Marketing Survey for Smugmug

gracey · November 18, 2004

Hi there,

We are a group of MBA students from UC Berkeley and are conducting a customer survey for Smugmug. If you can take a few minutes to answer our following questions, either by posting to this forum or send it to my berkeley account [gyee@haas.berkeley.edu], that will help us a lot. We are working on a marketing proposal for Smugmug and appreciate your inputs.

Are you currently a Smugmuger? If so, how long have you been with Smugmug? When did you first join Smugmug?
Which features really WOW you and are considered as MUST-HAVE?
- Selling prints
- Privacy over pictures
- Custom URL
- Ease-of-use
- Rich customization
- Others? If you can prioritze them, that will be great.
Besides these features, what else you would like to see SmugMug doing?
- Better customer support?
  - What is "adequate customer support mean to you? Email only? How long are you willing to wait for a response?
- How about the best imaginable support? 24x7? An 1-800 number?
- What other product features would you want to see?
- How would you describe Smugmug? “Stylish”? “Friendly? Or any other words?
- What else would like to see Smugmug doing for its customers?
- Is there any direction you would like to see SmugMug take on?
Have you or would you recommend this to your customers or your friends?

Thanks in advance for your time and effort. If you are going to send your response directly to us, please use gyee@haas.berkeley.edu. Your responses will be collected and forwared back to Smugmug.

thanks in advance,
Grace

PerezDesignGroup · November 18, 2004

I'm confused.

The power of Berkeley university yet no online form to fill out and acquire results? I've grown into such an Internet skeptic. Can someone validate this post before I respond?

Ben · November 18, 2004

PerezDesignGroup wrote:

I'm confused. The power of Berkeley university yet no online form to fill out and acquire results? I've grown into such an Internet skeptic. Can someone validate this post before I respond?

Its valid, they really are Berkeley students, and really are performing this survey. Keep in mind this is a project by students, not the University. And they are not programming students... so I assume that would be why they haven't written some sort of online survey form.

I am sure they would greatly appreciate feedback to the survey if you guys have some extra time.

PerezDesignGroup · November 18, 2004

Cool beans. I'll fire off an email asap.

In the meantime, may I recommend http://www.freeonlinesurveys.com

marlinspike · November 18, 2004

I'll do a usenet style response here, and I'll do it on the forums for public edification.

>Are you currently a Smugmuger?
Yes
>If so, how long have you been with Smugmug? When did you first join Smugmug?
I dunno. I think like 2 months
>Which features really WOW you and are considered as MUST-HAVE?
In order, selling prints, privacy over photos (which I think goes hand in hand with selling, unlimited storage space, customization, and a quick drag and drop uploader
>Besides these features, what else you would like to see SmugMug doing?
>Better customer support?
Doesn't get any better I don't think.
>What is "adequate customer support mean to you? Email only? How long are you willing >to wait for a response?

E-mai is fine as long as the respond as quickly as the smugmug people do. They should check the e-mail at least twice a day, and I think the smugmug people check every 23 seconds

>How would you describe Smugmug? “Stylish”? “Friendly? Or any other words?

Functional, as it should be.

>What else would like to see Smugmug doing for its customers?

Can't really think of anything. One feature that would be nice would be if you could make a gallery within a gallery.

Is there any direction you would like to see SmugMug take on?

Nope

>Have you or would you recommend this to your customers or your friends?

Yes, on both counts.
Richard

wxwax · November 18, 2004

gracey wrote:

Hi there,

Are you currently a Smugmuger? If so, how long have you been with Smugmug? When did you first join Smugmug?

When it first opened for business.

.

Which features really WOW you and are considered as MUST-HAVE?
Selling prints

Privacy over pictures

Custom URL

Ease-of-use

Rich customization

Others? If you can prioritze them, that will be great.

1/ Ease of use
2/ Ability to share photos online with friends and relatives by e-mailing links to galleries and shots.
3/ Ability to link photos to message boards.

.

Besides these features, what else you would like to see SmugMug doing?

