Monday, July 14, 2008

Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

Pilgrim’s Picks for July 14th

Posted: 14 Jul 2008 10:05 AM CDT

If you’re a fan of the "just give me the links" format of Pilgrim’s Picks, you may want to follow my Twitter updates. I share a lot of stuff that is exclusive to my 2,850 Tweeps.

In the meantime…

  • Speaking of Twitter. It seems Republicans and Democrats are using Twitter to argue over new proposals that could limit legislators social media activity.
  • Viacom doesn’t want to know if you’ve uploaded copyright content. It just wants to know if Google employees did–that might jeopardize Google’s safe harbor defense.
  • An interesting legal case in Britain. Newspapers are being sued for publishing false information, lifted from a Bebo profile page.
  • Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has personally invested money in a new social gaming network start-up called, imaginatively, Social Gaming Network.
  • Internet TV site Veoh is bringing its behavioral targeting advertising program out of beta today.

Pilgrim’s Partners: Is a blogger attacking your company without you knowing? Monitor your online reputation with Andy Beal’s Trackur–try it for free!

Just Bought an iPhone 3G? Sucker! Gphone is on the Way!

Posted: 14 Jul 2008 09:30 AM CDT

OK, I’m exaggerating the headline a little–I’m mostly jealous of those of you who’ve snagged a new iPhone–but rumors have resurfaced that Google is in fact working on a "Gphone."

It seems that Google may have deeked us with its launch of Android–which was enough to stop the chatter about an actual Google piece of hardware. From TechCrunch…

But today Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt made nebulous statements that are leaving us wondering if Google is now thinking of building that gPhone: "The trio of Google execs also used the opportunity to talk about the inroads the company is making with its own branded mobile phone as a replacement for the iPhone."

As Om Malik notes, this isn't a direct quote but rather a summary of what was said by Hollywood Reporter writer Dan Cox. But a "branded mobile phone" is very different than Google's Android project. Unless Cox got the summary wrong, the statements were significant.

TechCrunch goes on to claim a "good source" swears Google is working with a mobile phone designer and the the Gphone "is a seriously beautiful device."

Which would you rather own? Take our poll below:

Pilgrim’s Update: Learn online reputation management skills directly from Andy Beal. Attend the Online Reputation Management Workshop and save $400 when you register today!

Does Anyone Know What Yahoo Wants? Does Yahoo Even Know?

Posted: 14 Jul 2008 09:05 AM CDT

It’s times like this, that I take my hat off to mainstream media. The ability to keep up with the ongoing Yahoo/Microsoft/Icahn love triangle is something MSM journalists have honed down the years–even if it takes two New York Times staff writers to keep up!

The bottom line is that Microsoft (and Carl Icahn) last week submitted a new, sweetened bid for Yahoo’s search business.

The offer on the table was a revision of Microsoft's previous bid for Yahoo's search business, in which Yahoo would effectively outsource the advertising that runs alongside search results. This time, however, Microsoft would shorten the 10-year agreement to five years, while guaranteeing that Yahoo would earn $2.3 billion in annual revenue for five years, up from the three-year guarantee of the original proposal. The contract could be renewed for another five years.

Microsoft also proposed having Yahoo sell its Asian assets. It also proposed making an equity investment of $3.9 billion and a preferred debt investment of $2.8 billion.

That was rejected by Yahoo on Saturday. However, the struggling company turned around and suggested it would be interested in Microsoft’s original acquisition offer…

Yahoo's board convened with its advisers on Saturday in a meeting that lasted more than four hours before informing Microsoft that it had rejected the bid. It then reiterated its willingness to sell the whole company at $33 a share.

"While this type of erratic and unpredictable behavior is consistent with what we have come to expect from Microsoft, we will not be bludgeoned into a transaction that is not in the best interests of our stockholders," Mr. Bostock said in a statement.

That’s Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock accusing Microsoft of being erratic and unpredictable! I may send him this cartoon:

;-)

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Office Depot Joins the Reputation Deadpool

Posted: 14 Jul 2008 08:37 AM CDT

It is with a heavy heart that I bring news that Office Depot has entered the Reputation Deadpool.

How did it happen? Let’s do a Wayne’s World flashback shall we?

July 7th - The Deal

I saw that Office Depot was offering a Toshiba portable hard drive at a fantastic price. I normally order through Staples but decided to give Office Depot a shot. After all, Office Depot was offering free next day delivery–sweet!

July 7th - 2 minutes later

OK, so Office Depot can’t offer me next day shipping on this product, only 3 day shipping. Keep in mind, this is coming from a local delivery center. Oh well, I can wait 3 days. Ordered.

July 10th - No sign of Office Depot

Not only did I not get my order from Office Depot, but I didn’t hear from anyone either.

July 11th - The Optimistic Call

OK, this is promising. Someone from the local delivery center calls.

They couldn’t deliver my order yesterday, because they were too busy! Yep, apparently the delivery guys had decided that my order was less important than all the others. Huh?

My order will be delivered today.

July 11th - 8pm

You guessed it. No sign of the Office Depot guys. They didn’t call, didn’t write, nothing! I checked my order status online. You’ll never guess what it said. My order was delivered on July 10th! What? Either the delivery guys are trying to avoid letting their boss know that they didn’t deliver ontime, or, worse, they’re currently backing-up their music collection to MY harddrive!

July 11th - 8:05pm

I sent the following email to Office Depot’s customer service:

I received a call this morning saying that my order was not delivered on
July 10th, because they ran out of time. How is that fair on me?

They said it would be delivered today. It is 8pm and it still has not
been delivered.

Tracking shows the order was delivered on the 10th, which is clearly not
the case.

Please advise on my order status and explain why I should trust Office
Depot over Staples for future orders?

Surely the mere mention of Staples would be enough to get its attention and a resolution?

Maybe not…

July 13th - The Reply

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for contacting Office Depot. We have forwarded a Customer
Resolution Form to your local Distribution Center and you will be
contacted within 24 hours.

Should you require any additional customer service assistance, please
contact our Distribution Center at 1-800-GO-DEPOT (1-800-463-3768).

Thank you for choosing Office Depot!

Regards,
E - Commerce Technical Support.

What’s missing?

  • Where’s the apology?
  • Where’s the transparency?
  • Where’s the responsibility for the snafu?
  • Where’s the personalized response?

July 14th - 9:30 am and waiting…

No call (yet) from Office Depot’s “local Distribution Center” and no sign of the delivery truck either.

I’ve not dealt with Office Depot before. Do you think I’m going to order from it again?

The moral of the story?

Customers sometimes get bad experiences–even they understand that. However, when something goes wrong, the company has an opportunity to show that it cares about the customer and wants their repeat business. In our Radically Transparent world, Office Depot should treat situations like this, as if the customer is a popular blogger, with the audience (and Google juice) to hurt its reputation. Making that assumption with ALL customers, would hold Office Depot (and any company) in good stead.

When you fail your customers, treat them the way you’d want to be treated in the situation. Otherwise, the next customer you annoy, might just publish his complaint on the web. ;-)

UPDATE: At 10am, the local delivery guy for Office Depot shows up at my door. I didn’t want to grill him–he’s just the van driver–but I did ask, “why the delay?” His response? They were backed up from July 4th.

July 4th?!?

That was ten days ago! Last time I checked, July 4th was not much of a “buy and send stuff” holiday like Christmas or Valentine’s day. I had ordered only a portable harddrive, what if I had been waiting on office furniture for 20 new employees?

Pilgrim’s Partners: Is a blogger attacking your company without you knowing? Monitor your online reputation with Andy Beal’s Trackur–try it for free!