I recently purchased a protective case for my iPhone. After weeks of online research, I had finally settled on the Racing Series iPhone case by Trexta. I instantly fell in love with the embroidered white racing stripes against the matte-black leather, so I ordered the case from a 3rd-party vendor on Amazon.com. It was a little more expensive than other cases I had found, but I have no problem paying a bit more for a well-designed product.

A few days later the case arrived, and I anxiously tore open the package. Imagine my disappointment when I realized that the case I was holding in my hand did not match the one depicted in the photos online. Instead of matte-black leather, the case was a high-gloss, almost patent-leather, and the white stripes were equally glossy.

I might have gotten past the glossy appearance, were it not for the other—more obvious—difference. The leather was adhered to a white plastic shell, and it stops about an eighth-inch shy of the outer edges of the case, creating a white border all the way around.

Many folks may like this look, and perhaps find it consistent with the white stripes of the case. But I felt that it gave the case a very “cheap” look that was not consistent with the trim and polish of the iPhone itself.

Because I had ordered the case from a 3rd-party vendor, and the original packaging had been completely destroyed during opening, I had little hope of securing a refund from the seller. Further, I wasn’t completely sure that this wasn’t a knock-off version of the case I had seen online; there was a clear and obvious difference in quality between the photos online and the actual product I held in my hand.

Just to be sure, I pulled up the photos on the official Trexta site, and sure enough… the case depicted in the photos was quite different than the one I had received. So I sent an email to Trexta’s customer support department.

It was after business hours on a weekend evening, so I was pleasantly surprised when I received a personal response via email almost immediately.

“Shawn, I am so sorry to hear about that! We will contact you tomorrow to resolve the issue promptly! Respectfully, Eren Maral”

Sure enough, I received a phone call the next morning from Trexta’s customer relations expert, Cris Monge, who informed me that the photos used in the product descriptions online were, in fact, different from the actual product. But, he said, they’d like to “make things right.”

“I’m holding two other cases in my hand. One is black with blue stripes and the other is black with red stripes. While I know these aren’t exactly what you ordered, they do have the black plastic shell that you prefer. I’d like to send you both of these cases at no charge. Would that help to make things right?”

No need to bother with repackaging and returning the original case. The two new cases were mailed the same day, and a tracking number emailed to me immediately. I just received my two new cases… now three, in total.

As I mentioned before, these aren’t the least expensive cases on the market. In fact, Trexta has now invested nearly $100 into our relationship.

Setting aside my original feelings about the stylistic shortcomings in the design of the original case, my experience with their people has converted me into a happy customer for life (and even an evangelist of sorts, if this review produces the desired result).

Going beyond the call of duty…

One important thing to note here is that Trexta does not sell cases directly to the public. Like many product manufacturers, they only sell to 3rd-party vendors like the one from whom I had purchased my case. Most companies would have been happy to defer me to the reseller, where my complaint would no doubt have been lost in the shuffle, or at most, routed through a series of poorly-informed call center employees who would read from a script and prescribe the usual, “return it and we’ll see what we can do” shuffle.

But in this case (no pun intended), Trexta did the right thing. They gave a shit. I have no idea how many cases Trexta sells, but I was made to feel as though my purchase truly mattered to them. My perception of their brand mattered to them. Most importantly, my satisfaction and happiness mattered to them.

Wine-guy-turned-social-media-guru, Gary Vaynerchuk, refers to this trend as the “Thank You Economy.” It’s an economy built on meaningful, two-way relationships. It’s the result of a cultural shift in how we perceive ourselves in relation to the brands, products, and services we use.

Our expectations have changed completely.

We’re no longer satisfied with merely purchasing a good product at a great price. Rather, we have an expectation of interacting with the people—the real, live, human beings—who make up the companies and brands with whom we choose to do business, no matter how big or small.

In short, “You wanna go where everybody knows your name.”

We all want to feel as though we truly matter. As further proof of this point, recent studies of our purchasing patterns reveal that we’ll even pay a premium for this type of interaction. It is no longer enough to merely compete on price point or ambiguous attributes like “quality” alone; you’ve got to make an effort to truly connect with your customers in a meaningful way.

