Marketing - The Bold Approach Method

Best Buy Continues To Demonstrate Their Utter Contempt and Hate Of Customers

Best Buy Hates Their Customers And They Go Out Of Their Way To Prove It Every Day.

They also recently hired a consultant to help them in their effort to dislodge those customers they deem unworthy of Best Buy's unique brand of service. He helped Best Buy rank their customers as "Demon Customers and Angel Customers."

My experience with Best Buy and their ongoing effort to be identified as America's retailer with the worst customer service continues.

After my last post, I patiently waited and just got my notebook back today. Their answer to correcting my problems was to reinstall the operating system, according to them the Microsoft XP Operating System was the reason my computer was spontaneously shutting down. When I got it back, they assured me it was repaired and tested.

So, in front of Boise, Idaho store manager and poster boy for Best Buy's complete lack of customer service, Dameion Maupin, I turned on the computer. And, to my utter shock (tongue firmly in cheek here) I had to configure windows as it was being run for . . . you guessed it, the very first time since it was reinstalled.

By Dameion Maupin's admission in front of the customers that were looking on, it was very unlikely that they system was ever tested after reloading the operating system because it wasn't set up . . . but that wasn't Best Buy's problem it was mine. Oh, and my warranty expires on the 20th of the month and if after I reload my software and the system doesn't work, I'm out of luck if I don't bring it back in by the 20th . . . unless I want to spend $300+ for another extended warranty (which I'm about as likely to do as I am to stare at the sun with binoculars).

I asked the manager to please put in writing what happened which he refused to do. He also further refused to even agree to what he had put in writing before about honoring the warranty of repaired items for 90 days after the repair. He also refused to replace the battery which is covered under warranty and

When I suggested that my only last resort was to take Best Buy to small claims court and name him as Store Manager in the lawsuit, he got red faced, angry and threatened to call the police if I didn't leave the store.

Of course, as you may have guessed, Best Buy's CEO Brad Anderson has yet to call me back . . . I'm not sure if it is because he cares so much that he is trying to formulate an appropriate response or if he simply can't get his email working and is waiting to have his operating system replaced.

I'm plan on taking a stand on this now, this kind of service can no longer go un-confronted. I will be initiating a small claims suit against the local Best Buy shortly and I'm going to explore the possibility of a class action lawsuit.

I also will be using the media heavily to bring attention to their service. Watch for media releases and interviews focused around their utter lack of service.

And, watch (and this is serious) for my new website and annual award for America's most sickening customer service. My first winner in the Big Box category . . . Best Buy.

Best Buy's Customer Deconstruction Process Or Why Best Buy's Customer Service Is So Bad That There Is A Whole Website Devoted To It

Be forewarned, this is a long post, if you just want to know how to not destroy customer loyalty, skip to the end.

I may end up writing a book about my bad customer service experiences. Before I tell you how Best Buy in Boise, Idaho caused me to never buy from them again, I want you to consider one thing.

As Americans, we've become so willing to trade a few dollars savings (which is really artificial since everyone price matches anyway) for horrendous customer service that we've conditioned big retailers to automatically give us poor quality service every time we walk through the door. Gone is the day of people actually caring about developing a long term relationship or even about the profitability of each customer. Now the only focus is to get away from you as fast as they can so they can begin escaping from the next person who is asking a question. It is time to stop rewarding bad customer service with our dollars and start rewarding it by walking out the door to the competition.

So, here is how Best Buy convinced me not to be a customer for life and how you can avoid doing the same to your customers.

Two years ago I bought a VPR Matrix notebook from Best Buy, turns out it was one of the worst purchases I'd ever made, memory failed, then the system failed, but fortunately I'd purchased the extended warranty, something I rarely do. I purchased it because the salesperson told me specifically that if I bought it and something failed on my computer I could take it to any Best Buy anywhere in the United States and it would be repaired or replaced on the spot.

