Inside the Box
January 19, 2008Howdy. My name is Paul and I’m the Director of Technology here at Smilebox. Smilebox is an interesting and unique company. There are a lot of processes and rituals we follow that may interest others, so I thought I would spend some time sharing what happens “Inside the Box.” In the next weeks and months, I hope to give you a glimpse of what makes Smilebox special, not only as a service, but as a place to work. We take a lot of pride in what we do and spend a lot of time trying different ways to improve. Some succeed and some don’t; but we always learn something.
This week I’d like to start out by sharing with you a decision we made early in the company. When we first started Smilebox, we knew we needed to do something a little different. We wanted to ensure that we designed and built a service that was fun and creative. Leveraging the idea that a product directly reflects the team that built it, we needed to foster a culture within Smilebox that was also fun and creative. Explicitly designing the culture of a company during its early stages was a unique challenge and we attacked it directly.
So, how does one go about cultivating a company’s culture? For us, we defined a set of values upon which we would build the company. Many of the founders of Smilebox, including myself, were familiar with various agile processes and the values they espouse. For example, the values defined by Kent Beck for his Extreme Programming process are “Communication”, “Simplicity,” “Courage,” “Feedback” and “Respect.” We wanted to define our own set of values that would set us apart and be guide posts for our future as a company. After much thought and discussion, we agreed on the following values for Smilebox: “Consumer Centric;” “Creative and Technical Excellence;” “Family Oriented;” “Accountable;” “Transparent;” “Collaborative;” and “Fun.”
Just glancing through the values we picked, I think you’ll start to see how Smilebox has built such a fun and creative service. In my next posts, I’ll briefly discuss each value, along with why we feel it is important and how it is reflected in both our work and in our service. Till then, happy Smileboxing…
I have used smilebox and loved it…but I just got a new iMac and realized I can no longer use it…..Please make a version for Mac?
Hey all, I joined but Smilebox won’t work on mt PC. The page opens and then nothing. I press the button to sign in and sign in and then…nothing. I have even tried to cancel before my 14 day trial is over but ever time I press the HELP button I get “Page unavailable”. How do I cancel this service before they charge me. I don’t think this is fair. And there is no way on the website to contact anyone. Is that by design. I’ve only been a customer for 5 days and I am very unhappy.
Janina
We’re very sorry you had difficulty signing into your Smilebox account. We hope our customer service support was able to help. In the future, if you have problems or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact support@smilebox.com so they may help you get up and running quickly on Smilebox. Full and complete support information is available by clicking the help button in the application and visiting the customer support area of our website at http://www.smilebox.com. There you will find a Smilebox Knowledgebase and a Smilebox Troubleshooter to help you answer your questions, as well our newest customer service enhancement, an automatic account cancelation feature. This is also where you can send a support ticket to our customer service group at Smilebox. If you submit a ticket and want to check the status, you can click the “My Support” tab to view your ticket. We wish to provide all Smilebox customers with superior support and are listening to ways to improve both our service and support.
Hi … LOVE Smilebox, but I too just switched over to a MAC and am so sad that I can no longer use this product … I am begging too for a MAC version … after 10 years of windows, just got tired of all the crashes and freezes, so PLEASE make a MAC version!!
i see all the questions about MAC….when will we get it? why does no one answer?
San,
Based on many customer requests, we are very busy working on the Mac version of Smilebox! We appreciate your patience and will provide additional updates here in the coming weeks.
hi! please, please make a Mac version. Loved this software the day I joined and have recommended it to friends. But since I switched to Mac, I’m the one that can’t use it anymore. Would appreciate if you can send me an email to advise a Mac versions already available.
Tried multiple times to add video files and everytime smilebox crashes after i press continue on the video add screen
Customer service have been responsive with suggestions which I have tried but no luck, I am vey frustrated I signed up for the premium version so I could share videos as well as photos and very disapointed this feature is not working in time for Easter greetings to be sent
Susan,
Our customer service group will be in touch with you to resolve your issue.
Please consider the 2 following suggestions:
**more Maxine formats!!!
**ability to use more than 1 tune for the extra large formats of 50 or more pics
Love this program!!!
Your customer service staff have not properly addressed my account issues. I believe they do not even read the whole request and base their replys to the subject header only. I have been using SmileBox as a paid premium member and have LOVED it - I used it for everything - and suddenly one day my account is showing as BASIC. (2 months into the year I paid for) No one has been able to resolve this and as a PAID in full member, I am appalled! I hope to have this issue resolved and expect and extension on my one year contract for the time I have been unable to utilize my account as a PREMIUM Member.
How do we get to see what we sent, if it was correct or how to keep it?