Friday, August 27, 2010
The management of accounts and logins for Web sites can be a task, for both the Web visitor and the Web site owner. For the visitor, they not only need to remember the username and password for many sites, but also secret questions and other identifying information. Then there is the list itself which needs to be protected, as hopefully each login is unique and all passwords are not only different but not easy to remember.
For Web site owners, ideally the Web site has build-in management tools to administering login accounts. These accounts themselves may have additional associated data, like customer detail, order history and frequent customer numbers. Technically, this data can take up space, and many times database administrators will want to archive “inactive” accounts to optimize the database. From a business standpoint, it is often said to also archive or purge similar accounts to not clutter reporting data.
Allow me to 1,000% disagree with both of these stands and say that a Web site accounts and logins should never, ever be purged. Why? Behind these accounts and logins are people or businesses run by people, and where you may not remember them, they remember you! If you remove them, they will remember and it may impact if they do business with you in the future. Or even write about it in a public blog post.
What follows are 3 examples of Web site accounts belonging to me personally and how they were handled. I call them the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
The Good – Hyatt Gold Passport
Recently my family decided to get away for the weekend and sought out a good hotel rate locally, or what some call a “staycation.” We found an excellent deal at a Hyatt hotel, and I went to their Web site to book it. When I got to the Hyatt Web site, I had to think for a minute if I had an account with their frequent stay program, Hyatt Gold Passport. I checked my list and I did, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember the last time I stayed at a Hyatt.
When I entered the username and password on my list, I was in, and was welcomed by name along with my last stay at a Hyatt, which was a stay at a Hawthorn Suites over 4 years ago. All of my information was correct, as well as the points I earned during that stay. Over 4 years ago! I was extremely pleased, and the online registration was a smooth process as well. After my stay I got this nice email from them – a form email, but still welcome as shown below.
Kudos to Hyatt for not forgetting about me, almost 4 years later.
The Bad – Staples
I have been a customer of Staples since store #6 opened in West Springfield, MA in the late 80’s. As Staples is from Massachusetts, they were the only real choice for discount office supplies, which was not a bad choice by any means. When I moved to Chicago and Staples later opened here, as I was a Staples Rewards member, I got an invite to the grand opening party at their flagship store in the Loop. That store is right around the corner from my office, and I shop there frequently, as well get weekly emails from them and participate in consumer surveys they extend to me. And to keep the FTC at bay, I also own stock in the company.
All of this considered, I was surprised recently when I tried logging into Staples.com to place an online order and my login failed. I was not able to receive a new password either saying my account no longer existed. So I sent a tweet to @staplestweets on Twitter to ask if they purge accounts. I don’t recall the exact time period (nor do I have the links to the tweets) but they said they do purge accounts after a year of inactivity.
The kicker here is that I am not an inactive customer! I shop in the store regularly using my black Staples Rewards Premier card, but hadn’t placed an order on their Web site in over a year. This is a failure on the part of Staples to recognize the true customer experience. If you go beyond purchases alone, I have 5 separate accounts with Staples, one each for Staples.com, Staples Easy Rebates, Staples Feedback Forum, Staples Rewards, and Staples SpeakEasy. When I pointed this out to the people on the Staples twitter account and said they weren’t making it, um, easy for me, they said fair enough. I am sure some of these are run by 3rd-party companies, but still – has anyone ever heard of single sign-on?
I went ahead and recreated my Staples.com account and made the purchase. I hope in the future I never have to do this again, and Staples makes it easier to do business with them.
The Ugly – Hilton HHonors
 The other day my family was looking into hotels and saw one which was a Hilton property. I knew I had a Hilton HHonors account and went to login. I got the strangest error message, as shown, which says in bold red letters, “The account you are accessing is no longer active. Please try again.” What does that mean? If my account is inactive, why would I try it again?
