August 29th, 2009

To truly realize progress, look back two years.

I found this ripped piece of paper from just over 2 years ago when CampusLIVE was in it’s infancy. Boris and I were in a small office, just under 300sq ft. This was our first organizational chart. I can remember how exciting it felt to create this. Fast forward 2 years: from 1 school to 88. From 2 employees to 10. Progress

Look back through your notes from 2 years ago. It will show you that you truly have made progress, even in the times you question it.

August 20th, 2009

An open letter to Neil Mellen, President of Town Fair Tire

[Sent via US Postal Service on 8/20/2009]

Jared Stenquist
CampusLIVE, Inc.
9 East Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01002
August 20, 2009

Neil Mellen, President
Town Fair Tire
460 Coe Avenue
East Haven, CT 06512

Dear Neil,
I wanted to take the time to provide feedback from a recent visit to your West Springfield location. As a business owner myself I make it a point to offer easy ways for our customers to provide feedback. Since the invoice I received from Town Fair Tire requested my input at the bottom, I felt I should oblige. I rarely take the time to write letters – only in circumstances of really great or really poor service. Hopefully my time writing will help out future customers.

I made an appointment for 8/6/2009 to have four new tires put on my car. I arrived at 11am to meet my salesman – Dave. He was pleasant enough. I could tell he was knowledgeable. We ended up deciding on a different pair of tires than requested, mostly because he said you didn’t guarantee Goodyear tires – Toyos were the way to go. I’m not sure if this is because you really don’t guarantee them, or because the Toyos were $25 more per tire.

The process of choosing between tires was in my opinion, meant to be extremely confusing. I expected this from a tire salesman as that’s the stereotype. I had hoped to be pleasantly surprised. In an archaic method, Dave spit out 5 different options on a calculator in less than a minute, and tried to explain each, in about 5 seconds. With (25) dollar values per printout and no line item description next to each, they were near impossible to understand – and I’m 25. I can’t imagine what an elderly person goes through.

Suggestion – Why not walk customers through tire options on the computer screen and explain what each item is. It’s easy, and customers won’t feel like you’re just confusing the hell out of them to get them to nod their head. Maybe even some diagrams – what is a front end alignment? What is a rear “thrust” alignment? If your customers learn something while they’re there I bet they’ll be inclined to return.

I had an appointment for 11am, but expected to wait, as most auto shops are very busy. I asked Dave for a rough estimate on the waiting time. He said from start to finish, 90 minutes. For all the work being done I didn’t feel this was bad. I killed some time next door at Staples doing some office shopping. I returned at 12:15pm to find (now one hour after I paid) that my car was still sitting out front, untouched. I remained patient and waited another 30 minutes. The car was still not touched – the only one sitting in front of the bay for over an hour.

I’m a very patient guy – extremely patient I would say. What really got me, was that while I was sitting on the bench out front waiting for them to start my work, there were (5) employees, whistling at or what we could refer to as “hitting on” a female customer who pulled up in a jeep out front. That’s right FIVE! Once they hit 18 minutes I had to go find Dave to see what the deal was. 5 employees x 18 minutes doing nothing = 90 minutes they could have worked on my car. And to top it off, an employee walked out of the front of the shop and yelled to the (5) saying something along the lines of “YO! You boys still off the clock yet?” to which a resounding “NOPE” was heard.

Dave just gave a little chuckle when I mentioned his (5) stellar employees who still hadn’t touched my car now 1 hour and 45 minutes since I paid him $646.00. Another 35 minutes of waiting and someone finally noticed my car (the only one parked in front of the bays).

Suggestion – Maybe you need a manager or some sort of person in charge who makes sure cars don’t sit for 2 hours before they’re seen. Maybe install a timer like that have at McDonald’s, Jiffy Lube, Dunkin Donuts Etc.. that shows the vehicle waiting the longest. There must be some way to do this. Anything to keep your customers from waiting 3.5 hours for a tire change.

I have one more thought that may help your company in the long run. A conversation with my father about how my new tires looked gave me the thought. He asked where I took my car to get the tires done. I told him Town Fair, to which he replied – “I’m surprised they didn’t make any attempt to even wipe your rims down. I went to Direct Tire and they even cleaned my wheels thoroughly”

I thought about it and he was right – Not only because it would look like you guys were “Going the extra mile”, but because cleaning the rims makes the tires look better! If I see my car come out of the bay with shiny tires and rims, that image will stick in my head for next time my tires go. This is why I go to AutoExpress in Amherst, MA – unlike Jiffy Lube, they go the extra mile and vacuum my carpets. I know I need to do a better job cleaning my rims, but I guarantee you that giving your customers rims a quick once over for 30 seconds a rim will impact your bottom line in a very positive way.

I thank you for taking my feedback. I hope it will help your business in some way.

Sincerely Yours,

[signature]

Jared Stenquist

CEO/Founder
CampusLIVE, Inc.

jared.stenquist@campuslive.com
413.259.6777

August 12th, 2009

Coincidence?

August 12th, 2009

One reason not to drink and drive 100MPH+ on a small town road (or ever really)

On 8/7/2009 a terrible car crash happened in my quaint hometown of Holliston, MA. I remember kids in high school driving well above the speed limit on the road (Norfolk Street), many ending up off the road when they hit the S-Curve.

The latest accident happened with 2 guys from Holliston going in excess of 100MPH in their Honda Riceburner Civic. At least one of them was ejected. The engine was found 30ft into the woods. These guys were quite a few years out of High School, in their mid/late 20′s – and may I add, some of the luckiest bastards I’ve ever seen considering these cars don’t have roll cages.

Besides the fact that alcohol was a major factor, leading them to the bright idea of driving over 100MPH on a small back road – aren’t you supposed to learn in High School that you aren’t invincible?

Lessons learned: don’t drive like idiots.

Story online:

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x968316642/Driver-to-face-charges-in-horrific-Holliston-crash

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/archive/x1900603061/Police-say-speed-a-factor-in-early-morning-crash-in-Holliston

August 12th, 2009

Testing Google Voice – Voicemail Embed

So far I love Google Voice. It’s freed me from my annoying verizon voicemail that I never put the effort in to check. It also let’s you embed voicemails to share with friends. This makes being funny a whole lot easier.

Take for example this voicemail from my girlfriend (who i love very much!). It came in at 3am. Sounds like she’s having a good time with her girl friends. So much fun in fact that she thought the Google Voice robot was me!

August 11th, 2009

Talking about dreams or building realities?

An interaction with a cashier at Best Buy today reminded me of my time in purgatory working at Staples. Day after day I’d show up – the only thing that kept me going was knowing that each paycheck  brought me closer to opening the JaredWeb office. It was frustrating to say the least, but I knew there was an end in sight. I’m not sure that the cashier today saw any sight ahead until i gave him a little advice.

He saw my business rewards card and asked me what kind of business i was involved with. I quickly replied “anInternet company” and thought that would suffice. He chided. Turns out he was a Comp Sci major at a local college and knew all about CampusLIVE. He praised the work we did and said he dreamed of making a million dollars. He went further saying he knew he’d never have a million dollars in his bank account – it was simply a dream.

I left him with one piece of advice: Throw some ambition behind your dream and you’ll be surprised how it becomes a reality.

What dreams do you have that are really just realities without the ambition behind them?