MySpace to kids….ID, please.
MySpace recently announced that it was developing software that would be installed on home computers and allow parents to monitor the profile name, age, and location that children (or presumably any other computer user) provides when setting up a profile.It monitors sign ins from the computer on which it is installed as well as from other computers. Access to content within the account is not part of the surveillance.
The issue of online -predators lurking ﾃつ for under age victims on MySpace and other social networking sites is obviously what is driving this…the question is whether or not this kind of surveillance addresses the problem it is being implemented to address. And it does feel a bit icky from many respects.
MySpace and the other online social networks have been apparently unable to find an age verification solution for the underage users. Other sites employ various means to address some of the peripheral issues of protecting kinds on the internet. Yahoo for instance has a parental control for content feature.
There does not seem to be a solution on the horizon to keeping the predators off the site or really controlling determined offenders, adult or child;ﾃつ so MySpace according to Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for Fox Interactive Media, the unit that oversees MySpace,ﾃつ is positioning Zephyr as a way toﾃつ "give parents a tool to force a discussion with their kid."
ﾃつ Forced discussions are of course always so productive…in reality it is probably safe to say that with most similar issues, the parents who are involved and have positive relationships with their children won’t need to be "forced" and those whose relationships and involvementﾃつ with their kids put their kids most at risk, cannot be "forced."
And then you have situations such as the kidnapping of Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby in Missouri where there were Missouri; there were no neglectful parents, no online social networks; just victims and predator. 2 teenage sons. I have Iﾃつ I live in the town next to Kirkwood Missouri with my two teenage sons. I have replayed in my ain the thought that mind the fact that Michael Devlin was employed in a pizza place that I have been in;ﾃつ that I have actually encouraged by kids to walk places in our neighborhood (fortunately, it seems now, they prefer to be driven everywhere).
Danah Boyd has a visual on a post about the fact that for all the talk about on-line predators, there isn’t enough attention being paid to the fact that greatest number of sexual predators are in the most intimate relationships with the children that they abuse…..parents, relatives, household members: 95% of abusers are family members, 79% are parents and 5% are not those other than family members.
This is one frightening pie chart.
ﾃつ She references an article by Pete Reilly that provides some interesting data regarding an unfortunate outcome of concerns about online sexual abuse of children, restrictions of the use of educational technology tools and online resources.
So….back to my original question: Does Zephyr, or any parental surveillance tool, address the problem of on line sexual predators? Well, just off the top of my head, there are many activities that parents should monitor, both online and off. In my experience as a child and as a parent, monitoring is most effective as part of an involved, attentive relationship; trust is the currency of a positive relationship. In my opinion, surveillance tools violate trust.
Online sexual predators are but one risk online; sexual predators in terms of sheer numbers are lurking off line rather than on; ironically it seems based upon the data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data Systems that parents themselves are frequently the predators.ﾃつ
The code name for the software is Zephyr although not sure of the relationship between the god of the west wind and protecting kids from online predators. Perhaps parental surveillance tools as it relates to online sexual predators is much like shouting into the {west} wind; less shouting more listening, better outcome.
From a marketing perspective, for MySpace this seems like a lose-lose; alienate your core audience with an empty gesture.
Tags: MySpace, Zephyr, sexual predators, online sexual predators, Pete Reilly, Danah Boyd, Marianne Richmond, Shawn Hornbeck, Ben Ownby
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Trust in User Generated Content: Youth Say Yes, Adults Say No
Forrester has released a new study that says that although three fourths of on line adults access user generated content their confidence in the content is declining; conversely, the over 90% of on line youth that access user generated content indicate that their trust in the content is increasing.
Forrester’s report on Social Computing concluded that technology had made the top down model obsolete, that value was in experience not ownership, and that power was shifting from institutions to communities. This report spoke of connected buyers with less brand loyalty, less trust in institutions and more reliance on peer-to-peer networks and user generated content.
User generated content is proliferating. Trust is important. Brad Feld in a post called, Its The Trust Stupid says there are three principles for user generated content, trust, attention and relevance.
So if trust in user generated content among adults is declining but increasing among the young what does this mixed message mean?
Here is some of the available data on user generated content among the young and among adults:
Teens Create Content: An earlier study by Intelliseek indicated that Teens lead all segments in the creation of CGM; almost 30% of teens send photos via mobile devices, 45% have created a blog, and almost 10% subside to RSS feeds.