I'm a computer dummy. Easy as smugmug is to use, it could even be more idiot proof.

.
Better customer support?

Seems very adequate to me. Quick response here, most of the time.

.
What is "adequate customer support mean to you? Email only? How long are you willing to wait for a response?

I'd rather not wait more than 24 hours for a response. A response within business hours of the same day would be ideal.

.

How about the best imaginable support? 24x7? An 1-800 number?

Not for me. A prompt response via e-mail or on this board is superior. I hate calling in - my experience is that it's time consuming and unhelpful.

.

What other product features would you want to see?

Upload full size files for large prints. i.e. larger than 8mb.

.

How would you describe Smugmug? “Stylish”? “Friendly? Or any other words?

Friendly, and obviously trying to be friendly, which is a good thing. My personal feeling is that smugmuggers may unconsciously assume their users know more about computers than we actually do.

.

What else would like to see Smugmug doing for its customers?

I'd love to help, but I don't really have any great ideas.

.

Is there any direction you would like to see SmugMug take on?

My limited experience with research is that such open-ended questions often get the response I'm about to give you: Ummm, no, not really.

.

Have you or would you recommend this to your customers or your friends?

I have. Most, but not all, don't understand computers and the internet well enough to truly understand what I'm talking about. I think only one is seriously thinking about getting an account.

.
Thanks in advance for your time and effort. If you are going to send your response directly to us, please use gyee@haas.berkeley.edu. Your responses will be collected and forwared back to Smugmug.

thanks in advance,
Grace

`

fish · November 19, 2004

...group of MBA students from UC Berkeley

they're SO doomed.

wxwax · November 19, 2004

Bump

gubbs · November 19, 2004

gracey wrote:

Hi there,

We are a group of MBA students from UC Berkeley and are conducting a customer survey for Smugmug. If you can take a few minutes to answer our following questions, either by posting to this forum or send it to my berkeley account [gyee@haas.berkeley.edu], that will help us a lot. We are working on a marketing proposal for Smugmug and appreciate your inputs.

Are you currently a Smugmuger? If so, how long have you been with Smugmug? When did you first join Smugmug? Yes since Jul 2003

Which features really WOW you and are considered as MUST-HAVE?
Selling prints Yes

Privacy over pictures Yes

Custom URL

Ease-of-use Yes

Rich customization Yes

Others? If you can prioritze them, that will be great. £ /currency support

Besides these features, what else you would like to see SmugMug doing?

Better customer support?
What is "adequate customer support mean to you? Email only? How long are you willing to wait for a response? Next working day email is fine for me

How about the best imaginable support? 24x7? An 1-800 number? Could imagine this being useful if I was a pro with customers waiting for shots

What other product features would you want to see? Global customize gallery / sharegroup tools

How would you describe Smugmug? “Stylish”? “Friendly? Or any other words? Friendly, service driven

What else would like to see Smugmug doing for its customers?

Is there any direction you would like to see SmugMug take on?

Have you or would you recommend this to your customers or your friends? I have and would

Thanks in advance for your time and effort. If you are going to send your response directly to us, please use gyee@haas.berkeley.edu. Your responses will be collected and forwared back to Smugmug.

thanks in advance,
Grace

Thanks

landrum · November 20, 2004

gracey wrote:

Hi there,

We are a group of MBA students from UC Berkeley and are conducting a customer survey for Smugmug. If you can take a few minutes to answer our following questions, either by posting to this forum or send it to my berkeley account [gyee@haas.berkeley.edu], that will help us a lot. We are working on a marketing proposal for Smugmug and appreciate your inputs.
Are you currently a Smugmuger? If so, how long have you been with Smugmug? When did you first join Smugmug? Yes, I joined a year ago (oct or nov 2003?)

Which features really WOW you and are considered as MUST-HAVE?
Selling prints yes

Privacy over pictures yes

Custom URL yes

Ease-of-use yes

Rich customization yes

Others? If you can prioritze them, that will be great.