I consider Trexta one of those companies who truly “get it.” They clearly understand that every single customer interaction is important. And they’ve demonstrated to me that they’re willing to put their money behind that belief. It cost them to send me those two additional cases, but the value of the relationship is worth far more.

Ironically, your participation is the very proof of this process. When you click this link to check out the iPhone cases and other products by Trexta, you’re proving that the extra effort put forth by the folks at Trexta is resulting in a positive return already.

Learning to truly care for our customers—especially those who take the time to voice their complaints to us—can create priceless opportunities to improve our products, processes, and brand. But most importantly… we’ll be building mutually-beneficial relationships that could last a lifetime.

In fact, it is often true that relationships born out of adversity become those that are most meaningful to us in the long-term. Who knows what future impact that complaining client could have on your business and your life? Who’s to say that he or she won’t become your most important customer, or better yet, future business partner, collaborator, or lifelong friend?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

In what ways has your thinking about “customer service” been challenged recently? What changes have you made in your customer relations that could convert “complainers” into “collaborators”?

And, have you checked out the gorgeous iPhone cases and accessories by Trexta?

About gary vay•ner•chuk

Nobody has succeeded at utilizing social media to create a personal brand like Gary Vaynerchuk. After primarily utilizing traditional advertising techniques to promote his family’s local wine business, Gary rapidly adopted and leveraged social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to promote Wine Library TV, his video blog about wine.

As his viewership swelled to over 80,000 a day, doors opened to a book deal, several national TV appearances, and a flurry of speaking engagements around the world. Gary’s dual identity as both a business guru and wine guy has made him the “Social Media Sommelier.”

About the book…

This book is a 90-minute read, and weighs in at just 140 pages. The tone and pace of the book is not unlike listening to Gary speak, and it’s simply loaded with practical advice, step-by-step instructions, and real-world examples. In addition to a complete, 21-step outline for building your personal brand online, Gary even “threw in” about half a dozen phenomenal business ideas for anyone with the ambition to go for it!

Because this book primarily addresses folks who are relatively new to internet-based business and social media, there wasn’t a lot of new information in this book for me. But keep in mind, I’ve been creating web sites and utilizing social media for more than a decade. Gary’s book is simply a gold mine for newbies, and is the first book I can honestly say that I will recommend to anyone everyone who is considering moving their business into the online arena.

While I didn’t take away many new strategies from this book, there was still plenty of material that challenged me on a personal level. Gary’s “three simple rules” to which he attributes his success challenged my to take a fresh look at my own priorities:

Three rules:

1. Love your family.
2. Work superhard.
3. Live your passion.

“I measure success by how happy I am, not how big the business is or how much money I’ve made. And thanks to following those three rules, I’m 100% percent happy.”

Don’t believe him? Listen to him talk for 5 minutes and you’ll become convinced. Very few people share Gary’s level of passion for what they’re doing.

What does it mean to live your passion?

According to Gary, “it means that when you get up for work in the morning—every single morning—you are pumped because you get to talk about or work with or do the thing that most interests you in the world. You no longer live for vacations because you don’t need a break from what you’re doing—working, playing, and relaxing are one and the same. You don’t even pay attention to how many hours you’re working because to you, it’s not really work. You’re making money, but you’d do whatever it is you’re doing for free.”

When you start thinking about how to live your passion and create a livelihood from it, have the following conversation with yourself…

“Is this my ultimate passion?

“Yes.

“Okay. Am I good enough to be the best blogger about this in the world?

“Uh…”

If you can’t answer both of those questions with an emphatic, “Yes!” you are not going to win.

Summary of the book from Amazon.com…

Do you have a hobby you wish you could indulge in all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night? Now is the perfect time to take that passion and make a living doing what you love. In Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shows you how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses.

Gary spent years building his family business from a local wine shop into a national industry leader. Then one day he turned on a video camera, and by using the secrets revealed here, transformed his entire life and earning potential by building his personal brand. By the end of this book, readers will have learned how to harness the power of the Internet to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Step by step, Crush It! is the ultimate driver’s manual for modern business.

