says: and I hung up
[5:38:31 PM] MYW Customer says: send him this skype conversation, tell him I said I am sorry, and tell him to feel free to call me

As you can see by visiting link the reaction was that harsh not as much because of the timing but because of the VoIP hop number. Obviously, our customer was in no mood to give away his social security number or apply for another credit card at 6 AM that morning. Foreign accent of the caller gave our customer a hint to only use simple four-letter words anyone with basic English could understand.

Having existing customer curse at a potential customer – one could probably spend a lifetime trying to arrange it on purpose. However, miss some important details when doing routine marketing work and see sales department’s nightmare come true.

Tags: marketing fun, references, sales confusion, sales fun, sales joke
Posted in general thoughts, internet marketing | 5 Comments »

In the offices occupied by 50+ people those could be useful. Just theoretically though. Couldn’t go by without sharing this fun concept.

Tags: lunch, lunch bag
Posted in general thoughts | 1 Comment »

Keeping a web site updated is something that a lot of companies fail to do. Each 10th web site on the web seem to have outdated copyright string – without mentioning the actual web site content. The other interesting tendency is that a lot of web development companies are busy and consider updating their web site the last priority which puts their web site into ‘frozen’ status for years (they don’t eat their own cookies, hah?).

Here at MoveYourWeb we consider our web site to be a powerful marketing and sales tool. In fact this is our virtual front-end which customers see instead of our offices (you need to take the plane to visit us, which is not always quick and easy) so we need to make sure that we are displaying the updated and relevant information helping potential and existing customers explore our company and service offerings better.

Here goes the list of front end updates which happened during the first part of 2008:

• We added Case Studies section on the web site featuring the accomplished projects. You can browse and select case studies by service, solution, platform and industry. The old-styled web design portfolio section is not here any more (we evolved from being offshore web design studio 5-6 years ago into a reputable outsourcing company which handles sophisticated web development, animation and online marketing);
• Our home page became more interactive by displaying featured case studies, recent blog posts and even audio presentation of the company (JustMyVoice does perfect audio recordings). Our conversion rate increased by 2.1% after that step alone;
• Services page was sorted to display the most relevant information about over offerings;
• Partners page features our new Early stage startup funding program as well as Build-Operate-Transfer offering;
• 50% of the pages were updated to display latest information (e.g. seo page now proudly displays Google Certified label).

More updates are coming as this is typically an ongoing process. Stay tuned.

Tags: audio recordings, case studies section, portfolio section, web site maintenance, web site updates
Posted in general thoughts, management, outsourcing | No Comments »

Visitors of resort hotels are normally getting  questionnaire form at the last day of their stay – the one that asks to indicate if you are satisfied with the service level, quality of meals, swimming pools and many other things (the more expensive is the hotel the bigger the list is). Several times I’ve seen 2+ page questionnaires – all put under ‘help us serve you better’ sauce. The thinking I have in such times: please don’t waste my time asking to do homework with estimating the service by numbers of criteria. I’m having vacation here and have my own long to-do list. C’mon this is the last day of my trip and I still haven’t purchased souvenirs for my family and friends. I’ve seen some happy campers returning such maintenance along with the keys while they leave, however I always skip that (guess that the majority of regular travelers do the same). Those regular travelers are the most valuable customers: who will come again if they are satisfied, spend their vacation budget and pass the word around similar folks.

Now the solution to this could be use of ‘Thank you for your stay letter’ with the questionnaire form with the SINGLE question: Would you use our services again? YES/NO. Simple as that, takes 3 seconds to check the right box, doesn’t distract visitors and supplies the statistics to the management. Besides this is the role of management team to decide which service areas are worth improving and polishing. Customer cannot determine this, especially when important customers are passing this voting mechanism. Seeing if the customers are satisfied generally (e.g. 95% of visitors staying for a week stated that they would like to return in future). Those figures can be shared with the employees as well on weekly meetings as an immediate indicator of progress achieved. Very easy and that’s why powerful concept.