When my computer failed, I let them work on it and they couldn't fix it and promptly told me they'd need to send it in for 3 - 6 weeks to have it repaired. But wait, what about my warranty? No, the warranty does not cover replacement says the manager, only depot repair. We had a rather long and drawn out argument (I'd actually purchased two of the computers and both were having the same problem) where I was told that there was no way a Best Buy salesperson would have told me that. After much more talking, which involved me coming to the store and confronting him face to face, he decided that the right thing to do would be to replace the two computers, but with an inferior computer in terms of processing speed and capability, to which I would not agree. Finally after about an hour he agreed to replace it with an equivalent Toshiba notebook and transfer my warranty.

That notebook worked perfectly for about 10 months and then guess what? I start having processor and memory problems with it. I take it to Best Buy, talk to the manager and this time he is completely unwilling to replace it, my only option is to send it in for 6 weeks if there is something wrong, but they'll test it and let me know. I have no options, so, I let him send it in and promptly go down the street to CompUSA and purchase a new notebook so that I can continue to earn my living. I then begin about a five hour process of reloading software and restoring data.

A week and a half goes by and I haven't heard from Best Buy on their "testing" I call them up, they can't find my computer or any record that I left it there, they basically tell me that if there is no record of it being left there then it was never there and I'm out one notebook computer. Luckily, I made one of their "agents" sign one of their forms saying that I left the notebook with them. I fax them a copy. They still can't find it but now they are nervous, they might actually have to replace my notebook.

A week goes by and they finally find it, they test it, it fails. They send it in.

Fast forward to yesterday, January 2nd, 2006. I get a call saying it is back and everything is working, but that there is a tremendous amount of spyware on the computer and would I like them to clean it for an additional $79. Now, I know that this is very unlikely since I use the McAfee Suite of anti-virus and spyware products, so I opt out.

I go to pick up the computer, there is a 40 minute wait to get to the service desk. The girl at the counter who gives it to me doesn't ask for any ID and can't tell me what has been done to the computer. I walk out with my note book. When I get to my car, I look at the paperwork and nothing has been fixed. They say that they made some software setting changes and it works fine. I fire up the one program that seriously taxes processor and memory (Sony Sound Forge) and begin rendering a big file, it dies just like before. So, I go back into Best Buy and wait 27 minutes to get back to the service counter and speak to the person there. I tell them this time I want the computer fixed and I want it back by the end of the week. He says, that won't happen, it'll be about six weeks. I'm not satisfied with that so I tell him to just go ahead and replace the computer with a new one like the salesman who sold me the warranty would do, he says that is impossible. So, I get the store manager and he tells me the same thing. Both agree that the computer should have been fixed before it came back and both agree that it wasn't. Neither bothers to apologize to me for my inconvenience. So, they say to give them the system back and they'll send it back out and let me know when it is fixed. I ask for something that has a case number on it or some way of tracking my computer which causes both the "Agent" and the manager to get really pissed off and tell me that I don't need to be harassing them. At this point, I have to tell on myself, I got mad and said "You lost my damn computer for over a week, then you sent it off for several weeks and didn't fix it and now you are pissed because I ask for a receipt so that I can once again prove you have it? Just give me a damn receipt for the system." I know I shouldn't have sworn but I'd reached my limit and frankly the language I used was minimal. To which the agent walks over to help some other people and tells them "Sorry for the wait some people need "Special" attention and nods his head in my direction."

That was the final straw. 20 years ago I'd have punched him in the mouth. 10 years ago I'd have belittled him to the point of tears. This time, I simply said "You should be ashamed of the way you treat your customers." To which he replied, you are the one who should be ashamed of yourself" Then demanded my receipt again, got it and left the store and wrote this story for you so you and thousands of others can see how Best Buy goes out of their way to destroy customer relationships.