This was probably the best 11 bucks I’ve invested in my business, as I’m sure I’ll be recommending this book to all of my clients and friends. Click here to check out the book on Amazon.com [affiliate link].

When you’ve read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What stood out to you? Post your thoughts in the comments field below. Looking forward to the dialog!

Over the past several years, I’ve tried just about every contact form plugin out there, including cforms and Contact Form 7. I was frustrated with the apparent trade-off between functionality and usability. It seemed that the more flexible the plugin, the more confusing the UI. This is where Gravity Forms simply blows away the competition! They’ve managed to create an incredibly flexible plugin, adding innovative features while still maintaining a drop-dead-simple AJAX interface that feels more like a desktop app than a web plugin.

In fact, this plugin is so good, you’ll wonder why it doesn’t just come standard in WordPress! (hint, hint)

Just a few of the innovative features…

1. Seamless Integration with WordPress 2.8+ – If you know how to use WordPress 2.8, you know how to use Gravity Forms. From the colors to the way it functions, Gravity Forms looks and feels like a part of WordPress.
2. Visually Create Forms with Our Sleek Editor – The visual form editor enables people with no HTML skills to create complex forms in minutes. Just add fields, choose field options, and drag them into the desired position.
3. Prevent Spam with Built-In reCAPTCHA Protection – The reCAPTCHA field will shield you from spam by preventing from submissions from automated scripts. You will also be helping in digitizing books for online use.
4. Allow Users to Automatically Create a Post – Let your users help with data entry. When added to a form, our Post Fields create a post when the form is submitted. Great for user submitted stories, job postings, directories, etc.
5. Manage Entries from the WordPress Admin Panel – Search, edit, delete and keep track of all entries from the Entries page in your WordPress administration panel.
6. Easily Export Form Entry Data to CSV Format – Need your entry data for other applications? Easily export all or part of your entries to CSV. Our export tool makes it a breeze to export only the fields that are needed.

Gravity Forms also sends automatic emails to users in response to a submission, enabling you to create professional and personalized messages.

If you’ve been searching for a simple way to create custom forms for your WordPress pages and posts, look no further than this plugin! Honestly, Gravity Forms is unrivaled when it comes to creating custom forms for WordPress.

Ready to learn more? Why not jump over to their site and take a look at the video tour?

But wait! There’s more…

Thanks to the good folks over at WooThemes, you can use the coupon code: WOOFORM20 when you purchase Gravity Forms, and they’ll give you a nice 20% discount. So what you waiting for? Go check it out already!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT GRAVITY FORMS FOR YOURSELF!

Those now-famous words were first spoken by Stewart Brand at the first Hackers’ Conference in 1984, in the following context:

“On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.”

Or, as Chris Anderson puts it in his latest book, Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business…

“Abundant information wants to be free. Scarce information wants to be expensive.”

Such is the premise of the compelling new book by Wired Magazine’s Editor In Chief, Chris Anderson. But tell that to the poor CIO who just shelled out six figures to buy another rack of servers. And what of the notion that “anybody can make money on the web?”

Today, the underlying technologies that power the Web are fast becoming too cheap to meter. Just as Moore’s law dictates that a unit of processing power halves in price every 18 months, the price of bandwidth and storage is dropping even faster. Which is to say, the trend lines that determine the cost of doing business online all point the same way: to zero.

Every year, like some sort of magic clockwork, massive banks of servers churn out more and more data for less and less, bringing the marginal costs of technology in the units that we individuals consume closer to zero.

Just last year, Yahoo announced that Yahoo Mail, its free webmail service, would provide unlimited storage. (Just in case that wasn’t totally clear, that’s “unlimited” as in “infinite.”) So the market price of online storage, at least for email, has now fallen to zero. And the stunning thing is that nobody was surprised; many had assumed infinite free storage was already the case.

Virtually every product Google provides is free to consumers, from Gmail to Picasa to GOOG-411. And yet, somehow they have created a $220 BILLION dollar global empire around their “free” products.