Young consumers rely on friends and families for purchase recommendations:
According to an earlier Forrester study, 50% of youth rely on advice from those they know and 65% report giving recommendations or information regarding products to others.
Social Networking sites are user generated content. YouTube users add 35,000 videos each day and viewers view 30 million videos each day according to Newsweek.
My Space is the 7th most popular English language website. If you need more data, see If You Don’t Get MySpace, You’re a Lametard at Mashable! or The Site That Ate the Blogosphere at Mobile Jones and Blogher.
MMOG (Massive Multi-Player Online Games) are user generated content. Participation is growing dramatically. There are 10 million people playing. They defy any preconceived demos one might have about gamers being young and male. Games such as Second Life The Sims, or The Movies are driven by the creation of user generated content. Included in the content development tools of MMOG is advertising. Players have the ability to put up their own advertising in the games such as promotions of in-game events or businesses.
Forbes reports that Mind Ark, creator of Project Entropia, and the first advertising tool built into a game has announced a collaboration with the distributors of ads from Coca-Cola and Warner Brothers that will appear in over 100 games. Clickable Culture reports that the Coca-Cola "will make its first official appearance at a live music event as part of the corporations sponsorship of the event’s real-world counterpart." OK, I admit…I am a little confused here between the real world and the counterpart; nonetheless, user generated advertising content is part of the real world and part of this virtual world. Something like life imitating art, imitating life imitating art….Coke’s tagline becomes the virtual thing?
Politicians bypass the mainstream media and turn to blogs: According to the Salt Lake Tribune and increasing number of politicians are using blogs to provide information directly with their constituents. However, a trust warning is included, "Of course as blogs spread, readers need to understand what they are seeing and what is behind it…when searching for information on a candidate or a lawmaker, readers should be wary of what site they peruse because some information may be missing our skewed….some of these blogs are controlled by parties or by parties or by political candidates." Yep, just like that other media source that we don’t trust.
User generated advertising seems to be everywhere. It is used by Jet Blue, Sony, MasterCard, Converse, and Tahoe. Results and opinions are mixed.
Consumer generated health and medical content have and important influence on decisions:A study by Cybercitizen Health (r) v5.0 indicates that consumers are increasing
relying on the Internet for health care decisions. They report a market of 99 million US adults. The Pew Internet & American Life Project confirms that direction but indicates that 52 million Americans or 55% of adults with Internet access use the Internet to get health or medical information. Regardless, the numbers are huge.
Importantly, Cybercitizen Health reports that there are a "small group of health
consumers (20 million)" that have tremendous influence on those using the Internet for health information. They speak of a "zone of influence, ranging from spouses, children and elderly parents to extended family and friends. In fact, other health consumers are very
likely to seek out advice from this group of highly influential health consumers, who are more likely than the average consumer to be using interactive media such as the Internet."
An aside, GE Healthcare joins and sponsors the delivery of consumer generated health care content. See also GE Imagination at Work.
So…there are many more data points indicating an increasing reliance on consumer generated content which doesn’t track with the reported decrease in trust among adults…at least as yet. In fact, a increase in reliance on user generated medical advice would indicate that adults are trusting the advice of their peers with something quite valuable….although a decline in trust measurement might precede an actual change in behavior.
The marketers who get the importance that consumers place upon the recommendations and opinions of their peers combined with the extent of the connections are already building new relationships with consumers and revising their marketing to foster collaboration and participation.
Clarence Fischer of Remote Access while drawing some comparisons between MMOG and classroom learning makes an interesting point about what makes these games
successful, "For a game to be successful, the secret is often not to make the game better, but to make the community which surrounds the game better. Empower them. Give them responsiblities and the power to personalize their experience." This might also be applied to marketing within the context of social computing.
Cory Treffiletti says that user generated content is a viable ad medium and makes the point that once a brand is in the public domain it belongs to the consumer, is controled by the consumer, and if they are provided with a sense of ownership for the brand and the ability to provide input that is responded to, will be a successful brand; if not the brand will suffer the consequences. He refers to this as brand democratization and says it is the wave of the future.
Technorati Tags: consumer generated content, consumer generated media, marketing, advertising, media, social computing, trust, MMOG, MySpace, blogs, advertising,
Blog Stalking Parents…Fair Game?
