When is a deal not a deal

Seth Godin wrote:

"May I help you?"

... is almost a useless thing to say.

I spent a lot of time on a chat session this afternoon trying to cancel a service. (A lot of time means more than few minutes.) It is a service whose value disappeared months ago and I'm finally trying to cancel. Except the customer service person, who wants to be helpful, won't cancel it. Instead the person give me a deal for the next two months. But the deal is not a deal, because I no longer value the service and really don't want the deal. (How many different ways can I say "cancel"?)

As I sat typing on the keyboard, I wondered if this company's business model is changing and it is struggling with how to survive. Faxing used to be very important. Then being able to fax from your computer became cool. Now we send document through email. The fax is no longer relevant.

It is likely that some of the tools we're using today will no longer be relevant tomorrow. If your the owner of a company behind one of those tools, keep an eye on your market, change as it changes, and find ways to remain relevant (even if that means changing to a new product).

BTW Seth Godin will be the closing keynote at a conference I'm attending in June. I have followed his writing for a long time. I read his book, Unleashing the Ideavirus on my PDA. All of us who are bloggers at the conference will be very interested to hear from this blogger/author extraordinaire. (Hey, there is a bloggers get-together Tuesday evening, if you want to come!)

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