A new kind of free…

The idea that you can make money by giving something away is nothing new. But until recently, practically everything “free” was really just the result of what economists would call a cross-subsidy: You’d get one thing free if you’d buy another, or you’d get a product free only if you’d paid for another service.

Over the past decade, however, a different sort of free has emerged. The new model is based not on cross-subsidies — the shifting of costs from one product to another — but on the fact that the cost of products themselves is falling fast. “It’s as if the price of steel had dropped so close to zero that King Gillette could give away both razor and blade, and make his money on something else entirely. (Shaving cream?)”

A taxonomy of free

This new kind of free is forcing companies to adopt new business models, leveraging opportunities around the falling cost of doing business in a digital age. Chris identifies six broad categories:

1. “Freemium” – Web software, content, and services, free to users of the basic version, made possible by the more expensive, premium “pro” version of the site or software, usually with more features than the free version (think Flickr and the $25-a-year Flickr Pro).
2. Advertising – Content, services, software, and more, free to everyone, due to pay-per-pageview banners, pay-per-click text ads, pay-per-transaction “affiliate ads,” and even site sponsorships.
3. Cross-subsidies – Free products that entice you to pay for something else, one way or another. “It’s a free second-gen Wiii! But only if you buy the deluxe version of Rock Band.”
4. Zero marginal cost – Free items that can be distributed without an appreciable cost to anyone, such as online music. Between digital reproduction and peer-to-peer distribution, the real cost of distributing music has truly hit bottom. Some artists give away their music online as a way of marketing concerts, merchandise, licensing, and other paid fare.
5. Labor exchange – Free web sites and services, if you rate stories on Digg, vote on Yahoo Answers, or solve a few CAPTCHA codes. Users knowingly (or not) create something of value, either improving the service itself or creating information that can be useful somewhere else.
6. Gift economy – Free, or “open source” software or user-generated content to everyone. From Freecycle to Wikipedia, we are discovering that money isn’t the only motivator.

The economics of abundance…

Forty years ago, the principal nutritional problem in America was hunger; now it’s obesity. Forty years ago, charity was dominated by clothing drives for the poor. Now you can get a T-shirt for less than the price of a cup of coffee, thanks to China and global sourcing. So too for toys, gadgets, and commodities of every sort. Enabled by the miracle of abundance, digital economics has turned traditional economics upside down.

But money and physical resources are no longer the only currency in the online world. “Attention” and “reputation” are now very real metrics for determining potential value. How many eyeballs are on your site? How many followers do you have on Twitter? What’s your PageRank? If you can consistently convert those metrics into cash, they become a form of currency itself, and Google plays the role of central banker for these new economies.

A new generational reality…

During the course of researching the material for his book, Chris shares that there were broadly two different camps of skeptics: those over the age of thirty and those below. The older critics, who had grown up with the 20th-century version of free, were suspicious: Surely “free” is nothing of the sort—we all pay sooner or later. Not only is it nothing new, but it’s the oldest marketing gimmick in the book. When you hear “free,” reach for your wallet!

But younger critics had a completely different response: “Duh!” This is the Google Generation, and they’ve grown up online, simply assuming that everything digital is free. As this generation comes of age, they will discover entirely new ways to convert zero-cost technologies into meaningful ventures, transforming the world in the process.

So what does it all mean?

There is both good news and bad to be found in these new realities. First of all, the cost of doing business online is dropping by the day. Last month, I provided streaming video tutorials to more than 3,000 visitors to my WordPress tutorial video site. All that bandwidth cost me just $2.58, thanks to Amazon’s S3 distributed storage network. The cost of delivering HD-quality streaming video to my clients has effectively become a no-brainer.

However, the expectations of readers are changing just as quickly as the falling costs. Because the average internet user comprehends the zero-cost margins involved in the delivery of this content, they expect to read content and even receive online services for free. The challenge now is to provide relevant, quality content and services online, while exploring — and possibly creating — new models for making money online.

What do you think?

If Chris Anderson (and many others) are correct, and $0.00 is really the future of online business, what does that say to you? How will your own business model need to adapt to leverage this new reality?

