Communicating with the network of coworkers that have registered for the site is the backbone of how HaveMyShift has been able to help employees get their shift covered by coworkers who want more hours. Word of mouth has, for the most part, been able to get many of your coworkers in your area on the site. For that, we thank you for making the site so successful for everyone using it!
When we first built the site, relying on having nearby coworkers sign up for the site was good enough. Today, we want to expand how many of your coworkers hear about the site and sign up! We’re officially announcing our integration with Facebook to help you tell more coworkers in your area, with a simple click of a button. With tools like Facebook and future developments like sending your coworkers text messages/email directly, we can increase the chances of getting your shift covered dramatically!
We have big plans in giving you all the most effective tools to both find shifts as well as get your shift covered but we need your help: How can we make our tools better? As someone looking for shifts, how can we get you to cover those shifts faster? Integrate with iCal? Google Calendar? Better text messaging? If you are trying to get your shift covered, how else can we improve the chances of getting your shift covered? Tweet your shift for you? Maybe I will just get off my computer and start covering shifts again. I make a mean cappuccino.
Let us know what you think! This blog is as much yours as it is ours! Thank you all for your support!
Obvious Fail
So, i’ll admit. One of the most important reasons HaveMyShift exists is to build tools and a community around a group of people who are often handed the short end of the stick. We have a TON of pride knowing that we originated from my experiences as a Starbucks barista and love telling our story to anyone who would listen. Some of you may have noticed that we released some new functionality into the site that may have barred you from actually using the site! We thought this would actually make the site better! Obvious, FAIL.
The problem that we were trying to solve by restricting some users, was that some people were signing up in states like California or Tennessee and had a bad experience using the site. They would go through the process of registering and posting their shift only to see later that not even one person had looked at their shift! So the idea was to restrict people in those situations from posting shifts until there were enough people in the area. Unfortunately, some of you who were genuinely using the site, ended up not being able to post or pick up shifts and then sent us feedback. Thank you all for your feedback, we really appreciate it! Without it, we wouldn’t have known that we screwed up. As a quick note, if you need help growing your area, hand out these fliers in your area and get activated!
To prevent things like this happening again, we are forming a small group of “beta users” that we plan to ask what they think BEFORE we do something like that again. This will help ensure that we only work on the most important, most useful features for the site as well as getting new ideas on how we can better improve the site. You all really are the most important resource to us, we will make sure not to take that for granted again! Send me an email (stephen [at] HaveMyShift.com) or comment on the post if you want to be in the beta user group! Thanks for all of your support!
