Let’s face it, while connecting with like-minded people and making friends may be among our many motivations to engage in social circles, there’s also a component of selfishness involved. The vast majority of us, at some point, hope to use the networks we invest so much time in building to help us accomplish a goal. You wouldn’t ask a stranger to buy you lunch. What makes you think asking a stranger to promote your content is any better?

No matter what our goals are, most of them will require contributions from others in order to succeed. Whether we are hoping to make sales, gain referrals, build brands, generate reviews or just spread the word, online networks have changed the game for businesses big and small. “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know…” is something we’ve all heard. In days gone by relationships with the “right” people were like a golden ticket in a Wonka bar. I suppose that’s no less true today, but initiating and building those relationships is vastly different.

The opportunity to cultivate any kind of one-on-one relationship used to be pretty limited by geography. Unless you were willing to spend a few hundred dollars a month on long distance phone calls, you were much more likely to invest your time getting to know those closest to home. For local business owners, putting forth a lot of time and effort focusing on people who live across the country, or even across the state, might not offer much return on that investment. It’s a new day…

Unprecedented Opportunity for Engagement

How many people do you suppose knew Dale Carnegie personally? How many would have liked to? In 1912 his influence was limited to those with whom he engaged in person. In the days before the multi-billion dollar self-help craze, Carnegie’s original book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People“, changed the way people approached interacting with one another. It has earned a place among the first and most useful texts on dealing with people ever written. And many of those principles still ring true today, albeit in some different ways.

Our opportunity to engage with others was once severely limited by geography. That’s not the case anymore. On a given day I may carry on conversations with people from Canada to Australia. My industry circles include people from around the world, including Israel, Iceland and New Zealand. Many aren’t merely business acquaintances, but friends – people with whom I have much in common and whose viewpoints I respect. A decade or so ago such an opportunity to build rapport with people around the world wouldn’t have been possible.

That said, most of the people who introduce themselves to me online these days are dicks. And they don’t even have the decency to pretend they’re not dicks. Okay, maybe they’re not actually dicks…maybe they’re just socially challenged people whose deficiencies are even more pronounced online than they would be in person. I have a feeling they’re the same people who 30 years ago would have made their rounds in a hotel bar handing a business card to everyone at every table with the exclamation that he can take care of all their insurance needs. Online or off, no one likes that guy.

Learn From Others’ Mistakes

Here’s the thing: building rapport is no easier online than off. In fact, it’s harder. Without body language, tone of voice and facial expressions, it’s even more difficult to determine what kind of person you’re really dealing with. With so many people vying for attention online, first impressions may be all you have. If you come off wrong in your initial introduction, you may have sealed your fate with that person forever.

Here’s an e-mail that highlights some of what I’m talking about:

Hello Mate,

I just see your profile in Sphinn.com, we’re on the same line, internet marketing, SEO, SEM, SMO, SMM.
I’m just studying all of these to become an expert someday. :-). I would enjoy being your friend, to learn from you and to
share some SEO articles, tips and breakthroughs.

If you want I will vote your stories, in exchange vote mine. :-)

Thanks!..

Yeah, there’s 20 seconds of my life I’ll never get back. This one isn’t even one of the most egregious examples. What really sticks in my craw is the, “If you want I will vote your stories, in exchange vote mine…” part. Really? This is how you introduce yourself to a total stranger? At least I know now why he’s introduced himself to me.

It’s not because he’s read my blog. It’s not because he’s seen my tweets. It’s not because he’s actually interested in engaging in any kind of constructive conversation or exchange. He just wants me to Sphinn his shit. Guess what? I’m not going to. Ever. Because he’s trying to use me. Don’t be that guy.

Being Memorable for the Right Reasons

This dude wanted to get my attention. Well, he did. And I won’t forget him. Because of the approach, that’s not a good thing. I know what you’re thinking. “Geez, Alysson…you’re harsh and kind of a bitch.” Well, you’re not the first to say it. You won’t be the last. Maybe I expect too much of people. Or maybe I understand, and have always understood, that there are effective ways and ineffective ways to go about trying to engage with people. The more time I spend online, the more I realize how few people really understand that.

“…the ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.” ~ John D. Rockefeller

When I first started in SEO I spent a lot of time online reading blogs, reading comments, reviewing sites, etc. By a lot I mean an absolutely obscene amount of time. Lucky for me, I had a co-worker and friend to point me toward the best sources of information, so I didn’t waste a lot of time going down the wrong paths. For months I sat quietly in the corner. I didn’t leave comments. I didn’t publish anything. I didn’t call any attention to myself whatsoever.

