Whether it’s for personal or business reasons, people move all the time. Some companies, like transportation and self-storage firms, do a good job of capitalizing on this activity. But with the exception of the annual college-dorm-stock-up sales at places like Bed Bath and Beyond, I think retailers are leaving a lot of money on the table. In particular, both mid-range and higher-end stores could benefit from offering a handy package of items to get you started after a move, which they can then use to drive upgrade sales for months and years afterwards.

When people move, there are always some things that they throw away because the items are worn out, are a pain to transport, etc. Best intentions aside, I think most of us end up buying the replacements in a marathon shopping trip at stores like IKEA or Target, where you can get nearly all the missing things at a low cost. But at least in my experience, these items end up wearing out quickly and getting replaced with higher-quality versions over time. And when it comes time to find the replacement products, at least some group of shoppers will place quality and reputation ahead of low cost and one-stop shopping. Think Crate and Barrel, rather than IKEA.

Taking things back a step, retailers who offer higher-quality products seem to be at a disadvantage when it comes to selling things to people who have just moved. Relatively few people would go to these stores to stock up a new home from the get-go, unless their budget is quite large. And when people are ready to upgrade later, it’s one store against the other in the usual game of advertising, discount offers, etc.

So what’s the solution? Simply put, even mid-to-high-priced retailers should start offering a starter kit for people who have just moved. This would bundle the common kitchen, bath, and living items together in an affordable package, probably at much lower margins than the store usually gets. The goal is to win that business away from the low-cost sellers. And then once customers buy the starter kit, they are primed for upgrade purchases down the road.

Here’s how it works. Start by including a “Good, better, best” card with every single item in the starter kit. Then, when the customer has had enough with the small skillet or 4 cup coffeemaker, they can choose an upgrade option, go to the website shown on that card, and purchase the better model. (Of course, they could also bring the card into the store.) Depending on the product, this could be accompanied by a special offer code for free shipping, a percent discount, etc. Besides offering an upgrade path for each product in the starter kit, customers could be sent a monthly or quarterly newsletter with relevant offers, especially since the store knows exactly which items the customer already has, and might be ready to replace.

Regardless of the exact implementation, the basic premise remains the same: give customers an easy way to start purchasing your products at a key time in their life (in my example, after they have moved to a new home), make it cost-competitive with other options they’re considering, and use that relationship to sell upgrades and related products over an extended period of time. Granted, that initial sale is going to be lower margin than the store is used to. But since this approach lends itself to repeat business, the margins earned on those follow-up sales should lead to considerably higher profits over time.

Over the past few weeks, the Internet performance on my BlackBerry has degraded so much that it’s barely usable. Even simple websites take more than a minute to load, compared to the 5-10 seconds that I’m used to. From fussing around with different sites, I know the issue affects any website I try to load, and only happens with the standard BlackBerry browser. (It works fine in other browsers, like Opera Mini.) So, I’m pretty sure the issue is being caused by something at RIM, the folks who make the BlackBerry devices and provide the corresponding server backend for many of the built-in applications. Eventually, I’ll suck it up and call tech support, but one thing’s for sure: the progress bars that RIM and others use for their applications are virtually useless. This makes it much harder to diagnose the problem, and leaves even experienced users guessing.

Progress bars appear in all sorts of software programs. Generally, there are two problems with how they’re designed. First, the length of the bar (or the speed it gets filled up) has nothing to do with how long the task should actually take. Second, the text that accompanies the progress bar doesn’t mean anything. In my example, the progress bar starts to fill up from left to right, suggesting that all will be good when it reaches the end. It starts off moving quickly, and then gets slower as it approaches the right side. When it gets there, it just stays full until the process is completed or abandoned. The status text is just as useless. It says “Requesting…” the whole time, without any indication of what it’s communicating with on the other end. You can’t tell if the delay is from the website, the cell phone carrier, etc.

So if you’re going to include a progress bar in your application, try to follow a few simple rules. First, make the progress bar move at a consistent speed, so that users won’t feel tricked if it seems to take forever to get from 80% done to 100% done. Similarly, when the bar reaches the end, don’t just have it sit there. Either say the process is done, or that it failed. Next, if there’s no way to tell how long the task might take, don’t use a traditional progress bar design. Instead, go with a design like a spinning ball or hourglass. This tells the user that something is going on, and you don’t know how long it will take. And finally, make your status text as specific as possible. If you’re waiting for a reply from the website or service provider, then say so. After all, something like “Connecting to Verizon Wireless gateway” or “Waiting for reply from BlackBerry Internet service” is much more useful than the generic “Connecting” or “Waiting”. Among other benefits, this approach would make troubleshooting issues like mine a lot easier, cutting down on tech support costs.

If you use Windows at all, you’ve probably had a few mysterious icons appear in the taskbar at the bottom right of your screen. Sometimes these are useful, helping you keep tabs on the status of a program or utility. But more often than not, they appear there because the software vendor decided it would be nice to have their logo appear all the time, with virtually no value to the user. Making matters worse, there’s rarely a way to prevent installing this component, and removing it can be a real pain.

When it comes down to it, forcing users to accept a taskbar icon when they install your software is a bad practice. If the icon is needed to make the software work, then at least make the user aware that it’s being installed, and explain why. In cases where the icon isn’t really needed, and it’s more of a promotional or branding thing, give the user the ability to opt-out of this component during the install process.

Sure, you’ll get fewer chances to present users with your logo and messages. But at least you won’t be viewed as one of those companies that installs suspicious software without their consent. Indeed, as viruses and spyware make people more wary of what goes on their computers, preserving customers’ trust should be a top priority.

While reading an article yesterday, I noticed a big error message where a Flash movie was supposed to appear. Basically, it said I should click there to upgrade to a new version of Flash. It even promised that I didn’t have to leave the page or restart my browser. But with all the viruses and spyware going around, I’m quite hesitant to click on this sort of thing. Making matters worse, there were obvious typos in the message, which made me even more suspicious about whether the message was legitimate.

I first saw spelling and grammar mentioned as ways to determine a document’s authenticity a few years back. This was around the time that those “Please verify your bank information” scams started making rounds. In response, the banks began telling customers to watch out for suspicious emails, and provided several tips to identify fraudulent messages. Among these telltale signs were a strange website address (i.e. not the bank’s website) and spelling and grammatical errors. The latter is especially interesting to me, as it arguably remains valid today.

When a piece of correspondence (email, website, ad, whatever) contains spelling errors and other mistakes, it makes the reader question the validity of it. I can’t think of the source right now (perhaps it was Steve Krug), but I once read a great study that showed how reader attention dwindled with each spelling error. Readers of an error-laden document went from highly engaged to barely even skimming the page, as the mistakes chipped away at their trust in the content.

With this in mind, my recommendation is to take the time to double-check all your correspondence. This is especially important for customer-facing documents like your website, although emails and other correspondence should be given some attention as well. Considering how few people actually do this, the benefits to those who take the time to proofread can be significant. All else equal, customers will place more trust in what you say and be more engaged by your message. You establish yourself as a person or organization that takes the time to make your words count. For at least some portion of your target customers, this will lead to more trust and increased sales.