A lesson in reputation management:
Last night I was driving away from the Local Search Summit Conference with Mr. David Mihm, local search whiz, when I noticed that I had a flat tire. As luck would have it I stopped the car right in front of Tate Family Complete Auto Care at 477 Market St. in San Jose, CA 95113. David checked the door to the store but it was locked. We were about to change the tire but the traffic was pretty busy so I got in and pulled the car into the driveway in front of the Tate Family Complete Auto Care garage, which we noticed was open with a light on inside.
Not eager to change a flat with a guest in the car, I walked into the garage and inquired if they had one of those Tire Inflator kits to temporarily fix the leak, to which the guy at the desk, which was stocked with car repair stuff, replied “Sorry, we’re closed”. I told the guy “no problem” and walked back out to the driveway to start jacking up the car.
After a bit of comical effort by Mr. Mihm and myself trying to take the hubcap off, the guy walks out of the garage and in a kind of pissed voice asks what we are doing to which I replied “changing my flat tire”.
The guy then says in an angry voice that I should take my car down the street to Wheel Works and get out of his driveway. I respond that I have a flat tire - and it was totally flat - and that I was just going to change it and be on my way. He then tells me, again in an angry tone, that a customer is on their way and they will need to get their car and I have to get out of his driveway.
Now I have no problem with the guy asking me to get out of his driveway, even if there was plenty of room for his customer to get by and even if I had a flat. It’s his driveway after all and he can set the rules. I do have a problem with him immediately treating myself and Mr. Mihm as Gitmo refugees when we were clearly in need of some help from someone who specializes in I don’t know, auto care. If the guy really wanted us to move all he had to do was ask nicely, or at least not in a threatening way. I would have gladly moved the car, even though driving on a flat tire is a great way to screw up your wheel. But unfortunately the guy had to be a complete jerk.
So what do you think a small business online reputation management enthusiast does when confronted with this kind of unwarranted hostility?
I almost said to the guy “Dude trust me, you really don’t want to do this.”
If you are the owner of this business I’d like you to think about what my interaction with you says about your company. Do you think if I was closed for the day and a guy knocked on my door telling me their site had lost its rankings that I would treat him that way? If you really cared about Auto Care and if you really had family values like your name is trying to imply, I think your guy (or maybe it was you) might have taken a different tone.
Now I am a forgiving person so Mr. or Ms. Tate, all you have to do is apologize in the comment section of this blog and email me at localseo at localseoguide.com with your contact info and I’ll see what I can do about those nettlesome reviews. Oh and you may want to fix the broken promotions page on your site (sorry no link for you bub).
BTW we drove down the road a couple of blocks and found Dynamic Audio at 599 S. Market St. They were awesome. They lent us a power jack and filled my spare with air. I highly recommend you check them out for all of you car audio in San Jose needs.
39 responses so far ↓
1 Steve // Aug 14, 2009 at 9:39 am
That. is. *hilarious*!
I can see myself having gone through that experience and later do the exact same thing - destroy that business on the internets! LOL
Someone with decent SEO/SEM experience - and, to a degree, *anyone* who decides to rant against a company online - can certainly make an impact on a business’ internet presence as you’ve demonstrated very well here.
I’ve almost done the same thing in two different occasions when I was cut off by guys driving plainly marked COMPANY VEHICLES - one subsequently giving me the finger and the other ramming his middle finger up his left nostril…
I was mighty tempted to destroy their companies online, but fortunately for them I got distracted and didn’t bother.
But I’m always waiting and eager for some business to piss me off so I can use the past 9+ years of SEO and past 20 years of internet experience to completely destroy them online.
Not because I’d want to.. but because I’d *have* to. heh
BTW, I just checked Google for the name of that company - actually a likely search term someone would enter into Google to find them (”Tate Family Auto Care san jose”) - and your post here is already on the first page at #10, and the reviews are #3 and #5 .
Good job!
p.s. if you get the chance, you may consider balancing your karma by posting a nice quick review about that Dynamic Audio for helping out a stranded stranger (who wasn’t even a customer). That’s good stuff too.
