Author Archives: Rishi Shah

How to Hire an Amazing Customer Support Person off Craigslist

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Recently my company needed some extra hands on customer support. I wanted someone that would take customer support to the next level. The best place to hire people is through your inner circle, the second best place is Craigslist’s Job section. It costs $75 in San Francisco and it will be worth it.

The problem with Craigslist is you will be swamped with resumes and intro emails immediately. You need to create a system that filters out the crappy people from the awesome people. Here is how to create that system.

Step 1: Create an informative job ad on Craigslist. Here is what you should include:
– What qualities the applicant should have
– Bonus qualities (but not required)
– Their primary tasks and what they will be doing on a day to day basis
– About your business
– The Pay
– The Location
– An application form (I will talk about the application form in Step #2)

Here is a link to my actual job ad.

Step 2: Create an application form for your job ad.
Create a Form using Google Docs.

Only ask questions that are relevant. I left out a lot of things you will find on resumes like where they went to college and their past employers, simply because I didn’t care. I just really wanted to know if they could do the job they will be hired for (like answer customer support emails) really well.
Here are a few of the questions I asked:
1. We will be working in person together.  Can you come to Ritual Coffee Roasters in the mission 5 days a week?
This was a simple yes/no deal-breaker question that helped filter out all the people that wanted to work remotely. I highly suggest adding another yes/no deal-breaker question like “Do you know HTML/CSS?”. 

2. Do you have a blog/website with content you have written?  If so please list it below:
This let me look at their writing and showed me if they knew how to blog.
3. Pretend we’re your mom.  Tell us step by step how to create a free store on www.FlyingCart.com
This was the most important question. We had over 85 applicants. Over 60% of them got this wrong. It also showed me if they were detailed oriented and understand how to explain our web app in writing.

4. Do you have any references?
I always call references to make sure the person is legit. I wanted this information handy if they passed the 2nd round interview.

Here is my actual job ad application form.
Step 3: Post to Craigslist and watch the applications roll in. Wait 2-5 days to send out your 2nd round interview.
Some Stats:
400 people viewed the application form
85 people applied
10 people were extended 2nd round interviews
1 person was hired and he is awesome.
Step 4: Select the 10 best applicants and send out a 2nd round interview via email.
Make it 2 very detailed questions.
Step 5: Setup In Person Interviews with the 3-4 people that you really like.

Step 6: Enjoy working with your new hire!


Great people are hard to find. I hope this process will help you find someone awesome. Good luck!
Please let me know if you liked this post in the comments below.

AirBnB Leverages Craigslist in a Really Cool Way

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I’m a huge fan of AirBnB. I really like the way they leverage all the traffic craigslist gets. Craiglist is the first place people look for sublets.

After you create a post on AirBnB they send you a sweet email (displayed below)


The email is trying to convince you to post your AirBnB listing on Craigslist.

Check out some of the great lines in this email:
1. “increases your earnings by $500/month” – awesome cash incentive for you to do this.
2. “Click here to re-post A couch in the mission in 1 click.” – it is super easy to do.  wow 1 click!

The reason AirBnB does this is because if you make money they make money. They also will get flagged by craigslist if they post it for you.

Zynga got huge by piggy backing off of Facebook. PayPal piggy backed off of eBay. Pretty cool how AirBnB is piggy backing off craigslist.

PS: The AirBnB CEO gave a very inspiring talk at Startup School. Check it out.


2/11/2011 UPDATE: I just got a reminder from the “Air Team” to repost to Craigslist.


I love 3 main things about this reminder
#1″Instant Sign-In” – I’m pretty sure most people don’t remember their login right off the bat
#2 “Repost to Craigslist” button – wonderful call to action
#3 Signed by “The Airteam” – this made me think their is something more to airbnb – a separate group looking out for me. Great branding.

If you want to learn more about how airbnb implemented this check out the comments on Hacker News.

Here is a good "No" response

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I’m constantly getting bombarded with questions or features that we just don’t have.  I have a really hard time figuring out what to say to these people…. until now! I’m using wufoo for a side project and they just sent me the perfect “No” response back. It is now a canned message of mine.

Hi Rishi, 

Unfortunately, we don’t have a way of doing that. It’s a good idea, though, and we may look at adding something like that when we go over the available field types again.

Sorry for the bad news. If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Andrew

Advertising in the airport security line

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Last weekend I was in the airport security line and saw that the bins were sponsored by Skechers.  I thought this was pretty awesome for a few reasons:

1. I just took off my shoes so I was already thinking about shoes and the fact that I need new ones
2. I just took off my belt and started to think about how I need to start working out (the ad in the bin is showing off shoes that help you get in shape)
3. This is marketing to people that can afford a plane ticket and probably have some disposable income

Actual Skechers Advertisement in the Airport Security Bin

This goes to show that you can advertise anywhere.  You just have to pay for it.

