A small team of Boredom-Fighters invaded San Francisco this week to spread our message of clutter-busting creative and metrics-based marketing to conference rooms all around the Bay Area. As soon as we exited the plane, it was apparent we weren’t in Texas anymore. Every ad we saw at the airport and every billboard lining the 101 shared one common message: Cloud.

As we made the drive from San Francisco to San Jose and back again, we began a dialogue about the irony of spending large budgets on tying a message to physical real estate when the message is about freeing yourself from just those kinds of restraints.

One look at our client list, and it’s clear that the Cloud is a space we’re very comfortable operating; however, you won’t see our work on a billboard. Doesn’t it make more sense to harness the power of the web and the ability to appear where your audience is rather than waiting for them to come to you?

We think so. We call it Retargeting, but really it’s just common sense. With a topic as nebulous as the cloud, it takes more than a 6 second drive by to hammer the message home.

http://twitpic.com/8kct2n
http://twitter.com/#!/CiscoSecurity/status/37521175584186369

The word escalation. We’ve been told our issue has been escalated and that sounds really good. “Finally,” we thought, “someone is finally going to solve this problem.” Well, it turns out our definition and AT&Ts definition of “escalation” might be different. Our definition means to skip through the red tape and right a wrong. AT&T, however, seems to use the word as a training tool or red flag. When they escalate something it means “report this to the higher ups so we can avoid this mistake in the future.” Based on AT&T’s actions escalation is more about passing the buck than solving problems in the now.

(As an aside, our issue has now been escalated to these three offices, which you’d think could turn around and get our problem fixed in days not weeks or months: a Director of eaMIS Provisioning, a Director of External Affairs, and the Office of the President (not Obama).)

After a quick call today we learned that our install is “complex” even though the local engineer that did a site visit said is was going to be an “easy” installation. So, someone at AT&T is wrong. Without question we know several people at AT&T have their heads buried in the sand.

Oh, last but not least. We are moving to Verizon mobile hotspots next Thursday, because our landlord is dropping us from his loaner bandwidth. It’s not their fault. They’ve been extremely generous.

This just keeps getting better. Thank you, AT&T. You’re the best!

So, if you are planning to move your business in the next six months you need to call AT&T and start the process of moving your Internet service TODAY. If six months lead time sounds ridiculous to you don’t worry. You are normal. Six months lead time is bat crazy.

We don’t have another option at our current location. If you have options you should seriously consider someone other than AT&T as your Internet service provider.

Shane, our CTO, is doing his best to work with AT&T and resolve the issue. He’s a saint and remarkable restrained and level headed.

The rest of us have run out of patience and know the impact of AT&T’s poor service is costing us business. It’s literally ruining our business, while AT&T pays us lip service. Here we are two weeks after being told by @ATTCustomerCare they could resolve our issue and all we have to show for it is a installation date over 60 days in the future. They don’t care about America’s small business owners.

Feb. 6: We tried to cut AT&T some slack, but no more. They make promises they can’t keep–even seemingly small promises. “We’ll have an installation date for you on Friday.” That was Friday, February 3rd. There seems to be no end in sight. Sourcing Verizon hotspots. It’d be faster than the service we’re getting from AT&T.

Feb. 1: This was heard at the office today. “Oh, we saw your blog post about AT&T.” It was a comment made by a VLG prospect currently selling software that helps companies with reputation management and protection online. Irony.

January 31: It will be one week tomorrow since @ATTCustomerCare told us they could resolve our issue. We expected to (been promised) receive an install date from AT&T “on or before Friday,” which is excellent news. This would solve half our problem. Not knowing has caused us to remain in a sort of Internet no-man’s-land.

Week end Update: Okay, I have an update. Let me just say that my decision to shun big companies after getting my MBA was a good call. It’s really not fair to the people trying to resolve this issue if what they are telling us is true–assume it is. Think about this: orders generate tokens; tokens are needed for provisioning; get site visit; provisioning tells the network thingamabob how much bandwidth (10MB) we get at the office; change something technical over there; change something technical over here, flip the switch; log into Facebook. That’s pretty straight forward.