After staring at the screen for a few seconds, I called Hilton. When the line was answered, I explained the error and gave the rep my account number. She then said matter-of-factly that my account was inactive, period. I asked what that meant, and she said that after a year of not staying at a Hilton or earning any points, my account is marked as inactive and my points are deleted. What? Now sure, there is some brochure I may have received that stated this, but this is the most brutal way to deal with points, even worse than an airline! She then asked if I wanted to reactivate my account, to which I said no – I told her that though it’s their policy I was never reminded of this, and don’t ever want to stay at a Hilton hotel ever again. She didn’t seem to care.
Opportunity Lost
In short, Hyatt gets it, Staples sort of does and Hilton does not.
Staples and Hilton could have easily reached out to me and reminded me that I had not done business with them in a while and given me a special promotion to do so. I get these emails all the time from other vendors, from airlines to restaurants. Staples systems are all separate and thus they do not have an ability to view a dashboard on a customer. Hilton… well, I have no idea what they were thinking, if they were at all.
The cost of acquiring a new customer is much, much greater than keeping a current one. In the retail business, which all 3 of these customers are in, they all have that number – the cost of a new customer. Hyatt made a wise decision to keep a customer’s account active, and thus making a happy customer out of me. I will still shop with Staples and hope they get their act together – literally – and that’s not just because I want my stock value to increase. As for Hilton, I don’t care, as they have lost me as a customer.
Not to mention the cost of acquiring a customer is much greater than any disk storage required to keep that customer’s account on file.
What do you think about Web site accounts being purged? Has this ever happened to you? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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Posted by Mike Maddaloni on 08/27/10 at 04:00 AM
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010
 the3six5 is a story of the year 2010, told daily by a different person. It falls under the category of a crowdsourced piece. It is the mastermind of Daniel Honigman and Len Kendall, 2 people who work in social media and the Internet in Chicago with whom I have the honor to know.
Last Thursday, August 19, I contributed “my day” to the project. Below is what I submitted. If you are not following the3six5 I highly recommend you do. It is a unique perspective on the year told my a wide variety of people.
Taking my little girl to daycare every day allows me to somewhat recreate Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, where he plays out in his mind’s eye how his next moves will take place. Of course I say somewhat, for as much as I would like, the day of a Web consultant can sometimes be unpredictable. Then again, this is part of why I do what I do.
After I drop her off and watch her bounding into her class (and once again wondering how she does it without the 3 cups of coffee that didn’t allow me to keep up with her) I continue out my role as Holmes, but with a Patriots jersey on, as it’s a gameday. In between client calls, development and some blogging, my mind wanders back to the date – August 19.
When I chose this day to share my day with you, I knew it would fall on the date, 6 years later, when I arrived in the Windy City. I wasn’t quite sure if it would be a big day, or just another day, or where I would even be this day. I also wasn’t sure if I would be reminiscing about what’s transpired over the years. As it turns out, though there have been some lows, the highs have trumped them, and I am pretty positive about where I am right now. Ok, the photos of my family and pictures of some of the Web sites I have build which surround me may have some influence on that, not to mention not following the news today!
I am also looking ahead to the next few weeks – this weekend I was invited by Nokia to a beach house in Huntington Beach, CA to try out a new mobile device, which will be followed by some quality time-off with the family, followed by kicking off a great Web project. Some days the glass is half full and some days it isn’t half full, rather shattered on the floor and liquid splattered. Then again, I probably have followed the news too much those days.
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Posted by Mike Maddaloni on 08/24/10 at 05:15 PM
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Monday, August 23, 2010
Someone has to write Web site content. Someone has to write Web site content. I could repeat this statement a million times, as it is something of great concern and passion to me. Why? Let me explain in a brief, true story. Names have been masked to protect the, um, innocent.
There’s nothing like a Web site project completed on time and under budget. My colleague and I were proud of the job we did, integrating a design from a designer who wasn’t a Web designer, but we made it work very well. The site architecture was integrated well based on the up-front analysis and the new site looked great, with one exception – there was no content. Literally, pages were blank! When we presented the site to its sponsor, who was also the one who was supposed to have written the content by now according to the project plan, he was irate. After he gave us a short monologue, it came down to the fact he let this slip from his plate altogether, though he was attempting to pass blame onto us. Oh, and this person was also my boss, the president of the company I was working for at the time, and it was for the company’s own Web site.
