One of the great things about Rails is the ability to write and use plugins, which allow the abstraction of repeated code and re-use of code that other people have written.
Therefore, when we found ourselves writing repetitive code to add tasks to various objects (like people, projects etc.) in exxitplan (our latest product), I decided to abstract all of that into a plugin called acts_as_taskable. It is a blatant rip-off of the excellent acts_as_* plugins that come before it (in fact, we just did a find + replace to come up with this plugin), so people should be familiar with it.
A while ago, on recommendation of a friend, I decided to try out Pingdom. It is, in essence, a monitoring tool that is actually well executed. The plethora of features are impressive and their client list is impressive.
Naturally, I decided to sign up for the generous free trial. We tried it out for a while and decided it wasn’t exactly for us. We don’t run anything that was mission critical and we felt we had no need to move to a paid account (even though it was quite affordable). However, we are soon to release a new web-based product, where uptime was a critical issue and I was contemplating whether I should move to the paid Pingdom plan in the next month.
That is, until I received their “your trial has ended e-mail”.
Your Pingdom trial account has been terminated
Hi Sarat Pediredla,
Your Pingdom trial account has been terminated. You can no longer log in to the Pingdom control panel, upgrade your account, or view any of your reports.
Thank you for your time with Pingdom.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us at xxxxxx@pingdom.com if you have any questions.
Best regards,
The Pingdom Team
www.pingdom.com
I don’t claim to be a copywriter and neither am I going to criticise the tone of the e-mail (which is evident). However, I will say that it is a pity that such a good service should be marred by someone’s haste in writing these all-important e-mails. What could have been used as a great retention opportunity has been squandered by the use of some pretty harsh words like “terminated” (who except Arnold Schwarzenegger can make that sound cool?) and “you can no longer log in”.
Instead, why not offer customers an incentive to join or allow them to log-in and export or retrieve their reports (giving them a grace period before the account becomes inactive). What is even worse is that I cannot “upgrade my account”, so how exactly do Pingdom expect me to pay them money for their service? Do I have to sign-up again? Do I have to crawl on my knees to Pingdom and beg them to let me back in?
So here is a tip; use every e-mail you send to the customer to enhance your relationship and provide them opportunities to engage with you. At the least, make them feel good. For God’s sake, do not terminate them!
I object to naming a department “human resources”; there is nothing human about them. Maybe “rules, policies and procedures department” is an apt name for the roles and responsibility of those that claim to be in HR. More often than not, HR exists in organisations to write policies that make no sense and stifle the right of employees to enjoy their job (I am sorry; any good deeds that you can provide as examples are purely accidental and down to good management than HR).
This is especially the case when it comes to a software/technology company. But the problem here is not just HR but management in general. Why is it that people who run technology companies are the least qualified to do so? For every good example of a CEO or MD of a technology company, I can give you 10 that are bad. Where lies the problem?
In my experience, the problem lies in the all-too-obvious disconnect between leadership and workforce in the way they think, work and live. Too often, technology companies are led by charming, well-suited businessmen (read salespeople) who have no appreciation of the real concerns or mindset of the programmers they manage.
I know this well. For a few years now, I have worked in these companies; that show utter and total disregard to technologists and deal with them as necessary evil. These are the frustrations that have led me to throw down the gauntlet and challenge myself to start a company that values and respects it’s technical staff. hedgehog lab is a company for geeks, by geeks. All our directors are keen technologists and self-confessed geeks. Many will say that idealism is all good and fine but the realities of running a company are hard. Well, we shall see! You can always turn a skilled geek into a good businessman but I have yet to see a good businessman turned into a skilled geek.
To make hedgehog lab a developer-friendly company, we have started to think about everything from our appraisal process to work hours and working days.
How many technology companies do you know of in the UK that work a four day week (oh yes! we will still be sustainable; in your face overtime!)? Gone are the days when productivity was measured by when you clock-in and when you clock-out! Developer productivity is not measured in minutes, hours or days anymore.
You don’t need to innovate to build a developer-friendly company; just stick to the basics and listen to your developers when they speak. That can’t be hard can it?
