« New Design | Main | The Story of ProjectStat.us - Part 2 of 2 »

The Story of ProjectStat.us - Part 1 of 2

So where did the idea for ProjectStat.us come from? What was the motivation for building the service?

The idea for ProjectStat.us first came about in the summer of 2005. At the time, I was working on a website for a friend of mine who owns a landscaping business. One day, while discussing his site, my friend mentioned that I should design a new section of his site that he could use to communicate with his clients.

He explained his problem by telling me that he schedules customers 4 to 8 weeks out. And then something happens, like rain, that causes all of his scheduled customer's time to slip. Or a customer would call and have to move their install date to the following week. Simply put, my friend was spending too much time calling his customers in the evening to inform them of a change in their project, and too much time answering questions about future projects while “in the field.” It was frustrating for my friend and frustrating for his clients.

I realized that my friend’s problem was not unique. I knew other service-related companies had similar problems communicating with their customers. I did some research online to find a service my friend could use, but did not come across anything that was simple enough for what he needed. There are tools out there that let you communicate with your customers, but they try to do too much, like complex scheduling, invoicing, time tracking, etc. Those complex tools were also lacking a simple way for the customer to see their project or to ask a quick question of their service provider.

So after discussing specifics, I decided to build a service that would allow my friend and other business owners to simply and effectively communicate the status of projects to their customers.

Categories: The Story
Posted by Phil on 02.22.2006 |

 
 
 
line

Links

Sign Up for Free

 

Categories