What’s the true definition of value?

Posted by - Jun 4, 2014

Last week my wife decided that our ten year old purple couch, with the worn fabric and small baby vomit stains we’ve never been able to remove, needed to go. Besides the obvious failings, it didn’t seat enough people and guests in our home would often have to sit Indian style (or should that be

The Feedback Dilemma

Posted by - Apr 11, 2014

For years now, we’ve used a free tool called Kampyle to collect feedback on our website. After a minute or two of browsing our site, customers would get a popup widget that asked them to rate the site from 1-5 and give comments on what we could improve. The great comments we’ve received over the

If you remember THIS, you’ll probably rent more apartments

Posted by - Mar 17, 2014

There is no such thing as love at first sight. Certainly there are those butterflies that get your stomach queasy and make you think irrationally. Just five more minutes on the phone, you tell yourself, I want to share just one more thing with this person who fascinates me in ways I cannot explain to

Is there a limit to giving great customer service?

Posted by - Feb 4, 2014

Think of a company who gives great customer service and you probably immediately think of Zappos. The famous, insane and often heroic customer service stories are the things of legend. The 10 hour customer service call, how they refused to accept the wrong pair of shoes (donate them to charity they said) and sent the

What’s your rental experience like?

Posted by - Dec 5, 2012

Like a lot of other nerds, I watched the release of the new Microsoft Surface tablet with much interest. Being touted as an iPad killer, there was much hype behind Microsoft’s reimagining of the tablet experience. The problem, of course, turned out to be Microsoft’s failure in managing that experience correctly. The curvy angles for

What the acquisition of Satisfacts means for ApartmentRatings.com

Posted by - Jul 9, 2012

Just before Wade Hewitt, Vice President of Apartmentratings.com spoke at the Apartment Internet Marketing Conference back in April, I was the guy in the back of the room, holding a bag of rotten tomatoes, with my hand fully loaded, ready to toss. “Apartmentratings.com in this very room! Can you believe our luck? As an industry,

6 things you shouldn’t be doing with your work email.

Posted by - Jul 5, 2012

The notification, the popup, the vibration, the phone call telling you they sent you one; these are the many ways we get our emails today. And yet, given how ubiquitous it is these days, it’s amazing how many people still have no clue what they are doing. Listen … I’ll be the first to tell

Today’s Question: How are you rewarding customer loyalty?

Posted by - Sep 15, 2011

Chipotle is my Friday ritual. Ask anyone who follows me on Facebook and Twitter and they’ll be able to tell you about the Friday check-ins. I’m not sure what it is about the place. Sure it’s delicious, its health values are questionable, wait times are fairly quick, the burritos are heavy, and their hot sauce