Customer Service

Is That Page ‘Content’, or is it ‘News’?

Posted on May 10, 2013 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 1 Comment

Influency takes a lot of work. And sometimes what was influence-y yesterday is less so today. This is why, even though there’s nothing about Influency that you couldn’t make happen yourself if you had the time, you hire The Answer Guy.

Here’s a new example of why.

This morning, both in my newsfeed and on Google+, I came across a story by Barry Schwartz. I’ve mentioned Barry here once before, referring to his site Search Engine Roundtable as a great resource for Optimization (and of course, therefore, Influency). I still read Barry, but that might change soon; I’m starting to think that Influency is in the process of passing him by. ... READ MORE of Is That Page ‘Content’, or is it ‘News’? at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (463 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Content, Customer Service, Influency, Marketing

Influency, Great Customer Service, and NOT Using HostGator

Posted on April 24, 2013 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 1 Comment

Hostgator, Customer Service, Great Intentions, and Influency

I hate this story.

I hate it because of how it got started, how it ends, and how I spent way too many hours over the last couple of weeks and especially the last couple of days. I hate that I’m not doing business with the Snappy Gator you see above. ... READ MORE of Influency, Great Customer Service, and NOT Using HostGator at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (1353 words, 2 images, estimated 5:25 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service, Influency

How To Get A Wireless Carrier To Lower Your Monthly Charge

Posted on March 8, 2013 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

Influency comes in many forms, and with almost everyone having a mobile phone, your wireless telecom carrier sure does occupy a position of influency in your life. You’ll pay what they tell you, or bad things will happen.

Or maybe not.

Over three years ago, Google took a shot at disrupting the wireless telecom business when they introduced the NexusOne. Nothing happened. But time has passed, business has changed, and the idea of buying a phone inexpensively and taking it to another carrier is starting to mature. ... READ MORE of How To Get A Wireless Carrier To Lower Your Monthly Charge at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (458 words, 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service, Influency

Influency and Customer Service; Fraud at Verizon Wireless

Posted on February 8, 2013 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

verizon wireless customer service at store 344203, 1187 third avenue 10021, phone 212 606 4700

Infleuncy is a tricky subject. Unless it isn’t. Be everywhere, all the time, be ready to handle your customers’ needs, and unless you’re after negative influency, never accuse your customers of committing fraud.

I’m a long-time Verizon Wireless customer. Long as in “almost twenty years of uninterrupted service”. I control more than a few Verizon Wireless phone lines for myself, PC-VIP Inc. and Answer Guy Central, and our customers. As you know, though, Verizon Wireless has elevated bad customer service to an art form; so much so that about a year ago we rechristened The Answer Guy’s Customer Service Wall of Shame as The Answer Guy’s Verizon Wireless Customer Service Wall of Shame. ... READ MORE of Influency and Customer Service; Fraud at Verizon Wireless at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (784 words, 1 image, estimated 3:08 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Customer Service, Influency

The 2012 version of ‘It Takes a Village’

Posted on November 19, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

Regular readers know that I lost my sister a few months ago. It was and has been, either surprisingly (you’re both in your 50s!) or unsurprisingly (I lost my sister!) a tremendously impactful and painful thing. Barbara and I were close and in pretty much constant contact, and ‘replacing her’, as if that’s either possible or a good idea, hasn’t been easy. ... READ MORE of The 2012 version of ‘It Takes a Village’ at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (1008 words, 1 image, estimated 4:02 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service, Influency

The Eye of The Storm, Customer Service, and Business Change

Posted on October 29, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 4 Comments

As Frankenstorm/Hurricane Sandy bears down on New York City and I wonder whether I’ll be able to keep doing business for much of this week, I’m thinking about customer service, business change, and marketing.

Last year, ahead of Hurricane Irene, New York City shut down its bus and subway system for the first time I could remember. What passed through town didn’t really feel like much, leading to stereotypical NYC snark about overreaction. But I learned something then: It was necessary to suspend mass transit, not just because of the damage that open electrical circuits in the subway could suffer when under water, but because having people stranded is a real disaster. ... READ MORE of The Eye of The Storm, Customer Service, and Business Change at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (649 words, 1 image, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service, Marketing

Proctor, Gamble, Business Change, Customer Service, and SEO

Posted on October 26, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

It’s Friday, and I was planning to put the lid on the continuing saga of Bad Customer Service at Virgin America today. But through the innocuous act of checking the long-term weather forecast this morning, those plans have changed. Virgin America, I’ll have to get back to you; Mr. Proctor and Mr. Gamble just came calling.

I first wrote about Proctor and Gamble’s plans to get into direct-to-consumer sales way back in January 2010. Amazingly, that business change has not only taken the better part of three years to start (OK, so not really) happening, but has somehow stayed completely off almost everyone’s radar. So much so, that when I next mentioned Proctor and Gamble in February of this year, these were our search engine optimization results: ... READ MORE of Proctor, Gamble, Business Change, Customer Service, and SEO at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (521 words, 3 images, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service, Influency, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Apple Finally Does Customer Service Right! Sort Of.

Posted on October 24, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

I have a very simple message today. This post has no shiny picture to lure people, and isn’t being nearly so aggressively Search Engine Optimized as much of what I write. It’s just . . . a story.

Customer Service is hard.

