The Worst Customer Experience I Have Ever Had!

I was reading the newspaper the other night and I saw that The Wiggles, a very popular young children’s music group from Australia, were coming to Boston. All of my grandchildren love them and have many of their CDs. This was the perfect opportunity to take them to see The Wiggles in person. I mentioned it to my daughter and she was excited but informed me that the tickets usually sell out very quickly. I informed her that it was the first day that the tickets were on sale and I would order them online right away.

I ordered 7 tickets at $35 per ticket plus a handling charge of $5.95. I received a confirmation saying that everything was approved and that the tickets would be mailed via standard post office procedures. I chose this method of delivery because I knew that I had plenty of time, 5 weeks, before the performance. I then printed out the confirmation and filed it safely away.

The next day I received a phone call saying that there was a problem with my credit card and I should call Ticketmaster immediately otherwise my seats would be in jeopardy. In other words, they would sell them to someone else. The next part of the message was just unbelievable! This recorded message instructed me to go to the web site and find the phone number. What if I wasn’t near my computer? What if I didn’t pick up the message until the next day? Would my tickets be lost and then how do you explain that to a four year old? It gets better. I went to the website but do you think I could find the phone number quickly? NO WAY. They hide it to reduce the number of phone calls. It took me 15 minutes to find it. Then I called only to receive busy signals again and again.

I finally got through and I heard the message due to heavy caller volume, the estimated wait will be approximately 8 minutes. Well, the 8 minutes turned out to be about 11 minutes before I got to a real person who asked me the order number, name, address, phone number, and email address. I was then informed that the credit card I used had a different address than the shipping location. That was good because they are protecting me so I offered to give them another credit card. I was then informed that if I did that the original order would have to be cancelled and the seats I selected would be lost. Now I was really confused and I didn’t know what they wanted me to do. Finally, the representative explained (actually she was reading a script) that she could just email me the tickets, but there would be a small fee of $2.50 per ticket and that she needed a new credit card for the transaction.

She never asked for the address of the new credit card I used. She didn’t care. She just knew she couldn’t mail the tickets there. As for the additional charge for sending the tickets via email, the representative refused to accept the original credit card which made no sense whatsoever. I had to give her another card and when I questioned it, I was simply told that it was their policy. But why was there an additional charge for sending an email as opposed to sending them out by USPS mail? They didn’t have to print the tickets, put them in an envelope, and pay for postage. What a rip off! The sad part about the whole thing was that I didn’t have a choice. When I sell a downloadable book I always make it less than the printed version, never more.

A New Way to Market

The world is changing and the way we market our businesses is as well. My new book, The Essential Online Solution: A Five Step Formula for Small Business Success will be out in a few weeks. This is the stage of publishing where you are putting the final touches on your marketing plan and getting everything ready for the book launch. I have considered myself a marketing expert and I am fascinated with some of the newer tactics and strategies used today to promote a book. Actually these rules apply to anything you want to launch or promote and that is why I am sharing them with everyone.

First, I am working with some real high-powered marketing firms and the publisher's marketing department so the quality of the talent is top-shelf. I suppose the reason I am so amazed is that the last major book I promoted was only 4 years ago, and yet it appears all of the rules of marketing have changed.

Four years ago, the name of the game was mass market public relations and even some ads. But today the shift has really changed. Four years ago, it was all about creating a media kit and mailing it off to your media list. That is a list of media outlets that would have an interest in running a story about your book, hoping that the story would create interest and people would run out to buy the book.

That has all changed to a far more personal level. You are now looking at two new strategies: The first is simply asking all of your friends, colleagues, or other businesses that have a customer base that could benefit from your product to recommend your book to their customer base. This is usually done via email and you generally want people with some sizable email lists. The question is why would someone do that for you?

Generally they do that when it is good for their customers. They will also make the referral if you are willing to recommend their products to your customers. You never sell or rent your names or list. It all must be done within the context of the other person's electronic newsletter. Some businesses actually will charge someone for that recommendation and sometimes it's worth it. But usually those recommendations are not the best because people will start to doubt the recommendation if they just keep on coming willy-nilly.