Do you offer any goods or services for free? If so, are they merely “bait and switch” techniques of yesterday, or are you genuinely providing value to your clients and customers? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic! Weigh in below…

Do you often find yourself feeling tired halfway through your day?
If so, you’re not alone. Sleep problems and lack of energy affect most people at some time, but the latest research shows that a power nap can help!

Lately, napping has garnered new respect, thanks to solid scientific evidence that enjoying a brief, midday snooze benefits both mental acuity and overall health. A slew of new studies have shown that naps boost alertness, creativity, mood, and productivity in the later hours of the day.

Even early Greek philosophers and creative geniuses such as Beethoven, Da Vinci, Dali and Einstein were known to take a nap to boost their creative thinking processes.

Today, power napping has taken corporate America and Japan by storm. Workers at Nike, British Airways, and even NASA are actively encouraged to take breaks in their day and have a short nap; they are even sent on courses to learn how to do this! Apparently you’re never too big to take a nap. Today, napping is a health trend, a workplace perk and even an art form. Children do it, students do it, even educated Corporate Chairmen and CEOs do it.

My favorite tool to facilitate power naps is called pzizz, a small software application for Mac and Windows that generates random soundtracks which help you regain your energy. pzizz currently sports two modules: energizer and sleep.

So what is pzizz?

pzizz is a powerful new kind of insomnia treatment that’s perfect for you if you have the kind of sleep problems where you can’t switch off when in bed. It will help to quiet your mind, and gently ease you into restful sleep.

Increase energy and performance

During the day, in as little as 15-20 minutes, pzizz can help you to take control of your day once again. It clears your brain, improves focus, lowers stress, and lets you get on with your work by helping you take a short performance break.

How does it work?

pzizz is a software application for Mac, PC, and the iPhone that creates audio soundtracks that help you to nap during the day or get to sleep at night. The wonderful thing is that you can tailor them to suit you and they’re different every time!

You can choose how long you want to listen for, and pzizz will create a new, unique soundtrack for you every single time you use it.

Used regularly, pzizz can help you to:

• get a great night’s sleep
• have more energy during the day
• reduce stress levels
• increase productivity and creativity
• improve your overall health

Test pzizz for yourself…

Try pzizz now to increase energy or treat insomnia. You can download a FREE sample “Energizer” MP3 soundtrack and try pzizzing at work, home, or even while commuting. Or if you’re suffering with sleep problems, try their sample Sleep MP3.

Click here to check out pzizz for yourself now! »

NEW! pzizz has just been released for the iPhone as well.
Click here to check out pzizz on the iTunes App Store! »

Happy pzizzing!

New in iTunes 8…

1. Genius playlists and sidebar. Create a playlist of songs that go great together and get recommendations for new songs.
2. HD TV shows. Buy your favorite shows, including Heroes and The Office, in high definition. Episodes cost just $2.99.
3. New ways to browse. Browse your music, movies, and TV shows by cover art. Quickly skim albums by artist and genre.

iTunes 8 also syncs with your iPod or iPhone much faster than previous versions. All in all, a must-have upgrade.

Things combines powerful features with a simple, one-window interface that seems instantly familiar to anyone who’s used a Mac. With tightly integrated support for tags and intelligent filtering, it allows for quick and easy focusing. Together with a beautiful user interface, Things aims at the seemingly impossible: making task management both easy and fun.

They’ve got an iPhone app as well, which lets you access your projects, contexts and to-dos while on the go. I actually find myself using the iPhone interface more often than the desktop software, although they sync beautifully with one another, allowing me 24/7 access to my projects and tasks.

Download the free trial now from their website. Sign up for their email newsletter and get 20% off when they launch the real app in the Fall.

Link: http://culturedcode.com/things/

Finally, I’ve discovered a simple app that instantly resizes and rotates images, saving them in multiple formats:

Weighing in at a lightweight 5MB, RapidoResizer allows you to resize images to your specifications and easily apply them to your project. With this utility, you can extract and save application icons and images.

Once you have opened an image or a group of images you’re presented with a range of options to apply to the image. This enables you to change the dimensions quickly and easily. It is also possible to apply one function to multiple images at a time with the batch function.

