I'm writing this post whilst on a train to London (back from Newcastle, where the WooThemes team attended DIBI) to catch a flight back home after a week-long UK-trip with the whole WooTeam. This was the first ever time that we had the whole team together in one room (10 of us) and the main aim of the trip was fun, geekery, team-building with a bit of work sprinkled in.

So as I reflect on the trip on what it has meant for our company & team, I realize that all of the things that I thought we would benefit from the trip have indeed happened. And to use a cliche: plus so much more. Fact of the matter is that - as a business owner and co-leader of our team - I'm absolutely overwhelmed by all the fantastic experiences I've had with the team in the last few days.

I think that teams, as a unit - don't always get the attention it deserves and this is especially true for online, where the focus tends to be on the cofounders, product & revenue strategy. Half of the WooTeam works remotely and out of our Cape Town office, which makes meetups like these even more important. I don't think that you can ever attach too much value to meeting someone face-to-face; it really doesn't matter what kind of technologies you use to replicate that remotely, because it will never beat face-to-face conversations. I think that's just human nature.

The friendships that we've forged / reinforced on this trip will have a lasting effect on the work that we'll do in the next couple of months and I'm sure that our users will be the primary beneficiaries of the renewed passion and energy within the team. Double win.

Yes, this trip has been quite a significant expenditure for us, which is why we need to limit them to once every 12 - 18 months. But heck, the way I feel about this week now, I'm ready to spend that money all over again (after I've had a week's rest first admittedly, as my body can't take the shots so well anymore).

We've just hired our 10th member of the WooTeam: Ryan Ray who will be our new Community Manager.

For me, this has been a natural progression of having a community that now exceeds 45k registered users and also reinforces our belief that community and user interaction is of the utmost importance. In comparison with most other online companies of our size (in user base, revenue and the scope of our operations), our 10 member team is relatively small and we've basically just been hiring new members organically and as we really need them.

There's a couple of reasons why this position specifically is so special and much-needed in my opinion:

• Continuous & real-time interaction with a community is a full-time job, especially when your product is not hosted.
• We'd become efficient in dealing with the massive demands placed on our interaction resources - especially e-mail - and the focus had shifted to efficiency and not delivering a WOW! experience. Whilst we've always been trying our best to give users the best-ever experience, it's simply impossible without the appropriate resources.
• Tech is becoming more and more generic in established markets, which means that user loyalty and community interaction is a massive competitive advantage.

So hell yes, I'm excited about Ryan joining the team and look forward to reporting back positively here. :)

I absolute love the new Smiley campaign that 37Signals has implemented to track (and publicize) their customer satisfaction. Absolutely genuis!

In a recent article, they also share some insight into the data that they aren't publishing and the analysis makes for some interesting reading. As a 37Signals customer and someone that has tried to build his own business using the best of 37Signals knowledge, I love how I can actually see the team make a massive effort to get to 100% customer satisfaction. That is absolutely immense and I really appreciate how they are going about this in a very public, transparent and honest way, which just installs so much faith into them as a team and a company.

I so believe in this mantra, yet to execute & implement that in exactly the way DHH advocates is something which I fear only 37Signals can do. If you're a fan of their business philosophies, you'll know that there are many of those philosophies that just seem unattainable to the Average Joe and their business.