The irony of this is that I spent over $15,000 with Best Buy in 2005 and I can point to another $150,000 in purchases that were made as a direct result of my recommendations. I've now called everyone that I recommended Best Buy to last year and told my story and suggested that they not make a major purchase from Best Buy and I'm imploring you to do the same.

My experience is not the only one though, there is a whole website called Best Buy Sux devoted to people who want to chronicle their Best Buy experience.

Here are the lessons that we can all take away from this experience:

1. Don't do business with Best Buy, you are condoning horrible service

2. Be sure that your staff not only has the training to set the right expectations when they sell products or services, but to be sure that they are actually saying the right things.

3. When you make a mistake, start by apologizing, sincerely.

4. Focus on a solution and acknowledge people's frustration. If you or your organization screwed up, use it as an opportunity to build customer loyalty not destroy it. Let them know that you screwed up and that this is where you really excel. Then make it right.

5. Do the job right the first time.

6. Create an experience in your store that makes people want to come back for a reason bigger than the lowest price. At some point even the lowest price isn't good enough as is the case for Best Buy.

7. Visit Best Buy Sux and see what can happen when enough people get mad and start telling their stories. It may not hurt now, but it will and as the word spreads, people will become more and more skeptical. If Best Buy hiccups the buying public will react by going away. Shutting down a store like Best Buy is a long process but one that will occur as more and more people get involved. The real lesson is what can happen if you are not as big as Best Buy, a smaller retailer would rapidly be destroyed by this kind of focused rage. A search for the term Best Buy Sucks results in over 17,000 entries in Google.

I hope the CEO of Best Buy stumbles on this post and has the gonads to call me, I tried calling him, but there were not enough buttons on their corporate voice mail system that worked to reach him.

I guess he's busy trying to get his computer fixed too.

Free Stuff On The Internet - A Case Study In Effective Marketing

As many of you know from reading earlier posts rather than sending Christmas Cards this year or sending a pithy email, I sent phone cards to soldiers in the name of my clients and newsletter subscribers.

One person took this idea to a whole new level. Matt Bacak decided he wanted to do something on a massive scale so he decided to donate all the proceeds from his new book The Ultimate Lead Generation Plan to Habitat For Humanity, the organization that build homes for deserving people. But, he went one step further, he went out and got over 200 of the internet's top marketers to donate a gift that he could give away as an ethical bribe to get people to buy the book. He also convinced them to send an email to their lists encouraging their subscribers to buy the book in order to increase donations to Habitat for Humanity. His promotion will go out to a whopping 10 Million opt in subscribers between now and the 31st of December. It may well be the biggest legitimate opt in email promotion ever put together. While that particular techique is not new, the fact that he got people to donate more than $57,000 in free gifts that you get for buying a $13 book that ultimately benefits Habitat For Humanity.

Will the promotion be successful? No doubt about it. Can you get in on the action, of course, just go here and buy the book.

Should you use a similar plan to market your product or service on the internet? Absolutely, if you can find a relevant group of gifts and an appropriate charity.

I strongly encourage you to get involved in this promotion if for no other reason than to get on the list and see exactly how a highly targeted email promotion works, you'll be glad you did!

Marketing With Christmas Cards, Another Marketing Myth

Every year at Christmas time I get literally hundreds of preprinted Christmas cards with generic greetings inside from all the companies that I do business with. About every 10th card is the same as the card from another company so I never know for sure which one is from who. Companies send the card to “build our relationship” and in a misguided attempt to initiate the idea of giving to receive. They give me a Christmas card, I feel good about them, I do more business.

And the really bad part (for them) is that it doesn’t do a thing to further our relationship or to initiate any persuasive pattern that could influence me. The one exception is when someone sends a personal card with a personal hand written message, I know that they spent some time thinking about me and what to say. That has some impact.

So, would you like me to give you an exceptional idea that will create tremendous good will with your clients, prospects, co-workers, and all those people who get your yearly Christmas letter?

Give a gift on their behalf to someone else.

