I thought it would be important to show how the blogosphere is picking us up. I personally have entertained three chat sessions this morning and expect a few more before I leave queue. It is important for us to get this sort of recognition as even 1% of blog readers would be better than 0% in terms of becoming customers. Below is a list of what I know is out there now. If you know more, post ‘em as we would love to check them out.

I started out with Blogsavannah.

Then Phil talked about us in this post.

That inspired Neat & Simple Living and ElementalTruths.

Then our own Certified MinuteFix Technician James Connors added post #1, post #2, post #3 and a DIGG article.

Following him the site went all legal on us with Andrew in order to expose the Elemental Truths on blogspot too!

All done with PersistenceUnlimited, to say the least. You know, kind of MindingTheGap; perhaps The View from My Chair.

Have I missed any? Let me know.

Well, our second official contest is over. [The first is still running]

You may remember a couple of weeks ago when we asked for all techs to print out the MinuteFix logo and take a picture of it somewhere unusual. We got some great responses and after much deliberation have chosen MinuteFix Certified Technicians Douglas Wong and James Connors as the winners. What of their images?

Douglas chose to create a desktop for himself as the representative of MinuteFix Montreal:

while James was able to get the seal of approval from author JK Rowlings

Both gentleman will receive a $15 Starbucks gift card in the mail within days. Congratulations guys and keep up the great work! Oh, and stay tuned for further contests….

We’re updating the production server releasing fixes for some bugs that were keeping the site from running smoothly. This should last no more than 30 minutes, and will take place today, at 8 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Certified MinuteFix Technician Doug Wong has a strong idea. He would like to see us, the tech community, build up a bit of a “Best Practices” or small FAQ for our customers that we can either refer them to for downloads and such or that we can allow them to view and then (we hope) decided, “I can’t do that. That is too hard. I should get a tech to do it.”. It really is a good idea and one that we can develop as a community.

Therefore I have started a topic under Tech Conversation on the forum where we can begin that dialogue. The most conversation and input we have, the better. What may be a weakness of one is sure to be a strength of another!

I wanted to share with you all the experience I felt only a few minutes ago when I just wrapped up my very first support session (I am certified in Windows, Office and General Proficiency). I just finished providing support to Samantha Colbert, who was having trouble with her video software from Pinnacle. The reason I wanted to blog about it is because there is no better learning experience than using one’s own product.

First of all, I must say, it was exhilarating. What an experience to work for such a long time on something, and finally see all the pieces fall into place for it to work. I had tested the system countless times by now, but this was the first time I actually had a real customer.

I found the chat rather easy to use. Samantha was very welcoming to the remote desktop support (I was very cautious to explain exactly what was going to happen, what she was going to see, and how she had to accept), and it was very fast and saved us tons of time in having to explain what to do. All I needed to do was download a file and install the update on her computer. I found that toggling back and forth once I was using remote desktop was a little cumbersome. I think this might improve when we have the “blinking” effect when a chat arrives.

The connection was rather fast, and although technology is my life, I will never cease to be amazed at how I can be sitting in Europe, connected remotely to a desktop in Tallahassee, Florida with such ease.

I was surprised by how positively Samantha reacted to my reassuring words. I let her know that we were here to help, and I would do anything it took to get her problem resolved. It seemed to me like she was confident that she had an expert (and I’d say I’m at the bottom of the pyramid when it comes to our tech team!) who was there to help, any time of the day. How simple and important words can be, especially when someone is seeking help.

I also found that once I was on Samantha’s computer, I was able to see many other services that she might need. I suggested to her that she should clean up her computer and remove some unused software. She liked the idea and even said she’d come back to us to get it done.

Overall, I was incredibly impressed how simple it was to use. And I sensed that she was too. I did feel like phone support would make the session much more enjoyable, save her money and allow me to deliver a better service. I’ve heard it coming from the community, and now I’ve finally experienced it myself.

So guys and gals, I’m rolling up my sleeves — expect phone support sooner rather than later.

Launch, done. Next. Now bugs:

Have we missed anything?

