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!

PR Hoax Hurts Integrity of National Press Club

Whether you work in the field of Public Relations or just happen to be a news junkie, chances are you already know about the PR hoax perpetrated this Monday to call into question the stance taken by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on climate change.

In fact, a quick search of Google news for the terms “chamber commerce climate change” (not inside quotation marks) finds several hundred news stories on the subject.

The event was staged at the National Press Club (in Washington, D.C.) by an activist organization that calls itself the “Yes Men,” and it’s a group that has punked the news media before. As reported in the New York Times, the fake press conference also featured fake journalists and fake press materials designed to look as if they were produced on Chamber of Commerce materials. And a number of major news outlets were fooled by the hoax, notably CNBC and Reuters (both of which later corrected and retracted their stories).

However, lost in all the hubub, hoopla and news coverage about the hoax is one critical point: I’m convinced that the Yes Men organization have also attacked and hurt the integrity of the National Press Club. Call it another example of the Rule of Unintended Consequences.

Certainly there are widespread examples of biased news organizations or media outlets that lean one political direction or the other. I get that, and I hope that most people are savvy enough to understand this fact too.

Regardless of one’s viewpoint on any subject (including climate change), the United States of America was founded on several key principles, one of which is freedom of the press.

The National Press Clubbills itself as “The World’s Leading Professional Organization for Journalists,” and none other than noted CBS commentator, Eric Sevareid called the NPC the “sanctum sanctorum of American journalists.”

By choosing to hold its fake news conference at the National Press Club, the Yes Men organization have besmirched the good name and integrity of the National Press Club.

Please note that I am NOT suggesting that the Yes Men were wrong to stage a fake press conference. I’m only suggesting it should not have been held at the National Press Club.

And for that, I bestow a Sad Betty Award on the Yes Men for choosing to stage their PR hoax at the National Press Club. 

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P.S.  To get a sense of what happened during the press conference when it was interrupted by a real representative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, you might check out this YouTube video. It’s about six minutes long.

PR Gaffe Gives Nike Black Eye

When is the winner of a race not the winner of a race? Simple: When other racers don’t know what’s happening with all of the other racers or teams during a race.

Clear as mud? Let’s be more specific.

As I wrote yesterday on the SOAR Communications blog (see “Fastest Runner Finally ‘Wins’ Nike Women’s Marathon“), Arien O’Connell (photo above) posted the fastest time in this past Sunday’s race in San Francisco. However, because O’Connell didn’t start the race with the elite runners some 20 minutes before the 20,000 other runners, O’Connell’s time of 2:55:11 didn’t put her on the winner’s podium or give her the winner’s prizes.

Not fair. Maybe. But them’s the rules, both Nike’s and those of USA Track and Field. And for good reasons.

You always have at least two competitors in a race - other racers and yourself. Truth be told, the strategies and tactics that go into running a race don’t always mean running flat out from start to finish. In fact, sometimes the person who wins is she who has the best plan going into the race or he to adapts the best to the unfolding drama on the course.

Unfortunately, for Nike, few people outside of competitive/professional runners realize such strategies and/or rules exist.

Nevertheless, Nike could have had all of the runners start at the same time - apparently that’s their plan for next year’s Nike Women’s Marathon.

But this year, after word got out that O’Connell’s fastest time didn’t win the Nike Women’s Marathon all heck broke loose. Hundreds of comments, most negative toward Nike, were attached to online stories and blog posts.

Brian Solis of FutureWorks fame wrote an impressive blog post providing good background on the race (his wife and mom ran in the marathon), and then he appropriately lambasted Nike for dropping the PR ball in this instance.

Remember: Companies like Nike sponsor and/or produce events like marathons for very specific corporate goals. In the case of this marathon, I believe the three main purposes of the race were to A) raise money for cancer research, B) celebrate female athletes and “average” runners, and C) promote Nike.

Several days after the race, Nike backtracked (kind of) and named O’Connell “a” winner in the race. Not THE winner - A winner. She also got the same prize package as THE winner.

And as mentioned above, Nike also announced it will NOT have separate start times for elite runners and the rest of the pack in next year’s contest.

At the end of the day, these were the correct steps for Nike to take. But my heck, what a mistake by Nike and its marketing & PR teams to not honor O’Connell on race day.

If such an event had NEVER occurred before (a non-elite runner’s results surpassing those of a top elite finisher), that would be one thing.