Let me tell you what I’m doing this year. I’m giving phone cards to Soldiers who are separated from their families this season so that they can call home. But, I’m giving them on behalf of my clients.

I’m going to completely nullify the effect here by telling you this, but I’m going to donate them in your name too.

See rather than sending a card I know you’ll read over the trash can, I’ll send you an email and let you know exactly how many minutes I donated on your behalf.

Don’t you agree that is a much better idea than sending you a card that you’ll throw away?

I’d really love it if you stole this idea. Buy as many cards as you can afford at Operation Uplink. Operation Uplink is run by the Veterans Of Foreign Wars. I can tell you from my own past experience as a soldier that receiving a gift like this will mean the world to them when they are thousands of miles away from home.

If you can only donate $10, do it and let whoever you are influencing know what you did.

Local Small Businesses Are Missing The Boat On Google Adwords Local Search

Every day I talk to small business owners who want to know how to better take advantage of the web to drive more traffic. The question is nearly always framed the same way, "I have a website but no one goes there, how do I get more traffic to my website?"

The answer is really somewhat complex and yet simple at the same time. First, even if they get there will your website be compelling enough to get them to take the next step? Second, once they are there will they be able to figure out what to do next? And finally, can they even find you when they are looking for products in your category?

Google Adwords local allow you to choose to only display ads in a certain geographic range around your business. MOST small businesses don't need a global reach with Google adwords yet that is exactly what too many pay for then they are quick to say "adwords don't work or they are too expensive."

My wife owns two day spas in Boise, Idaho called BREATHE Wellness Spa. Her most expensive cost per click is around .10 cents, she spends less than $100 a month on Google adwords and can track typically 10X her investment per month back to Google.

What you have to realize is that for many people searching for things locally Google is a very close second to the phone book for finding a local business. If your ad isn't showing, you are losing a tremendous amount of business that you should get. The other important point you'd better realize is this: Most people who go to the phone book to find you probably already searched on Google to get more information and DIDN'T find you so they are looking in a book crowded with competition and you are hoping they'll pick you out. If your website did a good job of educating them, telling them what to do next and calling them to action and they still went to the phone book, seeing you there will be very reassuring and further the likelihood that they'll choose you.

Re-evaluate your local Google adwords strategy right now if you own a small business serving local consumers. I don't care what your business from dog groomer to physician or dentist and everything in between. Take advantage of the traffic that is desperately trying to find your door. Then, serve them well and they'll come back often.

Here's one last trick, if you are not sure which keywords you should be buying on Google, use their competitor Overture. Overture to see what keywords people search for most often when looking for your business. Go here and type in the category that your business is in or a keyword that people might use to find you and then see what other words and search terms they are searching as well. It will give you many new ideas and a lot of new and less expensive phrases and keywords.

More on persuasion vs. manipulation

Trevor writing for the Servant-Leadership blog points out that the the explanation of persuasion vs. manipulation in an earlier post may have left something out in terms of explaining why persuasion works.

He is sort of right, I didn't go into as deep an explanation as I might have in the post and chose to focus only on the idea that persuasion is moving someone to their own best conclusion. This is based on the fact that they've already raised their hand and indicated some interest.

From that perspective, my post was exactly correct. But, to Trevor's point, there is a lot more to persuasion when it relates to people who are no committed or who don't yet know that they have a desire for your product or service.

The first step in persuading someone who doesn't know about you, your product, your service or your opportunity is to become a part of their consciousness and then to persuade them that they need to listen to your message in the first place.

The process for doing that is to, tell a compelling story, initiate curiosity, create exclusivity, all done from the position of being an expert. And, all are done for the purpose of moving those people to come to their own very best conclusion about what they are hearing.

That is persuasion and how it works in Trevor's scenario.

Thanks Trevor!

Three Places You Can Hear Dave Lakhani Speak On Persuasion In November

I'll be speaking in three different persuasion events next month and I'd love to see you there.

