Google me this or why Google hates customer service

Google maps for business seems like a great idea. That is unless you have to use it. Until recently I had no idea that Google map spam was such a huge problem. Its such a big problem that they have a Google Group assigned to it. Too bad no one seems to be helping anyone there.

I have had a problem for weeks and no one has responded. Under our domain, in a Google search, there is an address for no apparent reason. It has nothing to do with our company. So you think we should be able to get rid of it right? Well Google doesn't seem to care. Because there are hundreds of others with the same issue. The issue is random spammers taking over addresses, domains and other portions of your business information on Google.

My favorite recent post topic: "This forum is a waste of time" with the following post "I guess google really doesn't care about spammers taking advantage of google maps if they cared something would be done already Maybe we should stop using google"

Google loves to make new products but if seems they to hate support them. If you ask for help they tell you there is a help page. Google, like most companies, isn't perfect but there is a lot they could be doing that they aren't. It's not a tough problem to solve across their many product lines they just need to get the right team put together and make a real effort. Otherwise they'll become another huge tech company that we all love to pick on (Microsoft anyone?).

Business 2.0, 3.0, or whatever.0

If you were in charge of marketing yourself what would be the first thing you'd work on? Your personality? Resume? Network? Social network? All of these? None of these?

The answer is all and none of the above. You market yourself every day when you come in contact with people like the person you meet on the plane or the guy who dropped his napkin at the restaurant that you picked up or the person at work that you went out of your way to help. If you believe that the moment you walk out the door until the moment you come home you are marketing yourself then think about your business for a moment.

Does everyone at your company think this way from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed? Every person who works for your company markets themselves and in turn markets you.

And if you believe everything above--then do you also believe that every minute of the day your business does a great job interaction with customers and potential customers? The answer lies in whether your employees do their best to represent their company?

Marketing isn't always about spending money on advertising. Sometimes its the small things that have the biggest impact.

Do you know if your customer service sucks?

I had an experience with Sirius satellite radio and their subpar customer service. The issue was with a home radio not detecting an antenna. I ended up getting bounced around after sitting on hold for 30 minutes. Sure, its me complaining so what? But a search online and will find thousands of complaints. That isn't a good thing.

When a search for "sirius customer service sucks" shows over 17,000 results there is something wrong. One thing I've always loved was when companies like this get active on message boards and blogs to answer customer issues. Also, when a customer service or tech person fixes something put up a website to help others with the same problems find a solution. You'd save your company a lot of calls and create a better relationship with your customer.

I love being rewarded

We've all experienced the teenager at the grocery store pushing a huge line of shopping carts back to the store. The guys at Target even have a cool machine that helps push the carts. But it all seems like such a huge waste of employee time and energy just because we, the customers, are too lazy to bring the carts back ourselves.

What if instead of a few teenagers retrieving carts stores gave customers rewards for bring the carts back into the store? If you grab a cart swipe your store card, and perhaps a cart card as well, and when you bring the cart back and reswipe your card and the cart you recieve rewards from the store. I'd take the extra few minutes to return my cart if it meant a few cents off a gallon a gas or a free gallon of milk.

The beauty is a double positive effect: Less employee hours spent to retrieve carts and happy customers who might decide to shop at your store rather than your competitors.

So you got a monopoly huh? Guess again

One of the most powerful monopolies most people don't know about looks like it is coming apart at the seams. The Associated Press, the newspaper wire service, has been in business since 1846 without much of a challenge. Until now.

The Associated Press has been arrogant, painfully behind the times and overpriced for years. Over the last few months a number of newspapers have canceled their service while regional newspapers have started their own wire service. Even CNN has seen a chink in AP's armor and has started to offer a wire services to newspapers.

As a monopoly AP has charged prices that are 4-10 times more expensive than their closest competitor for lackluster 3rd party web products hoping their partner newspapers wouldn't know any better. Sorry AP, but the jig is up. Thanks to the web, and open source tools, price has never been more competitive.

So what does this have to do with marketing? Often marketing is word of mouth and reputation. The AP has a bad reputation that carries from one newspaper to another and has continued to eroded their image. AP has a good core product, delivering accurate stories quickly, but their other products are lackluster and over-priced. AP has forgotten one of the most fundamental problems of a monopoly--they forgot about their customers. When your customers believe you aren't looking out for them--and only for yourself--eventually it will come back to bite you in the backside.

No matter how good your company is. No matter how big your company becomes, never forget your company is dependent upon one thing: your customers.

Really a Best Buy?

In the world where using the web is hassle free why does Best Buy want a social security number in order to pay your online bill? People are growing evermore paranoid of giving out their credit card number let alone their social security number. Aren't we told every day not to give out our social no matter what?

The web should be easy--and Best Buy doesn't seem to care about that. The problem is if someone gets a hold of this information it'll be like a nuclear bomb exploding on their reputation.

Some companies get it--some don't

Here are three companies and I'm wondering if you can guess which two understand their customers and how to reward their patronage:
1. Borders
2. Barnes & Noble
3. Amazon

If you buy books my bet is you can guess right away. Two of these companies offer great rewards. Amazon is almost always 20% cheaper than the other two companies without any rewards. Borders simply asks for your email address and they discount close to, if not even to, Amazon. And yes, Amazon gets all your information after you purchase.