Delay is preferable to error. ~ Thomas Jefferson

When I finally did decide to participate, I didn’t do it by sending out unsolicited e-mails to total strangers in industry circles. I didn’t send Facebook friend requests. I didn’t try to connect with industry vets via LinkedIn. I did what I would want someone to do if they’re trying to get my attention.

I started making constructive and useful comments on their blogs. I started asking questions. I started Sphinning stuff. I even submitted a post or two to Sphinn. And, at first, I got my ass handed to me. Right, Edward? :) I’d encourage you to follow Edward on Twitter, but he hates that.

I started participating in the community I wanted to be a part of. I knew I still had a lot to learn – still do – and I didn’t want to alienate the people most capable of helping me do that. On the other hand, I didn’t want to be that irritating fly buzzing around everyone’s head either. I didn’t want to get swatted away. I wanted people to read my comments and think, “Hey, she might not be entirely full of shit…perhaps I should check out her blog.” And that’s what happened. It didn’t happen overnight. But it did happen.

Super-Secret Silver Bullets

If you think I’m going to tell you there’s only one way to succeed online, you’re wrong. I bet you’re hoping I’ve drawn up some enchanted treasure map that will lead you right where you’re dying to go. Well, I haven’t. No one has. Anyone who claims otherwise is lying…first sales pitch will come about 5 minutes in.

There are as many paths leading to Oz as there are clouds in the sky. There are some tips and best practices you can follow, but no concrete answers. Be genuine. Just be yourself – no matter who that is, some audience out there will appreciate it. Give at least as much as you take. Don’t participate in social circles just because of what you can get out of it, but because of what you can contribute to it.

I’m proud of the online circle I now, perhaps a bit undeservedly, consider myself a part of. I have the utmost respect for my industry pals. And I hope I’ve earned a bit of their respect, as well. If I have, it’s partly because I didn’t make an ass of myself doing the virtual equivalent to the “OOH! OOH! PICK ME!! LOOK AT ME!!!” routine.

I’m not saying my approach is the only approach. I’m not saying it’s the best approach. I’m not even saying it’s the right approach for you. What I am saying is that choosing the wrong approach is the best way to alienate and piss off the people you might want most to get the attention of. Choose wisely. Don’t be that obnoxious guy in the hotel bar. You can’t un-ring a bell, so once you decide to ring it you better make sure it’s in tune and doesn’t make people want to run away from it screaming.

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A new “service” marketed as Verified SEO has been making waves throughout the SEO/SEM industry today. Though I doubt they are the waves its founder, Charles Preston – a self-described “SEO Expert” – had been hoping for. Claiming to have been a search marketing professional since 1999, Mr. Preston has found his reputation and previous anonymity in industry circles coming under fire from search marketing veterans and douchebaggary outers far & wide. Why, you might ask, would the industry be so quick to damn someone whose intentions might seem benevolent and in the best interest of consumers? There are a lot of reasons…

Verified SEO Is Scamtastic

On its face, Verified SEO is an absolutely meaningless display badge provided to those willing to pay $99 a month for the privilege of being endorsed by Mr. Preston and his supposed team of “industry veterans”. Displaying such a badge on their website would merely be an attempt to convince unsuspecting consumers that a particular SEO or SEO company is considered more legitimate than another. In doing so such an SEO would give the illusion of professionalism or effectiveness to consumers who are utterly ignorant of the insubstantial nature of Verified SEO itself.

Verified SEO’s Lack of Transparency

The shenanigans were outed by an actual industry veteran, Edward Lewis, on Sphinn – after first personally reaching out to Mr. Preston to give him the chance to address concerns about who the “industry veterans” behind the Verified SEO brand were. Charles Preston attempted to defend the intent of the service in an incredibly long comment. And for those of you who know me at all, you know how long a comment must be for ME to point out its length!

Despite Mr. Preston’s efforts to defend the premise behind Verified SEO, we still have no idea who these “industry veterans” set to review the work of SEOs truly are. The marketing-ease of the service may as well be, “WE will give you our stamp of approval for the bargain basement price of just $99 per month. And no, it obviously doesn’t matter who ‘WE’ are…”

Unbridled Hubris, Thy Name Is Charles Preston

SEOs are fine with being judged and evaluated by their clients. We expect that. We welcome that. We encourage that. We don’t, however, accept the audacity of a self-described “SEO Expert” believing he has the authority to judge, evaluate and deem us worthy…and spending $99 a month for the privilege. Even those who might have otherwise supported and encouraged the premise behind some kind of certification process suddenly find themselves saying, “So, who is this Preston guy? Has anyone ever heard of him?” The rest jump straight to, “Who the hell do you think you are, Charles Preston?”

