Slamdot Store updates, growing pains, and new hires

We’ve already had an incredible year…and we’re still just getting started. Bragging aside, our Slamdot Retail Store has really taken off, and has impacted our business in a lot of ways, mostly positive. We’ve been experiencing tremendous growth since our grand opening in December, and coping with that growth has been somewhat of a challenge during this period.

We have a very strong reputation for customer service, and we work hard to maintain that reputation. In fact, our greatest competitive advantage has always been our customer service, and it continues to be why we do well, especially locally.

Due to our recent surge in business, we’ve had a harder time being proactive about keeping up with our customers. It’s easy to work on active projects, where customers are attentive and engaged, but it’s just as important to followup with customers who aren’t staying as involved. I think this is one of the biggest challenges we web designers face. Keeping customers engaged becomes more and more difficult with each additional project.

Although it may be easier to pass the buck and blame the customer, the reality is, it’s our fault. It doesn’t matter if we asked the customer for something and they never got back with us. We dropped the ball, because we didn’t follow back up to find out why. If a project goes stale, it’s our fault. That’s the only way to ensure we maintain a strong relationship with our customers, and lately, we haven’t been doing a good enough job.

So, here’s the deal. We’ve hired two more people, Nicole and Elizabeth. They’re trained up and ready for action. We’ve improved our processes and we’ve implemented some new ones. If you haven’t heard from us in a while, you’ll be hearing from us next week.

Starting Monday, we’ll be providing telephone technical support during our store hours of 8am until 5pm, Monday through Friday. You can also stop by the Slamdot Store for one-on-one service. Of course, email support is always available, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Growth is a good thing, but it all depends on how you handle it. We’ll be back on top of our game again next week. Thanks for sticking with us.