The other tactic that is becoming commonplace is the bonus offers. If you want to make a big splash on a certain time such as a grand opening, a sale, or any type of kick-off including a book launch, you ask for additional bonuses from vendors, colleagues, and again from other businesses that would like your customers to become theirs as well. Our goal is to have any individual buy a book for $22.95 and receive bonus products totaling between $500 and $1,000. Yes, that's right and that is why they are refereed to as the "compelling offer". It compels you to buy. Many of these offers are in the form of educational offers that are delivered using electronic means so the cost outlay is almost non-existent.

A few months ago someone asked me to contribute a product to his customer list of 5,000 retailers. The audience was right for me and I had an electronic version of one of my books that I offered as a freebie. The catch was they could only receive the book if they came to my website to pick up their code. My cost was nothing, I had tons of traffic to my site, and some people bought some things I never expected to sell online. This was truly a win/win/win scenario. The customer won because they were actually getting something for nothing. I won because I introduced myself and services to customers who didn't know anything about me and they even bought things. And lastly my colleague won because he made a substantial offer to his customers on something he has recommended in the past.

The interesting thing about these concepts is the return on both referral and pinpoint marketing. The mass media is just not as effective as it has been in the past. Some people call this viral marketing because it spreads through the web very quickly. I think that it is old-fashioned marketing at its best. It's creating the buzz and word of mouth advertising with a twist.

Lastly there is also another concept not to be overlooked about the newsletter recommendation and that is to focus your promotions on a single day. Being extremely busy on one or two days gets people talking. If you are selling a book, that type of focused promotion can even get you on a best seller list that can lead to many wonderful things. If you are running a storewide promotion, it can have everyone talking about your event and it can become the "not to be missed" event now or in the future.

I hope this helped you in considering some new tactics to use and methods to embrace. Have a great week.

Note: Thanks to all those people who told me the lyric about the "rains in Africa" wasn't U2 but rather Toto. And I can't believe it--I haven't seen a lion in 20 years and within one week I will go on two safaris: one in Africa and another in the wild animal park outside of San Diego where I am speaking this week. Strange how things happen!

Thoughts from Cape Town South Africa

I am the luckiest person in the world to have someone pay me to travel around the world to share my thoughts and ideas with strangers who become friends. Will someone please pinch me when this is over?

When I left the States, I didn't have any ideas for this week's article, but I was sure I would be inspired with some new idea from this wonderful country. Well frankly, I didn't find that killer idea I searched for but I do have a few random thoughts to consider.

First, South Africa is very progressive and growing country with great leadership navigating a path of democracy that should be a model to the world. It is because of that I couldn't find that much different than any other modern city. Between cable TV and high speed internet access, I feel like I am at home. People here are influenced by the same movies and TV shows as we are. Their standards are very similar. Please don't miss understand me--the country is not without its challenges. But doesn't every country have its challenges?

In the states we get all huffy about English as the official language (including myself). In South Africa there are 12 official languages and it works. It is rare to find a South African who isn't at least bilingual. Maybe the South Africans have given me a wakeup call and maybe, just maybe, we can all work out some type of compromise in the States with our language issues.

Think about it-- I conducted business from 6000 miles away because of technology. My office phone didn't forward to my cell. That is cost prohibitive, but it did alert me instantly when someone left a message and I was able to call back within seconds of receiving the message using my computer with a service called "Skype" for about 2 cents a minute.

I was able to launch a new website while I was away. I filled orders for products, books, and even called customers back, WOWing everyone when I told them I was in South Africa. But the most important of all, I was able to keep in touch with my clients and customers and this article is only one that I was able to do so.

You can do the same thing and not leave your backyard. The technology is out there and it is cheap enough and easy enough to master, which means that even if you don't want to master this stuff, it has become cost effective to have someone do it all for you.

I even bought a shirt from small store online that will be waiting for me when I return. Think about the possibilities for you.

