[No, this isn’t an accident. I’m intentionally posting about my blender on the work blog.]
My wife, Jenn, was making strawberry ice cream today. You see, strawberries are finally in season here in Tennessee, and that means that I seemingly can’t get out from under strawberries these days. This particular ice cream recipe requires using a blender to obliterate a bunch of strawberries with sour cream and heavy cream. As I was shooting the pictures of the blender full of goo for Jenn’s blog, it occurred to me that I love my blender. Jenn was trying to blend two recipes worth at once, and my only thought was, “If that blender breaks, I’m going to buy another one just like it, price be damned.”
My blender, the oh so fine Kitchen Aid, happens to be an expensive one, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that it works well every time. I never have to reach my rubber spatula into that blender to scrape the sides in a manner that terrifies those around me. It works so well that it simply makes it a waste of time to consider another blender, should I ever have to.
Last week finished with two validating moments, so I thought I’d share them.
First, I demoed the SCORM Engine for a prospective customer, a fairly significant LMS. The sole reason this prospect called us was that two of our customers had strongly encouraged them to do so. Kind words from DominKnow and Articulate had pointed them in our direction. That kind of a recommendation is so valuable to us and so appreciated by us. (And I think more genuine given the fact we don’t do lead referral agreements.) So, thanks to those of you espousing our virtues publicly.
Second, and this was my favorite, we extended our agreement with Learning.com. Learning.com has been using the SCORM Engine for more than two years and is a high volume client with more than 1 million learners. They are among the group that occasionally push the limits of the SCORM Engine to see how far it will go, and we love that about them. Learning.com’s agreement with us for the SCORM Engine was coming to a close in about six months, so I shot them an email early last week to let them know that date was coming. By Friday afternoon, we had signatures on an agreement extending our work together three years further.
From my point of view, this is the ultimate kind of validation for the work we do and the products we sell. When a customer is willing to extend an agreement without nasty negotiations, wrangling over altered terms, or shopping around one bit, it tells me that we’re a lot like the blender. And I like that a lot.
