Digital photos to the rescue - another happy customer.

Over the fourth of July holiday my uncle emailed me with a problem. You see, he knows I work for a bird feeding company and can help him find the product he needs. He is trying to find an alternate way to mount his bird feeding setup on his deck. He scoured the internet but just did not find the part he needed right away. What did he do? He email some digital photographs to me, I consulted with one of our in-house product managers and with the help of one of our local stores, the parts were identified, ordered and drop-shipped directly from the supplier. My uncle will have his parts in 5-7 days. And he's a very happy customer. Mind you, he is about 70 years young and lives 2,000 miles from me.

Lesson? Don't think your customer base is not using the internet or is not current with the latest technology. My uncle may not be an technology expert, though he has a digital camera and uses the internet regularly to research and shop. Don't underestimate your customers.