In addition to resizing the image (with or without keeping proportions), RapidoResizer allows you to rotate the image, and change the picture to a variety of popular file types.

Best of all, RapidoResizer is completely free! Click here to check out this FREE image resizer from app4mac.com!

Rather than settling for syncing limited selections from your music library, Simplify Media enables you to access your entire iTunes music library remotely and then stream your music to your iPhone or iPod Touch via WiFi, EDGE or 3G.

You can navigate your music library by artist, album or genre, and instantly view cover art, artist bios and even lyrics for the current song selection! Plus, you can share your library with up to 30 friends.

Took me less than 5 minutes to donload the desktop application, install the iPhone player app, login to my iTunes library and begin listening to my music.

You’ll want to get this app now; it’s FREE for the first 100,000 folks to download it. After that, it will cost $3.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Check out Simplify Media for your iPhone & iPod Touch.

OK, so once you get past the quirky name, you’ll discover a simple, intelligent and powerful email marketing utility that anyone can use. Featuring some truly innovative technology, Mad Mimi is the simplest way to create branded, well-designed newsletters and promotions.

Mad Mimi is web-based, which means there is nothing to download or configure. All you need is a web browser and an internet connection. Here’s how it works…

1. Create Your Account
   The best way to see how Mad Mimi works is to complete the 1-minute sign-up for free, and then kick the tires. No credit card, no obligation, and it’s not a trial. It’s fully-functional right away!
2. Add Some Addresses
   Copy and paste your email address list(s) into Mad Mimi. Duplicates and common spacing issues are auto-corrected. Later, you can store, target and organize your list in every way imaginable.
3. Design Your Newsletter
   One of the best parts of Mad Mimi is the instantly-intuitive, uber-simple design interface. You can easily add, modify and move things around in a WYSIWYG environment. It even has an “Undo” feature, which I’ve never seen elsewhere. No design skills necessary!
4. Send Your Emails
   Mad Mimi tracks and displays the viewing and clicking behavior of your mail recipients in real time! Track opens, bounces, and every metric imaginable. Use this data to modify your marketing approach to improve results.

Within five minutes, I had already created my first test newsletter (see right). Images are placed by simply dragging them from the tray on the right into the body of your newsletter. Across the bottom of the editor is a row of handy buttons that enable you to create new sections in your newsletter, including:

• Text with an image to the right
• Text with an image to the left
• Standard text block
• Plain image
• Section Title
• Divider

Just click one of these buttons and Mad Mimi inserts the section into your newsletter, with a WYSIWYG editor, ready for you to start typing your content! Create a custom header if you like, to make the newsletter look even more polished. When you’re finished, Mad Mimi will guide you through selecting recipients from your list and sending your email campaign.

Track your campaigns

Stats are delivered in real-time, and you can track bounces, opens, untraced emails, clicks, forwards and unsubscribes. If you want even more accurate tracking, Mad Mimi also integrates with Google Analytics, intelligently automating your link tags so you can measure your promotion’s success.

Custom sign-up forms

Mad Mimi will let you create your own customized HTML sign-up form as well, adding custom fields as you see fit. When you’re done, Mad Mimi will generate a block of code for you to copy and paste into your own site to add a simple sign-up form for your visitors.

Unbeatable pricing!

Perhaps the best part of Mad Mimi is the price. The most frequent complaint I hear from my clients is how expensive it can be to send regular email campaigns to large lists of subscribers. As I mentioned before, Mad Mimi is completely free! A free account will allow you to send unlimited emails to a contact list of 100 or less. Want more?

There are three upgrade levels available to subscribers. For just $12/month, you can increase your mailing list to a whopping 5,000 contacts! $49 increases your audience to 15,000, and doubles the sending speed of your newsletters. And for you power users, $199/month allows unlimited audience members, and quadruples the sending speed!

Try it out for yourself!

The best way to see if Mad Mimi is right for you is to simply sign up for the free account and give ‘er a test run. I think within a few minutes, you’ll agree that Mad Mimi is simply the most intuitive, easiest to use and best-priced email marketing tool you’ve ever used.

Click here to check out Mad Mimi for yourself!