One of the websites I own lists sales agents for a variety of financial services companies.   A few of these companies don’t see the merit in having their reps listed on the site.  I will say that the site is on the first page of Google search results for an important keyword related to their industry.  Only one of the three companies that have emailed me is also on the first page of the results.  Perhaps the others are jealous.   If you were in this business wouldn’t you want a free listing on a site that ranks well?

I’m betting that the head offices of these companies are making  unilateral decisions that the independent sales agents aren’t to be listed without consulting sales agents.  We have met with management representatives from a couple of the companies and both feel it’s a good idea to be listed.  Unfortunately someone above them disagrees.

I really wonder if these corporate entities are looking after the best interests of their independent sales agents.

I found out yesterday that my garage door was broken and would not open.  Not a big deal if you are outside trying to get in but I was inside trying to get out.  The problem was located, a broken cable, and the door was opened.  That solved problem number one, how to get out of the garage.  Problem two was; how do I fix the cable?

Like most people today I went online and searched the term “replacement garage door cables”.  I found a few sites that sold replacement cables.  I wanted the cables fast so I searched for a local garage door company.  Luckily a local store had a website and I called to inquire about parts.  Bonus, they were open on Saturdays so I could stop by and pick up the parts I needed.

I wasn’t sure exactly how to replace the cables but luckily for me the service technician was at the shop when I stopped by to get the parts.  I made a couple of generally queries about how one replaces the cables.  I was a little surprised by the answers I received.  The first answer was “I don’t think I could explain to you how I do it in a way that you’d understand.”  When I asked if I should replace the cable with the door up or down he said either.  It was clear that this fellow did not want to share his knowledge.  Why would he?  This store not only sells parts they also sell service.   I’m sure the technician thought he was protecting the scarce knowledge on how to repair a cable but he was wrong.  A simple search on Google revealed the answer.   Did he think that his company was the only one that knew how to replace a cable?

What was to be gained by the service technician not offering a couple of words of advice?  Nothing.  Did he think that by keeping the knowledge to himself that I’d hire them to do the repair?  Most likely the technician was thinking about the business based on scarcity.  He has the knowledge and I don’t.   The knowledge I can acquire for free on the Internet.  What I can’t acquire is the experience.   If the technician said to me that I’ve been doing this for 10 years and I can repair the cable in 30 minutes but you are going to be at it for 2 hours I might have been more inclined to have him do the repair.  It did indeed take me about 2 hours from start to finish.  Instead I’m left feeling that this company was less than helpful even after I received great service in the store when buying the parts.

Service businesses need to manage their business based on the abundance of information not the lack of it.  There is lots of information out there.  Service business should be the filter for this information not an impediment to acquiring it.  Demonstrate that you want to help me and I’ll demonstrate that I want to buy from you.

After posting about my experiences I sent an email to a couple of people at Future Shop.  I know they received the message because I could see in my Google Analytics that they visited my site.

I even heard by email from one of the people I emailed indicating that customer service would be in touch with me.  The folks at Future Shop did some research on my site before they got around to contacting me.  I can’t really blame them for that.  I found it curious that they looked at my “rants” which is just a category for my posts that don’t fit other categories.

Last Friday I received a call from Phillip the District Manager responsible for the Cambridge Future Shop.  He was quite apologetic about how I was treated.  He commented that this store generally does very well as evidenced by the picture in my previous post.  He actually called out the picture so apparently he was one of the visitors to my site.   While I never asked for specific compensation I was told that I would receive a gift card as an acknowledgement that I wasn’t treated in a manner that I should have been.  Phillip believes in winning customers one at a time.

Following my call with Phillip I received an email from Jim Steffler the General Manager of this Future Shop.  He too was apologetic.  I was getting the sense that Future Shop was taking this issue seriously.   I coordinated a time to stop by and pick up the gift card I was offered.  Even though Mr. Steffler was in a meeting he made time to come out and meet me personally.  That was a nice touch.  He could have hid in the back but he didn’t.  I appreciated his willingness to confront the issue head-on.

Even though my friend Jim doesn’t think corporations are listening I have evidence that they are.  It would have been better for Future Shop if this problem never happened but I feel they handled the fallout quite well.  Now would be a really good time to shop at the Cambridge Future Shop as customer service has received some attention in the last few days.

Referers to johnarobb.com

1. Organic traffic from Google.  Most of my search traffic from Google is because of either my Tablet Recipe or my Family History.
2. Facebook traffic is mostly because I integrated my tweets as my Facebook status message.  So even though the traffic appears to be coming from Facebook it is really as a result of my twitter activity.
3. Well if it’s coming from twitter it’s because I’ve posted a link to my blog.   The interesting thing here is that twitter sends almost half of what Google sends to my blog.  Is Google less important?
4. Image searches are mostly looking for picture I took for my tablet recipe.   I guess it just goes to show that blended search is a reality.
5. Buzzmachine is the blog of @jeffjarvis.   I commented on his blog after reading a tweet.  It turns out those URL links from comments actually help drive traffic.
6. Davidairey.com is another blog I commented on.   If you leave thoughtful comments people will follow the link to your site.
7. A link to my family history page
8. Another link to my family history page
9. more image searches
10. you really need to believe in this blended search thing.

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