GetQuik Reviews Relaunch - Alpha

We are ready to address restaurant reviews.  The alpha version is now live.  Customers can leave reviews for past orders.  

Like Twitter, you will be able to follow other GetQuik customer's reviews, as well as be followed.  You can include a photo in your profile, which will appear next to your review.

We'll be making some modifications to the reviews to make them more intuitive and useful.  Once we finish a few modifications, we'll provide a more comprehensive blog post.  In the meantime, feel free to try out our alpha reviews.  Ideas or suggestions?  Email us at support@getquik.com.

Noah's Joins GetQuik

We would like to welcome Noah's Bagel to the GetQuik network. GetQuik customers can now orders catering from Noah's 16 Bay Area locations. Bagels, coffee, sandwiches, salads. Yum!

Here's the list:

Noah's Bagels - Cupertino
Noah's Bagels - Foster City
Noah's Bagels - Fremont
Noah's Bagels - Lafayette
Noah's Bagels - Livermore
Noah's Bagels - Los Gatos
Noah's Bagels - Milpitas
Noah's Bagels - Pleasanton
Noah's Bagels - Redwood City
Noah's Bagels - San Mateo
Noah's Bagels - Santa Clara
Noah's Bagels - Santa Cruz
Noah's Bagels - Saratoga
Noah's Bagels - Walnut Creek
Noah's Bagels - West San Jose
Noah's Bagels - Willow Glen

Manu's New Look - Ketchup & Pepper

Today was the day for Manu to pay the piper. You can check out the Flickr stream of the process.

We did need to remind Manu to come in today. He conveniently forgot that today was the day for his hair consultation.

We took Manu down to the Monterey Academy of Hair Design in Santa Clara to get their recommendation. Although Manu was game for a full bleach and hair coloring, we were advised to go with streaks instead. The treatment is less intense. Bleaching thick, black hair can take a while and can damage the hair and scalp. So after taking their advise and $44 dollars later, Manu was ready to go. We were assigned to Tony, who was a hair dye virgin prior to Manu.

Tony had plenty of help as many of the other beauticians were interested in Manu's unusual request. The first step was the bleach treatment. They grabbed a few long strands of Manu's hair, applied the bleach, and wrapped the treated hair in aluminum foil. To accelerate the bleaching process, they put Manu under the hair dryer. The bleach process took about an hour and a half. After removing the foil and a shampoo treatment, Manu was ready for the red dye. The red dye application took around 30 minutes. After another rinse, and a blow dry, Manu was done. Although it is clear that something is different about Manu's hair, we were hoping for a more shocking result. If we were to do this again, we would have gone for the full hair bleach and color application. Manu was a good sport, and he will have 4-6 weeks of red streaks to enjoy.

Peter elected to get his hair dyed even though he won the contest. Peter's treatment was considerably simplier. Since he was going for a brown coloring without as much of a permanent coloring, Peter was able to simply have a hair dye applied. After 30-45 minutes, a rinse and blow dry, Peter had brown hair. Not sure how long it will last, but we'll see. Peter's dye job ran $30, but actually seems to be more obvious than Manu's coloring.

Our recommendations after the afternoon outing. For those with black hair looking to really look freaky, go for a full head bleach and coloring. The team at Monterey Academy of Hair were really friendly. The prices are about right, but keep in mind these folks are in training. If you know what you want, be sure to be specific about your request. Since we have no clue about the process of hair dyeing, we were a little out of element in explaining our needs. It was a fun contest, but it's nice to be done with it.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

We took a short field trip out to the SJ Giants ballpark. It was the first time for Peter and Irina to see a live baseball game. Peter liked the between innings promos best, while Irina was less interested. Sorry Irina, hockey season is over.

The Inland Empire 66er's dominated the game. They ended up winning 8-4. Highlights included an innings where the Giants catcher had two passed ball (wild pitches?), one air-mailed throw into the outfield on a steal of 3rd, and another runner stealing third. Not his proudest defensive effort I'm sure. I don't recall his name, but apparently he is not the everyday catcher. Buster Posey was DH'ing for the Giants, and he crushed a home run to left field.

This being my first SJ Giants game, here are my tips for those looking to check out the SJ team.

1. You can often get free tickets at certain SJ Giants sponsors such as Orchard Supply Hardware store.
2. There is NO sun protection. If you get a sunny day, bring your shades, sunblock and a sun umbrella. Irina wilted in the sun after 20 minutes and spent the rest of the time in the shaded tunnel.
3. Concessions are quite reasonably priced, though the service tends to be s l o w. They do take credit card. They fill the beers to the top without a lid and only serve two beers per person at a time. Have your friends help you carry beverages back to the seats.
4. Unlike some parks and movie theaters, the SJ Giants concession folks drown the nachos in a lake of cheese. You could easily bring a few small bags of tortilla chips and still have tons of cheese left over. Seriously, it is pretty insane.
5. The pitches are clocked, so look up in left field and you'll see the scoreboard showing the mph of the pitches under the Adobe sign.

