From Ladd's Memo Dated 2.18.2011:
"The new homepage will have a strong marketing statement and links to the features that define our business and culture."
"The landing page (upon login) will be driven by unique customer data. It will include a warm welcome, an opportunity to establish online preferences, images of key support people, updates on their charity of choice, and information about Laddawn and the industry as it relates to their business."
"The landing page will allow users to select from a list of their colleagues to establish standard workflow notifications for a variety of activities. A Purchasing Agent may elect to notify a Sales Rep and their Admin Assistant that an order has been entered on their behalf, for example. These notifications, which customarily happen with calls, notes and emails within their office, will help balance the possible perception that Laddawn.com requires an extra effort. Notifications will also be established at the activity level."
"The menu of distributor contacts and colleagues required for workflow, the profiles of Laddawn staff, and the desire to share a variety of updates, give rise to the opportunity to foster a social/professional network. As such, we envision updates, notifications and shared content placed within a threaded conversation of posts. And we foresee an active online community wherein a user defines ‘friends’ from their company and ours. In this way, Laddawn.com will become a destination for distributors to conduct business and stay informed."
Excerpt from "Action Standards: Application Side Landing Page," June 23, 2011. I do not vouch for its validity today. -SP
(D) Streaming Narrative
The streaming narrative will help make Laddawn.com a desired destination. As a walled garden it will support a highly personalized experience. It will be a collaboration and discovery tool. Users of the Laddawn.com will describe the streaming narrative as a simple tool in which to participate, useful, and fun.
Look & Feel
Laddawn’s brand personality will be supported with a warm greeting – established by language and design. Images, Icons, and other design elements will be used early and often. Language will be direct yet conversational.
Stream authorship should be denoted by icon, photo, or other graphic type. Photos should be used to indicate sales rep, customer service rep, or distributor comments. Icons, designed by type of system or marketing post, will accompany all system and marketing threads.
Posting Sources:
- System Comments
- User Posts
- Marketing & Sales Posts
- Sales & Customer Service Rep Posts
1. System Comments.
This will include 3 categories of notifications: Quote Transactions, Sales Order Transactions, and Preference Changes.
(i) Quote Transactions…
“Your quote 12345 [9x12 2mil layflat 1000/cs] was issued today.”
“Pricing for your quote 12345 [9x12 2mil layflat 1000/cs] expires tomorrow.”
“Your quote 12345 [9x12 2mil layflat 1000/cs] expired today.”
“Your quote 12345 [9x12 2mil layflat 1000/cs] was converted to order 67890 today.”
Note: Within the stream, we will provide links to view/print/forward/email the full quote transaction. “Click here to view your quote.”
(ii) Sales Order Transactions…
“Order 12345 shipped today. Click here to track or to see order details.”
(iii) Preference Changes…
“Your preference to use ABC trucking has been added to your profile.”
“Your preference for 40x48 4-way pallets has been added to your profile.”
“Your preferences for comment viewing have been changed.”
2. User Comments.
We expect comments to mirror those found on facebook (albeit far more business related).
3. Marketing & Sales Postings.
Product & chemistry additions or discontinuations…
“Starting today, Laddawn now stocks [item/category X]. Click here to learn more.”
“[Product ABC] is no longer available a stock item.”
“Starting today, [chemistry X] is now available for customer manufacture. Click here to learn more.”
Feature additions…
“Check out [our latest features] on Laddawn Mobile. Click here to learn more.”
Marketing material alerts…
“Here’s something really fun. Check out the latest Laddawn Epipheo.” [We’ll need to be able to insert an expandable video box sourced from a site like Youtube or Vimeo]”
4. Sales or Customer Service Rep Comments.
“Thanks for having me at your sales meeting last week. You guys are the best. Don’t forget: the [ABC sales promotion] begins today. Good luck!”
“Check out our new Epipheo, I think you’ll really like it. [Insert expandable video box.]
“Good morning Joe, great job with Account LMNO – I’ll get the new stocking numbers in place today.”
Note: We will allow links to system and external web destinations.
Contact and Viewing Preferences
Who will see my notifications? Who can see my postings?
Note: We will need to provide easy preference settings, with defaults. These preference settings will be unique to the streaming narrative (not combined with purchase or log on preferences).
General comments and outstanding questions:
- What can we do to keep “big brother” out of the look and feel of user experiences while mining user data to apply predictive cues?
- The development of the streaming narrative will begin smaller and go broader: we will track behaviors and adapt as we go.
- What rules can we follow to ensure that we are not in their stream too often?
- What are the limits to postings? For example, do we limit comments to 6 viewable, but note that 25 people have commented. (We’ll borrow heavily from FB here.)
- What concerns are there for displaced postings (postings that fall off the bottom of the screen)?
- Is it possible/smart to look to the narrative stream for distributor polling? For example, click here to take a survey and earn $25 off your next stock order of $100 or more.
- What is the best way to allow people to opt in / opt out by stream content type?
- Can users opt to see stream content type in emails, too? If so, should they only be able to respond on the application site?
(E) iChat
Because of the breadth of information and transaction resources available, it is important that online help be provided through a bold placement of iChat. Then because of size and placement, care must be given to providing it a look and feel consistent with the established Laddawn brand personality.
(Z) Notes on Other Application Side Landing Page Contents
- Customer Photo & Info. We will make it easy to upload profile pictures. That said, many won’t. To that end, we’ve talked about a way to keep that spot lively and fun by rotating a number of stylized caricatures or silhouettes.
Question: What profile information is needed, helpful, and/or fun to have?
- Charity of Choice. First thought: we can provide a snapshot of the charity each user selects during checkout including a updated blurb on what the charity is up to (click to go to their website).
Question: What if the user selects “no preference” upon checkout? We could remove that option, or we could rotate the other option snapshots through.
- Sales Rep Photo & Info. Again, it will be easy to upload profile pictures and we certainly leverage on our employees. Photos must be fun and interesting (to be shot by our company photographer in inventive sittings. We should also consider caricatures, and seasonal or holiday shots early and often.
Question: What profile information is needed, helpful, and/or fun to have?
- Presentation of Savings Earned. Let’s start with free freight here. We continue to offer the lowest free freight minimums and we know how to calculate the freight we pay for.
Question: Other quantifiable benefits to share here?
- Marketing. We should be very judicious with the number and content of any marketing materials posted here. The look and feel of the site will be an accomplishment worthy of fierce protection. Special care must be taken to limit marketing blurbs and images to highly complementary presentations only.