Infinite Web Design

AxiomTV is now in a private Beta. We’ve got everything working well and are working up to our public launch. If you are interested in being a part of the private beta please contact us. Content owners and distributors who just want to preview the site are also welcome.

We’re pleased to announce another new site launch. Mandy & Pandy’s new website is online and taking pre-orders for Mandy & Pandy Say Ni Hao Ma?, the first in a 12 book series. We worked with the books author and illustrator to launch the site as well as creating a complete identity system including business cards, postcards, letterhead, order sheets, and banners, all in time for the Toy Fair 2007 in New York City.

We’re glad to be a part of this project. Mandy & Pandy books teach kids Chinese quickly and easily, rather like Dora the Explorer teaches Spanish. We’re glad to be able to offer not just our web design services but also to help with the marketing, print design, and business processes as the Mandy & Pandy enterprise gets off the ground. Brad and I have been working closely with the author and illustrator to help them deliver their vision to people.

Chris Lin, the author and creator of Mandy & Pandy, will be making appearances at local schools to read Mandy & Pandy to elementary classes. If you’d like him to read at your school in Metro Detroit just contact Chris or contact us and we’ll let him know.

Brad posed the question of whether spending money for quality design work is a good business decision. I’ve been thinking on that this week and in my biased opinion it absolutely, without question, depends on the business and project in question.
Continue reading Good Design IS Good Business

The Henry Ford HealthCore site we launched a few months ago has been nominated for an award, the Troy Chamber of Commerce 2006 Helen eWard for Web Excellence in the eCommerce category. We’re proud to see that the site is being recognized by this organization.

There will be a luncheon on Friday, October 13 to honor the finalists and winners. Richard Sheridan of Menlo Innovations will be speaking. He is a bright guy from a great company, and that alone should be worth the price of admission. The luncheon is open to the public. Tieckets are $35 Troy Chamber members / $40 Non-members / $30 per person price for employees of vendor companies. RSVP to 248-641-8151 or theteam@troychamber.com.

Crash Ads is our latest venture. We’re working with truckers and advertisers to place billboards on the sides of semi trailers. Crash Ads works with both independent operators and fleets and matches them up with advertisers who need to get their message out.

You can learn more at www.CrashAds.com.

We’re excited about this project, we think it’s a winning prospect for all parties, the truckers can earn extra money to defray rising gasoline costs (semis get crummy mileage) and advertisers get their message in front of tons of people on roads around the country for a reasonable cost. If you are a trucker, fleet operator, or advertiser please check out Crash Ads and get in touch with us.

I had a terrible experience today with DIRECTV. I recently ordered a Phillips DIRECTV DVR with TiVo. On the website it described all of the wonderful features available and I had been happy with the service at my parents’ house where they use an old RCA UltimateTV. I have setup my new DVR and started using it only to find that the software is outdated and the hardware is crippled. The software is TiVo version 3.1, which would be fine if the current version of TiVo wasn’t 7. DIRECTV says on their website that they are rolling out upgrades to version 6.2 but they shipped me a new box without the upgrade, f’ing brilliant. They also failed to mention that all of the cool home networking features were disabled and the USB and other ports would not work on the box I got. Nothing better than paying for hardware that might as well be a shiny river rock.
Continue reading Tell the Truth Upfront

Keith recently wrote about a really bad customer experience he had at Overstock.com. I feel badly for him but it also got me thinking about how rarely I see rants about great customer experience online and I’d like to change that.
Continue reading Great Customer Experiences

There are some really great ideas out there on how you interact with your customers. Some companies survive because customers have no choice but to rely on them. The power and gas companies tend to fall into this category. However, most companies have competition, often fierce, that is actively trying to crush them and take their market share. These companies have to work hard to keep their edge and draw customers. There are some people out there with truly original, innovative, and sometimes radical ideas on how to do this (we are of course among them but today I want to point out some additional resources).
Continue reading Rethinking Customer Relations

Do you reek of fear? When you go to the zoo do the lions look at you through the bars like their next meal? Do small children throw pennies at your head and laugh when you shout at them? Do your customers have any respect at all for your integrity or character? If you sense you’re failing this pop quiz perhaps you should read over James Archer’s recent post at Strange Brand. Mr. Archer takes on Adobe, Microsoft, and other companies that have let fear of failure overcome any ability they may have had to openly communicate with their customers and the general public.
Continue reading Fear Smells Bad On You

Coudal Partners prefers to use a conversational tone in their work. That works for them but is not for everyone. The tone that you adopt in your advertising, website, brochures, e-mails, and phone calls should be a conscious decision. Your organization should be actively deciding how you will talk to people. Are you formal, conversational, informal, respectful, abrupt, curt, glib, irreverent? Do you know how you come across to others? Actively employing a consistent style of communication changes your brand and corporate identity in the eyes of your customers and business partners and can even effect how well your employees do their jobs.
Continue reading How do you say hello?