Update: Awesome comment on reddit by Kadavy
“They should advertise slip-on/off shoes, too. I always try to remember to wear laceless shoes when I travel so the security checkpoint is less of a pain.“

Get More Clicks by Testing Titles (How To Guide)

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My company just launched a promotion.  My buddy Andy said my title was unclear. This made me think about how Timothy Ferris tested what he should title his book. He ended up with “The Four Hour Work Week” because it got the most clicks.

I decided to do some testing to see which title I should go with.

Step 1: Brainstorm Different Titles
I kept coming up with that same titles so I reach out to my friends for some help.
Here are the 4 competitors:
A. Sell Green Award (original)
B. Win Green Giveaway (Andy’s Suggestion)
C. Sell Eco Friendly Products? Win $1600 ($1600 is the total value, but only $100 cash) (my suggestion)
D.90% chance of winning – Flying Cart Green Lights Eco-Friendly Stores. Enter and win a $1600 package. (Darin‘s suggestion)

Step 2: Get Traffic to your test with PickFu.com
(I actually first started my test with Google Adwords but it was taking a long time and getting costly.  If you have the time and resources I would suggest Google Adwords since it is a true A|B test.  With PickFu both options get read so it isn’t a true test but it is better than nothing.)
1. Go to PickFu.com and enter in your question.
2. Start with Option A and Option B from Step 1, take the winner and move down your list

Step 3: Let the Results Pick the Winner
http://pickfu.com/HL8GNY

Step 4: Change your Title
Here is the result: http://flyingcart.com/blog/flying-cart-green-lights-eco-friendly-stores/

I really think people should do this for all titles.  YouTube titles, twitter/facebook status messages (to maximize shares), product titles on your store (and ebay/etsy), and even your kids name (jk).

Thanks again to Andy Angelos, Darin Eich, and Tim Ferris for inspiring this post.  You should follow them if you want really insightful stuff.
—
PS You can apply to our awesome Eco Friendly Promotion here
PSS If you retweet this article I will send you a personal ecard from someecards

Colour Lovers gets my browser

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Colour Lovers tells you what your screen size is and allows you to download the pattern in that size.  I wish all wallpaper sites and image download sites did this.
This is a great way to make the user experience better by knowing their browser data.  Colour Lovers could have had a drop down asking you what your screen size is… but there is no need to do that since they can figure it out themselves and just present it to you.

Advertise on Facebook for Cheap – Give CPM a Try

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I just learned the coolest thing about Facebook advertising, CPM advertising! (apparently it has been around for a while) CPM allows you to pay per 1,000 impressions (different from CPC where you pay when someone clicks on your ad). Think of CPM as a billboard. This is great for big brands like Coca Cola and Big Budget Movies (like Avatar) that are going for mass appeal.

So… how can CPM advertising help you?  Here are a few ways:

New Restaurant/Coffee Shop/Retail Store Opening
Studies suggest that people need to hear a company’s name at least seven times before they trust and respect it enough to become a customer. By posting an ad in the background people will be more familiar with your store name. So if they walk by it they will be more likely to walk in or say something like “Yeah… I heard about that place somewhere.” The reason this can work well for physical retail stores is because on Facebook you can target a specific location (just like a billboard).

Have an Image of Hot People in Your Facebook Ad
A great way to get people to click on your ad is to have a picture of someone hot. This way you don’t have to pay for the actual clicks. If you use this strategy you better have a good way of converting the new visitors after the click otherwise you will end up with angry visitors.

Make Yourself a Brand
Sometimes all you need to do to get new business or increase your current hourly consulting rates is to be a mini celebrity. Advertise yourself like crazy based on keywords. I’m assuming the person below is using the keyword “Social Media”.

Give CPM advertising on Facebook a shot. It could seriously slash your advertising costs.

Please let me know if you enjoyed this post in the comments.

Very Clever Toyota – Donate your way to more email opt-ins

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Toyota has been trying a lot of different marketing techniques.  This post is about my favorite one.
Smithsonian Magazine is sponsoring a Free Museum day.  To get your free museum tickets you have to fill out a form with your email address.  As I made my way to the bottom of the form I see two opt-ins which I immediately unchecked (see screen shot below). And then it happened… I read this:
“For every person that requests more information from Toyota Avalon through this registration, Toyota will donate $1 to museum programming and educational outreach (up to $10,000).”
After reading that I felt like a total jerk and decided to opt-in to the Toyota information.
This is a great way to incentivize people to sign up to get more info about your company.  Note that it says “up to $10,000”,  so even if they get 100k subscribers they only have to donate $10k.

The Power of Cookies and how PayPal uses them

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If PayPal knows you have used PayPal this is what your checkout screen looks like:

PayPal knows you have an account or have used their service before.  They don’t even give you the option to pay with a credit card.  They will make way more money if you pay with PayPal.

This is what PayPal looks like if you don’t have a PayPal cookie on your computer:

Notice how they offer you to enter in a credit card this time.  They know you aren’t familiar with PayPal   and logging into PayPal is a major drag.  This way they can grab the sale as soon as possible.  (Although the next step after entering your billing information they will ask you to open a PayPal account).