No self-respecting search marketing professional would EVER, under any circumstances, hand their client’s sensitive information over to some schmoe no one in the industry has ever heard of – or to anyone, for that matter. Would you, Charles Preston? I’d venture to say you wouldn’t. And if you would, we have even more reason to question your professionalism. More importantly, so do your clients.

Nothing Says, “Caught Red-Handed” Like Quitting

Look, I’m all for holding SEOs accountable and protecting consumers from scams. Hell, it’s the very reason I started the SEOAly blog to begin with. What I’m NOT all for is some dude no one has ever heard of offering a bullshit paid stamp of approval that will lead consumers to believe being a “Verified SEO” actually means something. It means nothing. And the fact that it’s a service that was started by someone no one in the industry has ever heard of and that there are supposed “industry veterans” involved that still remain nameless just smacks of douchebaggary and shenanigans.

After today’s hail storm of criticism surrounding Verified SEO, it seems Mr. Preston has decided his ill-conceived venture is more a liability than a cash cow. After first trying to spin the entire scenario to cast it in the light of a premature April Fool’s joke or massive industry Rickroll, Mr. Preston has now taken the site down completely, as well as having shut down the @VerfiedSEO Twitter account. Rishi from SEO Bullshit, issued “An Open Challenge” to Verified SEO to prove that the site and service was being offered by industry veterans. Since the site no longer exists, I’d think Rishil can probably pick that gauntlet back up. Way to prove you were right and had the best of intentions there, Charles.

An Unnecessary, Self-Induced ORM Nightmare

The unmitigated disaster that is Verified SEO is indisputable at this point. It was the story of the day among many of the loudest and most outspoken voices in the search marketing industry. Thanks to well-known curmudgeons like Edward Lewis and Alan Bleiweiss (you both know I <3 you and that’s a term of endearment) to snarktastic souls like Aaron Chronister (a.k.a “TheMadHat”) and Tim Nash (a.k.a. “I know who you are and I saw what you did…”), Verified SEO has become a verifiable nightmare for Charles Preston. His poor decision to launch such a venture has come back to bite him in the ass.

A search for “Charles Preston SEO” in Google now brings up his site…and several results eluding to the scamtasticness of Verified SEO and questioning his intent/intelligence/competence. This, ladies & gentlemen, is a perfect case study in what NOT to do. Whether Charles Preston intended it or not, he has opened up a huge can of worms that may tarnish the reputation he’s supposedly been building since 1999.

If Charles Preston were the industry veteran he claims, he’d have foreseen this backlash. He’d have prepared for the character assassination that would result. Regardless of his true motivation, he’d have known exactly how the true veterans and loudest voices in the search marketing industry would react in the face of such arrogance. He didn’t. And that pretty much says it all about his experience in this industry…

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Are you kidding? OF COURSE I’d like to post it! So here it is. In all it’s level-headed glory…which, for those of you who know Darren, is a bit shocking, to say the least! I admire his restraint and believe anyone suffering from this kind of poor customer service should follow his lead and write a similarly candid, level-headed and strongly worded letter to the company that has wronged you. Should they receive enough of these letters, they will – at the very least – be forced to admit that they were aware of the issues and simply chose to do nothing about them. Without further ado, I give you the most rational and expletive-free rant ever created by the infamous SEO Mofo:

July 3, 2008

Dear Best Buy,

I am very sorry to inform you that I can no longer be your customer. I have been shopping at Best Buy stores for about the past 10 years, and I have always enjoyed your product selection and your friendly, helpful employees. However, that entire history became meaningless tonight, after I endured the worst customer service experience I have ever had. That experience took place in your Simi Valley store, no more than 2 hours ago.

I’m going to tell you the details of this incident, but I’m not going to portray myself to be the victim. I’m simply going to relay the facts as accurately as I can. I have worked for large companies before, and I can only expect that you will verify my statements with the employee(s) involved. Therefore, I’m not going to lie or omit my contributions to this incident, because that would make it easy to discredit me. The truth is, I didn’t handle this situation as well as I could have, and I accept responsibility for my own actions, but nothing excuses the way your employees treated me tonight.

