I bought my iPad from an Apple store. I didn’t order it online, and I didn’t just run down to the nearest big box electronics store. Both of these options would have been easier and more convenient. I specifically held out until I could make a trip to an Apple store because every time I’m in one I have a great experience and I learn something new.

This time was no different. I learned about their in-store ordering and delivery system, which allows the “genius” who you get assigned the minute you walk through the door, to complete the order on any of the available devices in the store and get it hand delivered to you in a matter of minutes by a runner from the back warehouse. And while you wait the minute or so to get your new equipment, it leaves a perfect opportunity to ask any last minute questions or shop for the must-have accessories.

Once the equipment arrives, and you have your accessories picked out, they scan your loot with tricked-out iPhones that process the order and credit card payment. And then you’re on your way, with the sales person who guided you throughout the entire process and never left your side for one second, walking you out the door.

Talk about seamless. And reassuring. Exciting. Addicting. Profitable!

Picking peaches was great–we talked to the owner of the small orchard for awhile about what to look for in a good peach, and I of course asked about proper picking technique (which annoyed my more experienced wife). Anyway, we picked our peaches, drove to their house to pay, and had a short conversation about finding something to eat in the nearby small town. The daughter who weighed our baskets was pretty sure we could go to the cafe on Main Street, so we paid, thanked her, and went on our way to find the restaurant she had described.

As we were driving, I got a phone call from a strange number. It was the owner of the orchard calling to tell us that she had heard we were looking for something to eat and her daughter had been unsure if the cafe she had recommended really was open. So the owner took it upon herself to call all of the restaurants in the tiny town to check their hours. Sure enough, the recommended cafe was closed, but the next door pizza place would be happy to stay open for us if we were already on our way.

Wow. Talk about amazing customer service. Both businesses went out of their way to work together to accommodate us out of town strangers for no good reason. We weren’t asking for anything special and we weren’t spending much money at either place, but both made an incredibly strong impression by making a small and inexpensive but valuable (to the us, the customer) extra effort. It made me want to give them even more of my business and promote them to everyone I see for the rest of the picking season.

Pretty powerful stuff. I sure hope our company is doing one-tenth as well in serving our customers.

Oh, and if you’re anywhere near Whitewater Kansas, be sure to stop at Entz orchard off of Hwy 196 and Webb road, and then head down to Whitewater Pizza for dinner….

Today we’re proud to introduce fhdMail, a new email marketing campaign manager from Flint Hills Design.

We’ve been doing HTML email campaigns for a while now, and they’ve been great. But, being the perfectionists that we are, we started wondering if there was a better way.  And so we created fhdMail.

We invite you to read about why fhdMail is better than your standard email campaign delivery service by visiting the website.  But we’ll give you one concrete reason why fhdMail is better right now: the cute, furry little prairie dog character that we’ve affectionately named Flint.  I mean, who wouldn’t enjoy being greeted and guided by this fun little guy in the midst of serious marketing work?

To learn more about how Flint and fhdMail can help your organization do effective email marketing, give us a shout. We know you’ll enjoy it.

Phoenix felt like a place with way too much money that grew far too fast. Companies sprung up all over the place but were firecrackers then fizzled. Acres upon acres of car lots seemingly overflowing with the latest and most expensive models sitting full but lifeless, abandoned. Endless office buildings with for sale/lease/rent signs posted on all sides, competing for space with the ancient saguaro cacti relegated to narrow patches of immaculate landscaping. It made me wonder why we try to force so many things that seem unnatural and out of place with the environment.

For the marketing purposes of my trip, it made me realize the importance of highlighting a good company’s history and vitality. Those companies which are doing good work and thriving, even in this down economy, would benefit from not hiding this fact. Likewise, companies with long histories and scores of satisfied customers might benefit from making their history known.  They should be proud, and their customers should be proud, that the products or services they sell were valued in the past and still are today, despite all the economic ups and downs…

What Are You Talking About?

For those of you who have no idea what we’re talking about, we decided to have a little party.  We invited around 150 of our close friends to come check out our new building and see what we were working on.  We sent out the invites through nicely designed HTML emails and by creating a Facebook event:

HTML Email Invite

Facebook Event Invite

Tracking and Reports

We also decided to track the activity generated by the process, and then turn that into a very brief report that we could give to interested attendees, to show one aspect of the work we do.

Tracking Report

After graduating from Bethel College (KS) with degrees in mathematical sciences and physics, Joel went on to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to earn a Masters of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering degree. He then spent a year in Monteiro Brazil, working with the Mennonite Central Committee’s Serving and Learning Together (SALT) program.

Joel brings an amazing analytical mind to the Flint Hills Design team, and will be in charge of taking our web analytics work to the next level. He will also be working to help us to design more effective marketing campaign strategies, structured for easy measurement and analysis.

We’re hopeful that the new space will give us a chance to bring a new level of attention to our work and facilitate some of our larger collaborative projects.

Oh, and we love to grill for all of our friends and clients so please stop by to see us!

The Process Communication Model (PCM) acknowledges the idea that different kinds of personalities respond to different styles of communication, and provides the tools necessary to identify those personalities and deliver your message in a way that recipient will respond to.

As a skeptic of most personality models, I went into the training with a relatively closed mind.  But through the course of the week I became increasingly convinced that this model has much to offer for practical application, whether or not you believe all of the tenants set forth (I should say that at this point I have no reason not to agree with everything that was taught!).

One of the most intriguing aspects of the model is its ability to predict behavior. It was amazing to witness everyone in the room light up when one person would start to explain scenarios from their personal or professional lives and the rest of the participants would be able to essentially finish the story for them, having never met any of the characters involved!

I would recommend working with Nate Regier of Next Element Consulting to anyone who is interested in improving their communication and relationship management skills.

However, I’ve found that many groups have a very shallow understanding of these tools–mostly name recognition from an article proclaiming the miraculous power of social media and demanding all business get involved right now!

I think that many businesses (and individuals for that matter) can benefit from joining conversations online, but I always encourage learning about the options and ways to most effectively utilize the tools before simply diving right in. Perhaps more importantly, you need to understand how much work will be involved in maintaining your presence.

Gardening Metaphor

In addition to common sense, I’ve found that a gardening metaphor can be useful in helping to understand the requirements of a successful social media campaign.  In a recent blog post, David Armano provided a very easy to remember and understand version of the gardening metaphor. He breaks it down into three parts:

• Seeding
• Feeding
• Weeding

To add my own explanation to his memorable framework…

Seeding involves

• Identifying your goals and the best tools for the job – choosing your plant varieties
• Setting up accounts and creating initial content – planting the seeds
• Beginning to engage others in the conversation – root stimulator

Feeding involves

• Creating content that provides value to your prospective readers – watering your plants

Weeding involves

• Monitoring your efforts, and removing those that seem detrimental to the health of your campaign – weeding and pruning your plants

Of course, no gardening metaphor would be complete without identifying the fruits of your labor! As in gardening, the payoff can be truly rewarding.  Cultivating loyal followers who find value in your offerings can easily be translated into improvements to your bottom line, by establishing your expertise in a field you may realize that opportunities find you rather than you needing to seek them out, and perhaps most importantly, you may find that the effort you put in is multiplied through the natural process of growth!

Cherries from our orchard

Anderson is providing an unabridged audiobook for free; the abridged version is available for purchase.