OK, maybe not. Customer Service can be made easy; The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills and The Lanesborough in London do customer service just about perfectly, simply by making it a priority. ... READ MORE of Apple Finally Does Customer Service Right! Sort Of. at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Customer Service

“You Can’t Push Right Now Because The Doctor Isn’t Here”

Posted on October 23, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

Sometimes, pushing is the wrong strategy.

Of course, if you believe that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”, you push. You push all the time. You explore. As I’ve heard pointed out in various ways by many people, “little boys just can’t resist sticking their fingers in holes”.

In a way, that’s what I do here. I find holes and figure out what’s inside them. I create Search Engine Optimization strategies for our clients. I look for business change issues that small businesses can use to their advantage. I’m all over customer service. And it comes together in something I’ve started calling influency*. ... READ MORE of “You Can’t Push Right Now Because The Doctor Isn’t Here” at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (455 words, 1 image, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Customer Service, Influency

Automated Savings Programs and Business Change

Posted on October 19, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 0 Comments

Coincidences are what make life interesting, don’t you think?

Not an hour after I posted yesterday’s story on Banking, e-Commerce, and Merchant Accounts, I was in the car, listening to that quaint old thing we call “radio”, and a commercial came on for a product/service from Wells Fargo Bank. Wells Fargo wants to help us all save more by using Way2Save, and it’s a pretty good idea.

Now don’t get me wrong; there’s nothing terribly revolutionary about Way2Save. Among other things, Way2Save works by moving a dollar from your checking to your savings account each time you use your debit card. Bank of America has offered a similar program called Keep The Change for years. ... READ MORE of Automated Savings Programs and Business Change at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (295 words, 1 image, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service, Marketing

Customer Service and The Evolution of Long Tail Marketing

Posted on October 9, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

I like talking about customer service. I believe in customer service, and that more and more your commitment to customer service will determine the success of your business and your business change.

Last week, when I was attending the Barbara Yablon Maida Memorial Service in Los Angeles, I got to experience both tremendously good and what looks more and more like tremendously bad customer service. The great customer service came from The Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel, which despite being in Los Angeles/Beverly Hills, a place I’ve always considered the worldwide home of plastic behavior, delivers world-class customer service on a level I’ve come to expect only in London, where places like The Lanesborough have elevated customer service to an art form. ... READ MORE of Customer Service and The Evolution of Long Tail Marketing at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (454 words, 1 image, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Customer Service, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Bread Redux, and Awful Customer Service at Beyoglu NYC

Posted on October 5, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 2 Comments

If you’re a regular reader, you might remember this story about Beyoglu, a Mediterranean restaurant on New York City’s Upper East Side. Either way, let me summarize: a few months back I described the indecipherable policy about bread and customer service at Beyoglu. It made no sense then, and it makes even less sense, now.

Except, of course, for the fact that the story seems to have caused a change in policy at Beyoglu. And the latest situation may actually be an even worse customer service fiasco than the earlier one. I hope you’re sitting down. ... READ MORE of Bread Redux, and Awful Customer Service at Beyoglu NYC at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (351 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Customer Service

Business Change and Fake Boobs

Posted on October 3, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 4 Comments

Hotel Room Balcony, Peninsula Beverly Hills

This week, I’m in Los Angeles, attending the West Coast Memorial at UCLA for Dr. Barbara Yablon Maida. As I encounter more and more people with similar opinions of and feelings about my sister, it’s no surprise that I find myself thinking about perception and reality, but yesterday, as happens so many times, I found myself thinking about customer service, too.

You’re wondering what that has to do with fake boobs, aren’t you? Patience, please . . . ... READ MORE of Business Change and Fake Boobs at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (565 words, 2 images, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Business Change, Customer Service

When a Privacy Violation is Called ‘Customer Service’

Posted on September 18, 2012 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Influency & Integrated Marketing Strategist • 1 Comment

Dear Verizon Wireless:

WHAT ARE YOU DOING DISABLING AN APPLICATION INSIDE MY PHONE???

Imagine you’re sitting in a New York City Taxi Cab. NYC Cabs are one of the places where NFC payments can be counted on to work, and as an owner of a Galaxy Nexus SmartPhone, I’ve gotten used to paying for cab rides by just tapping my phone against the little magnetic receiver. ... READ MORE of When a Privacy Violation is Called ‘Customer Service’ at Answer Guy Central, your Influency and Integrated Marketing Source By Clicking Here (645 words, 2 images, estimated 2:35 mins reading time)

Filed Under: Customer Service

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Category Archives: Customer Service

Is That Page ‘Content’, or is it ‘News’?

Influency, Great Customer Service, and NOT Using HostGator

How To Get A Wireless Carrier To Lower Your Monthly Charge

Influency and Customer Service; Fraud at Verizon Wireless

The 2012 version of ‘It Takes a Village’

The Eye of The Storm, Customer Service, and Business Change

Proctor, Gamble, Business Change, Customer Service, and SEO

Apple Finally Does Customer Service Right! Sort Of.

“You Can’t Push Right Now Because The Doctor Isn’t Here”

Automated Savings Programs and Business Change

Customer Service and The Evolution of Long Tail Marketing

Bread Redux, and Awful Customer Service at Beyoglu NYC

Business Change and Fake Boobs

When a Privacy Violation is Called ‘Customer Service’

Connect With Us (+1) 646 827 3800