2 Andrew Shotland // Aug 14, 2009 at 9:46 am
To top it off I took my car in this morning to Big O Tires in Pleasanton, told Todd at Big O the story and asked if he would have treated me like this. He was pretty amazed at the lack of empathy and professionalism.
A while later I was sitting in front of Big O waiting for my wife to pick me up and Todd comes storming out and says “Get the f#%$ out of my parking lot!” with a big smile. We both had a good laugh over that one.
Dynamic Audio is already getting the karma treatment on a variety of IYPs.
3 James Hurst // Aug 14, 2009 at 10:21 am
They used to say that a happy customer would tell one friend and an unhappy customer would tell 10 friends. With online reputation management now we will tell anyone and everyone for good or worse. Also, don’t forget Google Maps Reviews. Hopefully because of the internet and the all important nature of reviews, we will see an increase in refreshing customer service.
4 Andrew Shotland // Aug 14, 2009 at 10:30 am
so true James. I didn’t go all out on the guy because while he certainly pissed me off, I am not out to destroy him - I just want to make a point. In the words of our President - “It’s a teachable moment”
5 Jeremy Jennings // Aug 14, 2009 at 10:36 am
LOL, that is just great! You’re now number two on G for their company name on my end. I wonder if Mr/Mrs Tate will be commenting on here soon.
6 Rich Rosen // Aug 14, 2009 at 11:34 am
Andrew - Great story. Some day these guys will understated that better service and reviews will make or break their biz. Had you pulled over an hour earlier and 1 block away, and used Yelp to find a close by shop and read that review, you never would have bothered w/ Tate. What’s the cost of that lost business?
7 Jim Rudnick // Aug 14, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Wow…great customer service from those idiots eh? Almost made me forget that your passenger was David Mihm….must’a been one heck of a LOCAL conversation! Say “hi” to David for me….and yes, I too think that your response was correct….
Oh, don’t forget to YELP them too!
Jim
8 Lisa Williams // Aug 14, 2009 at 1:50 pm
That is awesome, karma is a precarious thing and it’s a gift if we all realize how powerful our actions are, good and bad. Nice work!
9 eCopt // Aug 14, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Sorry that happened to you Andrew. Sounds like you handled it pretty well (much better than i probably would have). And I’m glad you didn’t go overboard with nasty reviews on ALL the local sites. A couple makes the point nicely. Situations like that are so frustrating to me personally, glad to see I’m not the only one crap like this happens to.
People do need to realize how their personal/business actions affect others, and, most importantly, who it is your doing it to. Seriously, it can make or break many smaller outfits out there.
Needless to say, bet David and you had a very interesting conversation/ride down the road re-capping what had just happened. Is that where you decided to use your skills to make your point?
10 Andrew Shotland // Aug 14, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Rich/Jim, I have held off on Yelp and others to give this guy a chance to see the error of his ways.
11 Andrew Shotland // Aug 14, 2009 at 1:57 pm
And per my talk at Local Search Summit, my main email address is banned on Yelp. Forgot to ask Jeremy Stoppleman to take care of that
12 Andrew Shotland // Aug 14, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Thanks Lisa. eCopt, as the guy was barking at me you know I was visualizing him sitting in a pot of hot water with Googlebot gradually turning up the heat.
13 eCopt // Aug 14, 2009 at 2:23 pm
@Andrew - That’s great! I can see you asking yourself, “Does he really know what he’s doing to his business right now?” Google knows their way around the stove, that’s for sure. It’s already at a rapid boil and is almost cooked. Just noticed your two reviews and this blog post out rank their company site on G for “Tate Family Complete Auto Care”
14 Jim Rudnick // Aug 14, 2009 at 3:01 pm
YELP ‘em anyways, Andrew….and don’t forget to also YELP the nice folks at Dynamic Audio….they DID step up and that’s such a good thing in today’s impersonal service world…
Jim
15 Steve // Aug 14, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I posted the first comment to this article (but forgot to say “FIRST!” instead. lol) and just looked again at Google to also see your page here is now outranking their own website!
From the reviews at #3, 5, and you at 10 earlier today, You’ve moved to #2 and your reviews are #1 and 5.