The Weekend Journal has an article about yet another innovative way to join the blogosphere, spying on your children. Big Mother is Watching (available by subscription) tells of a mother (unfortunately working "outside the home" as a marketing consultant….giving marketing consultants and mothers a bad name) who caught her daughter behaving badly by monitoring her blog….the mother said she would not read her daughter’s diary if it were in her room but inasmuch as her daughter was telling the world via the Internet, blog stalking her daughter’s activities seemed totally OK.
Well, I have two adolescent kids and would have to say that if they had blogs, just like the rest of us, they should understand that anything that they write would be available for the world to read. The world of a teenage blogger could include parents, grandparents, teachers and of course, their peers. If this is not obvious, this might be a good thing to add to our parental repertoire of warnings!
Now, the next paragraph of the WSJ article goes on to say that the mother, after her initial blog discovery went on to put various spying software programs on her computers and now spends 30 minutes a day monitoring her daughter’s activities. 30 minutes a day spying on her daughter! Maybe she should take 30 minutes a day to hang out with her daughter to find out what she is up to. The Journal had a little sub-section on the necessary tools for spying on ones children on-line. What a tangled web!
The Pew statistics say that 19% of 12-17 year olds, 4mm kids, who use the Internet, have a blog. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has recently published FAQs for Student Blogging that discusses legal issues associated with blogging but also points out that it would be a good idea to remember that a blog is not a private diary that is kept in ones room….discretion is the better part of valor.
OK, there have been various "on-line" incidents, with my kids….all of the IM variety. I don’t particularly appreciate that they try to minimize the screen when I enter the room. I try to keep an eye on it and I lecture them far more than they want to hear. My standard monologue is mostly don’t IM anything that you wouldn’t say out loud, if everyone you knew including your parents were listening.
I also have told them of discussions among their friend’s parents who DO keep monitoring devices on their computers… and even though I don’t, someone else’s Big Mother could be listening. I have also told them about one of my friend’s whose son was in my son’s class who would get on her son’s IM account and blithely pretend to be him. I hope that they are listening to me. If not, the IMs will end. I do not want to be a spy.
As far as blogging is concerned, they don’t blog. They think it is stupid that I do…and there you have it as far as that goes. My older son tells me there is a kid in his class who blogs…he says he is kind of "depressed" and writes depressing things; he says he has very high readership. Niches are important.
Technorati Tags: teenage_bloggers, parents, IMs, spy_, software
Expectation and Customer Experience
This post has two purposes. The first is to discuss expectation and our overall customer experience as determined by customer service or tech support. Probably that is the experience you are expecting based upon the title. The second, is to test what I have now called, the Mystery of the Technorati Tags. The Technorati Tag Mystery does ultimately relate to expectation theory and customer experience, as those of us who have needed tech support from Typepad or Technorati understand.
Businesses seem to forget the value of the post-purchase experience where frequently we make a decision to end our relationships with products and services. It is the customers most valuable recourse against a bad experience and should be viewed by businesses as such..ending the pain of customer/tech support hell is in in the hands of the customer. It can also end the relationship.
However,we are talking about the expectation of a bad experience not it’s value. So, simply put, expectation is what is considered the most likely outcome. In mathematical terms, expectation is expected value, which" is the sum of the probability of each possible outcome of the experiment multiplied by its payoff ("value")." This is usually demonstrated by a roulette wheel.
For customer experience, we formulate expectations of the experience based upon many variables such as previous experiences with the business, previous experiences with similar businesses, or things that we have been told or read about the business.
Our investment is our time and in the case of paid tech support, money. So, in a sense when we initiate the customer support encounter, we are rolling a roulette wheel where the odds of winning, problem solved, are based upon how many spokes (variables) give us reason to expect a positive outcome versus how many give us reason to expect a negative outcome. There are all kinds of different permutations of this…we expect a really bad experience and it isn’t as bad as we expected; we decide it was a good experience by virtue of being not as bad as we expected. However, rather than belabor this….my point is simply this: the expectation of a bad service experience influences the purchase decision. We weigh many variables in our purchase decisions but if we are at Best Buy looking for a new laptop and we have spent way too much time on the phone in the past with Toshiba with less than satisfactory results, that laptop is going to have to have many positive attributes to make me consider buying it. The most convincing trade-off is typically price. If the price is low enough I might devalue the expectation of poor customer service. If there is not enough to offset my expectations, I will purchase another brand. And, look at the inverse….I might even pay more for another brand based upon a positive experience that is now a positive expectation. For services, cell phones, cable, legal or our attorney, accountant, or even our therapist…negative experiences, post purchase make us receptive to competitive messages….our relationship with the brand or service who has put us into expectation high alert is a dead man walking; we might grant a stay of execution for a price but it will only be temporary.