Here’s the problem. Our order was not placed when “we” thought the order was placed, which means a token wasn’t created. Because a token wasn’t created, provisioning never started. Because provisioning never started we need to find a way to generate a token. Problem identified and solved, right? Not really. See, AT&T is having trouble creating a token now that the order’s placed that will “flow through”.

“This was not an error on anyone’s part,” she said. “There is something in our system that is rejecting the token.” (I don’t know or care what that means or why it is my problem, but I appreciate the honesty and openness. I do. No sarcasm.) “Tokens are attached to orders that the provisioning group uses and for some reason this token isn’t flowing through,” she said.

Okay, valid. However, for the first time today–the first time ever–we were told the process could take up to 120 days. Not just in this particular case, but should any prospective AT&T customer want Ethernet service they would wait a minimum of 85 days and a purported maximum of 120 days for installation. Whoa, what? We also found out we’re actually in Verizon’s coverage area, [insert legal stuff that makes this possible] but AT&T is able to sell to us. It does add a layer of bureaucracy to the process. By small business standards 85, 100, 120 days is an eternity.

There are now no fewer than six AT&T people directly–and probably more indirectly–engaged to help us get back on track. Their efforts on our behalf have not gone unnoticed. The ticket has been escalated to a level 5 [maybe 6] person at AT&T. For those of us that don’t work at AT&T that is their director level.

We suggested a quick fix that AT&T should be able to do next week. We’ve asked them to increase our landlord’s bandwidth by 10MB until they are able to get ours installed. [Reminder: we have a very giving landlord that has helped us, but can't help us anymore.] Hope the folks at AT&T have the flexibility to implement a creative solution.

Check back in next week for another update. Please feel free to comment below. Johnathan, Robert, Tammy, Sandy, and Geri thanks for your help. Fingers crossed for a resolution next week.

Update #2: We’ve exchanged several calls with several folks at AT&T. It’s clear we are now getting the attention we expected to receive way back in November 2011. Although the issue is as yet unresolved we seem to be moving in the right direction. Now if we could just get that service turned on life would be golden. Expect an update by EoD Friday.

Update: Just off the phone with AT&T. Must say that after many, many calls and emails over the past two months this was by far the best customer service experience to date. Optimistic…

Twitter feed: AT&T replied to our tweets. Let you know how this process goes. Fingers crossed.

Our original blog post:

It safe to say that AT&T is our number one obstacle to greater success and growth at VLG. Will online customer service trump the offline variety. Only time will tell. Check here for updates.

Our story

We just moved. We request service before the move. AT&T has a monopoly in our area and we have no other option. We are completely handcuffed until AT&T installs our service. Our neighbors have been kind enough to let us mooch off of them, but they have to throttle us to protect their own business operations–completely understandable.

AT&T doesn’t respect our business or take us seriously. If they did we would not be passed around as much as a, well, let me stop there. Safe to say we’ve talked to at least nine people at AT&T that are powerless and incapable of action. Seriously, no exaggeration. How bad does their life suck? How do you get up in the morning?

So here is where we sit, waiting for our Internet service. We’ve now been told that our service order placed in Nov. 2011 was not submitted. They now proudly take credit for creating the service request Friday, but we’re told the 85 day window for installation started this week. The 60 days between the day we place the order (Nov. 2011) and this past Monday apparently don’t count. We are at the back of the queue. What a disappointment.

Have you heard? 37signals is working on the next version of Basecamp cleverly dubbed Basecamp Next. Set to launch in early 2012 the announcement is either further evidence that Fried and DHH have way, way too much time on their hands, or they’ve seen the future and it is Next. Maybe it’s a little bit of both.

Tinkering with a business tool like Basecamp could create real problems for the folks up in Chicago. Up until now we haven’t really had a reason to evaluate competing products, a fact one of our customers, a 37signals competitor, would welcome. Rolling out Basecamp Next is just such a reason.

As we ponder our 2012 strategy at VLG, the thought that we’ll see a bump in productivity while the team gets acquainted with whatever Next looks and feels like gives us pause. Maybe it’s time to explore other options. Maybe it’s time to reassess how we use Basecamp. Or, should we just sit back and see what’s next?

