Church of the Customer Blog
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July 26, 2006
You are your Google results
It's not just the big guys (Comcast, AOL, and Dell) who should worry about angry citizens creating publicity for poor service.
A customer of a plumbing company in Florida is angry about the company's tactics. He complains, but says the company threatened to file a lien on his property if he didn't pay for the service. He files a complaint with the BBB and starts using Craigslist and his blog to warn others about the company.
It's working. The 2nd result of a Google search for the plumbing firm is the customer's buzz campaign.
[Hat tip: Ike Pigott]
Other blogs that reference You are your Google results:
» Who's Got The Power? from The Escape Blog
Sometimes Customers can be a real pain - or is it our lack of flexibility in treating each customer as an individual. From The Church of The Customer: A customer of a plumbing company in Florida is angry about the [Read More]
» Your Customers Have Loud Voices from CRAIG KILLICK
What do your Customers really think about you? If they could say anything, what would they say, or... what are they already saying? From The Church of The Customer: A customer of a plumbing company in Florida is angry about [Read More]
» Who's Got The Power? from The Escape Blog
Sometimes Customers can be a real pain - or is it our lack of flexibility in treating each customer as an individual. From The Church of The Customer: A customer of a plumbing company in Florida is angry about the [Read More]
» Ideje komolyan venni a szóbeszédet from ÜgyfélSzolgai Gondolatok
Az imént olvastam Jackie Huba legutóbbi bejegyzését az Ügyfelek Temploma elnevezésű blogján. Arról ír, hogy egy cég hibájáról megjelent egy blogbejegyzés, majd az illető cégre (illetve annak szolgáltatására) keresve, a... [Read More]
» Blog Rants: Coming to a Small Town Near You from LandingTheDeal
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I can't imagine anyone actually putting their search query in inverted commas like that outside of search geeks and nerds -- bad example, though it does happen all the time
Actually, Nick, if you do the search without the quotes, it still turns up.
The consumer alert site is still the second result if you omit the quotes. It actually moves up one space, because the plumber's site loses the indented result in the modified search. Try it here: http://www.google.com/search?q=Chris%27s+Plumbing+Service
This is Internet empowerment. We all live in a small town where gossip is more influential than paid advertisement.
This has been a driving force behind our pitch to sell to local retail customers who spend money on marketing. Local Searce Results are growing in importance, and as sites like Angie's list grow more popular, bloggers will realize they really enjoy discussing retail services.
This is for car dealers, home builders, remodelers, plumbers, landscape, carpet cleaners, windows, restaurants, golf courses, fitness clubs, beauty salons, insurance, small business services and anyone else who spends money on direct mail, PPC, television, newspaper, or radio.
It's not the lone angry customer you have to worry about it. It's the blogger who built their googlejuice on another subject, who casually mentions to their reader the service they experienced.
The revolution is not over - it's waiting for large amounts of local bloggers to cover local business, local politics, and local quality of life.
These words should be printed in 125-point type and hung on a banner in every marketer's office:
EVERYTHING LIVES FOREVER IN GOOGLE (and that's a good thing)
This all started with rants against big companies. Now, its apparent that the comfort level of consumers is such that they aren't afraid to take it to the local level.
That's a BIG evolution in blogging against bad companies. Its one thing to blog against a big, faceless mega-corp. It's another thing to blog against a local business owner that you might run into at the supermarket.
BIG transformation taking place.
This has been going on for ages, and it will continue to go on.
I'm one of the many agreived customers who's been on the receiving end of a bad expeirence with a company, an Australian courier company called Startrack Express. I didn't hesitate in documenting the horrors and bad service I went through when using them, and documented everything including putting up photos of just how bad a condition my package was received in.
Like the poor customer of Chris's Plumbing Service, my expeirence appears on most major search engines right below the companies listing. Since being posted, the blog posts in question still rank in the top 5 viewed entries. It doesn't help that the post was titled "I will never, ever use Startrack Express again!".
With the continued advent of services and systems that make it even easier for the consumer to get something off their chest, the number of customers complaining online about XYZ Corp will ever increase. Companies need to come to the realisation that social media will have a very powerful place in the arsenal of tools that will make or break their business. Ignoring this trend won't cause it to go away and will only continue to do damage to your business.