Completing content for a Web site can be the critical path to the site’s success. Unfortunately this has happened to me more times than I would like. So how do you ensure it is completed on time, as well as being effective and optimized? Here are some tips to follow.
Define the content - Ideally when you sit down to write content for your Web site this should have already have been completed. The information architecture of the Web site will be the top-line for what content is in the site, and its sitemap will define the pages or organization of the content. Within those pages there may be sidebars, call outs, photos, quotes, videos – whatever you feel will effectively communicate what you want to share with the visitor to your Web site.
Envision the content - Once you have gone through everything in the first step, close your eye and envision what the completed Web site will look like. What do you see in your mind’s eye? As much as pages have been laid out with placeholder text and images, seeing the finished Web page will help you in creating what will go on it.
Outline the content - Now that you know what to write and what it will look like, break down the content into manageable pieces, which is in essence outlining what will be the content of your Web site. Will a page of text have several sections with their own headings? Where will the images go?
Don’t forget SEO - Early on in the process of designing your Web site, you should have done work on the target audience of your Web site and their expectations. This information served as the guide post, spaghetti test or whatever metaphor will help you throughout the entire project. From this early analysis, the keywords and who to optimize the content of your Web site to should have bubbled to the surface or shot up like a rocket. Keep this in mind as you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
Just do it or delegate it - Yes, now someone has to write the content. Hopefully the previous steps have energized you to actually write the content, or scared you into hiring a copywriter to do it for you. But no worries, as with all of this preliminary work done, the copywriter should have all they need to create great content for your Web site.
What may be obvious to some – creating content – isn’t always obvious to all. Have you encountered this yourself, and how did you overcome it? Do you have any tips in addition to those presented here? Please leave a comment and help those whose role it is to create content, whether by choice or force.
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Posted by Mike Maddaloni on 08/23/10 at 04:00 AM
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Saturday, August 21, 2010
 Sound the trumpets, as I wish to blow my own horn a little bit and pass along a few mentions I have received in the past few weeks in the Chicago media.
Newcity is a weekly print magazine with a great Web site covering additional aspects of the Windy City. Reporter Ella Christoph interviewed me about likemind Chicago, the monthly coffee meetup I co-host, as well as others who attend. It’s a great article highlighting this unique, morning gathering of tech, creative and agency folks.
Chicago Now is a blog powered by the Chicago Tribune, and reporter Lira Luis wrote about co-working and OfficePort CHI, the office space my Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC inhabits most days and a few nights and weekends as well. Where I was not interviewed for the article, a picture of me hard at work is featured.
Thanks for the coverage, and if you are a reporter covering business or technology, I am more than glad to talk to you about an upcoming article!
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Posted by Mike Maddaloni on 08/21/10 at 03:59 AM
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Thursday, August 19, 2010
Sunscreen – check. Sand shoes – check. Desire to check email while on the beach – check!
I’m off to southern California for the Nokia E73 Mode beach party to be held on Sunset Beach in Huntington Beach, CA. The folks from the word-of-mouth marketing team of Nokia, WOMWorld/Nokia, have invited me and others from around the country, as well as a number of folks from the LA area, to participate in this unique event, which you can read more about here.
 While we take advantage of the sun and beach, we’ll be trying out the new Nokia E73 Mode mobile device, which is available at T-Mobile in the US. It appears to me to be similar to my E72 device, and I will find out first-hand for sure this weekend.
If you’re so inclined, you can follow along on Twitter, and we’ll be will be using the hashtag #e73mode. I’ll also be checking out the camera and may do some video streaming, though my main focus will be on how the E73 can fit into my work life. Seriously!
Thanks again to the folks from WOMWorld/Nokia for inviting me out to this great event. And for the sake of full disclosure, or more like to keep the FTC from coming after me, you can read about my relationship with Nokia.
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Posted by Mike Maddaloni on 08/19/10 at 12:01 PM
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
 Coming off the successful launch of the Spartan Charters Web site last week, my Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC is proud to announce the launch of the redesigned Web site for Chicago artist Augustus V. M. “Gus” Higginson.
