PhotoBox Blog

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner we’ve launched a new Valentine gifts page packed with great gift ideas that are guaranteed to impress, including our brand new heart-handled Photo Love Mug. See which romantic personalised photo gifts you can still order in time. Our gifts are about saying it your way rather than all those predictable gifts with the same old messages written by someone else. Take a look and get inspired!

Hopefully that’s things sorted with your loved one, now we want to focus on our relationship with you. To help us understand what improvements we can make we’ve got a quick survey we’d really appreciate you taking a few minutes to fill out. The questions look at whether we’re giving you all the info you need on our products and services and what else we could do. As always, if you’ve got other bright ideas for us you can simply post them here.

Here’s to building great relationships

Linda
The Editor

Another busy week has whizzed by at PhotoBox towers. We’ve been playing cupid by completing our new Valentine’s Day gifts page, which includes another great discount deal. So come on you romantics you know it’ll soon be here! Plus we’re putting the finishes touches to an exciting new product that you’ll have to wait until next week to hear about.

We’ve also been running a series of customer focus groups to help us decide what else you’d like when it comes to creating the ultimate photo book. A big thank you to those of you who took part, it’s been really fascinating to find out about your views and ideas. As always, if anyone has any other great ideas then please share them with us here on the blog.

Last but definitely not least, yesterday we had our PhotoBox ‘Christmas’ party! Obviously when most people have their Christmas parties we’ve got our noses firmly to the grindstone to make sure you get your Christmas orders delivered in time. That’s how dedicated we are. And as a photo fixated company we thought you’d appreciate us sharing a few photos from last night’s festivities with you all.

I think lots of us are now looking forward to a quiet weekend but whatever you’re doing have a really great weekend.

Linda
The Editor

Big news for Photo Books this week everyone, we’ve just introduced Yearbooks! Our brand new Yearbooks are two new themes for Personalised Photobooks. Either theme your book by chapters, such as holidays & family life or of course you can make up your own. Alternatively, create a book themed by seasons, with editable mentions of the major news events of last year.

It’s the perfect way to look back at your best memories of 2009 and put them all into one amazing book that you can enjoy any time you like. Share your Yearbook online with friends and enjoy an amazing discount with our 2 for 1 deal.

I hope you’re still following our suggested New Year’s resolution I mentioned last week and uploading a few of your favourite photos every time you capture something special. If you are, just think how easy creating your 2010 Yearbook is going to be!

Enjoy your weekend

Linda
The Editor

Our partnership with Shopper Discount & Rewards has been a recurring topic of conversation for some of you on our blog. As we always listen to your comments and act on them wherever possible, we’ve decided to terminate this partnership, even though signing up to this scheme was always entirely optional and we’ve been transparent about how the scheme worked.

Since our last post on this matter they have made their registration page clearer but as the negative feedback from you has kept coming, we knew you wanted us to take further action.

This means that as of now you’ll no longer see any mention of Shopper Discount & Rewards after placing an order with us. We hope this shows you how much we appreciate hearing your feedback on the blog and make every effort to keep you, our loyal customers, happy.

Regards

Mark Chapman
Managing Director

So the holiday celebrations are behind us. The champagne has had time to settle and the last of the Christmas chocolates have gone. You’ve had chance to make and break your New Year’s resolutions and then, just when you thought it was all over, we give you a new challenge of a New Year’s resolution you really can keep!

Got your attention? Yes this resolution is very easy and will help you celebrate all that’s great about your life throughout the year. Repeat after me, this year I’m going to get organised early. I’ll create an album called My 2010 and in I’ll add just a couple of photos every time I capture a special moment, so that by the end of the year I’ll have an album packed with the highlights of my year.’

Simple but brilliant huh? No calorie counting required and it won’t cost you a penny. Why not make a start now and upload photos of your New Year celebrations or the snow today. If only all resolutions were this easy.

Now is also the perfect time to enter our Desert Island Pic 2009 competition for the chance to win a £1500 holiday and £100 credit to spend at PhotoBox. Now that’s what I call getting the year off to a great start!