This story actually begins last week, when I offered to buy my girlfriend a new TV for her birthday. We researched the latest 120hz LCD HDTVs from Sony and Samsung, by reading and watching the online reviews on CNET. We decided on the Samsung 6 series, and began comparing prices from the major retailers. I knew that Best Buy offered a price-matching service, because I had used it about 6 – 12 months ago, when I was TV shopping with my mother. Just to be sure price-matching was still offered, I checked bestbuy.com and read the details of that policy. The store price-matching policy included this text:

Does Best Buy match prices of Internet retailers?
If you made your purchase in a Best Buy store, and you find an Internet retailer with a local retail store honoring its own online prices, we’ll match their price, plus 10% of the difference. Internet-only retailers are exempt from our price matching program, as well as Web-exclusive offers. Eligible items must be the same brand and model, and currently in stock at the competitor’s store.

With this information in mind, I searched for internet retailers that also have retail stores. I found a couple of companies, one of which was 6ave.com. They offered the same prices in their stores that they do online, so I assumed they qualified for price-matching. (However, as I would find out later, they do not qualify because they are an east-coast retail chain, and I am in California.) I printed out the page from their site that advertised the Samsung LN40A650 for $1,459.06, and I also printed out their policy page that included these details:

Why is it important to buy from an authorized dealer?
Sixth Avenue Electronics is an authorized dealer for everything we sell. This is extremely important for you as a consumer, because buying from an authorized dealer is the only way to ensure your manufacturer’s warranty will always be honored. You also get the peace of mind that comes from knowing that all of our products come directly from the manufacturers. As an authorized dealer, our salespeople receive extensive training on all of the products we sell.

Are all of the products offered on your site brand new, and do they all come with full USA warranties?
Yes, every item on our website is brand new unless it is clearly specified otherwise. All of our products carry full manufacturers’ warranties because we are authorized dealers for everything we sell.

Do your retail stores honor online specials?
Yes, our retail stores honor online specials during the specified promotional period unless otherwise noted. Please print the page and bring it to the store with you.

Does 6ave.com honor in-store specials?
Yes, 6ave.com honors all in-store specials during the specified promotional period unless otherwise noted. Shipping fees apply.

I also printed out a page from Frys.com, which had the TV listed for $1,499.99, just in case Best Buy wouldn’t honor the 6ave.com price. I knew that Fry’s Electronics has retail stores in addition to their online sales.

Equipped with my printouts, I drove to Best Buy with my girlfriend, and we looked at the TVs in person. We were offered assistance by the store’s Customer Experience Manager, Tim Ngo, but I declined, since we were still looking. About 10 minutes later, we were approached by a different employee, and this time we welcomed the assistance. We asked about the 40″ and the 46″ models’ availability, and the employee went to check if they had them in stock. It was probably about 10 to 15 minutes before he returned, which seemed like it took longer than it should have, but I didn’t really notice or mind, since I was preoccupied with selecting a wall mount for the TV. He informed me and my girlfriend that the 46″ model was not in stock, but the 40″ was in stock. We decided to buy the 40″ model, so I handed the employee my printouts and asked him to honor the competitor’s price of $1,459.06, instead of the Best Buy price of $1,609.99. This was a difference of $150.93. This is where the story could have had a happy ending, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Please understand that I don’t like talking about prices. I don’t like haggling or negotiating, and I don’t like talking to sales people in general. I certainly enjoy getting a good deal, but I don’t like being pressured or put on the spot. This is why I went through so much trouble to research Best Buy’s price-matching policy. I didn’t want to find myself in an awkward situation where some employee starts questioning the validity of my requested price.

Tonight, I was quite confident that this wouldn’t be an issue, especially after my previous experience. When I went with my mother to purchase her 60″ Sony HDTV from that same Best Buy store, less than a year ago, she did the same thing: she researched online prices, printed out pages, and used them to verify a competitor’s lower price. At that time, the sales associate who helped her honored the competitor’s price, NO QUESTIONS ASKED. Without any hesitation, the sales associate rang up the TV for the lower price, and the purchase was completed in a matter of minutes. That is what I expected tonight, and if that had happened, I would still be a loyal Best Buy customer and I would probably be at my girlfriend’s house right now, watching her new “birthday present” with her.