BTW, is this a pic of you blocking their driveway..?
http://local.yahoo.com/info-21600177-tate-family-complete-auto-repair-san-jose?tab=photos#photos
LOL
16 Andrew Shotland // Aug 14, 2009 at 4:01 pm
That is not my car Steve but I like it because it sets a precedent that cars routinely block their driveway
17 Steve // Aug 15, 2009 at 8:06 am
Did you contact the business the next day and speak to the owner?
18 Andrew Shotland // Aug 15, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Steve, as you might imagine I choose to have my conversations via Google whenever possible.
19 David Mihm // Aug 16, 2009 at 7:54 am
I am always one to give the business, or the business owner, the benefit of the doubt if service levels aren’t up to what I expect. In fact, I was just talking to some friends at dinner last night about a miserable experience I had at a highly-regarded restaurant here in Portland…I have not and will not Yelp or blog about it, because everyone else seems to love it so much, and they were probably just having an off night.
But to those who might say that Andrew’s actions are a bit “over the top,” in this case I can only say that there was something about his downright malicious tone and the complete lack of compassion for two guys who were obviously in need of some tire-changing help that is justified in this case.
Solid writeup, Andrew.
20 Jason Ibarra // Aug 16, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I have found myself in similar situations and my favorite was with Comcast, a company we all know and love. While on a call with them I built an adwords campaign and made sure to give them an adcopy that the “supervisor” was excited to see on the front page SERP of google for the query of comcast.
I’m on my way to reinforce your ratings.
21 Andrew Shotland // Aug 16, 2009 at 3:02 pm
That is hilarious Jason. Nothing like real time customer blow back.
22 Steve // Aug 17, 2009 at 8:56 am
To me it just seems like you’ve taken an opportunity for improvement and turned it into unilateral shouting match.
What about this scenario: You call Tate and he tells you that he has had complaints about this guy before and this is the last straw-he will be let go. Tate then offers you thanks you and a gift certificate for future service. Of course you may call and he may tell you to drop dead. Either way, then you’ll know.
It would seem simple human curiosity would prompt a call to Tate to understand such outrageous behavior.
I guess you will have to pursue the avenue you are most comfortable with. Good luck in achieving whatever outcome you’re trying to realize here.
23 Andrew Shotland // Aug 17, 2009 at 9:08 am
Steve, this whole thing is so 72 hours ago. I’m moving on until I hear from the guy, but I appreciate the interest. How about you give him a call and report back?
24 Steve // Aug 17, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Since there is more than one ‘Steve’ commenting here, I’d just like to mention that I did comments # 1 and #15.
…The later comments are from a different ‘Steve’…
25 Andrew Shotland // Aug 17, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Thanks for clearing that up Steve. I sensed that something was amiss with Steve #22.
26 Mark Kennedy // Aug 18, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Good story, Andrew. I had a similar experience with a garage about 15 years ago, but back then there wasn’t much I could do. Now it looks like there is. It just goes to show you that friendly service goes a long way, as well as “un-friendly” service…in the wrong direction.
By the way, you guys are like dynamic duo of local search, but which one is Batman? At least the Local-mobile got fixed
27 Craig Mullins // Aug 19, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Great story Andrew!
I think that every store/biz should have greeters at the door asking people as they come in, “Are you an SEO, newspaper or writer, reviewer, etc.”?
hahah. It could save them a lot of trouble. Or maybe just act like a professional business and not have these issues.
I had this really awful experience with Dr Jacon Lyhne, D.C. of Back To Health Chiropractic in Danville, CA 94526 - 925-820-1500 last week.
Still debating whether to write up my experience… But boy I still feel like I was raped after dealing with that guy and his assistant.
28 Andrew Shotland // Aug 19, 2009 at 12:46 pm
No need to write it up Craig. Via the magic of SEO you just did.
29 Craig Mullins // Aug 19, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Oops
I love my job.
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31 KevinL. // Aug 28, 2009 at 12:59 pm
You’re friends with David Mihm?!?! Lucky…..