The management can even put this statistics on the web site and what’s more an established hotel review directory or tourist portal can launch a widget displaying such stats and allowing hotels to put on their web sites. As a result of this: a. visitors will be able to reply to the questionnaire online b. managers will upload all results stated in papers c. employees, managers, visitors will be able to see real stats online d. hotels will engage their audiences better e. online service providing this widget will get targeted traffic and free advertisement on the web sites on the hotels. Feel free to use this concept and make life of travelers better – fits perfect for established travel/holiday web portals.  Our web development department will be happy to assist with the widget development if needed.

Tags: hotel management, hotel questionnaires, resort hotels
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After finishing animation of virtual world for one of the major names in toys industry (under NDA) and before starting full-speed on the next BIG animation project (online multi-player game – more details are not disclosed at the moment) our animation folks spent some time creating something non-commercial and fun. We wanted to contribute to the animation community and created a show reel featuring the evolution theory in our own animated way.

Traditional show reel is a compilation of best effects or parts of accomplished projects demonstrating the genius and hard years of work. We took a little different approach this time. The idea was not just to shine without being present but create a cartoon short movie which can be watched by the audiences of all ages. If you have 2 spare minutes this is worth it.

For those of you wondering about the cost to create something similar: 136 seconds * $100/150 =$13.6/20.4k (typical rate for 2D animation on outsourced animation projects)

Tags: fun stuff, general thoughts
Posted in general thoughts | 1 Comment »

Here at MoveYourWeb we are excited about WEB emerging as a platform and continue supporting leading pioneering technology companies by assisting in creation of a leading web products and services. With the increasing (soon the word would be changed for dominating) popularity of online media over the traditional media (tv, newspapers, books) it’s fun to read a real book sometime on weekend. Googling the information is just the typical way it’s done so we need to get away sometimes too.

Reading traditional books (especially business books) is becoming more of a fun rather the part of self-improving or gaining the specific knowledge. It’s nice to touch the book and not just see at the screen of the laptop, share it with someone who can find the content useful. This weekend I’m reading Joel Spolsky’s Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent which our action script guru Dmitry shared with me as a must reading. While on it I have a few people in mind which I will definitely pass it further on. A lot of ’sales’ pitch in the book led me to the idea that business books are different from all other books, say cooking books. An author of a business book needs to convince the reader about the importance of the ideas contained in a book. He is giving the case studies proving the theory, showing the success stories and engaging the reader inside the business stories. At some point the business book becomes the adventure to the reader and kind of time waster – looks like the sales pitch keep 80% of the books content with 20% going to actual prescriptions.

With this said the reader should be actually prepared to reading. Take the sticky notes or paper and make notes all the time you drop on the information allowing to improve what you do at work! Remember: if you haven’t implemented at least three improvements after finishing reading the book during 1-3 weeks you waisted the time! It was just an adventure to you, when you were following the author but you missed the most important 20% of the book since you haven’t implemented it in the real life.

Tags: general thoughts, management
Posted in general thoughts, management | No Comments »

Whoever you are and whatever you do; it is not about how good you are and how good your songs, smiles, poems, door handles, decors, paintings, services and buns are.However, speaking about buns, you won’t gain much from the fact that they are known beyond your street and community. There is a chance that your buns will become a local attraction, so that every tourist will by all means drop in to taste them on the way to the art gallery. Still that tourist won’t be able to enjoy your buns for breakfast while at home.

If your activity is not very much dependant on time and location and you are not the sole service provider in the area, you certainly need advertising. If not advertising in its pure sense, then at least some efforts to make your business known beyond the circle of your actual clients, their friends and relatives.

There was a time when ads in the local newspaper would spread the word about you to everyone. Then came a time when you needed to bother about radio-coverage, publish a couple of leaflets, and, who knows, may be your city was big enough to have a TV channel.