The perception today is if you are not on the web, you are not in business. Perception is everything. I went on a real African Safari and what kind of vehicle did I travel in? A Land Rover of course! The perception is Land Rover is the best in the fierce terrain of Africa. Because of that perception Land Rover has become a status symbol in the States and is selling in record numbers, despite the fact that Consumer Reports gave it one of the lowest ratings of any SUV. So much for quality-- it's about perception.

My last thought came out of a speech from an executive from a very large retailer I heard on an audio tape I listened to on the plane. He was a VP of Marketing when he uttered this gem for advertising a certain way. "We know they work because all of our competitors are using it." Hello-- is that the blind leading the blind? But you see that type of stupidity every day online when companies drive up the auction price on certain industry specific key words. Are they the words getting the most hits or generating the most traffic? NO, but they are the words all of our competitors are bidding for. Do what's right for you. Competitors never put stores out of business. Businesses put themselves out.

Lastly THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for signing up for our new site and services. Watch for more and more free downloads every month. It's time to give it away. If you said "ohhh isn't that nice", thank you. But the truth of the matter is book sales have exploded because of my free offers. People download it and then decide they want the printed version. Who ever would have figured that, but I must be truthful since I have done that exact same thing.

Now I am going to bed looking out my window watching the rain fall in Africa and I can't get that song by (I think) U2 out of my head. But it could be someone else. Could someone please tell who sang the song that has those lyrics?

We Changed! We Changed!

Our newsletter format has changed. And our website has completely changed. I really hope you like it. As always, I invite and encourage your feedback. Just because I like it doesn't mean that it's right. Many people have asked why we changed a newsletter format that was only 6 month old. The reason is simple and it is a lesson for every retailer in the world. The newsletter changed because of one comment (or better put--a complaint) that I kept on receiving. It was that people had difficulty reading the newsletter because the fonts were too small. I should know better because I hate it when I go into a store and can't read the sign because the font size is too small. But unfortunately my webmaster was a 20-something who had no clue what I was talking about. So I also changed webmasters. He also had problems with the 10 point fonts as well. Problem solved--new webmaster.

Our website is completely different. Why? For a number of reasons. First of all, we hadn't changed our website since 1999. Since that time we have been adding and adding more and more information until it just needed to be streamlined. I love to say that in the retail business change for the sake of change is sometimes good. Just to create a new look and sense of excitement is important, but this is more than a look. It is about functionality as well. As I write this, I am listening to the calls going back and forth between my webmaster and my office smoothing out the bugs.

When you go to the site, you will also notice an unbelievable offer of a free electronic copy of my new book The 5000 BEST Sale and Promotional Names & Ideas Ever Compiled. Why? Because in today's age of rampant spam and marketers who don't care who they bother, your offer should be substantial to create the type of word of mouth advertising that it takes to survive. Are your offers WOWs or are they just so-so? Make a splash and let people feel like they are getting some real value.

The other thing you will notice about the site is that it is full of audio recordings. Audios of me and testimonial audios from some of my past clients. The purpose is to just make the site a little more user friendly and I suggest that to everyone. Why not use the technology that is already in your computer? Yes that's right-- in order for me to record the message you hear on the site, I didn't have to go to any studio or even buy any special software or equipment. I just plugged a microphone into my computer and started recording. I then sent it to my webmaster who cleaned it up and put on my site. Now I have a talking site. What effect might that have on your website?

The real reason I needed to get everything done now was because of the release of my new book, The Essential Online Solution... the 5 step formula for small business success. It will be out October 6th. (They moved it up a week.) I felt that I better demonstrate many of the techniques I discuss in the book, so I used my site and my newsletter as an example. In the book, I claim that you can create your own website for less than $100 and that it can take less than 3 hours. I still stand by that statement. However, those sites are 5 page sites where my site will eventually be over 200 plus pages. So yes, I did use an outside professional. I actually discovered this wonderful man while doing the research for my book. I am currently working with him to be able to create a simple to follow formula for web development that I can share.

So, let me know what you think. Ask me any questions about why we did what we did. I am more than happy to share everything with my readers and even my competitors, because the internet has taught me that we no longer truly have competitors but rather collaborators.

I am off to speak in Capetown, South Africa and next week's tip will be coming from there. I just love technology--now I just hope that everything works!