So what is Google Buzz exactly? Well, with Facebook’s recently unveiled plans to encroach on Google’s e-mail empire with Project Titan (a project that some Facebook insiders are calling the “Gmail Killer”), it appears that Google is prepared to fire a salvo back across the bow of Facebook.

Google Buzz is essentially a social media feature that will overlay on top of the Gmail platform, allowing users to integrate a new social media platform right into their email inbox. This could potentially give Google a big leg up in their attempt to gain a presence in the social media marketplace.  Google Buzz has a lot of Facebook-like features, and one of the touted key features is Buzz’s ability to filter out content you wouldn’t be interested in and display content that would interest you.  Depending on how well that functionality works, it could  make a significant difference.

Buzz can also notify you of updated posts in your inbox, but the notification email will show the entire post within it, so you won’t have to click on a link to view the updated content. It also integrates heavily with Mobile phones that include some neat / scary options.  If your phone has GPS, Buzz will know where you are, and will attempt to figure out what building you are in and ask you if it has guessed right.  It can also geotag your posts showing where you are.  I am assuming these features can be disabled if you are privacy conscious.

Some of the less scary and more interesting Buzz features include built in voice recognition, so all you have to do is talk into your phone and it will be posted to your buzz account in real time. As well, you can click “nearby” and Buzz will show you what people are posting geographically close to you.

So will Google Buzz be the next new wave of Social Media? It’s hard to say…it definitely has some interesting new features, but nothing apart from time can really answer that question with certainty. One thing is for sure though, as time marches on we’re seeing the lines between different communication technologies become closer and closer,  how much longer will it be before the lines blur and then disappear?

Moving into webmail makes a lot of sense for Facebook. They already have the user-base to help to service grow quickly, and their platform often has users logging in to check their Facebook account updates several times a day,  so adding email to their suite of options is a logical extension.  However, calling your application “the Gmail killer” is a bit premature.  Facebook’s existing reach will certainly give Google some cause for concern,  but Gmail is a well developed product with its own large user-base, and that doesn’t happen over night.

Even if Facebook’s webmail comes to market on par with Gmail in terms of usability and functionality, there are many potential stumbling blocks along the road to e-mail dominance.  Primarily, one large issue I see is the fact that Facebook likes to completely rework their user interface on a fairly regular basis to what they feel is more optimized / user-friendly.  Sometimes this works out okay, sometimes it doesn’t, but invariably there are large amounts of their user base who find this practice very irritating. There isn’t really an alternative to Facebook, so users put up with it for the most part… but with so many choices for webmail available, will convenience win out over irritation? Only time will tell.

Another area, albeit a smaller market, is the business marketplace. More and more businesses are migrating from Microsoft Exchange and other email solutions to Google Apps premium. Speaking from the point of view that made the switch about 6 months ago, Google Apps is a fantastic platform for business mail and collaboration.  Not only is the product superior to the previous Microsoft Exchange server we had, but we’ve reduced our email costs by about 4/5ths.  In the coming years, I see Gmail becoming a major email provider for business, which is something that Facebook isn’t equipped for nor likely even plans to do.

How will Facebook’s Project Titan affect the webmail landscape? Hard to say; the Internet changes at lightspeed, but one thing’s for sure… this new entry into webmail from Facebook is not something to be brushed aside and ignored by the current market leaders.

The Cost:

We don’t really keep an exact total of how often we order pizza, but I’m going to guess around twice a month…that will make the calculations easy too! So two orders a month, at an average price of $20 an order translates into $480 a year in revenue. I don’t know if you have ever opened your YellowPages to the pizza section, but here in Ontario you’ll find a LOT of pizza joints there.  As an aside, I’m told that this is a somewhat Ontario-specific phenomenon. My wife tells me that when they moved from out of province they were shocked by how many pizza places there were around. Apparently, we Ontarians really love our pizza! Basically the implication of our proliferation of pizza places here in Ontario is that unhappy customers – like ourselves – have a lot of alternate choices available.  We started realizing we had all sorts of choices, and many of them were a lot closer than the place we had been ordering from.

So how should our problem have been dealt with?

1. Understand that even when it’s not your fault, it’s still your fault.

The excuse I was given was that a third party (the delivery service),  has made the mistake so it wasn’t their problem.  This is something a customer never wants to hear, and besides, even though a third party might have been responsible,  who contracted that third party to deliver the pizza? I didn’t call and arrange for my pizza to be delivered by this delivery service, I contacted the pizza place themselves.

When someone in your supply chain makes a mistake that upsets a customer, it doesn’t matter if they are from another company, it is still your issue to deal with. You sold the customer goods or service with the understanding or implication that a certain level of service would be provided, and if it isn’t then it’s your responsibility to make it right.