Unfortunately, after I handed the sales associate the papers, he responded by telling me the 6ave.com price didn’t qualify, because the retail stores were only located in NY and NJ, and therefore they weren’t local. This annoyed me, since I was thinking of “local” as “local to any Best Buy store.” Since there are Best Buy stores located within a few miles of the 6ave stores, I assumed that this qualified. Yet according to the sales associate–and I assume he is correct–Best Buy will only price-match the 6ave price in the Best Buy locations that are near those 6ave retail stores. So in other words… if I lived in New Jersey, then I could get the lower price, but since I live in California, I don’t get the lower price. This policy seemed a bit illogical to me, but like I said, I didn’t want to argue about it or be put on the spot. I handed him the Fry’s page instead.

The sales associate then asked us to wait while he calls Fry’s and verifies that they have the TV in stock and at that price. At this point, I started getting annoyed. I understand that Best Buy has to take certain precautions to prevent people from abusing the price-matching service, but I didn’t appreciate the fact that my mother had no trouble whatsoever (and her price adjustment was more like $500), but I was apparently profiled as the type of customer that requires a “background check.” This may very well be a total coincidence, but to be honest, I kind of felt like an Islamic-American who is “selected at random” for an extensive security screening at the airport. Even if this was the standard procedure and my previous sales associate was neglecting his job duties, I had no way of knowing that. It felt like I was being singled out.

The sales associate left to go call Fry’s, and my girlfriend and I walked around and looked at TV accessories. I was mildly annoyed, but that amount steadily grew over the next TWENTY MINUTES, as the sales associate paced back and forth with a phone to his ear, trying to get answers from someone at Fry’s. I don’t know what the holdup was, but I can tell you that I was NOT happy by the time the sales associate returned.

Making matters worse, he brought with him the news that Fry’s doesn’t offer the online price in their retail stores, so their price is $1,899.99, which isn’t lower than the Best Buy price. So basically, I had waited 20 minutes for the sales associate to tell me I don’t get any lower price. Needless to say, I was very frustrated at this point, and I just wanted to leave. The sales associate could probably sense my frustration, because he started offering me alternate ways to save money, such as discounts on Blu-Ray players, a PS3, etc. This was exactly the kind of awkward haggling that makes me uncomfortable, so I declined his offers and walked away.

I walked over to the returns desk and asked to speak to the store manager. The employee at the returns desk asked what it was regarding, and I answered “it’s regarding a dissatisfied customer.” The store manager was called over, and it turned out to be the first employee that had offered me assistance–Customer Experience Manager, Tim Ngo. At this point, I was frustrated that the Best Buy price-matching policy was essentially impossible to qualify for, I was annoyed that I had already been in the store for over 45 minutes, and I was embarrassed that purchasing my girlfriend’s birthday present had turned into such a huge ordeal. It wasn’t even about the money anymore. I mean, we were talking about $110 here. I would have paid twice that, just to avoid this hassle entirely. Nevertheless, I had escalated the situation up the chain of command, and now I was looking to the Customer Experience Manager to smooth things out.

I explained the situation to Tim and handed him my printouts. I told him it didn’t seem right that my mother had no problems getting a price-match, but when I come in, suddenly the price-matching policy tightens up, and the Best Buy sales associate would rather have me wait 20 minutes for him to call Fry’s than to lower the Best Buy price $110, down to $1,499.99.

I was clearly upset, and really all I wanted was for Tim to approve the price-match and “make the customer happy.” However, he showed very little interest in making me happy, and opted instead to explain why my competitor prices didn’t qualify for price-matching. He seemed to be interested mostly in proving me wrong, and made no attempt to address my primary two complaints:

1. I felt like I had been singled out or profiled.
2. The sales associate made me wait 20 minutes while he contacted Fry’s, and then he denied my price-match.

After Tim tried explaining why he can’t match the competitor’s price, he went over to a nearby computer and started looking up the TV prices for 6ave.com and/or Fry’s.com. Then things got REALLY awkward, when the sales associate (who I’m told was the supervisor of whichever department sells TVs) came over and started talking under his breath to Tim. As I’m standing there at the returns desk, I literally have the store’s 2 highest-position employees muttering back and forth about me. I don’t know what they were saying, but eventually they went to the back area and continued their online investigation there.