The Web site, at www.AugustusHigginson.com, is a showcase for his work and his career. The artwork section features a gallery of his most recent works as well as some of his past works. As an architectural historian, many of his works pay tribute to great buildings, including The Rookery in Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Center. His works are large-scale, and the site features detailed photos of his works as well as the entire pieces.
 Once again, Dunkirk collaborated with Visible Logic, Inc. and Emily Brackett for this project. Emily’s design not only serves as a great backdrop for Gus’ artwork but also captures the essence of the artist as well. Behind the scenes of the Web site is powered by ExpresionEngine, the great content management system which we at Dunkirk have been working with for years for many of our clients. This provides the ability for editing of all content on the Web site and provides an infrastructure for managing search engine optimization. Integrated in the home page is Gus’ Twitter stream, which you can follow and see photos of his current and past works in process.
On a personal note, it was a fun project, especially working with a local client. Most of my clients are not local, though despite this they progress very well, and many times I have met the client after the Web site was completed! It was great to sit at the table with Gus during each phase of the project.
Whether you have an appreciation for architecture, history, or simply want to see a unique perspective on some great places, check out the new Web site for Augustus V. M. “Gus” Higginson.
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Posted by Mike Maddaloni on 08/18/10 at 10:09 AM
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Monday, August 16, 2010
Even if there was such a thing as a silver bullet for the success of a business, it would still need to be properly fired. This would require a silver gun and people who could fire the gun accurately to the exact target, whatever that target is, of course. As ideal as that would be, it doesn’t exist and I takes work to get your business to where you want it.
Thinking about where your business is and where you want it to be is the idea behind the book Predictable Success by Les McKeown. I was given a copy to read by the author. In it, the reader is taken through 7 stages of the lifecycle of a business as identified by McKeown with “predictable success” being at the top of the curve, ideally where your business should be. All of McKeown’s 7 states are: Early Struggle, Fun, Whitewater, Predictable Success, Treadmill, The Big Rut and Death Rattle.
As I read Predictable Success, I had many flashbacks to all of the firms I have worked for, and of course my own Web consulting firm Dunkirk Systems, LLC. In addition to this trip down memory lane, my takeaways from the book are reflective of my experiences, and are:
It’s important to know where your business is - Whether you are joining a business or have been in one, knowing which state the business is in is important to your decision-making there. For management, knowing the state can influence decisions to improve the business. For employees, it can influence your decision to stay or leave a job.
The wrong people can hurt a business - Unfortunately I have seen this one too much personally, where key people in a firm get to a level where many people believe they are irreplaceable and position themselves as such. This can occur to the point where management will work around them to solve problems in the company, even if those people are the real problem.
Some people cannot solve their business’ problems themselves - From small to large, there are some who lead or run a business who don’t have it in to truly do what is needed to correct the problems in their business. Why? There are many reasons, from not realizing there is a problem to being mired in the day-to-day work of the business to pull themselves out to see and do what’s needed to not having the capital they need (whether people and/or money) to make it happen. I’m not trying to be a downer, only realistic. One thing this book does well is outline steps to get to predictable success – so if you have some outline of a plan, it will help you determine if you have what it takes to make things happen, or seek help to do so.
I enjoyed reading Predictable Success. It is written in a no-nonsense, down to business manner and it is, as I said previously, easy to relate to the business stages based on my previous experience, and probably would be the same for you as well. I rate Predictable Success up with The E-Myth Revisited as a guide for businesses who are in a funk, and recommend it to any business owner, even if everthing is going great for them, or so they may think!
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Posted by Mike Maddaloni on 08/16/10 at 04:00 AM
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Saturday, August 14, 2010
 It is with a heavy heart that I write about Father Joseph McGlone, a retired Catholic priest from the Boston area, who passed away earlier this year. I just found about this news by chance when I was performing some Web searches. Allow me to take a diversion from my usual writing to remember a great man and leader.
Fr. Joe, as he was known to everyone, was the pastor of Corpus Christi Church in the village of Auburndale in Newton, Massachusetts. He was there for over 30 years, which is rare for a priest. I was fortunate to have been a member of Corpus Christi when I lived in the Boston area and was honored to have had him marry me and my lovely wife several years ago.