One thing I have learned this past week is that customer support has no international standards. Just recently I was ordering a rather simple meal. At least I thought it was simple. Yes, the dish was correct. However, it was handed to the person on my right and I was given the meal ordered by the person across from me. There was no silverware for half our party and one person waited for ketchup until his fries were cold. When we brought it to our waiters attention he acted as if he had done us a favor by even bringing out the food. Unbelievable. It made me reevaluate my goals for MinuteFix.

Our customers are doing us the favor. They are allowing us to fix a piece of equipment that has probably become a staple of their life. On it are their pictures. They have their music and their work and possibly school documents. It may even sit in a room of their house dedicated just to its use. They are paying our bills and we should never treat them as if we are doing them the favor. And I truly feel like all of us on this team have already adopted that character trait and are showing our customers how truly grateful they are in our eyes.

I also know that there have been some bugs in the past few days since launch. To be expected, for sure. We are still technically in beta and we are working out kinks as fast as we can. So this week we are starting out by doing some more testing, making more bug lists and fixing them one by one. We want to give you the best tools you can have to make your side of the MinuteFix experience as good as it can be.

As always, thank you, thank you, thank you. Your patience and your enthusiasm are never taken for granted.

By now you are aware that we launched our Private Beta yesterday. Things are going great! Diego and I are both quite pleased with the results from the chat sessions yesterday. Customer service was exceptional and tech support was top notch. We did notice a few little things that may help with chat communication. Ok, correction. I noticed a few things that I think might help. You see, I always think of my folks and how they would react to certain words or certain computer terms.

• So I have come up with a little list for us all to think about (and add to in the comments section).
• Start Menu may be confusing. Try saying something like Start button or Start icon. (use visual terms)
• Folder direction can be abbreviated by using alligators. For instance, Start > Control Panel > Display > Desktop Tab
• Spell out acronyms like SP. Not everyone knows it stand for Service Pack

Can anyone think of any others?

After much anticipation we are ready to launch our private beta site. During this period of 5 days we will be entertaining the questions and concerns of invited guests to MinuteFix.

This is such a milestone for us all. After weeks of questioning and testing and speculating it is now time to unveil the actual product. Granted there are still a few small bugs, I feel certain we can work around them and really get a feel for the application. You will find more instruction on the forum as well as receiving a few emails from us today.

I know a lot of times when products are launched there are the typical comparisons to giving birth or something of that nature. I prefer to see it as Zeus splitting his skull to allow his daughter, Athena, to enter the world. That must have been such a release of stress and anxiety for the good of something so beautiful. These past couple of weeks for us have been loaded with different stresses and anxieties that now we get to release while we watch beauty ascending.

We are not naive though. Diego, Phil, Oscar, Gil and I know that without each one of you we would have nothing more than a lot of great ideas and a lot more speculation. So thank you very much for your enthusiasm, dedication, discipline and excitement along the way.

And now, may I present……MinuteFix!

I am so tired of guessing which musical I am or guessing which OC character I am most like or even knowing what my hotness rating is amongst my “friends.” Building a community can be difficult enough of a task. So why do I keep getting all this pressure from the Facebook community? Why do I have to invite 20 friends just to get access to the app. Not my style at all.

Oh, my point….speaking of community, Big B, Certified MinuteFix Technician, took a little time today to introduce us to himself in a pretty extraordinary way. We hope you all enjoy this as much as we did! Thank you so much Big B…..

1. Zunzi’s in Savannah
2. Singapore Airlines
3. Rackspace

Wow! This is a harder list to make than I thought. Anyone have any others to add?

I value honesty above all else. Anyone that knows me knows that as well. Today Diego had to be very honest with me.

I am writing this post because I think it is important for us all to realize how human each and everyone one of us is; from the top down.

This morning Diego and I were chatting online and I responded to him in a less than cordial manner. It was borderline unprofessional. I meant nothing by it but he read it as being a bit abrasive. It then came to my attention that in some forums and in some chats I tend to write very quickly and forget that my messages are not always read as I hear them in my head. And for that I apologize to each one of you. I realize now that this is a huge challenge I am facing. But I am committing to it because it will bleed into my communication with customers. It is probably something we will all want to be concerned with. How do we chat in such a way that balances the line of “fake polite” and “genuine courtesy and professionalism”.

I would love to hear how some of you maintain such great chattitudes and if any of you practice how you conduct chat conversations. This is where I become the student so please, teach away!