Now, let’s discuss Typepad. or their full name, WaitingforTypepad. Typepad tech support is an oxymoron. Besides my own blog, I have several other accounts. Several clients and my son’s 7th grade parents’ blog. I have had questions and issues on all of them. My experiences with tech support has been uniformly bad. There seems to be an elaborate entire system designed to avoid fixing problems and answering questions. Easy or difficult…nothing gets answered in the first contact. I am totally in the expectation of bad experience paradigm and as soon as I find an alternative, I will leave the Pad. It is not my Type. Even the buy one year, get one year free offer, which initially made sense, is not enough to convince me that I should waste my time seeking service. I’ll pay month to month and wait for an alternative. Anyone listening? Didn’t think so…
And Technorati? Well, I guess their theory is that you can’t have a bad experience if you don’t have one at all. I am still waiting. My mystery of the Technorato tags? Well, I just tried another recommended fix. We shall see. Business Blog Consulting just posted that they are sick of Typepad. A non answer from Typepad was posted. LOW expectations!
Technorati Tags: Typepad, Customer_experience,
Typepad
Typepad has become the source of dissatisfaction for many bloggers lately…and the subject of many blog posts that express the dissatisfaction. Business Blog Consulting has three such posts which highlight the problems and offer positive suggestions including a "business class" of service and limiting new subscribers until the infrastructure can support it. I believe they are promoting with a buy one give one offer…why promote a flawed product? I think they should consider ending promotional offers and closing subscriptions and fix the issues.
This should become standard company policy and is good business sense. We all know what happens when we over commit…..things don’t get done right and no one is happy. Further, we lose the trust and confidence that our clients and customers had in us. The equity that we worked long and hard to earn is diminished…and value decreases much more quickly than it increases. Mostly no one is bashing or trashing Typepad….bloggers are asking that the issues be acknowledged, addressed and fixed. There are exceptions.
On top of the infrasctructure problems summed up by Raving Lunacy, "When it takes longer to post than it does to type"…and the lack of crisis control communication from Six Apart, there is the problem in the trenches of customer support. You state your problem and everything you know about it in an email. They respond with a request for more specifics. You give them the information that they say they need thinking that they intend to provide a solution, they then reply with a request for more information…sometimes they then refer you to the "how to" section of the instruction manual which you have all ready tried, you wonder why they asked for the additional information…you try and point this out…they then ask different questions. It is an endless loop, seemingly designed to avoid providing a solution with the illusion of support in the form of questions.
What a waste of everyone’s time. And I am not blaming the customer support staff….this too is an infrastructure problem; get more support staff, train them to own and solve issues and reward them for solving issues not writing emails. Customer satisfaction is directly related to employee satisfaction….something is not working here.
As Toby Bloomberg posted on Diva Marketing , " Growth without a plan that includes customer communications can cost you significantly in terms of good will and lost customers." Typepad needs to align people, strategy, and technology….Mihaly Csilszentmihaly, the father of Flow, wrote in Good Business that, a valuable product or service is one that customers perceive, rightly or wrongly, make them happy. No one is very happy with Typepad right now…the product or the service.
Technorati Tags: Type_Pad
Empathy 101
This morning’s WSJ had an article titled "Teaching Doctor’s To Be Nicer". I’ve linked to it, but since it is a subscription site, for those who can’t get to it, the point was that medical schools are offering students classes on professionalism, empathy, and communication skills. Mostly the article focuses on examples relating to the "callous" behavior by doctors towards patients in hospitals that medical students observe. Educators note this poor modeling as:
"the negative messages medical students get in
front-line, residency training that seem to contradict everything they
had been taught about ethical behavior, compassionate care and
professionalism. Researchers say the most powerful influence on future
physicians is the behavior they observe on a day-to-day basis in the
medical-school environment. And what they often learn is how to be
cold, intimidating, authoritarian, narrow-minded and disrespectful of
subordinates and patients."
