FAIL: Intuit Customer Service Unit Closed as W-2 Filing Deadline Looms

If you ran a company that generated billions of dollars in annual revenue by providing customers will invaluable software products and services and you knew there was a major deadline coming up that would impact a large percentage of your customers, don’t you think you’d make sure you had more and more customer service reps available as that deadline approached? Makes sense, right? At least that’s what I do and my firm doesn’t generate billions of dollars in annual revenue.

This is how I feel about Intuit's decision to NOT have QuickBooks payroll customer service reps available the weekend before W-2 forms have to be filed.

But that’s apparently NOT how Intuit feels (NASDAQ: INTU) because their Payroll Support team is  ONLY available Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6p.m. (PST).

Most of the time, that’s probably adequate. BUT employers have to file/distribute W-2 forms on/before February 1 (that’s this coming Monday).

So I’ve been messing around with Quicken/QuickBooks for the better part of four hours now, been on the phone with Intuit customer support reps in India three times today, only to finally be told they can’t help me. I’ll need to call back on Monday morning when the Payroll Customer support group is working. AAAAAARGGGHHHH!!!!!

To the credit of the supervisor I spoke to in India, he did suggest I call at 8 a.m. (PST) on Monday as that’s a time with very little call volume. And to be honest, I appreciate that suggestion.

But with an IRS-imposed deadline looming and QuickBooks failing me (at least when it comes to accessing, preparing and printing W-2 forms today), I have one thing to day to Intuit management:

What in the heck were you thinking? The one customer support group who can handle specific issues is closed at the very time when your customers HAVE TO use a specific portion of your products. What a bone-headed decision!!!!

In case you were not clear on the point, I am NOT HAPPY WITH INTUIT right now!

UGH, UGH, UGH!

FAIL, FAIL, FAIL!!!!!!

Intuit DEFINITELY wins a Sad Betty Award over this approach to customer service.

iPad Name Equals Apple PR Blunder

Early indications are that Apple made a mistake using the term iPad to name its newest product (an eBook-reader).

The Apple iPad (photo courtesy of iLounge)

Within minutes of the official disclosure of the iPad name, the first negative missives began to hit the Internet, equating the term “pad” within iPad to a feminine hygiene napkin.

Soon the term iTampon began appearing on Twitter, with many tweets chastising Apple’s public relations and marketing department for not contemplating that at least some women might be offended with the iPad name. Other tweets provided indecorous comparisons between a feminine pad, the iPad and a tampon — hence, the emergence of the mocking, farcical term: iTampon.

In fact, by 4:30 p.m. (PST), iTampon had supplanted iPad in microblog posts on Twitter and had become the No. 2 “Currently Trending” term on Twitter (according to Tweetstats).

Look, it’s bad enough that my wife makes me buy feminine hygiene products for her and our girls at the grocery store. But iPad?!?! Are you kidding me?

I’m surprised someone inside of Apple’s distortion reality field didn’t stand up and say,

“Steve, ya know, half of the potential customers for this product might think of a sanitary napkin when they hear the name iPad.”

But maybe that’s just me. Am I off base here or not?

I think not. I’m convinced Apple made a major PR faux pas with the iPad name, a real marketing blunder.

That’s why I’m giving Apple a “Sad Betty Award” for launching this new product as the iPad.

Last thought. Expect the late night hosts to start joking about the iPad as early as tonight, but no later than tomorrow for sure!

Becoming a Better Writer

What makes a good writer? What is it about a blog post, story, letter or column that makes it engaging, that makes someone want to continue reading? How can I become a better writer?

If you’re in the public relations, marketing, investor relations and/or strategic communications world, perhaps you’ve already asked yourself these or similar questions. I know I have.

The snap answer, of course,  is to write. I’ve heard and read that answer more than 100 times — “If you want to be a better writer then you have to write.”

Okay, duh! But in my experience writing alone is not enough, especially if you’re not a particularly good writer to begin with.

I believe that the most important part of improving your skills as a writer, to becoming a better writer, is to have a good editor (or a good teacher, as the case may be).

In other words, I want someone who is better than me looking over my metaphorical shoulder prompting, prodding and pointing out specific examples of how and where I can improve my writing.

This point was brought back home to me this morning when a long-time friend asked me to review something he had written, and for the record, he told me I could “let him have it from every angle.” So here, in part, is what I wrote to my friend.

•  
  • new,
  • unexpected,
  • controversial,
  • insightful,
  • thought-provoking or
  • out-of-the-ordinary.

Are the items I mention above hard and fast rules? Of course not.

But I know they helped me to become a better writer - that and having a good editor.