Fr. Joe had a unique appeal; unlike many priests this good Catholic boy had known over the years. He was very real and down to earth. He welcomed you into his church and made you feel at home. He prayed for the issues that many other priests would jam down your throat! As a result, Fr. Joe made Corpus Christi a truly welcoming church, and it certainly wasn’t a chore to go to his church every week. This is not to say Fr. Joe was not assertive or a leader. Even when he used his great sense of humor, he was making a point. There was a period of time I had not been regularly going to church. When I did finally start going back, one week I brought my family with me and he made sure I knew I hadn’t been there and how much I missed and how much I was missed. He jokingly let me had it, all the while welcoming me back.
As the sex abuse scandal was exposed in the Archdiocese of Boston, it took its toll on everyone, including Fr. Joe. When the Archdiocese announced that churches would be closed, he pointed this out one week in his sermon that church expenses weren’t being met my offerings and this was not a good sign for Corpus Christi. This must have been tough for him to say as he never asked for money. But the next week, offerings nearly doubled and maintained that level. I also remember asking Fr. Joe how he was doing throughout the scandal, especially as many of those priests were in surrounding towns. His response was, “I am a woodcutter.” When I asked him to explain, he said if anyone asked him what he did for a living, he would say he is a woodcutter and not a priest. That was on par with his style.
At the time of the almost heartless church closings taking place in the Archdiocese of Boston, Fr. Joe was asked to retire, to which he refused. Everyone was ecstatic he stood his ground! Here was a new archbishop coming in from out of town and wanting what was right about the church to leave? A few years later, after I had moved form the Boston area and Corpus Christi had merged with another church, he was asked again to retire and did. Though I cannot speak directly to the circumstances after I was away, I did hear he remained active in the church close to his hometown where he was a member after retirement, and I am sure they were fortunate to have him.
Right before I moved to Chicago, I lectured one last time at Corpus Christi and Fr. Joe was the presiding priest at the mass. At its conclusion he surprised me by announcing to the congregation that both my wife and I were leaving for a city where he had once studied once in his career at Loyola University. His thoughts were touching as he recalled our wedding and wished us well. That was one of the last times I saw Fr. Joe and a great memory of a great man, along with the many others I have of him from over the years.
Rest in peace, Fr. Joe.
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Posted by Mike Maddaloni on 08/14/10 at 04:00 AM
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Wednesday, August 11, 2010
 The next likemind will be Friday, August 20, 2010 in dozens of cities around the world.
In Chicago, it will be at Argo Tea, 140 S Dearborn St. at the corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets in the Loop from 8:00 am to 10:00 am.
I call likemind a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines including Internet, advertising, art, social media, et. al. For more on likemind, read this great article on likemind Chicago from the Newcity and likemind from the New York Times.
No RSVP is required. You are also welcome to join the likemind Chicago Facebook group.
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Posted by Mike Maddaloni on 08/11/10 at 11:20 AM
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Monday, August 09, 2010
 At Dunkirk Systems, LLC we are proud to have brought many clients to the Web for the first time. With the launch of the Web site for charter fishing service Spartan Charters we continue along this great tradition.
Spartan Charters is a full service charter company servicing Cape Cod, the Islands, and Southeastern Massachusetts and is a complete fishing guide and charter service. With their fleet of great fishing vessels and 2 experienced captains, Spartan ensures you have a quality and great fishing experience. As they say, they target big fish.
For this project Dunkirk partnered once again with Visible Logic, Inc. to great a highly functional Web site with a great design. The home page design is compelling to draw users to the various sections within the Web site, plus all navigational links are stylized text links, rather than images. A custom-developed content management system (CMS) powers the Web site allowing the Spartan Charters team to modify all Web site content. They are also embracing social media with their Facebook page and Flickr account with a wide variety of photos from past trips and catches.
Whether you’re a seasoned fisherman or looking to entertain clients or guests with a fishing experience, Spartan Charters is the one to call… or contact through their new Web site.
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Posted by Mike Maddaloni on 08/09/10 at 09:43 AM
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