The Yellow Book?

The Yellow Book?

Being a small business in today's economy a dollar spent needs some return. With this in mind I wrote this entry I know it is not how or why something on a pressure washer works. It has merit do to the fact we expect to see some results for money spent.  Our customers want to see a difference we are also customers and are we due the same?

I have been advertising in "The Yellow Book" since I began my power washing company. They had a local office and you could go in and talk to them, which was quite handy. Getting your name out as a small business is a must and having it in print gives a person some pride as a business owner. Having a listing in the yellow part of the book meant and showed that you were a true business.

My association with "the yellow book" has went on for a few years now and even had them build a one page web sight to promote our web presents. It used a few of our pictures and redirected you to our main web sight "Cleaned by Pete" which would help increase traffic if any one was using it. All in all I was very happy the first year then things started down hill. The local office was downsizing and my rep was being let go and I would have to deal with who ever was filling a chair at that time. The second year came with a price increase, you see the first year is cheaper just to hook a sucker in. Still beaming with pride that I was a business I signed back up paying more for the same service. People were still using "the yellow book" some then. The big change came during the third and forth years closing down the local offices and starting to change the name in late 2012. It seems "the yellow book" was becoming something else. With this change it took an act of congress to get a change on the web page that we were paying for. It was to the point I gave up. The company had a rep that would visit the area but was based in St Louis, a really different market from the Qzarks. Once she even told me she really didn't understand the folks down here. Now, that office in St Louis is gone and you deal with the office in Ohio and Ohio knows the Qzarks and the local businesses and clientele, right? The Hibu-slide was heading down hill fast for me. You know your doing something wrong when you have web sights set up to say you're not doing a good job, http://www.skywebcorp.com/small-business-marketing-blog/item/90-hibu-websites-review or http://www.consumeraffairs.com/misc/yellow_book.html.

 I had made up my mind that I had enough last year so I bought and designed two more sights at a fraction of the cost of what I was paying for "the yellow book" and the web page they set up for me. "Power Washing Springfield MO" and "Southwest Missouri Pressure Washing", with these two sights and the addition of this blog and it's sister blog "House Washing Springfield MO" our web presents grew and our rankings grew. I didn't cancel "the yellow book; now hibu" I kept the web page and took on a smaller add for one more year. I tracked calls to see where they found us. over the year I have had no one say the phone book, or "the yellow book"  and have not had one email off their web sight.

This brings us to today and what gave me the reason to write the entry. I get a call from Ohio "the yellow book / hibu" a salesman with the promises of a steady stream of new clients and more web exposure since "the yellow book: now hibu" is teaming and partnering with Google and add words (last year they had just teamed with Bing). They told me how I needed a Google+ page, which I agreed with, till he saw I already have a Google+ page kind of took the wind out of his sales pitch. The salesman offered to take in all my sights and have "the yellow book" family manage and work on them for more money. Boy that is all I need they could not get my phone to ring and I want to turn all advertising over to you. I brought up the fact that why are you calling yourself "Yellowbook" I thought you were "Hibu" he said they were "hibu" but...... he did not say much about that, "yellow book" was the only way he referred to himself and the company really trying to distance himself from the term "hibu". Wonder why? This has to be wrapped up now since today is the last day before they go to print, the salesman says, you need to make the decision now. This is where I knew I did not want their service any more. Today!, you call today the last day before print. Why didn't you call before the last day? Really shows me where my company ranks with them. Thought we would call you at the last minute and give you the privilege to be stuck in our book, at only $29.00 a month we value you that much. Didn't give me the impression that they even cared about my small business or the past years of advertising with them.

I know that the name "hibu" is taking a hit due to poor performance and some business tactics that are not looked at by the consumer as above board. I know that since "hibu" took over the number of spammers, scammers, telemarketers, and phone sales have increased 100 fold to my phone. I know this was not the steady stream of new customers I thought I was promised. This year I stood firm and had to refuse service from them. Ending of and era of being in print in the old school world of advertising the phone-book.

It seems that the worlds new phone book is in the palm of you hand the modern cell phone has replaced all forms of commutations. With the punch of buttons you can have what you need at your finger tips. I have made my web pages mobile friendly and have seen more traffic from them. Which leaves me with one question did I wait too long to ditch "the yellow book" or is there still some merit in this old printed way of advertising? I read on a recycling page that 80 to 90 percent of the people return their new phone-books within a month of receiving it. I'll walk out and test the waters without it this year right or wrong the die has been cast.

I feel I have been more than fair to them, I stayed with them and gave them several chances to help me and to improve but to no avail. Not saying that they are a bad company but they tried harder to grow themselves, than their customers companies and failed at both. I am not say that this type of advertising is bad or not productive but for me they did not meet what they said they would. For this reason I will no longer use them there are still other phone books out there maybe next year I'll give them a try. I grew up in a different time where it was drummed into you that the yellow-pages were where real companies were listed.