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Ask HN: Review my Startup CustomerCradle: Analytics for non Internet businesses

7 points by samh 16y ago

Hi, My partner and I have just released the subscription website service CustomerCradle. There is a 2 minute video http://www.customercradle.com We think of it as google analytics for real world businesses eg. travel agents, gyms, real estate agents etc. It lets people easily record and report on their customer interactions, so they can know how effective advertising is, and how effectively staff are converting potential customers into paying customers.<p>Love to hear your feedback on : - Does the homepage make it clear what CC is ? - How should we market CC ? (currently we are concentrating on travel and fitness, we are blogging, emailing people and cold calling) - Any other feedback appreciated. Thanks Sam Howley

mgkimsal 16y ago
Clickable link: http://www.customercradle.com http://www.customercradle.com
- samh 16y ago
  Thanks for adding that.
patio11 16y ago
Sounds like a CRM, at least in terms of how your users are likely to perceive it. This strikes me as likely to be difficult to sell. I would focus less on data and more on the concrete, meaningful results that people are going to get by acting on the data that you collect and present. Less text, more whitespace, better visual presentation, more niche focus, etc.
- samh 16y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. I think giving more examples of using the data produced is a good idea.
coryl 16y ago
Hey there, here are my thoughts: 1) First thing that popped into my mind: "God this design is awful. Black type on blue background? What the hell scribbley font is that? Whats in this screenshot, why is there these boxes of text blocking it. I can't even see what the text says!". I would have exited the site by now without bothering to look at the video. It just looks amateur. 2) I watched the video. I still have no idea what your software does. In one sentence, what does it do? I see people entering data in, but I have no idea what for and how that data is used. This is largely because I missed the first part about even having a clue what this product is. 3) How does this software make my life easier? By the looks of it, it makes my life harder. I have to find the time to manually enter in data after every interaction with a customer? And then, I have to do all the work to analyse that data? What can I even do with that information once its aggregated aside from pretty graphs? You don't give me any examples or cases where this could apply to my business. Best of luck, looks like you need to hit the drawing board and truly focus on solving the problem that your product wants to solve.
- samh 16y ago
  Thanks I will have a think about what you've said.
samratjp 16y ago
Hi there, You definitely have an interesting idea there. I can see that collecting analytics for offline businesses can be very valuable. Here are my two cents: 1) The reason online Analytics (like say Google) works so well is that there is one time setup and you forget about it and just look at the results. But, in this case, it looks like the user will have to input it every time and that takes quite a bit of patience on the user side, day in and day out. Of course, your product should reduce work, not create more for your user. For example, maybe have a coupon scanner and let that be an indirect measurement for tracking where that customer came in from. 2) Please take a look at https://www.dropbox.com/ https://www.dropbox.com/ If you are going for a video intro, keep it clean and keep the surrounding interface simple. The interface, in my opinion, reminds me of Microsoft Frontpage template - at least the blue font is. And you should visit a color picker website (like Adobe Kuler) to at least get some better color themes. 3) The video - if you are selling this product primarily in the U.S, you should perhaps use an American accented voice simply because when a new prospect lands on your page and listens to the video, you don't want them to think that your company is abroad and that dealing with you will may seem like a hard thing. And the resolution of the browser in the video seems too low i.e. don't make it scrollable. 4) The homepage - it's too cluttered. again, see Dropbox for a simpler theme. In fact, I recommend that you take a good look A/B testing here - http://www.abtests.com/ http://www.abtests.com/ The SAP example could be said for yours as well. Have the video, then at the right have a HUGE button for demo/signup. 5) Icons - they feel too generic. Definitely spend some time looking for some better ones or consider contracting your frontend to a designer. In general, I left feeling that what you offer can be easily replicated in Excel or even Bento. I can see that this can be valuable if done correctly, but this manual data entry can be tedious when it has to be done for all customers.
- samh 16y ago
  thanks for the feedback

7 points by samh 16y ago

mgkimsal 16y ago

Clickable link: http://www.customercradle.com http://www.customercradle.com

samh 16y ago
Thanks for adding that.

patio11 16y ago

Sounds like a CRM, at least in terms of how your users are likely to perceive it. This strikes me as likely to be difficult to sell. I would focus less on data and more on the concrete, meaningful results that people are going to get by acting on the data that you collect and present. Less text, more whitespace, better visual presentation, more niche focus, etc.

samh 16y ago
Thanks for the feedback. I think giving more examples of using the data produced is a good idea.

coryl 16y ago

Hey there, here are my thoughts: 1) First thing that popped into my mind: "God this design is awful. Black type on blue background? What the hell scribbley font is that? Whats in this screenshot, why is there these boxes of text blocking it. I can't even see what the text says!". I would have exited the site by now without bothering to look at the video. It just looks amateur. 2) I watched the video. I still have no idea what your software does. In one sentence, what does it do? I see people entering data in, but I have no idea what for and how that data is used. This is largely because I missed the first part about even having a clue what this product is. 3) How does this software make my life easier? By the looks of it, it makes my life harder. I have to find the time to manually enter in data after every interaction with a customer? And then, I have to do all the work to analyse that data? What can I even do with that information once its aggregated aside from pretty graphs? You don't give me any examples or cases where this could apply to my business. Best of luck, looks like you need to hit the drawing board and truly focus on solving the problem that your product wants to solve.

samh 16y ago
Thanks I will have a think about what you've said.

samratjp 16y ago

Hi there, You definitely have an interesting idea there. I can see that collecting analytics for offline businesses can be very valuable. Here are my two cents: 1) The reason online Analytics (like say Google) works so well is that there is one time setup and you forget about it and just look at the results. But, in this case, it looks like the user will have to input it every time and that takes quite a bit of patience on the user side, day in and day out. Of course, your product should reduce work, not create more for your user. For example, maybe have a coupon scanner and let that be an indirect measurement for tracking where that customer came in from. 2) Please take a look at https://www.dropbox.com/ https://www.dropbox.com/ If you are going for a video intro, keep it clean and keep the surrounding interface simple. The interface, in my opinion, reminds me of Microsoft Frontpage template - at least the blue font is. And you should visit a color picker website (like Adobe Kuler) to at least get some better color themes. 3) The video - if you are selling this product primarily in the U.S, you should perhaps use an American accented voice simply because when a new prospect lands on your page and listens to the video, you don't want them to think that your company is abroad and that dealing with you will may seem like a hard thing. And the resolution of the browser in the video seems too low i.e. don't make it scrollable. 4) The homepage - it's too cluttered. again, see Dropbox for a simpler theme. In fact, I recommend that you take a good look A/B testing here - http://www.abtests.com/ http://www.abtests.com/ The SAP example could be said for yours as well. Have the video, then at the right have a HUGE button for demo/signup. 5) Icons - they feel too generic. Definitely spend some time looking for some better ones or consider contracting your frontend to a designer. In general, I left feeling that what you offer can be easily replicated in Excel or even Bento. I can see that this can be valuable if done correctly, but this manual data entry can be tedious when it has to be done for all customers.

samh 16y ago
thanks for the feedback