But not Barnes & Noble. They want $25 or they won't reward you at all.

Barnes & Noble doesn't understand that keeping pace is about satisfying the customer not just their bottom line. Rewarding a customer for being loyal should trump all other marketing ploys. Hopefully they'll get it before its too late.

Extra credit: If I was a marketing person at either of these book companies I'd make a deal with Ebay/Half.com. I'd allow customers to bring their used books to any of my stores and we'd buy them. Then we'd take those books and post them on Half.com. The math is easy: pay x dollars for used books and sell them for y dollars. The best part is that because Half.com sells so many books its easy to get the market rate instantly. At the same time Half.com could list new books we have in our inventory.

How do you measure value?

How do you measure the value of your customer?
Most companies put a value on how much they make per customer.

Maybe companies should think about another metric: the value a customer gets from a company. The real value is if the customer ever comes back. The cost of acquiring a new customer is always more expensive than keeping current customers.

Instead of pure greed, how about asking customers how much they value us?

Do you want my business? No, okay thanks again.

My wife and I tried a restaurant tonight and was surprised that there was a farmer's market going on right outside the plaza. When we enter the restaurant its nearly empty and yet there are a hundred people right out front.

To our surprise, mostly because the emptiness of the business, the food was very good. So why not have a few waitresses who had nothing to do go outside with free bread, samples of soup, etc. Whats the worst thing that can happen? You get a few customers?

How AAA might go to A minus

In a time when companies are finding their market shares being eaten by online monsters like Google the best thing isn't to try and duplicate the lack of features they offer but offer more features.

I was a AAA member, no longer. Why do I need them when I have Google? Sure, they offer auto coverage when I get a flat tire, but I use them most for maps for trips. Google has devastated that market. So what does AAA offer? Trip Tickets that look like they were printed on my aunt's ink jet. These are worse than subpar. Instead AAA could offer me the best, most detailed maps and reminded me that Google can't compete with them. AAA has not only ignored quality products it has given up a market they owned for decades when they don't need to.

Here is one more reason AAA is no longer a company I subscribe to. When I took my kids to Disney Land we went to a highly recommended hotel by AAA in Anaheim. We stayed there long enough to find one of the worst hotels on the strip. We moved down the street to the Courtyard by Marriott and into a hotel that was nearly a condo. It went from a possibly horrible vacation at AAA three star hotel to a wonderful vacation at a great hotel.

The hotel might have been nice in the 1960s but not in 2008. What year did AAA last visit that hotel? When the company,AAA, that you rely on to give you recommendations no longer has any credibility then they are in even deeper trouble. Consumer Reports is one of the most respectable companies in America regarding their recommendations and that is because they constantly check these products and test--what about AAA?

If I was AAA I'd do the following:
1. Quality maps and services for travel. Don't just cede to Google the mapping game. Also, GPS trip planning is another option. If I have a GPS system have your service agents program my GPS trip and all the stops from gas stations and recommended places to eat and sleep.

2. Start incorporating deep reviews by users. Not just stars and ratings. Get the ratings from members and every time they go or stay some where give them points for rating everything possible and change the actually AAA ratings based on a cumulative rating. Also, put users photos in the books and on the site--including video. Wouldn't it be great to have member travel videos about their trips and what they did? AAA shouldn't take reviews from non-members--that way they aren't skewed by hotels, restaurant companies and/or their friends.

3. AAA should release their reviews internationally based on their internal reviews and member reviews. AAA should become the Consumer Reports of hotels, restaurants, family entertainment and recreation. This would then allow AAA to charge yearly travel fees for reviews, etc. only ala Consumer Reports.

4. AAA has to makeover their entire website and rethink their web approach. Customer service isn't a bad thing so don't only expect your users to just go online and do all the work. Older members don't even get online. But the web is the only way to get new members. There are lots of people out there like me who do a lot of research for trips and don't want to be disappointed.

Moral: AAA isn't defeated yet, but if they don't move quickly they'll find themselves in a long line of companies like newspapers who are trying to figure out how the future came and left them wondering how they missed the boat.

What every business could learn from Netflix

Why does Netflix have a cult following? Well if you read an email I received from them you'd understand.

"Dear Charlie,

As you may know, we had issues with our shipping systems this week. As a result, we didn't ship DVDs to you in a timely manner, and you likely didn't receive email letting you know we got a DVD back from you. Our shipping systems are working again, and any outstanding DVD shipments are being mailed today (Friday).

We pride ourselves in delighting you, and we've let you down. We apologize, and we will issue a 15% credit to your account in the next few days. You don't need to do anything. Your credit will automatically be applied to your next billing statement.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-888-638-3549.

-The Netflix Team"

How could I be angry when they did everything right?
1. Netflix told me they had a problem.
2. They gave me a credit to make up for the error--even more than the error was valued.
3. They gave me a real phone number where I could call them if I had questions.

When is the last time you communicated this well with your customer? It's better to be a friend with your customer than a business partner. Customers may not know they want a relationship with your company--but they'll be happy when they have one. If you are engaged with your customer they won't be as likely to leave you for a one-night stand.

That is worth more than any tv ad, billboard or silly marketing campaign you could ever come up with.