Enjoy your weekend

Linda
The Editor

Happy New Year from us all at PhotoBox!

We hope you enjoyed the Christmas break and got 2010 off to a better start than we did. That’s because yesterday, Sunday 3rd January, we suffered an unexpected network failure for several hours. If you were trying to use our site at the time we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this caused.

You’ll be glad to hear that the gremlins have now gone and normal service has been resumed. Phew! So please feel free to come back and finish whatever you were doing when you get a moment.

Thanks for all your support and here is to 2010 behaving itself!

Regards,

Graham Hobson

Founder and CTO

Every year, I admit to a huge feeling of relief around this time, as it becomes apparent that once again, we’re very close to achieving the twin objectives of reaching our ambitions for the growth of the company, whilst at the same time shipping every customer’s order in time for the holidays.  Equally, every year, I’m sure that objective becomes harder.

Sure, Graham & I don’t get involved in as much of the production as we used to (we made every single calendar one year, I recall), but instead everyone here tries to improve our products, last order dates, shipping services, and (inevitably) our contact centre services every year.  Not easy with yearly growth like ours, but certainly a challenge we aspire to meet.

With volumes like we have today, it’s a certainty that we’ll have customers who’ll have a less-than-perfect experience.  Dealing well with that tough fact has always been a matter of pride for us; we readily acknowledge that we don’t always get it right.  I can promise you however, that we’ll never stop trying to serve every customer as well, and as honestly as we’re able.

Next year’s planning is already well advanced here, with many, many new features, products and quality improvements already being developed.  The investment this requires is made possible by another successful year, thanks entirely to the custom and loyalty of you, our customers.  For this I thank you.  With your support, we’ll make our service even better next year and beyond.

On behalf of everyone here at PhotoBox, I wish you and your families a great holiday season, and a safe, peaceful 2010.

Mark Chapman
Founder, Managing Director, PhotoBox

Our production team is currently working flat out in our factories to print all your Christmas cards and personalised gifts in time for Christmas.

Our plan for managing the Christmas rush has been a year in the making but all that hard work is certainly paying off. We’ve plenty of extra staff on board at our London and Paris factories to ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible for you.

A major part of our plan was to offer last order dates closer to Christmas giving you as much time as possible to create your Christmas gifts. That means that we still have lots of last minute gift ideas available, which can be delivered to your door before the big day.

I’ve also been determined to get organised for my own special family Christmas this year. My little boy Jack will be celebrating his first Christmas and I’m particularly pleased with the photo books I’ve created for him to give to his grandparents, especially as they are already wrapped and under the tree!

Yesterday was Secret Santa day in the office and a brief chance to get into the Christmas spirit. Come Monday our last Royal Mail truck will leave the London factory, Tuesday the final courier deliveries go, and Wednesday the remaining batch of special delivery orders. Only then will it be time to relax and enjoy Christmas!

Have a great weekend

Tony
The Product Guy

We have now removed the restricted access times to your Gallery Admin area, so you can once again enjoy around the clock access.

We know that the recent restrictions have really inconvenienced some of you and we apologise again for this.

Best wishes

Craig
Pro Gallery Product Marketing Manager

As well as having our hearts set on getting you the best personalised gifts this Christmas, we wanted to offer you a bit of festive fun and frivolity. Remember the excitement of opening your Advent calendar as a child in the run up to Christmas? Well we think it’s a tradition worth reviving, so since the 1st December we’ve been running an Advent Calendar Competition on Facebook. Of course we always like to exceed expectations, so with our Advent calendar there’s a chance to win £1000!

Our lucky winner will be one of our Facebook fans chosen at random from the participants of our Advent fun and forfeits. That means you have to become a PhotoBox Facebook fan and that the more of our daily December challenges you take part in, the more chance you have of winning.

We’ve already enjoyed lots of fantastic photos, Christmas cracker jokes, the great sprout debate, favourite Christmas songs and your worst Christmas presents ever! As they say, ‘You’ve got to be in it to win it’, so join in now and start feeling that Christmas spirit.

Have a fun and festive weekend

Linda
The Editor