I would like to note that I cannot comment from personal experience in hospitals…fortunately. However, I can comment about the bad manners of doctors from personal experience in waiting rooms as my 9AM appointment is "shared" (aka triple booked) with others because our time is valued less that the doctors
….oh, I know we are told that we wait because the doctor had a medical emergency, a problem patient and so on; check their appointment book!
OK, so the point is customer service, customer relationships, customer experience. Yes, I think it applies to doctors, also. I also think most doctors don’t view their patients as customers. However, if medical schools are offering courses in "professionalism, empathy, and communication skills" someone must be thinking in this direction. When business people talk about poor customer service and poor customer experiences we might use the very sentence "cold, intimidating, authoritarian, narrow minded and disrespectful of subordinates and customers {patients}…not patience, what customers are euphemistically thanked for instead of "thank you for putting up with our rude, inconsiderate, and non-empathetic behavior. Lawyers, I will note are another group of professionals who would benefit from a customer service focus.
The article goes on to mention that there is growing criticism that medical students were not adequately prepared for the changing health care environment where patients "are demanding better communications, concerned with slipshod care, medical errors and patient safety are eroding their trust in doctors". I think what we are talking about is that patients, or consumers of health care, have access to not only medical information and current research but also access to information about medical errors making them better informed, more demanding consumers. (We won’t discuss the the ever circling trial lawyers within the context of this post.)
I think what all this really means is that patients are customers and doctors are professional service providers….and that just as the bar has been raised by consumers/customers of products and services who demand positive experiences and service in exchange for their loyalty and trust, patient/customers are demanding more from their doctors. And the corollary is, if markets are conversations among people/customers then a large dose of empathy and empathetic listening will lead to better relationships for businesses and doctors.
So, now here is the real question: Are things really changing? We read and write about customer focus, creating positive customer experiences. We are now even making doctors learn to be nice. We blog our complaints about this bad customer experience and that bad customer service…we even have conferences on Word of Mouth vs. Advertising that debate this.
But, it still seems to me that if I posted all my close encounters in just one week with the wide world of self proclaimed customer centric corporations: Sprint, Charter Communications, Geico I wouldn’t be telling a different tale than I would have before the Age of Customer Centricity was officially declared…except that now before we receive a bad customer experience we are assured by a recorded voice that tells us "for quality purposes this call is being recorded" (WHAT does that mean anyway?) and then after we receive a bad customer experience we are asked to particpate in a customer {dis} satsifaction survey. I mean, all the data is recorded but into what pneumatic tube does it go ????? Maybe if we added a little emphathy into the customer conversation we would be better customers and providers and have better relationships.
As Jennifer Rice says on "What’s Your Brand Mantra?", All companies are people companies. She goes on to say that what is needed is new people practices not new business practices…"If weﾃ｢竄ｬ邃｢re all
really honest with ourselves, what we really need are psychologists and coaches
and relationship experts". Now where is that Empathy 101 signup?
More Sleaze from Banfield Pet Inhospitable
After being subjected to the attempted deceptive Wellness Plan tactics at Banfield Pet on Thursday and having them abuse my cat earlier today, I opened today’s mail to find yet another example of their tactics. After repeatedly telling them that I was not renewing their plan today’s letter informed me that my credit card was approaching its expiration date and that they needed the new expiration date for my card to continue to use my card for my wellness plan payments.
Hel-lo…..you need my permission to continue to use my credit card which you do not have. My credit card does in fact have an end of August expiration date but fortunately it turns out, it also has a new credit card number since I never received the new card. I assume the number change is the problem that they are having using my credit card…I am guessing that an expiration date wouldn’t have stopped them from charging my card for continuing their Wellness Plan beyond my cancellation request.
My favorite part? "It’s our vision to treat your Pet like family, and we thank you for entrusting your Pet’s health to us." Their vision is my pet and my family’s nightmare. Apparently their tag-line is "Treating Your Pet Like Family". They must have some crazy family!
As an aside, when we adopted one of our cats the adoption people suggested that we have a RFID tag implanted so she would not get lost but not to use the one’s from Banfield because they didn’t "work". A google search for RFID turns up lots of interesting information on this Banfield fiasco…it seems Banfiel’s RFID tags couldn’t be read by the animal shelters . Whoops!