But literally days before the running of the Nike Women’s Marathon a similar result had occurred with the Chicago Marathon when the fourth best time was posted by a non-elite runner. Except in this instance, Wesley Korir did NOT receive the $15,000 in prize money awarded to the 4th place finisher.

How did Nike not know this? And even if they didn’t know this had happened, how is it that a company dedicated to sport and celebrating the competitive nature of the human spirit didn’t immediately step forward and declare to the world,

“Wow! Look what happened. We’re so excited by Arien’s best time finish, we’re going to award her a prize package identical to the ‘official’ 1st Place finisher!”

Then everyone would have joined in celebrating with O’Connell and Nike, instead of decrying the company’s lack of fair play and its corporate callousness.

Nike gets a “Sad Betty” Award in my book, even if they did the right thing eventually.

They just didn’t “Do It” from the get-go, and that’s the problem.

China & the IOC Utilize Spin in an Attempt to Minimize Athletes’ Health Concerns for 2008 Games

The International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) are doing all they can to minimize the fact that world-class athletes are beginning to pull out of the 2008 Summer Games for health concerns.

The story began nearly two weeks ago when Haile Gebreselassie, the current marathon world-record holder, announced that he would not compete in Beijing this August due to his concerns that air pollution in Beijing would permanently harm his lungs. (Gebreselassie suffers from asthma.)

Previously, gold medal tennis winner and four-time French Open winner, Justine Henin, had proclaimed that she would not defend her gold medal in China since the pollution would aggravate her asthma as well.

The decisions of these athletes notwithstanding (and the threat of other world-class athletes withdrawing from the Games due to health concerns), the IOC distributed on Monday, March 17 with the headline “IOC ANALYSES BEIJING AIR QUALITY DATA.”

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Miscommunication Can Happen Anytime, Anywhere

Typically, I just delete pass-along emails without even opening them; you know the kind: the ones that include sappy tales or lame jokes.

But when my wife showed me the photo to the right, I knew I just had to share it here as well.

You can almost imagine the phone order coming into the local grocery store, can’t you?

EMPLOYEE:  “Pastries. Can I help you?

CUSTOMER:  “Yes, I’d like to order a chocolate sheet cake for a going away party this week.”

EMPLOYEE:  “Okay. And would you like anything written on the cake?”

CUSTOMER:  “That would be nice. How ’bout, ‘Best Wishes Suzanne,’ and underneath that ‘We will miss you.’”

EMPLOYEE:  “No problem; we’ll get right on that.”

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Unfortunately, just when you think you’ve been absolutely, perfectly clear, someone comes along and slaps you upside the head.

Welcome to the world of miscommunication.

Sounds like an opportunity for better employee training at some store somewhere.

Facebook’s First Shot in the Spotlight–On TV that Is

Here’s the scenario: You’re 23, a Harvard dropout, CEO of the company you founded with some friends, a computer programmer, your company is valued at more than $15 billion and you’ve just been invited to come on 60 Minutes. Mark Zuckerberg, what do you do?

Well, given that the founder of Facebook probably had weeks, if not months to prepare for the interview, you hire someone to train you for going on camera. Then, you train again and again till you feel completely ready to go with Lesley Stahl on one of America’s most watched news programs. You get questions thrown at you till you feel confident about your responses, and confident that you can handle any question. You practice with a camera to see what you look like when the lights are turned on. In short, you prepare for the interview the best you can.

Quick disclaimer, I’m a fan of Facebook. A big fan. I’ve been a user for almost a year now and have reconnected to many friends and associates who I had lost contact with. I want Facebook to succeed since I’ve already reaped some of the benefits the site has to offer. I don’t want it to be successful at my expense, but I want it to succeed at becoming profitable. I’d love to help them with their marketing communications efforts. I can only imagine how fun the challenge would be. Do I think Mark would be a hard client to work with? Absolutely.

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Royale Energy Lands the First Sad Betty Award for its Most Recent News Release

There are a couple of questions in life you never want to answer, such as

• Does this dress make me look fat?
• Have you made that appointment yet for your prostate exam?
• You paid how much for that?

Well . . . I’ve got another question to add to the list. It’s

• What do you think of our news release?

Unfortunately, Royale Energy (NASDAQ: ROYL) has just landed the first Sad Betty Award for its January 11, 2008 news release. In my opinion, this is probably one of the most confusing and most awkwardly written announcements I have ever read.

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