SmugMug's Don MacAskill

Walter Mossberg recommends SmugMug in last weeks Mossberg’s Mailbox. There’s a lot of pain with many online photo-sharing sites, especially because many of them will hold your original photos hostage and delete them with little-to-no notice. I’m honored that he would recommend us to anyone feeling the pain from sub-par photo-sharing sites.

You see, Walt Mossberg is the world’s premiere technology journalist because he’s different. Instead of approaching technology from a geek’s point of view, where the technical specs, the buzz, and what the technology is supposed to accomplish is king, he approaches it from a consumer’s point of view: how well does it work, how easy is it to use, and how reliable is it. And then he tells you how it really is, no holds barred.

Pillars of the tech world such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates hang on his every word. AFAIK, he’s the only one to actually get them on stage together at the same conference. For the record, he doesn’t pull any punches at D, either – he asks the hard questions that actual consumers would ask if only they could get their hands on Steve or Bill for a few minutes.

I remember sitting in his office last year, watching him nod his head and resonate with much of what we had to say. It was thrilling. But the best part came when he asked us the really hard questions. The kind that make me want to rush back to the office and feverishly work on improvements right that second. The one I remember most was “Are my photos stored in multiple locations?” I was honest – we kept multiple copies of each photo, but only in one location. Clearly, he wasn’t buying it. And his point was a valid one – every year we have customers who are overjoyed to find out the photos they lost in the hurricane/earthquake/fire were safe and sound at SmugMug. Our data is extremely valuable to our customers.

We’re a customer-focused, customer-driven company. I’m afraid to say we don’t have much time to do competitive research because we’re too busy acting on customer suggestions and feedback. I wish I could say that I give every customer’s input the same weight I gave Walt’s, but it just isn’t true – the double-whammy of being a journalist I respect greatly and a customer gave him an edge. We put multiple locations high on the list, and we now have it – our photos are stored in multiple datacenters, in multiple states, at multiple companies. And one of those companies is worth billions.

For many other journalists, singling us out like he did would take courage. Afterall, we spend all of our time and energy answering customer emails and making the product better while our competitors are from huge companies with huge PR departments who go to all the trade shows, conventions, and call the journalists non-stop to sell their wares. But for Walt, I’m sure this didn’t pose a problem. He and his assistants actually use the products rather than just listening to the company’s pitch. His only criteria is the quality, reliability, and accessibility of the product, not the amount of PR dollars you spend.

We’re honored to be on his radar.

By now, you’ve probably heard – Apple is finally providing DVD resolution full-length movie downloads. Better yet, they have a set-top box arriving in Q1 2007 and it sounds like it’s close to perfect. It’s not going to try to be some crazy media-center that replaces your DVD player and your TiVo and everything else. Instead, or so we hope, it’ll just focus on finally bringing downloadable content into your home theater.

But there are a few gotchas in the picture. The biggest one is so obvious, I can’t believe Apple hasn’t thought of it. Let me break it down, even though you probably already get this. Everyone gets it – but Apple.

• Most people like to buy or subscribe to music, not rent it. Why? Because you listen to your favorite songs hundreds and thousands of times.
• Most people like to rent their movies. Why? Because you don’t watch the average movie more than once, and even the above average movie more than a few times. Only an exceptional few really get watched over and over again (Disney, luckily for Apple, happens to generate a ton of these with their children’s movies.)

So where on earth is the humongous-rental-store-in-the-sky that’s open 24/7 for us?

People love pay-per-view because they get instant gratification. People hate pay-per-view because the selection sucks.

People love Netflix because the selection rocks. People hate Netflix because they don’t get instant gratification.

Does it really take a rocket scientist to see what Apple’s pre-announcement today should have been? Apple’s codename iTV should really be the “$299 24/7 gigantic rental store in your living room” device. Hopefully Netflix does it right and then Apple will see the light.

Oh, and what’s up with Dolby Surround in the downloads? Dolby Digital has been around a long time and it’s the de-facto standard. Why go with an ancient surround format?

PS – I know this is shameless, but if anyone from TiVo reads my blog, I’d dearly love to beta test the Series 3. We’d like to get SmugMug working on it. 🙂

EDIT: Wow, what timing. Series 3 is available for purchase today. Already ordered mine. Thanks TiVo!

At SmugMug, we pride ourselves on our customer service. We think it’s one of the key things that sets us apart from our competitors and we spend a lot of time focusing on it. Every SmugMug employee works a customer service shift every week. Think about it – how many web properties can you think of that provide over-the-top customer service?

I was lucky enough to stay at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay over the weekend for my 6th wedding anniversary (and first overnighter away from the twins!). I had heard of the Ritz’s reputation for service, of course, but I’ve stayed at nice hotels before. Just how great could it be?

Boy, was I in for a wakeup call.

A few days prior to our arrival, I received a phone call from the Ritz Guest Relations Supervisor wondering if there was anything special they could do for me since it was our anniversary. I hemmed and hawed for a minute, thinking, and she took the opportunity to suggest a few wonderful things such as having ‘our song‘ playing when we got back to our room after dinner. Together, we came up with a few more great ideas and she made it happen – after dinner, my wife was in tears and I had earned major bonus points.

When we arrived and I pulled up to the guardhouse down the road from the hotel, the gentleman manning it wished us a “Happy Anniversary”. Before we’d even driven up or checked in, everyone already knew! The valets knew, the doorman knew, the front desk knew. Everyone wished us a “Happy Anniversary” and even correctly pronounced my last name (it’s difficult for most people, and we’re very used to a variety of pronunciations – but clearly, they knew at the Ritz).

The valets gushed over my car when I pulled up, asking if it was turbo-charged (they could hear the whine – but it’s a supercharger), complimenting me on my rims, etc. Ok, so I’m car-obsessed and a sucker for people realizing that my car is unique and wanting to talk about it. Now, remember, this is the Ritz – there was a Bentley next to a Rolls-Royce next to a Ferrari 360 next to a Laborghini Murcielago out front. I love my car, but it pales in comparison – but they knew it was my car and that I’d appreciate the compliments.

I could go on-and-on, but I think you’re getting the point. From service at the spa (best. massages. ever.) to dining, everything was on par with what I’ve already described. The next day, Ritz employees were still greeting us in the halls by our name and wishing us “Happy Anniversary”.

The bottom line: We felt special. We felt pampered. We felt like the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Ritz-Carlton knew us personally and really cared about making sure we were happy. They’ve earned a customer for life.

Things we can learn from the Ritz and their approach to service:

1. Attention to detail. Knowing how to pronounce my last name properly doesn’t sound like a big deal – but it is to me, and it’s but one small example. Everything was like that – no detail overlooked.
2. Proactive service. Calling me a few days ahead of time, prepared with suggestions, was over the top and greatly appreciated.
3. Warmth and caring. Every Lady and Gentleman at the Ritz seemed to genuinely care about us and our well-being.
4. Communication. Everyone there seemed to know it was our anniversary, and that put a smile on our faces each and every time we heard “Happy Anniversary”.
5. Understanding the customer. When I drove up in my car, they realized that I was into cars and reacted accordingly. Adjusting your game to be “just right” for every given customer is a diffcult but laudable goal.
6. Every customer is special. I’m not a regular, I’ve never stayed at a Ritz, and I wasn’t well-dressed or anything – I was wearing my typical cheap, comfy Old Navy from head-to-toe. It didn’t matter – at the Ritz, everyone’s special.

We need to take our game to the next level. We provide excellent customer service, possibly the best on the web, but that’s no reason not to improve – and what better place to learn than from watching the gold standard.