We have been working on a brand new version of EliteEmail.com for a while now. This new version is jam packed with new features that is entirely the result of customer feedback we have received. We always (and I mean always!) listen to our customers and attempt to be as responsive as possible in building the absolute best program possible. People are always asking when this new version will be available and while we have a rough timeline we are reluctant to give an actual date.

This reluctance isn’t because we enjoy keeping secrets or like building suspense, it’s because we need to go through the most rigorous of beta testing to ensure our customers email marketing activities are not interrupted for even a second. The only standard we accept is absolute excellence and while holding the bar that high does lead us to have a long beta testing cycle, we believe that anything less is simply a disservice to our loyal customers.

Last night I was watching CNN and was reassured why beta testing is so important. CNN has lots of new gadgets and graphics for their election coverage, most of which so far have been running fairly smoothly. The folks at CNN seem to have a good handle (as they always have) on how technology enhancements can really spruce up a newscast. Yesterday they showed off a cool new feature on that nifty touch screen they’ve been using lately. With a few taps of the screen, they were able to load Google maps and zoom in to any area of the country to illustrate a particular point. In this case the host (John Roberts) was showing the levies in New Orleans.  After proudly announcing this new feature, which, I must admit, was incredibly off-the-charts cool, Roberts went to switch the touch-screen to show the Republican side of the story. He tapped the screen and there was no response. He tapped again, and nothing…again, nothing, and again. This is on national TV with millions of people watching and all anyone can see is John Roberts tapping the screen to no avail. Finally he knew it wasn’t coming back and tossed it over to Wolf Blitzer for a semi-smooth cover-up. I guess no one at CNN ever tested the new Google Maps feature followed by resetting the screen to the other party. With millions of people watching, they couldn’t have been happy about this glitch, which once again reaffirms why you need to test, test and then test some more before releasing something live.

So, that is exactly what we are doing with our EliteEmail.com, our flagship email marketing program. We test and then we re-test. Then we test even the most obscure scenarios because each customer of ours does their email marketing a little differently and we need to make sure their experience is flawless. We may not achieve perfection and I’ll be the first one to admit that, but that’s where we are setting the bar and we’re not prepared to cut any corners. Ultimately, I believe this philosophy shines through in our program and is something our customers appreciate even if they have to wait a little bit longer.