What Google taught me today… and how you can use it, too.

I’m not sure what happened. Everything was working fine.

I took a nap, woke up, and logged back on and…

Nothing.

Gmail kept sending me back to the log-on page.

WTF?

Then, because I’m a persistent bastard, Gmail finally allowed me to log on… and then immediately kicked me off again. It gave me a message saying I’m already logged-in with this browser.

Again, WTF?

So, I went through the normal troubleshooting procedure - shut down one extension at a time until I find the culprit.

It turned out to be the Better Gmail extension.

That sucks. I had that baby tweeked, too. My Gmail interface was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

And now it is apparently crap.

Once I disabled the extension I was able to log into my account. Maybe because I was looking, or maybe because it was brand spankin’ new, I noticed a new option in the upper right of my screen:

“Old Version”

WTF?

I didn’t ask for a new version.

Oh lucky me - I’m beta testing Gmail 2.0.

Normally, I’d get the same “ooh, ooh, ooh, I get to be first!” techno-high everyone else gets at the mention of “beta”, but not today.

Until Google gets is right, I want my Better Gmail back.

I know it ain’t gonna happen though. The best I can hope for is that someone comes out with a fix soon.

Ok, I’m over it. Really, I am.

So, Better Gmail aside, there has to be a marketing lesson in here somewhere, right?

Yeah, there is. Probably many. But, my current irritation and inherent cynicism lead me to but one lesson for the day:

If you’re gonna mess with the system/product/relationship it would behoove you to wait until your users/customers/clients are so deeply ingrained that it’ll be an complete pain-in-the-ass for them to take their business elsewhere.

And, if you can, design your entire operation around the idea of a “forced commitment.”

It has worked like gangbusters for Microsoft and Google; it’ll work for you too.

Think about it. Seriously.

How can you design (or re-design) your business to “force” your customers in to a long-term relationship with you?

The answer is your key to increasing your stability and Long-Term Customer Value.

A big thanks to Google for reminding me of this little pearl of wisdom today.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!