When you have worked with a vendor in the past who did bad work, but fixed it and tried to make it right, it’s fair that you give them a second chance (especially if you got a free credit on the 2nd job because of the screw ups on the 1st job).

In that second chance, when you speak directly to customer service BEFORE the project begins, tell them about past problems and ask customer service to spot check the project to avoid problem (they say they will) AND YET the vendor screws up the project anyway…because there WAS NO QUALITY CONTROL as promised…that vendor loses credibility as well as the business.

That’s what Moo.com did (erased all credibility with me) on my latest, professionally designed and submitted business card printing job.

Moo was warned about the past printing problems I had with them BEFORE printing started, ignored those detailed yellow flags I gently laid at their feet and went ahead and thoughtlessly botched the 2nd project of 2024 — just like they did the 1st project in 2023.

If you look at the graphic above, the bad business cards on the left side look like the printer jets went in one direction and the card stock in another and card cutter was have none of either.

The cards are the right show the work after the correction (and quality control check….finally) were delivered many days later.

So let this be a warning to ANY small or micro-business owner that Moo.com doesn’t really have a quality control check on small print orders. The embarrassed customer service rep from Moo even said I would likely be better served going to a small local printer on a project like this…except if you look at Moo’s marketing, they think my size business is a good prospect.

In short….

• Moo’s customer service people are great, helpful and attentive
• The actual cards I have had printed (after multiple corrections on both orders) turned out fine
• Moo’s production and quality control team is (in my experience) crap

First I warned Moo to please check my project through to the end.

Now I am warning you of the unnecessary headaches I went through working with Moo on two projects about 1 year apart.

I hope you hear better than Moo.

Tags: marketing, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Here I go again….first with the fauxditions and now Fake ID’s.

Remember some years ago, I produced the fake auditions for the announcer jobs for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (who turned out to create some fake news of his own)?

Then we did Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer!

Well here is ANOTHER fun, creative and totally fake audio project that I think folks will enjoy.

I’m calling it Fake ID’s – where we all produce radio station top of the hour ID’s from the favorite radio stations of our youth.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOUT PRODUCING FAKE ID’S — a creative radio production project hosted by radio imaging talent Peter K. O’Connell:
 
 

As radio professionals and voice talent, we all grew up listening to radio much more intently than our friends…a little less about the music and more about the production and how and what the DJ’s said.

And we all had our favorite radio stations – whether in our home towns or the flame throwing, 50,000 watt Towers of Power stations dialed in to on clear nights (like WLW Cincinnati, KMOX St. Louis, WLS Chicago, KNX Los Angeles or like my hometown WKBW in Buffalo — there are a whole bunch more, but you get the point). Any station, any format…whichever station you remember and were drawn to can be featured in your ID (one entry per person, please).

This project is about creating your version of your favorite radio station’s top of the hour ID (slogan, call letters, frequency, sound effects, music bed, jingle…whatever combination you need with your voice to make that old id come back to life).

Please make the ID for a station and format from at least 10 years ago – nothing current. Also this project is open to men AND women — whether or not the original ID was voiced by a man, for this project a woman’s voice is welcome.

So let’s have fun, let’s be creative and let’s do what we do best.

Please email your MP3 audio submission to: peter at audioconnell dot com.

Tags: fake id's, fauxdition, radio, radio imaging, silliness, video by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I love me a good headline but no, I didn’t get a facelift.

My voiceover logo got a facelift.

So I designed my new logo back in December on my Mac using Powerpoint.

I will now allow all the logo designers reading this to scream and throw their computers.

I get it.

What’s important to remember is that I wasn’t originally trying to design a new logo in December….I was only playing around and it just sorta happened. Kinda like how babies are made (or so I’m told).

Anyway, everybody seems to either like the new logo or not hate the new logo and life goes on.

Being technologically inept in the graphics part of my life (PowerPoint, for goodness sake, even I’m a little ashamed), I needed some adjustments made to the logo and I had to call in the calvary (i.e. Ann Hackett from aHa Designs).

I am her least favorite client because I am very specific about how I want things done AND I change my mind alot. She charges me triple her going rate but I still come back for more! Might be like 3 decades working together…I’ve lost count.

I sent her all and I mean ALL the darn specs/files I had on my logo (including the fonts) so she could recreate it with the changes I needed.

But her Mac and my Mac or my PowerPoint and her WhizBang graphics software don’t always play nice.

The outcome was she came up with my logo design kinda close but then made some minor changes and created a tweaked 2nd version that I really liked. So that was the facelift of Peter K. O’Connell, Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent.

I’m sure I’ll tweak it more as time goes on but I am very happy with this outcome on the revised logo.

Hope you like it too.

Tags: logo design, marketing, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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What a nice compliment for me to be invited to an interview with VoyageRaleigh about my voiceover business!

VoyageRaleigh is part of a group of publications around the country whose mission is to build a platform that fosters collaboration and support for small businesses, independent artists and entrepreneurs, local institutions and those that make each city interesting.

The interesting part for me was that they listed my interview under the section of “Rising Star” – some 40+ years into my voiceover journey!!! I’ve decided it’s better than being listed under the category of “Falling Star”.

At any rate, thank you VERY much to the VoyageRaleigh team for spending time with me.

Tags: commentary, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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