Well, whadya think? Should you stalk customers?

For many years, Intuit has had a program where they follow users home and watch them use QuickBooks and Quicken in their homes. If that’s not stalking, I dont know what is! (Ok..our lawyer says I have to clarify that Intuit actually pays their customers for their time so it’s all above board!). Our friends at Freshbooks stalk their customers in a different way – they follow them to dinner (Whats that? Oh, right. My legal eagle says I should point out the fine folks at Freshbooks actually buy their customers dinner and drinks too!).  You get the point though, customer stalking is important and worth paying for. About 3 months ago, I was reminded of the value of “customer stalking” when I spent a morning with a customer of ours.

Actually, hold on for a second.  That catholic, Irish guilt is getting to me. I have to come clean (clears throat…) The customer stalking title was just to get you to read my post. There, I said it.  The real point is a little less exciting but way more important if you want to build a succesful product. So lets get to it.

The particular customer I was visiting really feels the pain that billFLO eliminates. So I was looking forward to watching them use billFLO and compliment us on how great it is. I watched as the customer spent a couple of minutes copying 10 or so billFLO invoices to billFLO buyer from their email client. Great, I thought, now we’re ready to start the billFLO show. These folks will be blown away. A couple of questions, followed by a couple of clicks and all the billFLO invoices are imported. That was quick and easy, I’m thinking.

Me: “So, what do you think?”

Cusomer: “I like not having all the paper”

Me: Good, I think. ”Anything else”

Customer: “Well, its not that much quicker than the way I normally do it”

Me: WHOA. Hang-on. What are you talking about you fool? A couple of clicks and you were done. Pause… Mmm, lets stay calm here, and try to work this out. “Tell me some more”

Cusomer: “Well, copying the invoices from my email takes a while”

Me: WHAT? just because you use a crappy email client that doesnt copy multiple files at once, you think billFLO is slow? What are you smoking? “Oh, I see”.

I left soon after and to be honest, I was pissed-off. It wasnt quite the self-congratulary buzz I had hoped for. What I did learn though, is customers define the user-experience, not us. We’ve since launched a new version of billFLO that streamlines this process significantly for the user. 

LESSON? Deliver the best experience as defined by your customer (and stalk them ethically!)

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s announcement, we’ve got more Goodies! This time it’s for billFLO buyer users . Today we’re announcing billFLO buyer supports approval workflow, rule-based importing and email receipt of invoices! Can I get wOOT wOOt!

Email Receipt of Invoices - when your vendors send your billFLO and PDF bills to your new billFLO email address, the bills will show up automatically in billFLO!

Approval Workflow – Is there an invoice a co-worker needs to see before you pay it? No problem, send her an approval request to review the invoice. She can review and approve it in her browser. (Check out the vid below of approvals in action)

Rule-Based Importing – billFLO now analyses invoices as they are received, according to your rules, to pre-assign accounting info (account, project, etc) and require approvals as needed.  Now, when your rules have been satisfied you can import all those invoices with a single click!

And, one more piece of good news. We usually roll out new releases by accounting system, but not this time. Our dev team has been working super hard (thanks guys!) to make these features available for ALL our users as of today.   

You can get this release of billFLO buyer here or just open billFLO buyer and you’ll be prompted to download the new version. Enjoy!

Wouldn’t it be rewarding to be able to make a living helping your local community? There’s a shining example of a business that does just that – your local hardware store. Here’s a place where customers can buy that lamp for the christmas tree lights, get advice on their next DIY project and even get special stuff ordered in for them (try that at Home Depot!).

What’s probably not apparent though, is that in the back office the hardware store owner is struggling under mounds of paper invoices. Every hammer, trash can and piece of timber ordered results in an invoice! In some cases a mom-and-pop store will have a full time bookkeeper just to deal with the invoices.

So, we’re extra happy to announce today that we’ve got something to make hardware store owners life easier. We’re expanding the billFLO invoice network to enable Do it Best store owners receive their invoices electronically with the billFLO buyer service. That’s right, the network of 4,100 independently owned Do it Best stores can now receive all their Do it Best invoices in billFLO format, straight to their PC. Enjoy!