I have family spread out across the country (as does most everyone). When my daugter was born everone wanted to see pictures ALL THE TIME, and everyone needed them emailed in different formats. I was spending 2 hours resizing and emailing photos. I originally joined smugmug because unlike other photo sharing sites, they allowed the original files to be copied. This way my family could choose the photos they liked best and print them out themselves. I have since expanded my use of the service and have found that it is very versatile for professional use as well.

Besides these features, what else you would like to see SmugMug doing?

Better customer support?
What is "adequate customer support mean to you? Email only? How long are you willing to wait for a response? for normal questions and problems, 24 hour is fine. They usually only take a few hours though.

How about the best imaginable support? 24x7? An 1-800 number? 24/7 isn't necessary for me, but an 800 number would be helpful for urgent issues.

What other product features would you want to see?

How would you describe Smugmug? “Stylish”? “Friendly? Or any other words? VERY friendly. Those that I have delt with really aim to please. It's refreshing with the lack of customer service that exists right now.

What else would like to see Smugmug doing for its customers?

Is there any direction you would like to see SmugMug take on?

Have you or would you recommend this to your customers or your friends? Yes, and yes I have!

Thanks in advance for your time and effort. If you are going to send your response directly to us, please use gyee@haas.berkeley.edu. Your responses will be collected and forwared back to Smugmug.

thanks in advance,
Grace

.

rms · November 23, 2004

Are you currently a Smugmuger? If so, how long have you been with Smugmug? When did you first join Smugmug?

Yes. August '04.
Which features really WOW you and are considered as MUST-HAVE?
- Selling prints
- Privacy over pictures
- Custom URL
- Ease-of-use
- Rich customization
- Others? If you can prioritze them, that will be great.
  
  PRIVACY OVER PICTURES -- It would be better if I could customize the smugmug password protection so that someone could just type a password once to be connected to a password-protected collection of galleries, rather than just see the main index with some galleries marked passworded.
  
  EASE-OF-USE -- smugmug is very easy-to-use, but not idiot proof. some things could be improved, but generally it's clean and simple.
  
  ABILITY TO ORDER PRINTS -- really nice, so that I don't have to print pictures and mail them to relatives. not a pro photographer.
  
  OTHERS -- Big plusses: unlimited storage space; ability to allow (or disallow) access to full-resolution photos
Besides these features, what else you would like to see SmugMug doing?
- Better customer support?
  - What is "adequate customer support mean to you? Email only? How long are you willing to wait for a response?
  I've been very happy w/ smugmug support. I like that I get a real person if I email. I'm glad I don't get an autoresponse or a pointer to a website. I think a 24-hour turnaround is fine, and I'm happy with email-only support as long as the emails are responsive to my concerns (and, with smugmug, they are).
- How about the best imaginable support? 24x7? An 1-800 number?
  
  Best imaginable would be 24x7 support via 800 # (with techs that actually have the power to fix things, rather than just type them into a support queue for the day shift), and 2-hour turnaround on emails. I personally don't like calling tech support -- I'd rather email and have it taken care of without having to waste time on the phone -- but others may like 24 hr phone support. But as I said above, I'm happy w/ smugmug support as-is.
- What other product features would you want to see?
  
  RSS feeds. Support for blogging. Ability to control the display template (between Journal and other formats) at the basic level. More customization or skinning at basic level. Ability to make global changes to galleries. I'd like sharegroups to have a customized URL (http://bla.smugmug.com/joe, rather than http://bla.smugmug.com/lklsadjfowir). Online order-tracking (for both orderer and site owner).
- How would you describe Smugmug? “Stylish”? “Friendly? Or any other words?
  
  Friendly. Clean. Non-obnoxious.
- What else would like to see Smugmug doing for its customers?
  
  Smugmug should do more to be easily-integrated into the larger Internet community by using RSS feeds and easy means of dynamically integrating smugmug galleries in other websites.
- Is there any direction you would like to see SmugMug take on?
  
  Blogging support -- even if limited early on.
Have you or would you recommend this to your customers or your friends?

