There are a lot of companies out there that claim they “listen to their customers”. Mostly, that means they have a call center with endless wait times and ignore any suggestion you make to them. If you’re really lucky, they charge you for it too.
That makes it even more important when companies get it right. One company that - in my opinion - got it totally right is SmugMug. I started a trial account with them about two weeks ago since I was exploring online photo services. I played around with it for a few days, and then got distracted.
They only give you a 14-day free period, but they’re smart enough to ask for feedback at the mid-term mark. And since I had some time, I actually wrote up my thoughts and concerns, including the reasons why I’d probably not switch over. To my surprise, I had an answer to this within 30 minutes - they addressed some of my concerns, showed me things I missed, and promised to take a few of my suggestions under consideration. That is quite impressive.
At that point, I was 50:50 on the switching thing. I really like SmugMug better than flickr. There are lots of features to tempt you - great galleries, awesome web interface, and the fact that the data is stored in several places simultaneously. (Hence you’ll lose pictures about never). Switching is always a hassle, so I thought I’d just let it lapse for now - especially since I just paid for a 2-year Pro account on flickr.
It got better, though. At the end of the 14 days, I got a second reminder - showing me where to sign up, or if I weren’t going to, asking if I’d share the reasons with them. I shared my reasoning with them, and I also mentioned I was working on an iPhoto plug-in for SmugMug. What can I say - I love playing with Web APIs, and I love plug-ins. Imagine my surprise when they immediately comp’ed me for a lifetime account. It’s their policy to give free accounts to all plug-in developers. Now that is really amazing. Not only the fact that they do it at all - the really mindblowing part is that it happens without any bureaucratic hassle.
A company that actively listens to you, answers your questions, and stands by its word - that would be enough for me to sign up with them even if I didn’t get the free account. So it’s time to move some pictures around…
Hi Robert,
Many thanks for the kind words and oooooooo, an iPhoto plugin! We like.
Not to discourage you from finishing your iPhoto plugin, but in case you haven’t seen it someone developed a Flickr migration plugin for Firefox: http://www.smugglr.net/
Keep the feedback coming, we love it.
All the best, Chris
Interestingly I had never even heard of SmugMug before this. My photo workflow machine is temporarily out of commission, but when it’s back up I may look at doing a Lighroom plug-in. I have yet to bother with an online photo service for various reasons, but this definitely sounds like one worth considering.