If what Marketing Sherpa says is true, the average B2B deal size is shrinking. The conclusion they’ve drawn is tantamount to “lazy salesman” syndrome. (See this blog post.) They must have polled marketing managers. Would it be shocking if sales tried to close deals that are easier to close. No, and this year differs little than any other on that front. Depending on a companies compensation structure I’d say what we see is not sales taking the easy way out, but that complex deals are taking longer to close for a couple reason.

The first would be prospects propensity to perhaps over evaluate a capital or long-term expenditure. In this economy the pressure NOT to screw up a big spend is very real. Uncertainty has a funny way of causing more research and evaluation.

The second cause is an increased number of stakeholders involved in every decision. This will grind any sales cycle to a halt, or at least slow things down a bit. We see this reflected on the marketing front. More and more VLG clients are including “key” decision makers in everything from messaging to the art itself. More stakeholders equals longer build out of marketing programs equals slower roll out of marketing initiatives equals fewer number of sales opportunities.

If only we could blame sales for being lazy. Everything is more complex than it seems.

We’re growing moustaches. Well, not all of us are growing moustaches. The ladies have a pass on this one. Much to the chagrin of our better halves this place has turned into a din of upper lip frivolity. Nothing funny about prostate cancer, but a bunch of dudes letting their inner manly-man grow is good for a chuckle.

Want to get serious about beating the living mess out of cancer? Put down the razor and pick up the check book (or credit card). Visit http://TeamTexican.com to support the Movember movement. Give a dollar, $5, $10, whatever. Every little bit helps the cause.

Thanks for helping change the face of men’s health.

Let’s say you went to Lands’ End’s website preparing for winter by ordering a beefy flannel shirt, but you abandon the site before making a purchase. Lands’ End would love nothing more than to have you return, complete the order and maybe add a pair of woolies to the order. But you are gone.

Ah, but along comes retargeting. You know those fancy travel websites that buy up empty hotel rooms so they can be sold last minute for bargain rates? That’s kind of like retargeting. Media buyers gobble up unsold ad space all over the Internet. Online magazines and newspapers, blogs, forums, you name it. Those “leftovers” are used to display advertisements. Leftovers is an undersell, because you can get placed on some pretty well-to-do websites with retargeting.

Back to Lands’ End. While on their website they dropped a cookie on you. (A little clue that lets them know you stopped by for a visit.) You visit another website like wired.com or travel.com. Lo’ and behold there is a banner ad for Lands’ End. What a coincidence! You were just thinking about buying a flannel shirt. You click the banner ad placed in front of you by retargeting, return to Lands’ End, and buy the shirt. That’s retargeting at its best.

To wrap up this novella let me say that retargeting isn’t just for retailers. Retargeting is great for B2B marketers and a brilliant tie-in for a VLG direct marketing program. Next time you talk to Brett, Rafael, Lee, Greg or Coley make sure you ask about retargeting. Mail will get them to the web, a microsite will educate and qualify them, and retargeting will bring ‘em back.

Farber’s post is a little crass, but does make a strong argument. I’ve watched the news and one thing is clear, the protestors don’t care for Wall Street. Not the street, but I think Wall Street as the embodiment of what they believe to be capitalism run amuck. Maybe Farber is being too hard on them.

The pro-protest blog post was written by Critithinker. The fact that the author remained anonymous kind of proves several points made in Farber’s post, isn’t the lack of corporate transparency part of the problem? Critithinker believes old school marketing could learn a few things from OWS, or the “movement”.

We’re not about to jump in on one side or the other. To be honest, both make valid arguments for the use of old and new approaches to marketing. If they work together you might truly see something new and different we could all use to sell not just social exasperation, but products and services as well. I just don’t want OVLG; no reason to Occupy VLG for helping companies who’s shares trade on Wall Street. We’re just trying to pay our mortgages, keep the lights on and create jobs.

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Social media, or Twitter specifically, has a way of getting away from you. We recommend you keep your approach as simple as possible so you don’t lose control. Keep you Tweets relevant. Keep your followers relevant. Be a resource your own followers to deliver at least one nugget of useful information a month.

Here’s a list of people and companies we follow. Or, you can just follow @wefightboredom and you’ll likely see retweets of the best content from this group of talented marketing professionals. We curate content for you so you’re not awash in random Tweets. The best part? It’s free.