The first place I'll speak is BIG SEMINAR November 4 - 6, 2005 in Los Angeles. If you don't know what Big Seminar is, it is the premier online marketing training and networking event that is held twice a year. Before I was a speaker, I attended two times a year because the content was great, but the connections I made and profited from were even greater. You'll want to be there if you can. Here are the details:

http://tinyurl.com/5snnc

The next place I'll be speaking is in Phoenix, AZ on November 7th, 2005 for Shared Vision Network. This event is open to anyone and is a lunch event. This is probably the only event of its kind where you can pay less than $50 to hear me speak. If you are in the Phoenix area, be at this event! You'll find all of the details here:

http://tinyurl.com/9zjtj

Finally, I'm speaking at the premier Influence event of 2005, Harv Eker's Secrets of Influence in San Diego November 10 - 12. I've arranged an unbelivable discount for any of my readers who own my book and want to attend. Almost every big name in influence and persuasion will be there teaching you. To register, you must call 1-888-868-8883 and give them code: 35080. Here are the details:

http://tinyurl.com/7uqjc

There is a great review of my book and some interesting thoughts on persuasion and torture at http://www.corkgraham.com/blogger.html, take a look.

Persuasion training and book review

If you'd like to download and listen, or listen online to an interview on Persuasion that I did with Alex Mandossian, just go here.

Jana Kemp, author of NO! How One Simple Word Can Transform Your Life, and State Legislator, reviewed my book for a newspaper that she writes for. She has some interesting insights and her book has some very detailed information about resisting persuasive attempts. You can read the review here.

While you are here, be sure to visit www.howtopersuade.com, you'll find a lot more persuasion information there.

If you haven't had a chance to grab my new book Persuasion: The Art Of Getting What You Want, just click the title above and see what others are saying on Amazon.

How To Kill Your Persuasive Efforts

Too many times the persuasive process is started and then prematurely killed by inactivity or incongruence.

Let me give you an example.

I’m a major consumer of technology products.
I’ve shopped nearly all of the big box stores and have had only mediocre luck with any of them.

But, an employee of one of the stores that I frequent who I did not know, happened to be at a book signing I did recently. He dropped me an email inviting me to get extra discounts by using a special program that they have only for people like me (Law of exclusivity), which made me VERY interested. I dropped him a note back thanking him and even offering to do a free seminar for his sales team (Law of reciprocity).

Guess What?

Three days later and no return email. Not a word.
Which can only lead me to believe that my previous belief (Big box stores have very poor customer customer service and their employees are not focused on building customer relationships) is correct.

By simply closing the loop with me, I’d have been persuaded to immediately do some business with him.
Now, I’m back to my original position when it comes to technology products which is . . . shop around.

When you are changing a deeply set belief the most powerful thing that you can do is demonstrate that the belief might be wrong, then show congruent evidence of the new information that you want them to consider. Then, follow through, demonstrate in the future how what you’ve just said is true and congruent with the new expectation.

Persuasion isn’t hard at all, but being consistent is for most people. The most consistent, congruent, and engaged people are the must successful persuaders.

If you haven’t had a chance to get my new book
Persuasion: The Art Of Getting What You Want may I suggest that you zip over to Amazon and grab it today? I was just notified that demand has been so high that they are just about out of their stock.
Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/a46wq

How To Persuade - Sales, Marketing, Advertising and PR

I was recently interviewed by Alex Mandossian on the topic of persuasion during a virtual book tour. You can listen to the interview here, Alex asked some very penetrating questions. There were over 1200 people on this call, it is packed with great insights.

I'm also doing a free teleseminar on Persuasive PR tonight, you can listen in by registering at the Big Seminar website. Registering for the free calls does not obligate you to anything. I'll be speaking live at Big Seminar in November and I'd love to see you there.

For more on persuasion, visit my new site http://www.howtopersuade.com.