The Customer Experience
I came home last night and sitting on my front step of my house were two new, hot of the presses, phone books. I immediately picked them up and tossed them into my recycling bin. I cannot tell you how long it has been since I have used a phone book of any kind and it got me thinking if people actually still use these things?
I began digging on the net and found a couple of recent studies that showed the phone book usage has definitely dropped in recent years, but people 45 and older still use the phone book on a somewhat “regular” basis. They did not really define what regular was cause I find it hard to believe that anyone uses a phone book on any kind of regular basis, but that is just me.
These studies I found concluded that the major reason for that particular age group still using the phone book is because they are not as computer savvy and feel more comfortable with the phone book. Makes sense yes, but I think there is another point to look at. Whether a person is computer and internet savvy is not the major issue here. It is about the experience a user has. Whether they feel comfortable and find what they are looking for quick and easy.
I do not believe that any of the online yellow pages nor local search has really hit any critical mass when it comes to giving users a great customer experience. It got me thinking, how many millions of dollars does it cost these companies to create, print and ship all these paper phone books all across the country? If one of these companies took a third of that cost and focused on developing a true experience on the web, how many millions of dollars could they save in the future by not having to print and deliver all these books?
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I can tell you, the amount they charge for advertising in those books far offsets the cost of producing them. In my neighborhood, one 1/4-page ad costs around $300 a month for local advertisers. Full page is probably around a grand a month. Just the what the attorneys, accountants and automobile sections pay would take care of the costs, I’m sure, and you haven’t even gotten out of the A’s. You’re also very right about the online presence. Even though the main books have yellowpages.com and yellowbook.com, their marketshare on search and local advertisements is far below Google, Yahoo and MSN. I would think the need to completely reinvent their business to stay relevant. What that means, I’m not sure, but I’m glad I’m not in charge of any of those companies.
Phone company just called.
They’ll add my URL to my yellow page listing for only $29.95 a month.
I told them I’d blog about them for $29.95 a month and offer them advice, but they won’t like what I have to say!
No hard feeling phonebook dudes, but the world marches on and you’re not.
I actually use phone books pretty frequently. And this is due to the fact that local companies do a piss-poor job of promoting themselves on the web. Here’s an example:
I’m interested in finding out the phone number to Randy’s Pizza in Morrisville, NC. I know that Randy’s is a local chain. I know that Randy’s has a few locations in Durham, NC. And I also know that Randy’s does not have a website, nor do they list their locations on local interactive avenues (i.e. CitySearch). So what’s my recourse? The freakin’ phone book.
The phone book is definitely my last recourse, but I end up opening it much more than I’d like to. I guess the lesson here is that considering how much those huge ads cost for yellow page advertising, it makes a lot more sense to build a website and put some money into local search. In fact, even if you’re not spending money on yellow page advertising, it’s just plain stupid not to have some kind of web presence.
Jeremy – sounds like an opportunity to start schooling the masses on the benefits of operating on the web. There’s gold in them thar hills.
Just like television and radio, the Yellow Pages industry gets its usage stats from independent research firms, so here are some actual facts:
Print Yellow Pages usage exceeds Internet Yellow Pages usage by about 10 to 1. When looking for information on local businesses, 61 out of 100 people turn to Print Yellow Pages first. Only 12-1/2 percent start with a search engine, and only 7 percent start with Internet Yellow Pages.
It’s also a misconception that mostly older adults use the Print Yellow Pages. The same research shows that Generation Y (18-24 year olds) usage of Print Yellow Pages is 27 percent higher than the average for all adults. Overall, more than 50 percent of the population use the Print Yellow Pages at least once a week.