Several minutes later, Tim returns and starts telling me that the 6ave.com price doesn’t include shipping, and that next-day shipping would add $200 to the price, making it more than the Best Buy price. I told him that the information posted on the Best Buy website does not indicate that shipping charges would be added to the competitor’s price. He responded by telling me the information online does not include every single detail about the price-matching policy. I told him that the information on the Best Buy website is legally enforceable, and at that point Tim interrupted me by saying he cannot engage in any discussions involving legal matters. He reiterated that if I mention “legal stuff” then he can’t talk to me.

I assume that there is some part of Best Buy’s manager training program that instructs new managers to avoid making legal statements, but the way Tim communicated that to me was inappropriate. His tone and his attitude made it clear that his main objective was to stand his ground. His mannerisms were intentionally patronizing, and I am confident that he felt he had something to prove. His subtle, passive-aggressive statements quickly chipped away what remained of my patience.

I again brought up my complaint that the sales associate wasted a great deal of my time, and that I had been in the store for over 45 minutes, with nothing to show for it. Tim expressed mock-sympathy by suggesting we stop wasting any more of each other’s time. At this point, my frustration began to turn into anger, and I responded to Tim by saying, “We’re going to be wasting even more time, if I have to take this to the next step.”

Tim immediately escalated the tension even further, by responding with “Is that a threat?”

I was absolutely stunned by this response. In all fairness, my statement would have deserved that response under most circumstances. After all, I was basically telling Tim that I would take my complaints to someone in a higher position than him, if he wasn’t going to address them. However, these weren’t just any circumstances. This was Best Buy’s Customer Experience Manager using aggressive tactics towards a dissatisfied customer–a customer who had legitimate reasons to be upset. In my opinion, Tim’s first priority was his pride, and my “customer experience” was a distant second.

After staring at Tim in disbelief, I responded with “What… did you just become a manager like last week?”
I’m not going to make excuses for my response. The fact is… I was absolutely livid, and I had lost any desire to be cordial. As if he was going through the steps in a manager protocol handbook, Tim immediately stopped the conversation, gave me his business card, and told me I can call the number he had written on the card and voice my concerns to them.

But again… I don’t like being put on the spot. I don’t want to call anyone and try to explain what happened. That’s why I chose to write this letter instead. I really don’t know what I expect to accomplish with this letter. I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. All I know right now is that I am appalled by the way I was treated tonight. Your staff embarrassed me, insulted me, and disrespected me in front of my girlfriend. Your Customer Experience Manager personally delivered the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Sadly, that was more than enough to negate our otherwise positive history. I’m sorry it ended this way.

Sincerely,
Darren Slatten

You wanna know the best part? They addressed the situation by sending Darren a $50 gift card. And knowing Darren, he probably destroyed and/or pissed on that gift card. As he should have. Personally, I’ve never really had a memorable experience at Best Buy…good or bad. But the stories I’ve heard certainly play a role in my buying decisions and more often than not, I choose not to shop at Best Buy in order to mitigate the potential that I’ll have my own Best Buy customer service nightmare to share with you!

I wonder how many other people elect not to shop at Best Buy for the same reason. And I wonder if they realize how much revenue they’re losing as a result of these situations and their complete inability to handle them properly. Ah, Best Buy…what would we do without giant corporate catastrophes like you?!?!

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Maybe the TV doesn’t work because of a manufacturer defect. Maybe the TV is damaged when it is shipped from the factory, or while in your warehouse, or while in one of your stores, or during delivery, or even after it is loaded into the customer’s vehicle. Shit happens. How you address those, “Ah, crap…” moments will make or break your reputation, whether you’re a Fortune 500 or a Mom & Pop.

Face it, it’s gratifying to pat yourself on the back for great customer service when all your customers are happy and things go exactly as planned. The true test of great service is how the situation is managed when something, or everything, goes wrong. If your resolution is to say, “Sorry ’bout ‘cha…” when the shit hits the fan, your attitude in the face of conflict says a lot more about your commitment to service, or lack thereof, than any mission statement on your website or two-cent “I’m here to help…” button on your employees’ uniforms ever will.

The problem with big businesses, like Best Buy, is that they plan for a certain level of failure. If a store sells 10,000 TVs and 10 people are unhappy with their purchase, that’s a mere 0.1% dissatisfaction rate. On paper and in the world of big business, a 0.1% dissatisfaction rate is perfectly acceptable.