Ban Banfield Pet Hospital
My son suggested the title for this post….On Thursday, I knew I would be writing a post about Banfield Pet Hospital that would discuss their poor customer service and the misleading tactics that they use for their so called Wellness Plan. Yesterday, when their corporate staff seemed willing to right the situation I imagined a different post. TODAY’s post that I am actually writing is about the completely unacceptable treatment of our cat, TJ.
A brief search of the Internet uncovered quite a few complaints about the Wellness Plan, bad service, misleading tactics and mistreatment of animals. This is what happened to us.
We purchased a Wellness Plan last year when we adopted TJ. Over the course of the year, the plan hardly seemed worth the price plus importantly the care at Banfield at Sunset Hills, Mo. was of questionable quality. I informed them on a visit there on 6/26 that I was not renewing the plan. I watched them enter that in the computer. Nonetheless, several weeks later they called and inquired about the renewal and I again told them, no thanks. They REALLY push those plans! If only they treated pets with the same passion that they used for selling products and plans.
A postcard arrived from them postmarked 7/22 informing me to bring TJ on 8/4 for a comprehensive exam, vaccinations, and 2 tests ALL of which the postcard told me were covered by the plan I had all ready paid for this year. It couldn’t have been stated more clearly. So…I took sweet fat TJ in on 8/4. Heather, a Banfield employee immediately informed me that my plan with Banfield had actually expired on 8/4 and that my charges for these services would be $173.00. Huh? I come in for services that they have told me are covered by a plan I have all ready paid for on the day they set up for me to come in and they tell me I missed the expiration day?? Suffice it to say the conversation with Heather deteriorated from there! I left with TJ.
A message awaited me upon my arrival at home…yes of course they had my cell phone number. Heather informed me that maybe they could cover the worm test. I went to the web site and got the corporate phone number, called Sunset Hills back and said I was giving them one more chance before I called their corporate office. They gave me the phone number of their "customer advocacy" department. I called, stated my issues and faxed off a confirming note with the postcard attached.
Several hours later I received a phone call from Aaron who said this was his responsibility and at the end of our conversation agreed to honor the postcard and to set this up at another Ban field. I was not interested in returning to Sunset Hills. And that would have been the end….
This morning I took J into another Ban field location on Manchester Road and there the real problems began. First of all, they also tried to charge me for the services but that eventually got straightened out. I left J with an uneasy feeling. About 2 hours later they called and matter of factly informed me that TJ was ready to be picked up and that I should be sure and bring his carrier because he had gotten so upset that he had defecated on himself and they would not be able to clean him up.
Upset at what? TJ has been to the vet many times and though he doesn’t like it, he has never gotten "upset"…I asked more questions. What do you mean you can’t clean him up? He is so upset they said that he is trying to bite us. OK, TJ has NEVER been upset, never bitten anyone. They tell me I should come immediately. As my kids would say, "DUH!" Needless to say, I was furious and worried. What had they done to TJ?
Well, we arrived at Banfield they took the carrier and returned with TJ inside. He smelled like you know what but this cat was not angry and not looking like he was going to bite. I can only hypothesize about what kind of treatment he got and can only pray that there will not be repercussions for our sweet cat.
As my son Sam said: Ban Banfield…or at least be warned! They cannot be trusted with your pet.
Pew Charitable Trust Gives US Media Mixed Reviews
The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in a June survey found that most Americans say they like the mainstream media while questioning their patriotism and fairness which they say is consistent with prior surveys.
Also, they found that 1/3 of Americans below the age of 40 say that the internet is their main source for news…including reading on-line editions of local and national newspapers.
So…we apparently like the mainstream media even through we feel that it is biased and unpatriotic. Is this yet another paradox of modern life or do the circulation numbers tell the story more accurately? The Long Tail on April 10, 2005 posted a list of the extent of the mainstream media meltdowm.
One Size Fits All Coaching
More unbelievable promises from the One Size Fits all Land of Coaching Can Do…and unfortunately from some well respected people in the world of coaching. I opened up my email today and found the latest Coaching Insider. There was an offer for a free report in one of the columns, Coaching Any Owner in Any Business". I see way too much of this and it sends me right up on my soapbox.
C’mon, no exceptions? Any business? Any owner? No credibility right from the start. Then as I clicked on through the
program, I came to something that promised a little less, "How to Coach
Business Clients in Most Situations" 
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