Bookmarklets Discovered

As always, Easton on Business Blogwire keeps me updated on some of the latest trends out there. This time I was introduced to bookmarklets which are these neat links that you can drag and drop at the top of on your Firefox browser (or into your favourites in IE). Steve Rubel has some great ones! I'm using Wikipedia look-up and Alexa this.

Try it out!

Chad H.

Technorati tags: bookmarklets, micro persuasion, businessblogwire

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Do you skip TV commercials? So does everybody

I would like to know who watches TV commercials anymore and if you do, why?? What is the point? They are a waste of time.

I myself am the master of the clicker. I have now self-proclaimed myself as "Click Master". When I watch TV, I want to ensure that I'm only watching "quality" TV and not another bud commercial or a car dealership cheap ass ad. I have a few channels on the go with a few in the case of an emergency when Bush is on TV. There's always the sports ticker thank goodnes.

I wanted to show you the latest on advertising trends that demonstrate that online adverting continues to rise while TV advertising is declining. As I think about it, as Bush becomes less popular, onlive advertising becomes more popular. Wait until Bush's next public TV address and you're going to see the internet usage and adverting spending go bezerk!

As reported on e-marketer, "Nielsen Media Research reported that while online advertising spending in the US rose by 23% in 2005, network TV spending fell by 1.5%."

Bottom line: Before you waste money on your next TV ad during some crappy show (Friends reruns on TBS come to mind), remember who your target audience are and what you are trying to accomplish. If you're looking at increasing your response rate and driving people to your website, will a TV or newspaper (while we're at it) do it for you? Will it?

Chad H.

PS - I may or may not have been talking about President George W. Bush of the US.
PPS - I was in NYC last weekend and loved it. Great people there.

Technorati tags: TV, online ads, online advertising, George Bush, Friends, Bad Presidents

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Wham spam, thank you maam

Why did my email not get &#$ delivered? Have you ever said that to yourself? I have and it's one of those huge topics in email marketing right now that you really need to understand before you start creating that amazing email offer that will turn your compoany into the next Google. Ok ok, maybe not Google. How about the next great paper airplane factory that you started in your parent's basement? That will do.

Before you send out that email which explains why your paper airplaines are better than your friend across the street (or your grandma's), you need to test that email out. Larry Chase has an excellent email newsletter and he provides some awesome resources for this task:

• Bl@cklist Checker: Check to see if Grandma has had your IP blacklisted
  
• Sp@mCheck Tool: Use this free resource to check if your emails will get past those nasty ass spam filters
• Messaging News: Get all of the latest news on email deliverability here and see what's written on how well that great 3D fly-by you made in Flash for an email that was supposed to look like Top Gun but with a paper airplane. Also check out Trim Mail for more exciting news (zzzzz).
• Also check out: Lyris, W3C Validator to test your content
  

This is just the tip of the iceberg so if you want to get down and dirty, good luck with that. I recommend using the Spamcheck tool to ensure that your email has been optimized and doesn't have stupid words like "Free!" and going with a good email ASP. Let them worry about deliverability for you while you worry about selling your crappy paper airplanes.

Chad H.

PS - Thanks again Larry Chase
PPS - Here's a good article from ClickZ on tips to improve deliverability

Technorati tags: spam, ham, email deliverability, Larry Chase

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Bad Customer Experience: Happy Ending 2

It turns out that banks do care about you (yes, banks!). If you may recall from my previous post on a bad customer experience, I had written about how I was dispensed a torn $20 bill from a Soctia Bank ATM machine. After I sent emails to both Shell and the Bank of Nova Scotia I recently heard back from Shell. I also just received an email from the Scotia Bank. Here is the letter:

Dear Mr. Horenfeldt,

We welcome the opportunity to address your concerns with respect to a torn
$20.00 bill dispensed by a Scotiabank ABM (automated banking machine) at a Shell
station.

Upon receipt of your writing, we contacted our Electronic Banking Delivery
Channel department. They have investigated and verified that there was a
dispenser fault on April 24th, 2006. A technician was dispatched to ensure the
problem has been corrected.

If a torn bill is dispensed, you can present the torn bill to your bank or
Scotiabank with the receipt and reimbursement will be provided. The store
retailer is not responsible for exchanging the bill.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this caused. Please also be
assured that the store retailer will be notified by Scotiabank as per the
complaint you submitted.

We trust this addresses your concerns, Mr. Horenfeldt. Thank you for bringing
this issue to our attention.