What can’t be taken into consideration or measured with any mathematical certainty is the potential damage to a brand when those 10 people share a nightmarish experience with friends and family. In the past, the scope of a disgruntled customer’s influence was often limited to their immediate friends and family. We live in a very different world today…

Bad Customer Service Stories Spread at the Speed of Light

I live in Jacksonville, but that’s not how I came across this story. My mom brought it to my attention. She lives in Indiana, more than 1000 miles from Jacksonville. She called me over to her computer to show me this: “Family’s New Big Screen Television In Pieces” – an article on Jacksonville’s First Coast News website. She found the story on The Consumerist, a consumer advocacy website that averages between 800,000 and 1,000,000 unique visitors per month according to Compete.com.

She proceeded to tell me of several other reports she’d read online about others’ poor experiences with Best Buy locations across the country. Had I not been here in person, she’d have e-mailed it to me. Or I’d have seen her tweet about it. Yes, my mom is on Twitter…and she has over 800 followers. Don’t look now, but your mom might be on Twitter. Or your dad. Or your aunt. Even Grandma may be tweeting. Hey, don’t laugh…it’s happening already.

Whereas the reach of a single bad experience might have been limited a decade ago, customer service horror stories today can make it to a virtually unlimited audience from coast to coast in a matter of seconds – literally. One well-timed tweet can send a shopper screaming out of the Best Buy parking lot and across the street to HH Gregg or Sears.

Do The Math

Let’s turn back the hands of time for a moment, shall we? We’re going to step back to 1995, before the Internet became such a big part of our daily lives and before the social web gave every individual the ability to disseminate information so quickly, easily and with a virtually unlimited reach. Even the limited impact of those 10 customers in 1995 was significant, from the standpoint of potential revenue loss. Here’s an equation to illustrate the potential reach of 10 pissed off customers back in 1995:

10 x 10 = 100 + 10 = 110
100 x 5 = 500 + 110 = 610
500 x 2 = 1000 + 610 = 1,610

The equation above represents 10 dissatisfied customers each telling 10 people, those 100 people each telling 5 more people and those 500 people each telling 2 more people. You can see how the potential reach of a single incident could grow rapidly, even without the Internet. Based on the example above, that’s 1,610 people whose image of Best Buy would have been tarnished. In a city like Jacksonville, with a population of well over 800,000 people, that might not seem like a big deal. But let’s look at that scenario based in today’s social web environment.

Here’s the potential reach of that same person today, assuming that they have, like me, about 2,500 Twitter followers:

1 x 2,500 = 2,500
2500 x 200 = 5000 + 2500 = 7500
5000 x 100 = 500,000 + 7500 = 507,500

See, if I tweet something to my Twitter following, more than 2,500 people have the potential to see that tweet. Now, let’s say my average follower has 200 followers and retweets my “Best Buy SUCKS” tweet. That’s 5,000 additional people who may see the tweet. Now, let’s say those 5,000 people have an average of 100 followers and they retweet “Best Buy SUCKS”, as well. Instead of having a reach of about 1,600 people as before, a single bad experience has the potential to impact the buying decisions of well over half a million people.

Granted, not all of my Twitter followers will see my original tweet. And of those who do see it, only a small percentage of them may choose to retweet it. Nonetheless, imagine the power of 10 separate bad experiences being shared via Twitter as in our original example. Using the aforementioned estimate above, the reach of those 10 poor service experiences balloons to millions of consumers. Now imagine the scope of 100 bad experiences nationwide. How about 500? Or 1,000? EGADS!

Let’s Talk Revenue

We’ll go back to the original example – before the social web existed. Let’s assume, for the purposes of this example, that this customer service failure results in all 10 dissatisfied customers not making a purchase from Best Buy for the following 12 months. Let’s also assume that 50% of those hearing the story second hand, 25% of those hearing the story third hand and 10% of those hearing it fourth hand decide not to make a purchase at Best Buy for the next 12 months, as well.

According to Discovery’s Planet Green e-Waste IQ quiz, the average household spends about $1,200 on electronic gadgets annually – ranging from cell phones to cameras to gaming systems, so we’ll use that data. Keep in mind that the average expenditure for gadgets doesn’t take into consideration the purchase of DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, video games or other products that are part of Best Buy’s product line…so $1,200 is a conservative annual estimate. Here’s the equation:

10 + 50 + 125 + 100 = 285 x $1200 = $342,000

There you have it. A single poor customer experience, even before the rise of the social web, could potentially cost a local Best Buy store more than $300,000 in lost revenue over a 12 month period.

