customization

Power Downloader customizes his desktop

While Power Downloader was sifting through criminal case files recently, he received an e-mail from Kitty Kilobyte who had gone back to school. After telling him of her latest "impossible" assignments and new "amazing" friends she had made, Kitty had an interesting software request. Kitty wanted some way to make her computer stand out from the rest of her classmates. She figured, if she's the niece of a famous software superhero, it should show--perhaps even if it's just in her computer's interface.… Read more

Build the garage of your dreams

So you just picked up a new Enzo at the friendly neighborhood Ferrari dealer and are bringing it home for the first time. As the garage door rises, it hits you: How can you possibly park a world-class sportscar here with all this mess?

If you're like many American homeowners and suffer from Ugly Garage Syndrome, this may well be of interest--with or without a multimillion-dollar car collection. An Arizona-based outfit called GarageMahals will design and construct a luxury garage to your custom specifications for prices ranging from $50 to $125 per square foot, offering such amenities as steel … Read more

Suing, instead of serving customers at Lowes

I read with interest about Lowes (DIY/home improvement store in the US) and its attempts to silence a critical customer with a trademark infringement suit. Give me a break. Yes, Lowes (and everyone else) should protect its trademarks, but when you look into the facts of the case, it's fairly clear that trademarks aren't at issue.

Shoddy customer service is. Perhaps Lowes should care more about what this customer is saying rather than how the customer is saying it. I suspect doing the first item will take care of the second.

From the article:… Read more

Crazy company name alert: Get Satisfaction Unlimited

Sometimes, you can just be too direct.

VentureWire announced today that a company called Get Satisfaction Unlimited, which provides a forum for consumers to discuss customer service issues, has secured $1.3 million in funding from First Round Capital, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and a group of individual investors.

It's a great idea. But there are probably a lot of names that wouldn't make a 13-year old laugh. Kvetch.com, Alwaysright.com, Whining Old Ladies. If I were a naming consultant, popping off those three would probably net me $50,000. Not bad for 45 seconds of labor. … Read more

Is out, er, "crowdsourcing" of support possible?

Tim O'Reilly writes glowingly about O'Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures' latest investment in Satisfaction. It's kind of a dumb name for a company (sounds more like an adult novelty store than a customer-support site), but the premise behind the company is interesting, though I'm not yet sure how practical:

Satisfaction is people-powered customer service for everything. It's a Web service that uses "community-sourcing" to provide better support for products and services, with or without company involvement. Satisfaction's open discussion-based system allows companies, their customers and partners to work together to answer questions, identify problems and bugs, share great ideas for how to make products better, and connect in unexpected ways.

It sounds like a reasonable way to harness the web-based support that already happens around companies, both open- and closed-source alike. But will it work? And do we want it to?… Read more

"Your call is very important to us..."

No, it's not. If it were I wouldn't still be on hold for 43 minutes. And if I were so important I wouldn't be speaking to a know-nothing idiot from God knows where, who doesn't even understand my question.

Lets face it, customer service can be a cruel joke. And sure, there are exceptions. I was truly impressed with Lexicon's staff; their tech crew was absolutely top notch and I didn't have to punch my way through an automated phone directory hell to get to the right person. Lexicon is a high-end audio manufacturer; … Read more

My Custom Product Designer (iPhone App)

We bet you never thought you could one day design shirts from your phone, but with My Custom Product Designer, you can. With this little application for iPhone, you can design any number of shirts, hats or other items at CafePress.com. Simply start with a blank T-shirt and add text and artwork to make your ideal design.

iPhone Link: http://www.cafepress.com/iphonecart

Nikon tops SLR customer satisfaction survey

Update 11:25 a.m. PDT: Some folks seem confused about what exactly J.D. Power and Associates is measuring, so I've added some more detail about the study and about Sony's rating.

Well, this news isn't going to go over well at Canon.

According to a new survey by J.D. Power and Associates, Nikon is the clear leader in customer satisfaction among digital SLR (single-lens reflex) customers in the United States. Adding insult to injury, SLR newcomer Sony came in second.

The survey doesn't measure product quality, but rather how happy more than 7,… Read more

Former Alienware developer invades the customized-PC space

The wacky Web 2.0 train has just collided with the computer hardware industry.

The idea of user-generated PCs isn't groundbreaking, but the level of creative control that buyers have is broadening. Take NVousPC, for instance (after you've figured out how to pronounce it, of course. Take your time). The new company, launched today, hopes to cash in on consumers who want to exercise complete control over the appearance of their notebooks.

The president and co-founder of NVousPC is former Alienware product development engineer Oscar Zapata. He escaped from his former employer a week before the company was snapped up by Dell. … Read more