Today, however, the issue of spreading information is not that simple. The thing is that the pool of information is bottomless. If you want to get your message through to me, for instance, it’s no use trying to do it with conventional advertising techniques. It was 1.5 years ago that I last saw a newspaper; I only occasionally come across a radio broadcast once in a couple of weeks; as for the television, I don’t watch it at all. And it’s not that I’m a snob who doesn’t care about the world around. The thing is that I don’t have time to follow all the information sources. And even if I did watch TV, how could one guess which of the dozens of channels I would pick that day. When there used to be only 3 TV channels, the term “information space” made some sense. But since their number saw an incredible increase, there have appeared numerous, practically isolated information spaces.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: adwords, facebook, general thoughts, google, MySpace, orkut, search engine optimization, SEM, SEO, SMO, web 2.0
Posted in SEO, general thoughts, web 2.0 | 1 Comment »

The list of public holidays in Belarus (MoveYourWeb development offices are located here) will help our customers and partners to make the appropriate financial planning as well as resource management for the year of 2008. In this list we reflected the holidays which are celebrated during the working days. This might change slightly during the year (+1/2 days as additional holidays might get announced). Isn’t it short?

1st of January – New Year

7th of January – Orthodox Christmas

1st of May – International Labor Day

6th of May – Commemoration Day

9th of May – Victory Day

3rd of July – Independence Day

7th of November – October Revolution Day

25th of December – Catholic Christmas

Hint: when the holiday falls on Saturday or Sunday in Belarus – it’s celebrated the same day and doesn’t get shifted to next Monday or previous Friday. This generally makes the short list of holidays even shorter.

Tags: general thoughts
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As 2007 draws to a close, everyone at MoveYourWeb would like to thank you for recognition and appreciation of our work. We enjoyed continuous rapid growth last year and are thankful for that! In a shortlist we remember the following about 2007:

- Full-circle Sales department setup;

- The list of technologies and project types was extended (facebook applications, social networking, media streaming, mobile games);

- A number of customers visited us in our offices in Belarus – which was productive and fun;

- Top professionals joined the company and the most talented been promoted;

- Huge number of projects was successfully accomplished;

- We celebrated our 6th year anniversary.

In 2008 we will continue to work day and night to exceed your expectations in MoveYourWeb as the outsourcing company of your choice. Our biggest goal for 2008 is to help you achieve your goals!

Thank you once again for your business! The entire MoveYourWeb team wishes you and your families and friends a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2008!

Tags: general thoughts
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Being an offshore outsourcing company, MoveYourWeb doesn’t regularly have face-to-face meetings with the customers. The distance prevents daily personal communication between our managers and customers. However, if you are contracting an outsourcing offshoring company and have a long-term relationship, it might be nice to visit the country that they are from, to see the office they are working in, get to know the employees who are performing work for you. This helps you establish solid long-lasting relationships with your offshore partner and contributes to thorough and fruitful cooperation.

MoveYourWeb Offshoring Web Development Company is located in Belarus (Eastern Europe) with its headquarters in Minsk, the capital, and the branch office in Homel. Located conveniently in Eastern Europe, Belarus is easy to reach from any spot of the world. Minsk has a newly renovated National Airport Minsk just 50 km (30 miles) from the city center, ultra-modern Central Train Terminal with regular trains between Minsk and practically every major capital in Europe; and a developed net of highways.

Belarus is blessed with gorgeous landscape defined by splendid foliage – and coniferous forests, numerous crystal-clear lakes, spectacular rivers and immense green fields. Our climate is quite comfortable for all foreigners who come here. With warm and moist summers and mild, yet sometimes snowy, winters, Belarus sees about 175 sunny days a year. Belarus is known for its diverse culture, including visual arts, ceramics and music, unsurpassed Belarusian cuisine, and kind attitude to the foreigners.

MoveYourWeb will help our partners who wish to visit Belarus arrange a business trip. We’ll handle the official invitation for our partners to obtain a business visa to Belarus. The easiest and most popular way to get Belarussian visa is upon arrival (the belarussian officials will stamp it right in the Airport). The fee for visa upon arrival is $180 for US citizens. As soon as you arrive, we’ll pick you up at the airport and assist you in terms of accommodation and other things you might need. We’ll take special care of your visit so that you feel maximum of comfort on your business trip.