2. If you don’t keep your customers happy, it will cost you lots of money.

Above, we determined that losing us as a customer cost them $480 in revenue every year. Let’s say that several customer service issues like this happen 20 times over the course of a year. That will cost their business almost $10,000 in yearly revenue from lost customers. Never mind the fact that our monthly pizza expenditures might be below what their average customer spends in a given month. So the losses could be even higher.

3. It’s not difficult or expensive to fix.

Had they simply apologized and offered to give me the next order free, I would’ve been very happy with their response.  The actual fixed costs of preparing the food ordered is likely significantly under $20, so the actual loss to the business would’ve been relatively minor.  I’m going to guess $10 cost,  even though I think that may be a bit high.  Are there any business owners out there who wouldn’t be willing to spend $10 to ensure almost $500 of yearly revenue remains secure?

4.  Make sure it makes sense for the business.

If a customer is having grievously bad experiences every week and demanding free food on a constant basis, then this is likely the kind of customer you want to be rid of. If the customer is demanding free pizza for a year to make up for their one bad experience, that’s not going to help your business either.  Be sure to put everything into a business frame of mind. Look at the pure dollars and cents of the matter and ensure that you’re making a good financial move for your business… if the customer is asking for too much, try to make an alternate offer somewhere in the middle to keep both parties happy, if that’s feasible from a financial standpoint.

In summary, we learned that a bad experience from a customer can add up to a lot of lost revenue, and that it’s not particularly difficult to turn a bad customer experience into a positive one.  So head out there and make sure you’re keeping your customers happy!

Let’s look at a real life example. My wife and I order pizza occasionally, sometimes when we’ve both had a really long work day, or we’re entertaining guests and we don’t have time to prepare a meal… pizza is a quick and tasty solution to our hunger! For the most part, with the occasional exception, we’ve ordered exclusively from one place when we wanted pizza.  The  service has been acceptable, we really like the food, and they have combos that give you a lot more than just pizza for a reasonable price.

However, we had a problem several weeks back: after a particularly long day, we ordered some pizza for supper and had it delivered (something we never do, as I prefer to pick up the pizza and save on the delivery cost… but it had been one of those days…), and this is where things started to go south. For starters, it took almost an  hour and a half for the pizza to arrive, which was double the time they told us it would take. The pizza was cold and the garlic bread had no cheese (something they had charged us extra for).  Not only did this pretty much ruin the  entire meal for us, but when I called them up to complain, I was put on hold 4 or 5 times and had to keep explaining my story.

So after another 10 – 15 minutes of my time wasted on the phone, I was essentially told the cold pizza was not their fault as they used a delivery service, and the best they were willing to do is offer me free garlic bread.  This was not a satisfactory response for me… and what really floored me is when I responded with, “That’s not really going to make up for the entire meal that’s been ruined, I’ll just find somewhere else to order my pizza from in the future.” The response from the other end was, “Okay, thanks… bye!” and I was hung up on.  Now, I do tend to be a bit sensitive to customer service issues, only because we’re so fanatical about customer support here at Lifeline, but I can’t imagine any customer reacting favorably to this type of response.

I can tell you with certainty that this business hasn’t really thought about the implications and costs to their business that this type of breakdown in customer service can bring, because if they had, then they would have dealt with the situation much differently. So, on Monday we’ll be examining the cold hard facts, as in what kind of monetary impact this has had on their business and how the issue should have been dealt with.

Chances are if you check your Google Analytics as often as we do, you’ll find this clever holiday greeting from Google will put a smile on your face.  In addition to the greeting,  an email that was sent out on Christmas, they announced several new features including the all new “annotations” feature.

Annotations allows you to make notes on your traffic trends to provide information and  explanations on traffic trends on your website.  You can find out more about this feature here.

Happy Holidays!

Obviously this is a significant issue for Blockbuster, and they are scrambling to save their ailing business model. Their latest move has been to change the return time for movie rentals from midnight to noon. Now I’m sure that this is resulting in a lot of video renters not being able to return their movies on time… so unless you are unemployed, or work close to a Blockbuster and get off for lunch a bit early, then it’s going to require waking up early (which I’m sure we all love to do) for an inconvenient extra stop on your way to work.

On paper this probably sounded like a good idea, but upon further inspection and in practice it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the marketplace. These are the type of decisions that will actually run the company further into the ground, rather than help bring it out of the hole.  My wife and I have stopped renting movies from Blockbuster since this change in policy, and it’s not likely that we will be renting from them ever again.

Moral of the story:  Think through your business strategy from an outside perspective before executing it.  Your plan my sound good on paper, but if it alienates customers, you’re sunk.