Here’s one of my writing samples for Metric Media’s Spring 2007 e-newsletter…
From the proverbial stork to the postman to online shopping carts, this issue of Metric Media News delivers. Please join us in celebrating Progressive Kid’s successful online retailing – as well as welcoming Ben Sodenkamp, and some younger members, to the Metric Media family. If you would like our readers to know about your company, just let us know!
Happy Computing!
Metric Media Delivers
Add to Shopping Cart: Retail Success
Two years ago at ProgressiveKid, no one was working during the busy retail Thanksgiving season. Today, Sarah Lane and Julie Hall, ProgressiveKid co-owners, often work ten-hour days. In fact, Sarah and Julie will soon hire processors to handle wholesale orders from Whole Foods around the country and to ship orders to customers as far away as Freeman’s Reach, New South Wales.
ProgressiveKid is an online retailer of environmentally-friendly and socially progressive gifts and gear for babies, kids, and families. “When our business launched, we wanted to build a website with a simple, upbeat, attractive, and easy-to-use design. Because there is nothing simple or straightforward about online shopping carts, this presented a challenge,” says Sarah.
“Dave and the Metric Media team helped us define our requirements and then customized their own shopping cart product for our needs. As we doubled product lines in two years and acquired more customers, Metric Media’s shopping cart adapted to the growth.” The result is a smoothly functioning interface that handles almost 400 products and services in more than a dozen categories – including coupons, customer notification, credit card processing, gift certificates, international shipping, gift registry and gift wrap.
“Dave even taught us how to do our own site maintenance – how to add and remove items, change prices, create new pages, edit menu items… Due to the shopping cart’s flexibility, we can do site updates quickly – on weekends, at midnight, whenever needed – which is critical for an online retailer.”
ProgressiveKid
www.progressivekid.com
contact@progressivekid.com
1.866.PROG-KID
Employee Mails Himself Home
In 2003, Charles McKinley, a shipping clerk, mailed himself in a crate 1,500 miles from New York to Dallas. McKinley was later fined $1,500 and charged with a misdemeanor.
Although the Metric Media shopping cart can help you merchandise just about everything, the US Postal Service frowns on human mail. Compared to McKinley’s journey, Ben Sodenkamp’s 2,200 mile relocation from Alaska to Seattle for his new position with Metric Media was painless.
“Metric Media treats its employees as thinking resources, not just working resources.” Ben, 29, hails from Anchorage, Kodiak, and Palmer. He joined the team after running his own web development firm – with Metric Media as a client. “I enjoy the peer group problem-solving. Plus, the culture of independence and responsibility to meet client goals is unconventional.” When not busy working or single-handedly raising his ten-year-old daughter, Rowan, Ben enjoys playing classical guitar.
Singing of music, Beck Henderer-Pena recently moved to New York to pursue his career in music production; Julie Armitage replaces Beck as project coordinator.
Trivia: According to the 2003 Guinness Book of Records, the world’s largest carrot, 18.95 pounds, was born in 1998 to John Evans of Palmer, Alaska.
Special Delivery
Fortunately, special gifts are still delivered in small packages. Courtney and Greg Wycoff are celebrating their first daughter, Katelynne. Last summer Erin and Roger Markel celebrated fraternal twins: Charlie and Ally. And this April, Christi and Dave Karlsgodt celebrate the first birthday of their daughter, Sydney.
Task Tool Delivers Through Snow, Through Rain, Through Heat…
Snail mail packets, excessive emails and lengthy downloads were sending headaches overnight to Clint Slater, weighing down Choice Advisory Services’ projects. With 50 employees, CHOICE needed a tool to streamline workflow for long-term projects.
To keep everyone on the same page, Metric Media implemented its Task Tool for CHOICE employees. With one central repository for everyone to stay in the loop, projects have been streamlined. Plus, the tool creates a history of each job. After just a few months of use, Clint reports “It’s a great teaching tool for our employees; projects improve as we use the tool more. It’s a cornerstone of our business.”
Previously, there was no cohesive way to update the employee teams on job progress. “Today, we can park standard and dynamic forms, pass along basic news; it reduces email clutter and it’s at our convenience.”
CHOICE, www.choiceadvisory.com, is a senior products and services referral agency. Working with hospital discharge planners and social service agencies – CHOICE provides personalized referral information about housing, in-home care, assisted living, and other senior products and services – as well as annually publishing the Choice Guide for seniors and their families.
Task Tool allows multiple people to contribute to and edit all parts of a project. To learn more about how to improve your workflow, contact Greg Wycoff, director of business development, at (206) 774-0399 or greg@metricmedia.com.