Observation regarding the difference between single A and the big leagues:

The thing that seems to be the key difference between the Giants games to the north, is the pitcher's control is not there. Plenty of wild pitches, passed balls and walks. The hurlers can get it up there at speeds over 90 mph, but they have trouble finding home plate at times. On the offensive side, the batters are able to hit pitches up to 91 without much trouble, but they are a little behind in pitches 93 and up. Also, many of the guys are susceptible to off-speed pitches. They are often chasing balls well out of the strike zone.

Clearly some excellent athletes and raw talent, but you can see why it is so hard to compete at a big league level. Buster Posey was impressive, so hopefully he will continue to develop since the SF Giants are in desperate need of some offensive slugging power. Watching these excellent baseball talent provides an interesting prospective on just how good the pros are. I'll be appreciating the little things the pros excel in more that I can see how hard this seemingly simple game is.

All in all, a fun outing. Here's a breakdown on the cost of the excursion:

- 5 Tickets (free - from Osh),
- Parking (free - we got there late so I think we got lucky on that aspect),
- 5 beers (LJ got the bonus beer), 2 hotdogs, 2 polish sausages, one regular nachos, one super nachos (HUGE) - $54.50.

Total Cost for 5 people - $54.50.

The Streak is Over!

A little rain is failing in the desert that is the Bay Area IPO market.  OPEN is coming!  It is too early to tell if OpenTable will revitalize the stream of Bay Area IPO's, but let's take a moment to savor this increasingly rare feat.  It has been 15 months and 6 days, not that anyone is counting, since Cupertino-based ArcSight went public.  ArcSight was the ONLY Silicon Valley IPO of 2008.

OpenTable has raised their open price from $12-$14/share up to $16-$18/share, which may be a risky move if they don't close up for the day.  You have to give it to OpenTable and CEO Jeff Jordan for his risk-taking spirit.  We could use some bold leadership here in the valley of no-IPOs.  Let's hope that OpenTable will be the cure for the current morass.

GetQuik has reason to cheer on OpenTable's IPO.  As with OpenTable, we believe the efficiency, network effect, and viral nature of the Internet greatly improves the efficiency of restaurants, while at the same time, enhancing the customer experience.  Naysayers claim that restauranteurs are technophobes.  They claim that driving adoption of new technologies to this business segment is cost prohibitive.  Thank you to OpenTable for helping to dispell these myths.  

Go OPEN, go!

The British are Coming...to GetQuik

OK, short posting.  Yes, I wanted to use the phrase while it was still appropriate.  We are looking foward to our first British pub in the GetQuik network.  Brittania Arms in Cupertino will be live on the GetQuik network shortly.  Most South Bay folks from across the pond are familiar with this South Bay institution.  Bangers and mash, Shepard's Pie, fish and chips, talleyhoo.  

GetQuik Customer Dashboard - Alpha

We are pleased to announce the release of the GetQuik dashboard. As you log into your GetQuik account, you will be taken to a page with easy view and access to your most important GetQuik tools.

You can now see a quick snapshot of the following:

• GetQuik Rewards points status,
• Saved Meals,
• Past Transactions, and
• Group Orders.

If you wish to search for restaurants, you can use the search tool bar to retrieve a listing of restaurants in your service area.

Some things you will also note.

Refer a friend. Within the Rewards dashboard view, you will see a link to "refer a friend". Now when you refer a friend to the GetQuik network, you will earn a reward point for each reward point your friend earns for a 6 month period.

Order Again. From your past transactions, you can easily duplicate a past order by clicking the "order again" link. You can edit and adjust your order if you like as well.

If you have any questions on what these different dashboard items are, or how to search, email us at support@getquik.com. We will be looking for bugs and making a few visual and functional modifications.

Enjoy.

KFC - Promo Without Fulfillment?

Combine the power of Oprah with the distribution of Twitter, and what do you get?  Lots of coupons, but "no chicken for you."

What gives?  I am amazed that KFC can simply provide a - "we're out of chicken, sorry come back later" excuse in order to extricate themself from what looked to be a disastrously expensive promotion.  These are the type of incidents that lead to massive public property damage to the city of Quahog, Rhode Island.

There is a law called the "bait and switch", which prevents an advertiser from advertising a product that is knowingly unavailable.  I can empathize with KFC for underestimating the response to the "free grilled chicken" promo, but clearly the promotion was poorly designed.  The ability to print 4 coupons per customer, combined with a multi-week redemption period spelled doom.

