Chatting and Business - Using AIM to Connect with Customers
OK, chatting online cost me a lot of money this week. But, I am not complaining. I was looking for someone to help clean my rain gutters on my roof which are clogged with so much leaf debris, thanks to some pine trees in my yard. I searched on smartpages.com and found a number of listings around my area. Some listings had links to websites. One website caught my eye. This guy Doug, had listed his AOL IM (AIM) Id online right next to his email and phone numbers on his contact page. I pinged him and started chatting about all the job details, prices and scheduling. I was done in a few minutes of my time and gave him the job all over AIM. And then later we continue chatting, the guy starts talking about Sun and Solaris and AMD and Gateway and Dell. I was like, whoa, this ain't no ordinary gutter guy! This guy was an IT insider before he decided to do something totally different with his skills and start a new business.
I told him one of the reasons he got the job because he was on AIM. I think this guy has figured out how to use technology to gain more business. I wish more people like him adopted this as a customer service tool and published their AIM id along with their phone numbers in the yellow pages and websites. Some big online stores do that with a "Live Chat" feature. But, with the (increasing) ubiquity of internet connectivity it would be great if I can reach my plumber or my electrician or whoever with just a message on AIM. Ding Ding! Ka Ching!
