We're excited to announce the new Haulix Affiliate Program! By creating a free affiliate account, you can sign in, see earning results in real time and access our various banners that you copy/paste into your blogs, emails, etc.  Our generous program offers a 50% commission on the first month someone signs up through your link (after the 30-day trial). From there on, you get 5% of their monthly fee, for the LIFE of their plan.

We're targeting independent artists, publicity firms and record labels. Ads placed in these target areas will get the best return. We hope the viral effect of this program will earn you money and send great customers our way at the same time.

Cheers!

With buzz-worthy companies like Zappos and Threadless preaching how a large chunk of their success is a direct result of their prime customer service, it just baffles me when I encounter poor customer service. It's 2009 and whether it's going through the fast food drive thru or ordering online, I run into terrible customer service; still to this day!

EXAMPLE:

I just made a $100 purchase through an online store for a gift for my sister's birthday. I jumped at the chance of getting free shipping and they post that items get shipped within 1-3 days. It's been over a week, they charged my account and I haven't received any shipping confirmation.  I emailed their customer support and sent over my order number. I was polite in my email and signed it with a 'thanks.' A day later, here is what I got back:

"We expect your order to ship by the end of the week"

No salutation, heck they didn't even have time to type the period at the end of the sentence.  All I was looking for, was someone in customer support that actually appears to care. Call me by my first name, apologize OR reaffirm that the order is on the way. Do SOMETHING!  Be nice! Show that you care!

There's a reason Zappos is a BILLION dollar shoe company.  This isn't rocket science and I always vowed I would treat my customers with utmost respect and we do.

How amazing that one fragment sentence is enough of a catalyst to lose a customer.

We've spoken with quite a few Publicists who represent record labels in the music industry. Ironically, some seem reluctant to moving to digital promotional media because of fear that various media outlets will reject the new strategy and stop publishing reviews/articles about their artists.

We think this is a crock of shit. Any media outlet that has some worth in the industry, should be getting hundreds of albums mailed to them each month. With all of those packages comes the cost of processing them well before any reviews or articles can get published about them. This processing takes time too. Consuming a digital copy has been proven to be much faster, which should speed up publication turn around. If you are a media contact, why wouldn't you embrace this? Are you in the business of reviewing reviewing music for the right reasons? Are you in it for the free CDs or do you really care about the services you are offering your readers?

It's time that media outlets (webzines, magazines, newspapers) get with program and evolve with the industry. Digital promos are more secure, faster to consume and less expensive than snail mail processing.