Love is fleeting. Love can come and go. Love can be betrayed. Love can be consuming and powerful. Love is everything.
When was the last time you loved your customers? Your clients? Your employees?
Offer them your love. Unconditionally.
You never know how much love you’ll get in return, but you may be pleasantly surprised.
Love is fleeting. Love can come and go. Love can be betrayed. Love can be consuming and powerful. Love is everything.
When was the last time you loved your customers? Your clients? Your employees?
Offer them your love. Unconditionally.
You never know how much love you’ll get in return, but you may be pleasantly surprised.
When people think of reactions from blogs, they normally think of negative reviews or inspiring stories.
Comments aren’t usually high up on the list of monitoring and watching what’s being said online.
Yet they should be, as a recent post by David Henderson and the subsequent conversation in the comments section show.
I won’t go too much into the actual blog post or the comments, as they’re both recommended reads and will give you a far clearer view of who may be in the right or wrong. What the post does highlight is that a blog comment can go even further than a blog post at painting an individual or company in a less than flattering light.
The gist of the post and resulting conversation is that David Henderson suggests that WordPress is an excellent medium for hosting your own online newsroom. Countering this is Steve Momorella of TEKgroup International, a company that develops and maintains online newsrooms.
What could have been a good discussion about both the validity of having your own online newsroom and how good WordPress is at running such a tool instead develops into a messy claim/counter-claim regarding the post and follow-up comments.
David seems to take umbrage with a comment made by Steve about the usefulness of WordPress and calls it a lack of understanding on Steve’s part. Steve is unhappy about David’s “disrespect” and so points out an error on David’s website.
This then results in other commenters joining in and by the end of everything, there’s a veritable “he said, she said” feel to everything.
While it makes for hugely entertaining reading, it also shows how a simple blog comment can taint someone’s view. I read David Henderson regularly. I respect him immensely and find him to be a great source of information and knowledge (although his constant putting down of PR does jade, after a while).
I didn”t know Steve Momorella prior to his comments on David’s blog post, but I do know of him now. Because of that blog post and its comments, I felt both David and Steve came out a little less positive than they otherwise might have.
While Steve’s comments have merit, they did come across as slightly leaned toward promoting his company which could be classed as comment spam. Whether that was the intent or not is down to Steve’s interpretation.
For David’s side, I felt he was being a little defensive and it maybe encouraged Steve to counter more than he would have.
From an outsider’s point of view, it could be seen as Steve is a promotional spammer and David doesn’t like comments that disagree with him. I know this isn’t the case with David and I’m guessing it’s not the case for Steve.
But see how easy a conversation in blog comments can sway a point of view?
Are you always thinking slightly about what you say and how it’s said when you comment on a blog? Or do you feel that it’s not something to worry about too much and just say what you feel regardless? Can comment conversations get away from you?
The comments are yours (no ironic pun intended).
I don’t like to rant at his blog but Logan Movers of Toronto and their excuse for customer service (and incredibly bad PR) are a definite exception.
As you might know, my wife Jacki and I moved house this weekend. While this can be stressful enough, it becomes even more so when you get a moving firm that seem hell-bent on making it more stressful than dining with Hannibal Lecter.
Step forward Toronto-based Logan Movers.
I guess the first warning sign should have been when I called them up prior to the move to confirm their arrival time on the Saturday morning. A guy called Alex answered and couldn’t find us.
I gave him all contact numbers it may have been booked under as well as our confirmation number. I could hear him whispering to a colleague “Why can’t I find them?”, to which I was tempted to whisper back, “I can still hear you.” Eventually he found our details and confirmed the time. Except he had the wrong pick-up address.
Which I tried to correct. Several times. Only to have Alex continuously talk over me. So, I let him finish and then corrected him. Score one to Logan Movers Toronto for poor customer service.
Come moving day, I went on ahead to the new house with my wife’s mother Traci, to start getting the place ready for my wife and the moving firm. Over at the old house, the fun was beginning.
Jacki was told that the movers wanted half payment before they would put anything on the truck. In cash. And they brought over a contract to sign that had $60 per hour for moving. Okay, fine – upfront cash was never mentioned, but if that’s how you want to play, we’ll do it. Since our quote had been $420 (or seven hours work), Jacki went to the bank, withdrew the money and paid them.
She was then told that the movers hadn’t brought wardrobe boxes. Despite us asking for them. Despite the Logan Movers Toronto website stating that all their trucks are equipped daily with wardrobe boxes and that they are given to every move for free.
The two moving guys then tell Jacki that wardrobe boxes need to be ordered and are extra. This is quite clearly BS – score two to Logan Movers Toronto for poor customer service.
Now that Logan Movers have received their deposit, they eventually load the truck and make their way over to the new home. Here the fun really begins.
