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Google Called. Really!
Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends | March 3rd, 2008 - 06:02 AM
(64) found this useful. Do you? 
One day not long ago we got a call in the office. My husband looked at the caller ID and said, “Hey, this says Google is calling. Can that be? Or is it some telemarketer spoofing Google?”
In fact, it turned out to be Google. Calling me.
Yes, I really got a call from Google. Out of 300 million people in the United States, Google had chosen to call li’l ole me.
When I heard the young woman in the other end of the phone say, “Hi, this is Emily from Google” I zipped through a range of emotions in about 3 seconds flat.
First I got a little thrill. Hmmmm, I thought. Have they heard about me and want to recruit me? Or maybe they want me to speak at one of their events. Could be a big opportunity here ….
No, wait! My next thought came with a sinking feeling. Uh, oh … I wonder if I inadvertently violated one of their quality guidelines for my website. Maybe they’re calling to tell me my site is being removed from the Google index. Geez! How bad could it be, that they have to call me personally to lower the boom?
Well, as it turns out, it was neither of the above.
Yes, it was Google. Yes, they called me personally. But it was to tell me that there was a bug in the software code for the Google Website Optimizer tool I had used on my website. And that I needed to remove the code, because it presented a security vulnerability.
And even though they were conveying news that was embarrassing for them, I was impressed.
Google Publisher Tools Help You Get More Online Business
To back up a moment, Google has been doing something wonderful for small businesses. They have been assembling a toolkit to help you run your website better and manage your business’s online presence.
Unless you’ve been lost on a mysterious tropical island for the past 2 years, you’re probably aware of Gmail, Google Calendar, and possibly even Google Docs, which give you spreadsheets, word processing and other office capabilities.
But I find that far fewer entrepreneurs and business people are aware of the full collection of Google Publisher Tools. The Publisher tools help you drive more online traffic — and if all goes according to plan — more sales.
Among them is my #1 favorite, called “Website Optimizer.” Website Optimizer is a free tool that lets you perform tests of different versions of a Web page, to see which one works better to get sales. You can compare different images in a page. You can compare two different blocks of text. You can compare different layouts. Google’s Website Optimizer will tell you which version works best. In fact, Website Optimizer is one of Google’s best kept secrets, in my opinion.
Admitting a Mistake Can be the Best Customer Service
Fast forward to the call I got. What impressed me is how ordinary Google seemed, despite its size. As of this writing, Google stock is selling for $470 a share and the company has a market capitalization of $148 Billion. That’s WAY bigger than, say, General Motors which has a market cap of a measly $15 Billion. :)
So you’d be tempted to think of Google as some monolithic giant, for which my site wouldn’t appear on the radar screen.
Yet, here they had a software bug — just like the smallest tech startup could have — proving that even the biggest make mistakes. And not only did they have a software bug, but they were going to great lengths to alert people to the security issue. Not ignoring it. Not hiding it. But admitting it and being proactive.
In that one instance of calling me, Google impressed me more than anything else they’ve done. Amazing, isn’t it, how admitting your mistakes can make the best impression on customers.
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Julian Seery Gude | March 5th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Great article Anita! Has Google fixed their security threat with their Website Optimizer yet? What a nice tool to perform marketing “a/b” tests to compare different offers you are considering.
Another product I often recommend to fellow small businesses is Google Alerts. For your readers that don’t know: Alerts are a great way to track both your own brand and company name and also that of your competition (also key words for your your industry or market). The info is pushed out to you via e-mail either as it happens, or once per day via a summary. I also use Google Premier for my small business e-mail and word processing.
- Julian Seery Gude, editor LocalNa8ion.com
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Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends | March 5th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Hi Julian, Yes, that particular bug has been fixed. Here is the info on the fix:
https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=80544
Optimizer rocked for the testing we did. It was turned into a case study over at SitePal.com — we tested using a SitePal avatar versus a static photograph. The avatar performed 144% better in convincing people to sign up for my newsletter. And with Google Optimizer we didn’t have to guess — it was easy to track. I was able to take screenshots of the Optimizer control panel periodically, to prove performance.
And I agree with you on Google Alerts — another great tool!
Anita
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The Day Google Called » Small Business Trends | March 5th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
[...] even though they were admitting a problem, I ended up being impressed. Read: Google Called. Really! Bookmark [...]
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Amanda | March 6th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Wow, that is impressive. Just knowing that they are on top of such matters makes me feel more secure about using their applications. I too agree that Google Alerts is a great tool.
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Ivana Taylor | March 6th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Admitting mistakes is actually a more powerful “promotion” than any paid advertising - especially in the blogosphere. The only thing that concerns me is this “bi-polar” effect that Google has on the millions of small business owners that make a living off the internet. I don’t like the power that a technical glitch on their part has over the revenue generation of web-based businesses. So, from a strategy perspective, web-based businesses need to make sure their product/service mix is more dependent on their community of customers rather than Google’s mysterious algorithms.
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alas | March 6th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
We also got a call about the weboptimizer, we had changed some of the campaigns, but not one that we weren’t using. It was excellent to be notified that we had missed something very important!
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John Battelle of SearchBlog | March 7th, 2008 at 9:50 am
I’m happy to hear of this, Anita, as Google does not have a very good reputation as a responsive company driven by customer service. Clearly, they are changing their tune in the SMB marketplace.
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Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends | March 9th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Hi John,
Google gets an A or A+ when it comes to the free tools they offer and also the way they handled the Optimizer bug — that was outstanding.
I think there’s still an opportunity for Google to improve its perception with SMBs, by offering an appeals process for small businesses whose SERPs and rankings have been affected (as one of the other commenters alluded to). Google Webmaster Central is a great start, and I look forward to seeing how that evolves.
Anita
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Chris | March 10th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I was impressed, myself, when I read this. Considering the numbers that use their services, this had to be a daunting task for them. Yet, it’s important enough for them to take the time to do so. That’s truly customer service and it also gives a nice personal presence to the actual humans behind the scenes at the company. And all of this positive “buzz” for them online because of their good deed doesn’t hurt either!
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Chris Brown | March 14th, 2008 at 5:01 am
Anita:
You brought to light one of the most important marketing tools to retaining customers — treating them with respect!
By individually contacting each website optimizer downloader, they added one more strong layer of trust.
Thanks also for promoting a powerful tool!
Chris Brown
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Jerod | April 29th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Wow. I have to agree with Amanda here in that reading this does make me feel more secure about using Google’s services. It shows that they are on top of things - and that everyone matters. They are not out of reach to those they serve. There’s certainly some security in that for me. Nothing worse than conducting business on a site where you cannot reach a human being behind it.
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