In 2006, while writing an article for AllBusiness.com, I discovered Google had about 39,000 listings for the search: “Shamrock Shake”.  Today, the same search throws us 877,000 possibilities.

That’s like the city of Muskogee, Oklahoma, growing to the size of Detroit in four years.

There are over 200 videos about these fun, minty shakes. Roughly 20,000 people do a search related to them every month. There are currently about 11,000 blog posts that mention them.  And news items abound. Just this morning I was talking on the radio about it with John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee.

I’d call that customer engagement. (And then some.)

This is especially impressive when you realize McDonald’s pulled the vaunted green shake from most markets for more than a decade. I’ve noticed it has come back only in the last 3-4 years.

So what is the source of the shake’s resurgent popularity?

While there might be many reasons, I’d bet my lunch money that the Internet and social media are to thank for the shake’s surge.

I know this sounds pretty obvious. Why would any of us insult our customers on purpose? But it happens more than we realize.

Here’s a recent example.

I’m ordering a sandwich at my favorite sub shop. As I’m chatting with the sub-maker, the co-owner walks over. She notices that I’ve had the roast beef in my sandwich cooked so it’s brown, not pink (just how I like it). Her face gets a pained look and she says:

“Oh, that hurts”.

Then she went on to explain how she prefers her roast beef rare.

I ignored her. (Hunger is good for that.) But I found myself wondering if she realized she just insulted me.

Probably not.

She was totally focused on what she thought. And, apparently, she thought I would be interested in knowing how my sandwich offended her good taste.

What she forgot is that I was not there to hear how she liked her roast beef cooked. I was there to get a sandwich the way I want it. Her opinion shouldn’t even have entered the conversation unless I asked her what she thinks.

An extremely exclusive club has just lost another member. Now that Continental Airlines has bagged its free meals I can no longer include it on the “airlines I like to brag about” list.

The list is getting very, very short, by the way. Let’s hope Alaska Air and Singapore Airlines stay in business or this list might disappear altogether.

By cutting out the free meals (in coach) Continental  hopes to add $35 million to it’s bottom line. It’s the last major US airline to make the switch.

I get the need to manage costs. And I realize airlines run in packs. I didn’t really expect them to continue offering something for free that their primary competitors charge for.  So, when I heard about this change,  I had a hard time being critical of them.

Until they started selling this as a customer service booster. According to the AP article published today:

Recently an AT&T customer was talking with their customer service service department. He started having symptoms of a heart attack and eventually passed out during the call. Rather than hang up (because the customer became non-responsive) the AT&T employee (Kelly Hart) knew something was wrong so she called 911.

The customer ended up in the hospital with a stent in a major artery.  When he got out he let AT&T know what a wonderful person they have working for them. In fact, he and Ms. Hart finally met in person on CBS’ “The Early Show” where the tears flowed all around.

(Read the full story here.)

When talking with business owners and managers, the topic of cash incentives arises every now and then.  Some managers feel they’re the best way to get employees to deliver better customer service. Others disagree. But the question remains.

A recent article in Entrepreneur.com suggests money is not always the best way to motivate employees to better performance.

“…research shows it only works in the short term and other things keep employees happy and productive over the long run.”

Three Florida legislators have proposed a bill that would require restaurants to list calorie counts on their menus. While I know there are heated arguments on both sides of this issue, I like the idea.

In the last 24 hours, the ‘net has been abuzz with Google’s admission that their SEO is not as good as it could be.  Some see this as a sign that Google “ain’t all that”. Others see it as a reason to question the value of SEO. Regardless of what you make of Google’s SEO revelation, I see some lessons here for all of us.

1. Openness and honesty are cool. (And they make a difference.)

By telling the world they’re not perfect Google becomes more genuine. And they’ll attract more people to them. No one likes an arrogant “know-it-all”. We generally prefer to work with people (and organizations) who are honest and a little humble. Admitting a weakness is about as honest and humble as it gets. Kudos to Google to showing us they are not perfect.

2. Offering value is more important than SEO

Google didn’t get to be the #1 web company in the world by catering to the technical rules of SEO. They did it by offering people value. Think of all the products and services they offer:

Here’s a web resource that has useful customer service information, and a whole lot more. Actually it has over 6,000 articles and other resources for small businesses.

It’s called WBSOnline.com and it’s a free service of Winmark Business Solutions. Winmark is a Minnesota company that offers franchise, leasing and other services to their small business clients. They’ve been doing it for many years and they’ve developed a solid reputation.

So they decided to move some of their expertise online, giving them the ability to help more businesses than ever before. The result is a handy web resource that combines articles, tools, forms and business-flavored social media. And, I believe it’s the biggest such resource based in Minnesota.

One thing I like about this website is you can post questions and expect answers. And they are adding subject matter experts who will monitor questions and respond. So over time this will become an even better resources.

I was standing in line at my favorite sub shop. I cringed every time the guy next to me spoke. “I want tomatoes, onions and hot mustard.” Seconds later: “Gimme more pickles.” And then “Make sure you don’t get that other stuff on my sandwich.” (Exactly what “other stuff” did he mean??)

In a five minute stretch he gave two commands, issued four orders and made three extra requests. He did it all with a sour look on his face and not a “thank you” or “please” in sight. Not once did he even try to sound conversational, courteous or cheerful.

He treated the sub shop employee worse than I treat my dog. Of course my dog gets royal treatment in our house, but you get the idea.

The first rule of Amazing Customer Service is to treat everyone well. This applies to customers as well as employees. Remember this because karma counts. When you are the customer, make someone’s day and be the customer you would want to work with.

Recently I learned something about customer service from a London cabbie. Actually I met the cabbie two years ago. But it wasn’t until a few weeks ago I fully understood the lesson he taught me.

It was spring 2008 and I was spending a week in London doing training for a client. Because I was not driving in London (I could barely walk across the street without getting killed – seriously) I used a cab to get around. To make things easier, I engaged the services of the same cabbie the whole time I was there.

This thrilled my cabbie. And it elevated him and his service too. He became my personal tour guide and trip advisor. This made it more fun for both of us. He got a steady customer for a few days. I had someone who knew his way around. And I never had to worry about getting anywhere.

Finally, my stay came to an end and my cabbie dropped me off at Heathrow.  As I gave him his final fare and a tip he did something that surprised me. He gave me my tip back. For the next several hours I found myself wondering why he did that.

Now, almost two years later, I understand.