32 Twitter Trackbacks for Tate Family Complete Auto Care San Jose SUCKS!!!!!!! | Local SEO Guide [localseoguide.com] on Topsy.com // Aug 31, 2009 at 3:24 am
[...] Tate Family Complete Auto Care San Jose SUCKS!!!!!!! | Local SEO Guide http://www.localseoguide.com/tate-family-complete-auto-care-san-jose-sucks – view page – cached A lesson in reputation management: Last night I was driving away from the Local Search Summit Conference with Mr. David Mihm, local search whiz, when I — From the page [...]
33 Alok // Jan 5, 2010 at 9:45 am
Very sweet revenge.
34 Sam // Jun 1, 2010 at 2:23 pm
sweet sweet revenge
35 Robert Destino // Jun 9, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Hi all, I have read and re-read the posts. I have been in the Auto Repair industry for 25 years and counting! I own my own auto repair facility in San Jose. First and foremost, the way this customer was treated was unjustified, rude and just plain wrong. My goal is to the shed some light on the perception the owner or employee of Tate Auto created and how to better handle a similar situation the next time. Based on the comments “last night” and “we are closed”, I can assume this incident occurred near, at, or past closing time. Using my shop as an example, and the several shops I have managed in the past, 10 minutes before closing looks like this: Technicians are gone, the air powered tools are locked up, the air compressor for the air hoses are powered down. As an owner of an independent, family run business, I too, have extended business hours to allow customers to come in late to pickup or drop off their vehicle. I am open 11 hours a day, but the technicians can’t work that long daily due to physical nature of the job. Possibly (likely he was alone, since they only dealt with one person), this was Tate’s reality at that moment. When the Tate employee was asked for help, he should have said “I am sorry, we have no mechanic on duty” (remember the “mechanic on duty” signs at gas stations in the past). and “I cannot leave the office/store/register or phones unattended” “let me at least get you some “air” (if possible) or stage a place where you could safely change your own tire” since he was obviously stuck. Now he may have surprised that he “lost his power” when you started to change the tire on his property without asking, but he acted improperly nonetheless. He could have offered repair the tire the next day while the customer rode on the spare tire, and potentially win two customers at the same time. Now in reference to the “fix-a-flat” cans, I do not carry them, nor do I recommend them, They are useless on a large leak, will throw the tire out of balance because the material will collect in one area of the tire. Worse yet, the leak may seal only for a few minutes, leading to a 2nd blowout, potentially in an even more hostile or unsafe area.
In this line of work, we have chosen a harder path in life than most. Even my best customers will say, “thanks for the great service, but I hope I don’t have to see you for a while! A vehicle failure is very frustrating, usually occurs at the worst moment in time, and means unexpected costs to a customer. With the combination of the two converge (frustrated customer and a burned out or beat down manager), that is where problems occur. It all comes down to communication, and “being” the patient, helpful and polite customer service person. That was he was paid to do, is responsible for, and should always maintain a professional attitude. I do praise the Audio Shop for really stepping up to help, they are the true heroes of this story. Most Car Audio Stores are open very late because they are in competition with Best Buy etc. so likely their shop was still in full operation by the time you got to them.
Robert - San Jose Auto Repair
36 Andrew Shotland // Jun 9, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Great comment Robert. Thanks for taking the time to post it. To be clear, I did not expect the guy to change my tire if he was closed. I just expected him not to tell me to get the fuck off his property while I waa trying to change my tire.
37 Robert Destino // Jun 9, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Thank you Andrew,
I totally understand now. One additional point I tried to make was, that if his doors are open, he is still in service writer mode and should act professionally, even if he couldn’t help you directly. But if you are quoting him has saying “get the “F@@K off my property”, that makes the whole situation very disturbing. Now I understand your public forum on this matter. I am sorry you experienced this situation, sort of on behalf of the good shops out there, but more from a sense of compassion for people and the community
Robert
Owner, San Jose Auto Repair
http://www.sanjoseautorepair.com
38 Pacific54 SEO MIAMI // Aug 4, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Good Stuff!
39 Sucky Businesses Should Not Do Business With Search Marketers // Aug 10, 2010 at 2:26 pm
[...] of this collection of hypertext may recall my tale of woe in dealing with a San Jose Auto Repair shop who done me wrong last year. The subtitle of that little missive was “A lesson in [...]
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