What’s in the box, Google?
Google is one of those services which prides itself on being very simple and straightforward. Which is why its latest campaign has left a lot of customers baffled.
The search engine giant sent out a locked box to some of its clients – regular readers might remember the last locked box PR stunt we reported on, which ended with the bomb squad being called to Australia Square.
However, rather than cause a public disturbance, this stunt caused a lot of irritation with at least one customer, who we’ll call Mr X.
“I opened it and there was another box with a padlock on it and instructions telling me to search online for the key to opening the box,” Mr X told Dr Mumbo.
“Then I searched online and it tells you to watch a video to unlock the first digit…”
You see where this is headed.
At this point Mr X lost his patience. “It was so elaborate, Im not going to watch a daisy chain of videos to open a box” he added.
Instead he pulled the lock straight off. Tight security. Inside the box he found a note describing the circuitous process of opening the box as a great taste of the Google experience – one he could share with his customers, and what he described as a “$5 set of Bluetooth headphones”.
“Making me jump through hoops is just annoying, I think something has gone awry – they have taken a very simple message and made it very complicated, now I have this and I’m just irritated.
“It’s just sitting here – essentially they sent me a pair of headphones I don’t want.”
It would seem not all locked boxes are worth opening.
I think Mr X needs a referral to a mental health counsellor if that’s how he reacts to a simple PR stunt. How will he react to a serious setback in his life?
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Mr X…. I hope your day got better…but seriously…have you heard of expression “first world problems”
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First world problems, someone sent that poor man free headphones.
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Google focused on their product intricacy rather than customer experience?
“Inconceivable!!”
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a $5 pair of BLUETOOTH headphones? I think you are looking more $25…
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Is Mr X Robin Hicks?
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Hi DB,
It’s not Robin, nor anyone from the Mumbrella team. He’s a genuine Google customer.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
We got some of those! Had a few minutes to spare, and was quite amused by the process of opening the box. Headphones have been used pretty much constantly by our events manager since then, she loves them.
Also, Mr X got frustrated right at the end – after watching the video, (or skipping through it), you could get the other digits straight away.
However, we’ve never figured out how we got on the mailing list…
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