Marketing Pilgrim

Just about everyone in the Internet space is likely to have spent at least some time in a Google help forum. Whether that time was helpful or aggravating depends on the time of day, the user’s need for information in a timely fashion and, most importantly what brave non-Google soul is monitoring that forum to help someone out.

It’s the way that Google has provided ‘support’ for quite some time. Under the guise of “the best situation is when users help other users” the folks at Mountain View have been able to keep their exposure to the outside world limited and they seem to like it that way. Unless they are selling (did you know there are now 1,000 Adword phone reps supporting that platform?) Google treats the general population with the same attitude that the pope treats his followers. You can look,listen and worship but let’s not get too close.

Coupons are my life but mobile coupons. . . not so much. Like many Americans, I’m just beginning to navigate those choppy waters. According to stats from eMarketer, 15.6 million smartphone users will redeem a mobile coupon this year which is a 117% change from the prior year.

And though the numbers will continue to rise, the triple-digit returns are expected to level off by next year.

Part of the reason for the rise is that mobile coupons are becoming more common and thus easier to use. This week, I had a Buy 1 Get 1 meal special from a local restaurant that said I could print the coupon or simply show it to the waiter on my phone. I printed it because the phone has been an issue in the past. Waiters know how to deal with paper coupons but digital ones? Not so much.

Though only a small percentage of adults use a check-in service like Foursquare, around a quarter of all American adults do use some kind of location-based service on the web or through their mobile phone.

The numbers come from our old friends at Pew and it points to a slow but steady rise in location, location, location.

When it comes to check-in services, only 4% of all adults or 5% of mobile phone owners use such a service. The number jumps up to 12% if you look only at smartphone owners, which makes sense, since they’re the primary target.

28% of mobile phone owners allow the phone to use their current location in order to get directions or recommendations. That number climbs to 55% when you look at just smartphone users. Pretty impressive.

Question: What seemed to come up out of nowhere, generate too good to be true numbers, hype itself incessantly, act cute based on the supposed ‘irreverance’ of their young CEO, run up the hype on an IPO to unheard of levels, be found to be using creative accounting which caused IPO filing to go into a deeper review, have their CEO put together a memo to employees during their quiet period that just happened to be leaked and basically has told everyone to screw off because it’s their way or the highway?

Answer: Groupon

The long awaited IPO for the daily deal player has been put off indefinitely and the excuse is that the market isn’t right. In fine Groupon fashion they are using whatever is most convenient for them to not look as ridiculous as they are as a company. Bloomberg Businessweek reported

For almost three years now Carol Bartz has been at the helm of Yahoo and it’s been quite a ride. The first two years especially were just one ‘event’ after the other and she has supplied boatloads of posts and quotes that were entertaining enough to discuss but usually left us scratching our heads as to what she was actually trying to accomplish as the CEO of one of the most maligned web companies on the planet.

As if to add whatever (insult just isn’t the right word) to injury, she was notified of her firing by phone and then she turned around notifying her staff of her situation with this e-mail:

From: “Carol Bartz”
To: “all-worldwide@yahoo-inc.com”
Subject: Goodbye

To all,

More people than ever are shopping online. That’s the good news. The bad news is that customer satisfaction is dropping and shopping cart abandonment is on the rise. (Don’t hate me, but I abandoned two just this weekend.)

iPerceptions has a new report that looks at post shopping experience feedback. What they found was that overall customer satisfaction was down from 73% last year to 70% this year.

The biggest concern is that only 60% of customers who came to buy walked away with what they came for. Says iPerceptions,

“For a business that does $10 million per year in online sales, a 60% Task Completion rate among buyers means $6.7 million in business is simply walking away.”

For the small business owner, losing even one sale can really hurt, let alone 40%.