Now, the flip side – assume that turning horror stories into “knock your socks off” customer service experiences would have cost that Best Buy store $1000 per incident, which is a high estimate. The total cost of turning those 10 reputation management nightmares into happy customers and potential Best Buy brand advocates would cost a total of $10,000. It doesn’t take a Masters in business to figure out that taking a $10,000 loss to make those 10 customers happy is a much better option than taking a $342,000 hit in lost sales revenue.

Changing Fundamental Philosophies Isn’t Easy

I’ve spent much of my career training front line teams to provide better customer service. And, to the surprise of many, creating epiphanies and light bulb moments for front line teams is the easy part. The hard part is conveying the notion to the powers that be that losing revenue on a single transaction is better than losing a customer for life and having that customer tarnish the reputation of the entire company by sharing their bad experience.

See, the people sitting in the board rooms of corporations are pretty detached from the front line employee experience. They’re even more detached from the experience of their customers. Executives spend their days staring at numbers and moving those numbers from one column to another trying to figure out “what would happen if we [read: the front line] stopped doing X and started doing Y instead…”.

They ask questions like, “how much revenue would be saved by adopting a “once it’s out of the store, it’s out of our hands…” policy with regard to damaged products?” and make their policy decisions based solely on the bottom line. If a customer spends $1,000 on a television only to realize it is broken once the box is opened when they get home, the newly adopted “out of our hands…” policy means Best Buy’s obligation ends once the product leaves the store.

They’ve made their $1,000 sale. Why should they care? In the boardroom that SOP makes business sense. From a customer loyalty and brand advocate standpoint, it’s an absolute nightmare and a recipe for disaster. Convincing a know-it-all dude in a $3000 suit that he’s got it all wrong isn’t easy.

To executives, customers are nothing more than numbers on a page. They create standard operating procedures based on a “we generated this much profit from this single transaction” perspective, with little regard for how the customer’s experience determines how much profit will be made on future transactions over the long term. They don’t care if a sale is made to a first time customer or a 100th time customer, provided the sale is made.

And there will always be more people to sell to…even if you’ve pissed off 1,000 people previously, right? From a numbers standpoint, management can’t account for brand advocacy and customer loyalty in a budget forecast. So all that matters is what can be measured tangibly in the short term – not what may or may not occur in the future based in the hypothetical realm of customer experience. Peering out the windows of a corner office being willing to have faith that doing the right thing will create brand advocates and ultimately lead to more sales in the long term is quite a gamble.

What they don’t seem to understand is that, in business, it’s as close as we can hope to get to betting on a sure thing. It seems that marketing has a grasp of consumer psychology while most other aspects of the corporate structure don’t understand consumers at all. Marketing departments have mastered the art of manipulation, but they seem to miss the opportunity to parlay that mastery into an effective means of building customer loyalty. Creating brand advocates is as elusive to them as the Holy Grail…something they speak highly of and that they’re sure exists, but believe to be perpetually unattainable.

The High Cost of Being Right

Even in circumstances where the company or an employee of the company isn’t at fault, the customer’s perception is their reality. Regardless of what actually transpired, if the customer’s perception is that the company has done something wrong, that’s the story they will share with their friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances and these days, their social web circles. Regurgitating corporate policy and hiding behind a curtain of standard operating procedure may be an easy way to protect bottom line revenue on a transaction by transaction basis, but it doesn’t come without long term consequences.

You stuck to your guns. You maximized the profit from that single transaction. You’ve shown your ass and made your point. Congratulations. That customer will never do business with you again. And they’ll do everything they can to make sure no one they know ever does business with you either. Oh, and they’ve contacted the local consumer advocate reporter who proceeds to run the story on the 11 o’clock news.

You could have stopped it. You didn’t. Does it still make you feel better knowing you’re not at fault? Does the profit margin you protected by sticking to your guns make up for the untold sales you won’t make to those who saw the story on the news last night? That’s called the high cost of being right.

Firing off the “we didn’t do it…” and “not our problem…” cannons in the face of an unhappy customer might seem like the right thing to do. Sticking to your guns when you know you haven’t done anything wrong might be good for your ego. But don’t sacrifice the long term reputation of your brand in favor of an overweening ego or to make a point. A customer who has had a problem solved is often more loyal than a customer who has never had a problem at all.

Be their saving grace. Make them feel as though their problem is your problem. Because, in reality, it is…whether you’re at fault or not is a moot point. Only you can decide what’s more important: being right or building loyalty. Here’s a tip: creating customer loyalty and a network of brand advocates is more profitable in the long run than stroking your own ego by proving how right or how not at fault you are.

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