Before they unload, they tell us that the cost is now $847.50. Say what?!? This is double the quote that we received. The movers inform us that it’s nothing to do with them and that the cost is $847.50, broken down as follows:
To compound matters, they won’t open the doors of their truck to start unloading until the balance is paid in full. In cash or certified check. Which basically means cash, since banks are closed on Saturday afternoons.
Traci calls the owner of Logan Movers Toronto to ask him what’s going on and why we’re being charged double our quote. He hangs up on her. The movers refuse to call him back. We’re now at the mercy of two people who couldn’t care less about our stuff on their truck, and a dick in an office who won’t pick up the phone.
We get the police involved, but they can’t really do anything in a civil matter. So, the only thing left to do is pay the movers and get the move over with.
This is when they get abusive toward my wife’s mother Traci, who is understandably upset. She says the whole situation is BS, which the movers take for abusive language so they retort with their own. Except it’s much worse.
So I tell them to quit swearing at Traci, then advise them that they’re representing their company so they should be trying to resolve this situation. They simply say, “Nothing to do with us.” Score three to Logan Movers Toronto for poor customer service.
The movers then milk the unloading for what it’s worth. They bring in stupid little bits of furniture at a time. Then have rests and smoke breaks because they obviously deserve it, with the hard work they’ve put in fleecing us of cash.
Eventually, the truck is unloaded and they leave. No doubt laughing at another rip-off. In the meantime, my wife, her mother and I are left with what to do next. My money (if Logan Movers never took it all, that is!) would be on legal action. I think we have a case:
Conveniently, Alex (the dick in the office of Logan Movers that doesn’t know proper phone etiquette) took the copy of our contract away when he dropped off some more blankets at our old place, in lieu of the wardrobe boxes they never gave us.
The copy we received from the movers at the new address was simply a generic one. So, we’re also owed our proper contract which will also show that Logan Movers Toronto took us for a ride. If they haven’t already ripped it up.
One of the things I always emphasize to clients is the need to put themselves in the customer’s shoes at all times. Customers are your best (and most inexpensive) form of marketing, advertising, PR and much more. Get it right with your customers and you’ll get a lot of it right with your sales targets.
I’m guessing Logan Movers Toronto must have skipped this part of business school. Why else would they treat customers the way they did my wife, her mother and I?
So congratulations, Logan Movers Toronto – the award for Piss Poor Customer Service and PR is all yours.
This is a guest post from Andrew Weaver, a photographer, blogger, and self described social media geek. He has an interest in helping others improve their lives both personally and professionally. He authors the blog Leave It To Weaver and you can connect with Andrew on Twitter.
I’m no social media expert. I’m not a PR maven. I’m not a marketing guru. I won’t show you how to get thousands of followers on Twitter.
I don’t have any New York Times’ best sellers. I don’t have a Fortune 500 company to tell you about. I can’t show you how to make millions sitting at home.
I’m just a guy with a dream. I’m going to wager many of you are in the same boat.
I have a love for writing and a dream of growing my photography business. The goal is to one day leave the daily 9 to 5 grind behind and to be doing what I love for a living. If you have the same goals, I understand that it can be difficult to know where to begin.
We live in extraordinary times. The Internet changed the game and social media brought the game to a whole new level. There has never been so many tools available at our fingertips. Geography is no longer a restriction. The list could go on and on. The point is, it has never been easier to start your own business.
If you have a day job that takes up most of your time, it can be a little tricky starting your own business. So how to begin?
If I were to give you just one basic tip, it would be to utilize social media. In today’s world it is imperative to have some form of online presence, especially when starting a business in your spare time.
Social media provides you with exposure and a cheap way to market your business. You don’t have to be on every site out there. Just a couple you can devote some time and effort to. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Pick your poison and start building.
Build relationships. Build conversations. Build communities. Build fans. Build your network. Build, build, and build some more. By the way, building is much different from non-stop self promoting. No one likes a border line spammer.
Think about this. Without social media how many of you would be reading Danny Brown’s blog? How many of you would know much about Chris Brogan without Twitter? How many of you would care that Guy Kawasaki uses ghosts of anything without social media? If you are building your business from scratch and very few people know much of anything about you, there’s no good reason not to utilize social media. Start building.
Finally, I’m going to throw in one last bit of advice for free. Get rid of the excuses. Whether it’s fear of the unknown or any other reason, quit
using lousy excuses for why you refuse to utilize the tools the Internet has to offer your business.
3 Favorite Excuses YOU Can Not Use
You may just be a girl or guy with a dream, but there is no reason you can’t be working to achieve that dream. Social media is one of the best ways available today in helping you get there. I like how Seth Simonds’ bio on his Twitter breaks it down: “Drink some tea, ignore some experts, pursue your dreams…”