In the end, KFC looks to come out ahead on this one.  The promo created massive media attention.  They have introduced a "rain check" program, clearly designed to take advantage of the fact that customers will not bother to claim their "future free chicken".

Surprisingly, the public outcry has been mild to non-existant.  The deal was too good to be true, and in the end that is what it is.  My beef with KFC is that if you generate all this publicity and attention due to this fabulous offer, shouldn't you have to follow through?  If you can simply announce deals, without the requirement of completing the transaction, imagine the type of ads that we'll have to ignore then.  That's nothing to cluck about.

The Winner Is...

The results are in. Winning by a 3 to 2 margin is Peter. Manu has been gracious in defeat and has agreed to go blue, Tuesday - May 26th. We are still needing to line up a beautician to handle the transformation. We hope to have this settled shortly. We hope to have a few video highlights of the procedure.

Results of the challenge. Peter plans on having 60% of GetQuik vendors available for "Quik Catering" in the next couple of weeks. Manu has developed a simple way for GetQuik merchants to add a "Order Ordering" link feature to their web-site. We will be noodling on how best to introduce and encourage our merchants to take advantage of the "Online Ordering" feature.

Thanks to Manu and Peter for taking on the challenge.

NUS Intern Smackdown Preso - Postponed

Manu and Peter have an extra weekend to get their presos together for the GetQuik NUS Intern Smackdown.  Both Manu and Peter have booth duties at TieCon, so they have earned a few days reprieve.  The good news is that Irina can join in the judging.

Monday, 10am, May 18th.  There can be only one.   

Power to the Power Sellers

Ebay has made recent changes to its listing prices in an effort to grow their product inventory (listings).  The online auction giant has been noodling with the listing and transaction fees in search of the perfect balance between profits and inventory.  Amazon has been on a roll, and has put pressure on eBay for the hearts and wallets of small business e-tailers.  The recent listing friendly policy is in constrast to their hugely unpopular 2008 fee-hike. 

Traffic and listings have been slumping at eBay, and no doubt the rise of Amazon and the 2008 fee-policy are at the heart of the seller defections.  eBay has come to realize that taking the short cut towards profits to please Wall Street is a dangerous game.  They are now getting back on track.  Multiple item listing is going to greatly improve power sellers sales velocity, and the listing friendly policy will increase inventory.  Cross-town rival Craigslist provides a model example of how listing friendly policies lead to high for-sale inventory, and in turn page views and unique visitors.  Craigslist and eBay have very different business objectives and profit targets, so the comparision is not apples to apples.  Ebay can win by being more pay-per-action (transaction fees on successfully completed sales) driven, than PPC (listing fees).

Expect eBay to have a strong comeback if they stay true to this listing friendly policy and do not once again try and milk the listings fees too hard.  The argument for listing fees is that you keep weak sellers and crap from being listed.  The reality is that anyone who is going to take time and energy to post on eBay is most likely a serious seller looking to make a buck for their wares.  That's the whole point of eBay.

When eBay announced their fee hikes in 2008, it seemed like the wrong tactic.  Ebay has a strong hold of the auction market, and it seemed the 2008 fee policies would lead to a lot of grumbling, though not much attrition.  However, the negative impact of the 2008 fees were notable.  The powersellers were able to fight the fees and punish eBay for their unwelcome policy changes.  Congrats to the eBay community for winning the stare down, and good job to eBay for realizing their mistake and backing down the listing fees.

New Restaurants in the GetQuik Network

Our new hire Andrew is getting us caught up. Here are some of the menus that have been recently added to the GetQuik network.

Gordon Biersch (Palo Alto) - American
Extreme Pizza (San Francisco - Alemany Boulevard)
Extreme Pizza (San Francisco - Fillmore St)
Extreme Pizza (San Francisco - Folsom St)
Extreme Pizza (San Francisco - Union St)
Panera Bread (San Francisco) - Sandwiches, Salads
Ratcha Thai (San Francisco)
First Wok (Sunnyvale) - Chinese
L&L Hawaiian (San Francisco)
Round Table Pizza (Fremont)
Spot A Pizza Place (Palo Alto)
Spot A Pizza Place (Los Altos)

Now that help has arrived, we are going to be adding lots of new restaurants soon. If you have a request, you can let us know at support@getquik.com.

You Make Me Feel So Blue

The NUS Intern Smackdown contest is off and running. Manu and Peter must have been influenced by Saturday morning cartoons. The color they have settled on is Smurf blue. See attached photo for the model.

One additional rule is that the loser must NOT dye their hair for a period of 45 days from the beautiful, new you hair treatment.

Friends of Manu and Peter, we'd like to see who you think will win the contest. Current Vegas odds have Peter out in front.