Regards,

Dani Tremblay
Electronic Banking Contact Centre
Scotiabank

I would have preferred that they just mail the ^$#@ $20 to me as we all know that banks are only open between 11:00 and 11:01 AM Monday to Thursday (but are closed Tuesday and Wednesday) which makes getting to a branch almost impossible for most of us. If you do get there, you then have 1 teller for 20 people and then by the time it's your turn the bank closes. :) However, this will do and it's good to have this letter to show the bank when I go there to get my $20. I was impressed at the way that Scotia Bank investigated the problem and let me know about it. Like Shell, they have demonstrated that customers or potential customers (as I may be hunting for a good mortgage soon) is important. Thanks Scotia Bank!

Chad H.

PS - Lesson #2 from this experience. Blame everyone involved for your bad experience and get extra stuff!!
PPS - I hope I pissed the manager off at Shell.

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I Made it to One Month! WOOHOO!!

Let's break out the beer! It's my one month anniversary. I think it's been a great month and I've enjoyed blogging on a consistent basis. My blog has evolved from a storage place to stash good articles that I find into a place that I can really voice my opinions on marketing.

I've even shifted my focus from general marketing to focus on e-marketing. I plan to keep working on improving my blog as well but I realized that Blogger has some restrictions that I'll have to work within for now. I also plan to get my ass out more on the blogosphere but this may be hard as I'm getting married in under 3 weeks (yikes!).

Favourite post so far: It's by far "How to lose traffic on your blog in 10 days".

Thanks all for your notes, comments, tips and well wishes.

Chad H.

PS - Sorry for my spelling. It sucks ass.

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Bad Customer Experience: Happy Ending

In an earlier post on Bad Customer Experiences I told you all about my tragic experience at a Shell gas station a week ago. Well Shell responded to my email and has sent me this note:

Dear Mr. Horenfeldt,

Thank you for taking the time to forward your concerns to the Shell Helps Centre. Pleas accept my apology for the delay in responding. Customer feedback is something I take very seriously and appreciate you having taken the time to email us.

I have looked in to this matter and forwarded your complaint to several departments to get a better understanding on how to handle this situation. As you can imagine this is a unique situation, retailers don't experience this quite often. Scotia Bank was also contacted, and what they explained is, in this case they would want the customer to call the 1.800.472.6842 (located on the ATM machine) or present the torn bill and the receipt to the bank and the customer would be reimburse. Or if you are not a Scotia bank customer you could bring it to any bank and they would also reimburse you.

In regards to the retailer and the unfortunate experience you had with him, I can assure you that his behaviour is not representative of the service you can expect at our retail sites. Retailer could of taken the torn bill and replace it for you, then he would be able to go to the bank and get reimburse, or he could of called the 1.800# on the Scotia Bank ATM and gotten directions. However like I've mentioned before retailers don't experience this on a regular basis and there not quite sure how to handle it. We will take this opportunity to educate the retailer what to do in these instances, and we will also be contacting his supervisor to make sure this is handled accordingly.

I tried to look up the station with the address you provided me, but I am not finding a match. Would you know the exact the address of this location? We want to make sure that we pass the information to the right retailer. And in the interest of customer service, please allow me to send you $20.00 in gift certificates to thank you for bringing this to our attention and for the frustration you encountered. Please reply and provide your mailing address and I will send these out to you.

I regret this incident and hope you will consider giving us another opportunity to show you that Quality Service is of great importance to Shell Canada.

Again, Mr. Horenfeldt, thank you for bringing this matter to my attention.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Changkye
Customer Service Representative
Shell Canada Limited

Here is a company that has got it right in terms of customer support. I found it easy to voice my complaint using their website and they replied to me in less then a week. I sent a reply back to Shell thanking them for their note and I will go back to Shell as a customer as they trully understand the importance of each customer and turning a negative experience into a postive one. Kudos Shell!

Chad H.

PS - I still haven't heard from Scotia Bank.
PPS - Don't let businesses (B2B or B2C) treat you like shit and get away with it.

Technorati tags: Shell, Scotia Bank, customer experience, marketing, happy ending

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B2B, Ya You Know Me

I need to give a shout out to Karen Gedney who has a very good article on success in the B2B marketing area. If you're into sending out email and you're a B2B company, you need to at least read the article to undertand how you can get greater visibility into what your prospects are thinking.

Chad H.

Technorati tags: B2B, email marketing, Karen Gedney

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