You will definitely like Minsk, which, yet big and busy, is kept surprisingly clean and pleasant to live and to stay, while numerous parks and green areas create an oasis of peace among the city’s hustle and bustle. Minsk offers a variety of accommodation options for your convenient stay, but, to be honest, our hotels are not our strong side – they provide an average level of comfort at a price of $60-160 per night for a single room, and $100-200 per night for a double. New grand 5-star hotels are being under construction at the moment, and very soon Minsk will offer its guests world-class accommodations in hotels. By now, if you are seeking luxury and maximum of comfort, we can arrange a super luxury apartment with all the modern amenities you can imagine – located in the city center, penthouse at a price of $250 per night.

When it comes to eat, Minsk offers a number of choices to enjoy your meal varying from grand and expensive restaurants to small cafes and take-aways. You will be able to indulge in delicious Belarusian, Italian, French, American, Japanese, and Mediterranean cuisine at modern and immaculately decorated restaurants with excellent service: James, Saloon, Westfalia, Casa Agustin Lopez, 7 Tonn, and hundreds of others welcome you to try fantastic culinary masterpieces created by their talented cooks.

Now, as you arrived, unpacked your things, refreshed a bit, and had a lunch or dinner – it is high time for a business meeting. The typical itinerary for the day is as follows:

1-00 pm assistant of the CEO picks the customers and drives to the office

1-30 pm – introductions

2-00 pm – project meetings

3-00 pm – break

3-15 pm – project meetings

4-30 pm – lunch

5-30 pm – project meetings

6-00 pm – assistant drives the customer to the hotel/restaurant/any

place of interest

11-30 pm – chill out in a night club.

We also recommend not to plan any project meetings for the first and the last day of your stay so you can recover after the flight and have time to pack/unpack the suits.

Having a spare weekend is a nice opportunity to see the stunning places of interest such as Opera and Ballet Theatre, Victory Obelisk, Cathedral (catholic) of Simeon and Alyona, Minsk Botanical Garden, Trinity Suburb (where our office is located by the wayJ) in Minsk itself; or visit some nice Belarusian historic places in the Minsk District, including Mir Castle, Palace-and park ensemble in Nesvizh, Historic Museum in Dududki, Khatyn Memorial, Stalin Line; unique parks and preserves, like Belovezhskaya Pushcha, and Berezinski Preserve.

It seems like your business trip is going to be very saturated, and it is not only business but also discovery! Our company will give you assistance in all your matters while you are in Belarus. But before, please, read some of our practical tips

Practical Tips:

• Language

People in Belarus speak Russian. Even though most of people study English at school, language problems may arise sometimes (but not with MoveYourWeb employees), so don’t be surprised in case you can not communicate with regular people on the streets.

• Cash & ATMs

There are many ATM machines in all major cities. However, having some money in cash is necessary, because credit cards are not widely accepted. Money is Belarusian ruble and its current rate is here. You may get Belarusian money from currency exchanges, which can be found in abundance in all Belarusian towns. Euros and dollars are okay in many places. You will be able to get Belarusian rubles in any ATM located at in the nearest shop, there are some specific ATM’s allowing dollar/euro withdrawals.

• Hygiene & Health

Tap drinking water is typically safe – you don’t have to boil it or anything. Epidemiological situation is reasonable – close as in US or Western Europe. No malaria here

• Communications

There are Internet cafes in Minsk and other cities, which provide cheap, but usually slow Internet access. Also many postal offices offer have Internet services. Public phones use cards only, which can be bought from newsagents. You may always go to the Postal office in Minsk, which provides internet access 24-hours every day.

• Tips

Generally you should give tips only in the restraints – which is not obligatory as well. If you pay by credit card you will not be able to specify a tip amount. So just leave some cash (5% of the order) while leaving.

Belarus is located in Europe and there is no big cultural difference from other developed countries so generally all other popular rules apply here. All customers who visited our company or Belarus in general are welcome to comment and share their experience in regards their stay.

Tags: belarusian offshoring company, explore Belarus, general thoughts, Minsk, offshore Belarus
Posted in general thoughts | 1 Comment »