"Valuable" Service

I've had my Capital One VISA card since I opened my business eight years ago. Always paid on time. Always kept the balance reasonable. I've got a credit score over 750. So I was flabbergasted to receive a notice yesterday that "due to extraordinary changes" in the economy they are adjusting the interest rate on my card. They're pretty much doubling my interest rate from 8.9% to 17.9% effective 1/28/2009 (notice I got this yesterday 2/18.2009). Gotta love it. Even if I could do it, I can't imagine doing something like this. I guess they really don't need my business. I understand there's a bill out there somewhere that's supposed to curb this kind of nonsense. But in the mean time I guess greed is the top priority for these folks. Good thing they left me the right to cancel my card. The good news is my shredder accepts VISA.

What's your take?

Facebook - It's Not All Fun & Games

With the popularity of social networking (and particularly Facebook) it was oinly a matter of time before the chain letters started appearing. I was doing some research for an upcoming workshop and ran across some interesting info. This is one hilarious article. It's also a bit scary because it's 100% true. I'm not going to suggest it should be forwarded to 25 of your friends, but it may be worth if. You be the judge.

I also read a story about Facebook's new data policies that isn't quite as funny. I've always encouraged people to be careful with the information they share on the Internet. This article is a sobering reminder that you can't "un-ring" a bell. Once you share something in cyberspace it takes on the half-life of plutonium.

Just When You Thought it Was Safe

Last week I told you that the issues with our OfficeLive account were finally resolved. I actually got a call from a technician and got a general explanation of what went wrong. (see the details here). I thought to myself that the folks in Redmond were starting to grasp the importance of happy customers. There were a couple of things that we wanted to resolve - duplicate entries (LOTS of duplicate entries) in the "synchronized" contact info, and the inability to create new documents in our Workspaces. So I figured I'd get with the support folks once I got caught up from all the time I wasted trying to get them to resolve the main problem.

This morning I got a call from a girl who seemed to have a very tenuous grasp of the English language. She had extreme difficulty reading the script (and even more trouble with my name), but she finally managed to tell me she was welcoming me to OfficeLive and wanted to know if I had any questions or needed any help. So I mentioned my problems. She puts me on hold for a couple of minutes and then comes back to tell me that OfficeLive doesn't support these features. She tells me I need to go to the microsoft.com site for help/

Excuse me? Isn't OfficeLive all about synchronizing contacts and sharing documents? And shouldn't the person calling me to welcome me be a little more familiar with the product?

Maybe I just need to lower my expectations when it comes to customer service. I heard a quote today that perhaps the non-existant Customer Service Manager for OfficeLive could take to heart: If I can't do great things, let me do small things in a great way. They did such a poor job in a big way when this thing tanked last week. I would have hoped a simple welcome call would be handled a little more professionally.

So who has some great sories about support successes? I'd like to see if we can turn this tide around and tell some happy stories. After all, we want to do business with people who get it. Don't we?

A Chip of Gold

I've been having some real issues with customer service (or lack thereof) at Microsoft all week. Major problems. I haven't been able to access my OfficeLive account - or any account that requires me to log in with my Windows Live password. No one seems to be able to tell me why. And the response I'm getting from the support team has been largely "just relax and quit calling us - we'll get back to you at some point." Most of the people I've spoken to even tell me that there's no one I can even call or write to if I want to complain! That's just so wrong.

There's a local guy, Brad Worthley, that gives great seminars on customer service. He's a sharp guy who could really inspire this group to make customers happy, not angry and posting angry blogs. I was really hoping I could talk to a manager when I called yesterday. But then a funnt thing happened: I talked to someone who got it!

I called for my daily update and gripe and got a young woman named Carrie. I explained my problem for the umpteenth time and she said "I can help you with that!" I just about fell out of my chair! Brad would have been so proud! That was the first time in probably a dozen calls to this group that someone has said "I can" without the word NOT behind it. I just wish I could tell her manager how refreshing that was. Of course, that might get her fired. And, like Derek tols me, there is no manager to talk to.

Best of all,she did get me logged in! Something no one else has been able to do since I got locked out this past Sunday. Unfortunately this didn't last. I was locked out again this morning. And my call to tech support got me the usual response: "I can't help you with that - you'll need to wait to hear from our escalation department." tick tick tick

Microsoft - you need another Carrie!

Screwed by the Economy

Here's a true story that illustrates how today's financial climate can affect any small business. Even yours.

A business owner I know owes his primary vendor about $3,000. He wants to stay on good terms with this vendor, but cash is tight. He's got receivables over $6,000, but people are slow to pay. So he makes use of one of those nasty little checks your credit card company sends you from time to time. You know the ones - high interest, last of the balance to get paid off. He writes the check knowing he can pay it off as soon as he collects on his outstanding A/R.

Fast forward two weeks. A letter arrives from American Express saying the check he wrote his vendor was not honored. Not because he didn't have the available credit. Not because his payment history was poor. Not even because of a bad credit score. No, it was not honored because "other customers making similar purchases have a poor repayment history." The business owner quickly contacts his vendor and writes a personal check to cover the one AMEX chose not to honor. But the damage is done.

The vendor has now blacklisted the business owner for writing a bad check. Not only that, the vendor assessed a bad check charge. The vendor also bounced a couple of checks to their suppliers and an employee's paycheck bounced. So now the vendor has issues with suppliers and additional costs incurred for the bounced checks. The vendor's employee bounces checks and perhaps is one of the folks on the original business man's list of people who don't seem to be paying in a timeley manner.

And the cycle continues. I just want to know when the government is going to contact me about buying MY bad debt. What do you think?

Is It Geek to You

I read a great article on Biznik (my favorite social networking site for business) where the auhtor talks about how to talk to techies. While we try to hire folks who can translate techie to normal speak, this might come in handy...

Hot New Networking Ideas!

First, let me tell about a new online networking site I found. It's called Biznik. I've got dozens (or more) contacts in Linkedin and Pulse. But this one is different. It's a true business networking site. Meet new people, trade referrals, post articles and promotions. You can even use tags to up your search engine ratings. There's so much to see that I can't really do it justice here. You can join for free and get cool stuff. There are also two higher levels of membership you can try. But don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself!

Now let me tell you about one of the great ideas one of the women that's in my network came up with. It's called Pay It Forward. Several of us are going to meet for lunch at a restaurant. We're going to pick a table of unsuspecting folks and buy their lunch. They'll get an envelope with our business cards and a note telling their lunch has been paid for by us and all we ask is that they look at the cards and see if they - or anyone they know - can use our services. If so please contact us. Brilliant! Even if we don't get any direct business, the recipients will have a better day. And they will remember us. Find out more about Lisa's wonderful plan!

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