Yes.

Nikolai · November 23, 2004

Response sent over email
Thanks!

Nikolai · November 23, 2004

Geez!
That what you get paying "a nice guy". I spent 10 minutes composing an email with the review only to get an automatic response that the yound lady is "out of office" and will not be back until mid of December.
Well, I guess that was my last time completing such a "elementary school survey"..

GREAPER · November 23, 2004

Are you currently a Smugmuger? If so, how long have you been with Smugmug? When did you first join Smugmug?

Several months, within days of finding out about it through the Dgrin forum.

Which features really WOW you and are considered as MUST-HAVE?
Selling prints
Ease-of-use
Ability to link photos for e-bay, forums, etc

Besides these features, what else you would like to see SmugMug doing?

I love the site the way it is, I think ideas of new features are examined and implimented well as they come up.

What is "adequate customer support mean to you? Email only? How long are you willing to wait for a response?

I am happy with the e-mail support and the response to the support threads. I am satisfied with the customer support

How about the best imaginable support? 24x7? An 1-800 number?

E-mail is the best way for me to communicate at my convienience (Sp?)

What other product features would you want to see?

Possibly the ability to create a book like mypublisher.com from my photos. Maybe the ability to offer calenders or such as part of a photo package.
Maybe the ability to sell pictures in a geating card format.
Ability to show an image in more than one gallery without uploading it more than once.

How would you describe Smugmug? “Stylish”? “Friendly? Or any other words?

It is stylish, and freindly and a great service at a great value.

What else would like to see Smugmug doing for its customers?

Several customers have had problems checking out because they added something to the cart and did not realize they then had to go to veiw cart to finish. They thought it was not working. The ones who called me to ask got the answer, but I hope no customers just couldn't figure it out and quit.

Is there any direction you would like to see SmugMug take on?

I like it the way it works now. Refinments to the current direction is all I hope for.

Have you or would you recommend this to your customers or your friends?

Yes, I have, My brother and a couple of my photo club members have already opened accounts, My father will after he gets his x-mas gift

I just wish they would have all given me credit for the referal.

Nikolai · November 23, 2004

I guess I reply here, as everybody else
1. Are you currently a Smugmuger?

yes

If so, how long have you been with Smugmug? When did you first join Smugmug?

Since May 1st 2004, you do the math..:-)

2. Which features really WOW you and are considered as MUST-HAVE?

* Selling prints

YES

* Privacy over pictures

YES

* Custom URL

YES

* Ease-of-use

YES

* Rich customization

It's not there yet, but it's getting better

* Others? If you can prioritze them, that will be great.

Unlimited space!

3. Besides these features, what else you would like to see SmugMug doing?

I need the timeline view, when albums can be grouped by a natural year/month(/day) hierarchy. I submitted a request to the dgrin, and I've been speaking with Ben about this almost since day one..

* Better customer support?

* What is "adequate customer support mean to you? Email only? How long are you willing to wait for a response?

I always like a situation when I can actually call a live, knowledgeable and responsible person. But if not, email and dgrin will do fine, as long as they are respnonsive...

* How about the best imaginable support? 24x7? An 1-800 number?

1. 24x7 1800 would be great

2. Live online chat (24x7 would be great, or regualr working hours..6am..10pm:-)

* What other product features would you want to see?

Total site customization, at least for a professional account. I know they plan on skinning.. FTP access <sigh> Allowing to post simple HTML pages, not necessarily images only.

Providing easy-to-use slots for adsense-like ads..

Providing complete API for managing the account. RPC-XML is fine, webservices would be even better..

* How would you describe Smugmug? “Stylish”? “Friendly? Or any other words?

Slick

* What else would like to see Smugmug doing for its customers?

Photobooks, calendars

* Is there any direction you would like to see SmugMug take on?

Just keep doing what you do, and please keep in touch with us, your users!

4. Have you or would you recommend this to your customers or your friends?

I already referred 14 people, I think I'll continue..:-)

Cheers!

Marketing Survey for Smugmug

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